Science Memory Work: Poems for Elemental Science (Plants, Animals)

Legal disclaimer: I am not the owner or publisher or Elemental Science, and have no affiliation with anyone who is. I’m just an ordinary parent looking forward to using this curriculum with my kids.

As I have mentioned a few times, I like Elemental Science in general and think it will be a very do-able curriculum for this year – I’m looking forward to diving into it.

I initially found it lacking in a few areas, one of which is the poems that are provided to help kids memorize characteristics of various living things (plants, mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, and human body systems).

A while ago, I created a one-page printout with two original poems to help memorize plant characteristics (parts of a plant; parts of a flower). Now that we’re starting the animals section, I have created SIX original four-line poems detailing the major identifying characteristics of each of the major types of vertebrate.

In case you’re curious, I used the Denver Zoo website – among others - to help me figure out which were important characteristics to include. You may enjoy looking those pages over with your kids, as there are lots of examples of each type of animal.

Unlike the poems that come with Elemental Science, I have used bold type to indicate which are the concepts parents should emphasize. For example, in Elemental Science, one line says “sometimes [birds] like to sing,” however, this is not an actual characteristic, and many birds do not sing. Feathers, not even mentioned in the Elemental Science poem, are considered a defining characteristic (ie it’s not a bird without them), so I have included these in bold print.

So I believe these poems are both scientifically and (sort of) poetically sound. I’d love your feedback – email or comment – if you use these with your kids!

Download this and many other printables from my General Studies downloads page, here.
For Limudei Kodesh (Jewish Studies) downloads and printables, including weekly Parsha / Torah study copywork, click here.

Comments

לימודי קודש/Limudei Kodesh Copywork & Activity Printables

Welcome to my Limudei Kodesh / Jewish Studies copywork and activity printables page. As of June 2013, I am slowly but surely moving all my printables over to 4shared because Google Docs / Drive is just too flaky for me. What you’ll find here: Weekly Parsha Copywork More Parsha Activities More Chumash / Tanach Activities Yom Tov Copywork & Activities Tefillah Copywork Pirkei Avos / Pirkei Avot Jewish Preschool Resources Other printables! For General Studies printables and activities, including Hebrew-English science resources and more, click here . For Miscellaneous homeschool helps and printables, click here . If you use any of my worksheets, activities or printables, please leave a comment or email me at Jay3fer “at” gmail “dot” com, to link to your blog, to tell me what you’re doing with it, or just to say hi! If you want to use them in a school, camp or co-op setting, please email me (remove the X’s) for rates. If you just want to say Thank You,...

Hebrew/ עברית & English General Studies Printables

For Jewish Studies, including weekly parsha resources and copywork, click here . If you use any of my worksheets, activities or printables, please leave a comment or email me at Jay3fer “at” gmail “dot” com, to link to your blog, to tell me what you’re doing with it, or just to say hi! If you want to use them in a school, camp or co-op setting, please email me (remove the X’s) for rates. If you enjoy these resources, please consider buying my weekly parsha book, The Family Torah : the story of the Torah, written to be read aloud – or any of my other wonderful Jewish books for kids and families . English Worksheets & Printables: (For Hebrew, click here ) Science : Plants, Animals, Human Body Math Ambleside : Composers, Artists History Geography Language & Literature Science General Poems for Elemental Science . Original Poems written by ME, because the ones that came with Elemental Science were so awful....

What do we tell our kids about Chabad and “Yechi”?

If I start by saying I really like Chabad, and adore the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, z"l, well... maybe you already know where I'm headed. Naomi Rivka has been asking lately what I think about Chabad. She asks, in part, because she already knows how I feel. She already knows I’m bothered, though to her, it’s mostly about “liking” and “not liking.” I wish things were that simple. Our little neighbourhood in Israel has a significant Chabad presence, and Chabad conducts fairly significant outreach within the community. Which sounds nice until you realize that this is a religious neighbourhood, closed on Shabbos, where some huge percentage of people are shomer mitzvos. Sure, it’s mostly religious Zionist, and there are a range of observances, for sure, but we’re pretty much all religious here in some way or another. So at that point, this isn’t outreach but inreach . Convincing people who are religious to be… what? A lot of Chabad’s efforts here are focused o...

Adventures in Mama-Land

Search This Blog