FOUNDATIONS SCIENCE CURRICULUM BUNDLE

The FOUNDATIONS SCIENCE CURRICULUM BUNDLE has you covered from start to finish! This comprehensive year-long science curriculum is designed to give your students a solid understanding of the fundamental science concepts outlined in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). The curriculum is organized into 20 units with the following features:

• Comprehensive: The curriculum contains 20 units that highlight key concepts in the earth, life, and physical sciences. Each unit is based on a 9-day lesson plan, which can easily be lengthened or shortened to meet the needs of your students.
• Sequential: The units are arranged sequentially, with each unit building on knowledge gained in the previous units.
• Adaptable: The curriculum covers the standards for Grades 3-5, which makes it perfect for differentiated teaching and learning in a multi-level classroom. It can also be used as a stand-alone curriculum or as an enriching supplement to your required curriculum.
• Engaging: Each unit contains a wide variety of high-interest resources, including an introductory PowerPoint, activity books, experiments and projects, word wall vocabulary cards, anchor charts, review activities, and assessments.

Each unit lesson plan is divided into three sections, described below.

INTRODUCE AND REINFORCE

• TEACHER’S GUIDE: The Teacher’s Guide contains a detailed list of the applicable NGSS/TEKS standards and lesson plans for the unit.
• POWERPOINT: Each unit begins with an introductory PPT that engages students with animated text and graphics, colorful photos, and video clips.
• ACTIVITY BOOK: The activity books reinforce the primary concepts with a variety of interactive formats. Each book includes at least one review activity.
• ANCHOR CHART: The 11 x 17 inch anchor charts use colorful photos to provide a visual reminder of important topics.

EXTEND AND ENRICH

• EXPERIMENTS AND PROJECTS: Each unit includes experiments and/or projects that offer a hands-on exploration of the topics. All of the experiments use readily-available classroom/household materials. Each experiment contains a complete list of materials, easy-to-follow instructions, expected results, and an explanation of science principles at work.
• PHOTO WORD WALL VOCABULARY CARDS: This bundle contains over 300 Word Wall vocabulary cards. The cards are in two formats—measuring 3 x 8 inches and 3.75 x 5 inches—and include crossword and word search puzzles for each unit, bingo card and concept map templates, and more than 20 suggestions for Word Wall games that reinforce learning.
• BONUS RESOURCE: Each unit contains a bonus resource, in a variety of formats.

REVIEW AND ASSESS

• UNIT REVIEW ACTIVITY: A variety of review activities are provided throughout the unit.
• UNIT ASSESSMENT: The unit assessments focus on the key concepts and vocabulary covered.

Please click on the individual titles, listed in the “Products Included in this Bundle” at the top of the page, to see detailed descriptions of the resources in each unit.

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INTERDISCIPLINARY SCIENCE UNITS:

• UNIT 1: EXPLORING THE WORLD OF SCIENCE introduces the three branches of Earth, Life, and Physical Science, the Scientific Method, and the types of variables—control, dependent, and independent—used in scientific investigations.
• UNIT 7: CYCLES IN THE NATURAL WORLD explores the three main types of natural cycles: 1) animal and plant life cycles, 2) planetary cycles, such as the changing seasons and orbit patterns in the solar system, and 3) biogeochemical cycles, including the energy and oxygen cycles.
• UNIT 20: DISCOVERIES AND INVENTIONS explores historic scientific discoveries and inventions and their impact on society and our daily lives.

LIFE SCIENCE UNITS:

• UNIT 2: THE ANIMAL KINGDOM highlights the physical traits that define animal groups and also includes information about learned behaviors and life cycles.
• UNIT 3: THE PLANT KINGDOM focuses on the physical traits that define plant groups and includes information about pollination, germination, and photosynthesis.
• UNIT 4: BIOMES AND ECOSYSTEMS explores the five biomes—aquatic, desert, forest, grassland, and tundra—including major ecosystems within each biome.
• UNIT 5: PLANT AND ANIMAL ADAPTATIONS highlights the structural, behavioral, and physiological adaptations that animals and plants use to survive in different ecosystems.
• UNIT 6: FOOD CHAINS AND WEBS (BIOSPHERE) focuses on the transfer of energy from the Sun to producers, consumers, and decomposers. This unit also introduces the four spheres of the Earth—atmosphere, biosphere, geosphere, and hydrosphere.

EARTH SCIENCE UNITS

• UNIT 8: GEOLOGY (GEOSPHERE) is divided into three areas: 1) the physical features of the Earth, including layers of the Earth and soil, 2) the processes that shape the Earth, including the Rock Cycle, and 3) the history of the Earth, as revealed in fossils.
• UNIT 9: WEATHER AND THE ATMOSPHERE focuses on the six atmospheric conditions—air pressure, temperature, wind, humidity, precipitation, and cloud formations—that meteorologists use to record and predict the weather, types of extreme weather, and the differences between weather and climate.
• UNIT 10: WATER AND THE HYDROSPHERE introduces the sources of water on Earth, the stages of the Water Cycle, and the ways the hydrosphere interacts with the atmosphere, biosphere, and geosphere.
• UNIT 11: OUR CHANGING EARTH explores the ways that the Earth is constantly changing and includes comparisons of fast vs. slow vs. manmade changes, interactions among the four spheres (atmosphere, biosphere, geosphere, and hydrosphere), and the creation of landforms.
• UNIT 12: NATURAL RESOURCES highlights the differences between renewable and non-renewable resources and gives numerous examples of ways to conserve natural resources.
• UNIT 13: EARTH AND SPACE features the characteristics of celestial bodies in the solar system and explores the effects of the force of gravity, the rotation and tilt of the planets, and the revolution of the planets around the Sun.

PHYSICAL SCIENCE UNITS

• UNIT 14: STATES OF MATTER highlights 1) the physical properties of matter, including mass and volume, 2) characteristics of the four natural states of matter, and 3) physical vs. chemical changes.
• UNIT 15: FORMS OF ENERGY introduces the nine forms of kinetic and potential energy and explores ways that energy can be transferred and transformed (conversion).
• UNIT 16: EXPLORING WAVES focuses on the properties of waves, with an emphasis on light and sound waves, and the ways information is transferred by waves.
• UNIT 17: EXPLORING ELECTRICITY explores the three forms of electricity—current, static, and bioelectricity—types of circuits, conductors and insulators, and the transfer and transformation (conversion) of electrical energy.
• UNIT 18: FORCE AND MOTION takes an in-depth look at common forces and their effect on motion, Newton’s three Laws of Motion, and the ways simple machines change force and motion.
• UNIT 19: MAGNETS AND MAGNETISM explores the characteristics of magnets, the force of magnetism, the Earth’s magnetic field, and the properties and uses of electromagnets.

BONUS: CURRICULUM SCOPE AND SEQUENCE

Since each unit already contains a bonus resource, I’ve uploaded the Scope and Sequence for the curriculum as a whole and for each individual unit as the bundle bonus. Click on the Bonus Preview to view the Scope and Sequence.

CLICK HERE to view all of the activity books, PowerPoints, units, and other resources currently available in the Foundations Science Curriculum.

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Vocabulary Words and Phrases: Please see the individual unit descriptions for complete vocabulary lists.

Targeted Skills and Standards: Each unit is aligned to the NGSS and Texas TEKS Science Standards. Please see the individual titles or the Scope and Sequence to view detailed lists of standards.

Preview: I’ve included the preview for Unit 5: Plant and Animal Adaptations. You can also download one of my FREE PowerPoints—Let’s Explore the Continent of Australia or Let’s Explore the Forest Biome—to preview the animated format of my PPT resources.

Image Credits: The image credits for the PowerPoints are listed on the last slide of each presentation. Each unit also contains an Image Credits Page, listing the contributing authors of the photos used in the anchor charts and word wall cards.

Technical Info: The PowerPoint presentations are editable, so you can add slides to suit your individual needs, and can also be converted to Google Slides, if you prefer that format. The rest of the resources are in PDF format. The resources for each unit are combined into zip files. NOTE: Because the individual units files are so large, you will need to download each one separately.

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