Our science textbook this year was Apologia Elementary's Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day.  Here are a few things from our study.

For the second lesson (on whales),  we tried out the sample lesson from the Live and Learn lapbook. I really liked the layout of this lapbook. It was, for the most part, easy to follow and the booklets were all easy to cut out and assemble. I have already ordered their General Science lapbook for next year and am considering ordering the Botany one as well. The owners of Live and Learn promise these will be on sale in July, so I'll wait and see how good the deal is. 

When we studied sharks, we completed another lapbook. This one was the Sharks lapbook from Hands of a Child.  We decorated them with additional clipart which we found at LearningPage.com.

I really like the HOAC lapbooks because they come with a study guide, so you can use them by themselves or use them to supplement a textbook. Some people prefer to have their students do their own research, because they will learn more from the experience.  While this is a great idea if you are making a lapbook from scratch, we've not had good experience doing this with premade lapbooks. The children get frustrated trying to figure out what information was intended to go in a booklet, Mama goes crazy trying to help everyone at the same time, and the lapbook gets put away unfinished. If you don't have time to make your own lapbooks, Hands of a Child is definately the best choice. My one complaint about HOAC is that their fondness for shapebooks often makes the cutting a bear. (I do all the cutting for the kids, so I had to cut every book out five times!) However, it does make for a really cool looking lapbook.

We haven't really done any  of the experiments listed in the book because we didn't start science until (way too late) later in the year, but we have done a disection and some observing. Having a creek has really come in handy for this study. When we discussed swim bladders, the kids went down to the creek and caught a small fish which we proceeded to disect. Not only did we get to see the swim bladder, but we also got to see some eggs she was carrying. Unfortunately, I was filmimg this so I don't have any pictures of it. 

Our study of  crustaceans led us back down to the creek for a crayfish.  Notice how one of the front claws is bigger than the other? In the lesson, we learned that they will sometimes lose one of their cheliped (claw feet). This is one defence God has given them to escape from preditors.  This missing claw will then begin to grow back. Our crayfish had obviously lost a claw and it was now growing back. 

The children  boys wanted to see how crayfish eat, so a couple of minnows were added to the bucket.  Here you can see that he has grabbed ahold of  a minnow.

Jeannie Fulbright recommends making an "ocean box" during the study. We never got around to making ours, but the children did make some sea creatures out of clay. They also did a  little notebooking. (Although it wasn't as much as normal.)  Here's one of the drawing asignments my 11 year old completed. (Sorry, the pencil didn't scan very well.)

I hope you all have your own creek to explore. But if you don't, here's a little "I Spy"  fun. I took this picture of our creek yesturday. This is in a pool above a "dam" that the children built.

Can you see the animal hidden in the mud?