Apologia-Zoology 3 (Land Animals)

My kids were thrilled when they found out that we were picked to review Apologia's Zoology 3.

Textbook $39.00

  We've used Apologia for the past several years and my kids soak it up like a sponge.  When asked what their favorite subject in school is they always say, "Science".  I can't blame them, if I would have had such a fun, engaging science curriculum when I was in 5th or 7th grade then science would have been my favorite subject too.  I have to say that I'm enjoying it with them, yes I do know almost everything we've learned so far but I've learned a few things as well.  For instance have you ever heard of a Raccoon Dog?  Neither had I!  No, they are not a regular raccoon, they look like one in the face but their legs are those of a dog and they are only naturally found in Japan.  How cool is that?  Here's a picture of a raccoon dog, just in case you were curious to see what they look like.  I know I certainly was, we even found a couple of videos on YouTube and watched them.

In the past 2 years we've used Zoology 1 and 2 but we never used the Notebooking Journal.  We missed out big time!  I should have purchased the companion journals for only $24.00 each they are well worth the price and add a whole new layer to our science experience. The suggested age range is K-6 but we've found plenty of "extra" work for my 7th grader and it seems right on target for my special needs 5th grader.
This year Apologia sent us the Textbook and the Junior Notebooking Journal for my 5th grader that has some special needs and I purchased the Regular Notebooking Journal for my 7th grader.  The Junior Journal is better for children that have limited writing skills, there are 2 coloring pages to start each lesson, the pages that do require writing have the primary writing lines (with the dashes).  Both notebooks have copywork, templates to complete notebooking assignments, miniature books, Scientific Speculation sheets for science projects, and something my kids have really enjoyed is the Map It stickers found in the back of the journal.

Junior Notebooking Journal $24.00

What a typical day looks like for us is I'll read several pages out of the textbook while the kids either color in their notebook journals or draw what we are discussing.  When I'm finished we discuss anything that they didn't understand. Then, we work on vocabulary words and  look a lot of things up on the internet (like pictures of animals) then comes the fun stuff like the mini books, crossword puzzles. When we finish a chapter we always do a science experiment.  All 3 of us LOVE science experiments!


M&M Predators
One week we were discussing natural selection and so our experiment corresponded with what we had been studying.  We tore up sheets of colored paper and crumpled them and then threw them into a laundry basket. This mimicked a habitat.

We separated the prey into colors.

Next, we "hunted" for our prey. 

 We were able to discover which M&M's were best suited to survive in this habitat and which were found easily.  We recorded all of our info into on the Scientific Speculation Sheet in our notebooks.  My son remembered this experiment and used it as an example when we were discussing camouflage at the Bass Pro Shop, the salesman was very impressed!

Our experiment showed that the blue and yellow M&M's would easily die out but the orange ones would flourish and multiply.

Thanks for reading,

 
Disclosure: I received a free copy of this product through the Schoolhouse Review Crew in exchange for an honest review. I was not required to write a positive review. No other compensation was received. All opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.