I always start with my standards. After that, I listen to the interests and questions that my students ask and try to design experiences and interactions for them that meet my standards and also allow my students to learn more about something that interests them.

Many times, I try to shy away from typical topics that may have been learned about in science education before, however, it doesn’t mean that those are not great things to learn about.

Dinosaurs used to be studied a lot, but they are not some thing that we can go out and readily experience on a day-to-day basis, so even though they are exciting for my students to learn about, I need to design an experience for them that meets my standards and that could also satisfy their need to know more about dinosaurs. In that case, I would look for opportunities to measure the length of some common dinosaurs and show my students in the hallway how long those dinosaurs were. I would also have different textures that my students could feel , what a dinosaur may have felt like. I also might create a sand or sensory box of some sort where bones or plastic dinosaurs were buried and students had to excavate them. It all would tie back to my state science standards would allow my students to explore more of what is available to us in Indiana.

When looking at my actual standards, I make sure to include at least one hands-on experience for each topic we study about. So when we study plants and animals, I make sure that I have soil and seeds that my students can plant and nurture, and I also have a variety of plastic animals that students can touch and feel and interact with and sort in different ways. Make animals more hands-on, we have taken field trips to local animal shelters, so that students can touch the animal there, or we have invited in, a local company that brings a variety of animals to schools. The students are then allowed to touch an even wider variety of animals. They may not have been able to before.

If you use the NGSS standards in your state, there are usually many resources on your state Department of Education website or your state science organization website that can guide you in thinking about more activities to do with your young learners.

I am also a big fan of the 5E method by Roger Bybee and I use his 5E framework when planning most of my science lessons so that I am engaging my students, exciting my students, and having my students elaborate and evaluate the topics we are studying about, and then I ask my students to extend their learning in someway.

I also set up an area in my classroom where students can further explore topics that might not be in our science standards so that they can do some exploring on their own and report back to the rest of us. But ultimately all my science lessons come down to what’s in the standards. I always check the NGSS website as there are so many great examples there of how each standard could be interpreted and look in a classroom setting. Also, a great resource is the NSTA website and their journal science and children. There are lots of great articles in that publication that are perfect for early learners .

I agree with starting with the standards. There is a curriculum titled GEMS that is very hands on. I have been using it for years and the students really enjoy it.

GEMS is awesome!!

Start with your state standards, or in the case of science, the NGSS standards. We also use the 5 E instructional model for science lesson planning.
Here is a great resource for the 5 E instructional model!
https://www.sdcoe.net/ngss/evidence-based-practices/5e-model-of-instruction

We moved to story mapping our science curriculum this school year. Each grade's science curriculum is based on a problem in the real world. In fourth grade, we are studying the effects of land development. To make it real for my class, we are PRETENDING that we are selling off part of our school landand building 15 new houses. We are looking at the pros/cons of heating systems and alternative energies. Next, we will look at the impact of development on plants and animals.

Second grade is relating everything to the impacts on bees. I don't remember what the other grade levels are doing.