Get your grade 4, 5, and 6 students gobbling up science with these fun fall November science activities. The month of November brings us drug awareness, honoring our veterans, and turkeys, so integrate these November holidays into your science curriculum:
- Veterans Day
- Great American Smoke Out
- Thanksgiving
These seasonal topics will allow you to cover Next Generation Science Standards such as:
- Life cycles
- Ecosystems
- Habitats
- Energy roles (producer, consumer, and decomposer)
- Food chains and webs
- Vaping and its harmful effects
- STEM design and engineering
Check out these ways to include November science experiments into your curriculum today!
November Science Experiments
November 11 is the day to honor veterans. The history of Veterans Day and its importance do not have to be ignored in science class.
Integrate design and engineering skills into your grade 4 5 6 science class while honoring Veterans Day!
First, students should learn
- what a veteran is
- history of Veterans Day
- importance to our country
After students understand the holiday, have them work together and build something to honor veterans, such as a flagpole, this is also a nice connection to simple machines.
ThisVeterans Day science activity includes:
- Sneak Peek into My Classroom
- Digital Google Slide options
- Veterans Day article
- Flipbook
- STEM activity
- Answer key
Bring drug awareness, and the dangers of smoking are important health concerns to cover with our students. So recognize the Great American Smoke Out (3rd Thursday in November) through this idea and connection to health and science.
Have students learn about the following:
- vaping
- dangers of vaping
While vaping is increasingly popular with our students, the lasting effects of it are unknown, so after students have done their research, they can:
- Create posters advertising the dangers of vaping
- Teach younger students to stay away from vaping
Have students work collaboratively on their posters and hang them in your room, student bathrooms, hallways, or classrooms of their younger peers.
This Great American Smoke Out lesson includes:
- Sneak Peek into My Classroom
- Digital links
- Drug awareness article on vaping
- Vaping CER Writing Response
- Writing response prompt
- Opinion writing response prompt
- Student instructions for the poster project
- Picture of a completed sample poster
- Rubric
- Answer key
Science teachers, are you integrating Thanksgiving into your class curriculum? If you teach life science topics such as life cycles, energy roles, ecosystems, and habitats, then you can easily integrate turkeys into your November science experiments.
Have students research turkeys to find out:
- where they live
- what they eat
- their life cycle
- their predators
- how they protect themselves
- how they contribute to the world around them
Students can use this information to create:
- food webs
- turkey life cycles
Need a ready-made lesson? This November science activity includes:
- Science text on the life of a turkey
- Science text on a turkey’s ecosystem, including energy roles such as producer, consumer, herbivore, carnivore, omnivore, scavenger, and decomposer
- Science text on turkey food chains and food webs
- Graphic organizers to review science concepts
- Answer key
Use this activity right before Thanksgiving break to keep students engaged while they work on their science and engineering skills.
Save the turkeys science activity!
Using simple materials, students will:
- Work collaboratively to create a trap to save a turkey
- Create, design, and engineer a prototype using given materials
- Answer inquiry questions
- Reflect on their design and participation in the NGSS STEM activity
Be sure to give students a time constraint and a limit on materials used. Use this November science experiment to have students test their traps before Thanksgiving break!
Students will have a lot of fun designing and carrying out their plan with this Thanksgiving activity.
This November science experiment includes:
- Sneak Peek into My Classroom
- Group expectations sheet
- Student materials sheet
- STEM activity for students to design their turkey trap, record observations, and answer comprehension questions
- Rubric
Bringing Scientists into the Science ClassroomsEach school year, I like to take a small amount of time out of my curriculum to teach students about famous scientists and inventors.
A bulletin board in my classroom is dedicated to teaching students about scientists and includes famous quotes.
In doing so, students can learn more about the scientific discoveries that were made and how they relate to the world around us.
You can create a list of scientists at the beginning of the school year and highlight one each month by showing students a picture of the scientist and explaining their scientific contribution to our world.
Looking for print and go (or digital) materials to use in your classroom?
Check it out here!
