Curious Minds: 40 Hands-on Activities To Inspire a Love of Learning

Gr 3–6—This book of planned-out activities is divided into six chapters, each focusing on a particular unit of study: physics and math, chemistry, language arts, earth science, social studies, and biology. Each section includes six to eight activities that would work well with a variety of age levels, with a bit of modification. This teacher-friendly title is set up like a traditional lesson plan with objectives, materials, step-by-step instructions, and even ideas to expand the lesson. While this title is heavy in the sciences, there are lessons in other areas, such as languages around the globe, media bias, the story of ink, and American immigration. There is a good mix of hands-on action (for those who do best with kinesthetic learning) and traditional independent study. The only downside is there are few illustrations, limited to black-and-white.