Editor's Note: This post was originally published as "Summer Science" and has been updated on November 30, 2016.

At school, science is a topic that frequently gets ignored! Make sure to incorporate science into your literacy routine. Check out these awesome science audiobook titles and activities that allow students of all ages to listen to high-interest science information.

*All links below will work on the desktop player but will NOT work on mobile devices (Tales2go must be played through the app on all mobile devices.)

General Science & Nature

Grades 1-2
Trees: A Compare and Contrast Book by Katharine Hall
Nature Recycles-How About You? by Michelle Lord
Balloon Trees by Danna Smith
The Fort on Fourth Street: A Story about the Six Simple Machines by Lois Spangler
Julie The Rockhound by Gail Langer Karwoski

Grades 3-5
Cold Light: Creatures, Discoveries, and Inventions That Glow by Anita Sitarski
The Periodic Table: Elements with Style by Adrian Dingle
On Time: From Seasons to Split Seconds by Gloria Skurzynski
Oh Yuck! The Encyclopedia of Everything Nasty by Joy Masoff
Climate Challenge (The Magic School Bus) by Joanna Cole
Chocolate by Janet Hardy-Gould

Grades 6-8
Future Energy by Alex Raynham
Coldest Place on Earth by Tim Vicary

Activities:

• Create a musical instrument by finding an old shoe box and putting rubber bands of different widths around it.
• Take various sizes and shapes of glass tumblers and fill them with different amounts of water. Tap on them gently with a spoon to play different notes.
• Take a tour of a local factory, bakery or warehouse to find out more about the engineering and production behind a product.
• Find and classify rocks and minerals.

Space

Grades 1-2
Stars! Stars! Stars! by Bob Barner
Solar System Forecast by Kelly Kizer Whitt

Grades 6-8
Team Moon: How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 on the Moon by Catherine Thimmesh
Ask a Question about Meteorites by H.H. Nininger and Alex Panzer

Activities:

• Make a "phases of the moon" display with Oreos (eat them until they are perfect!)
• Build a spaceship out of toilet paper rolls, legos or other toys.
• Create a planets bracelet using beads of different sizes and your wrist as the sun.
• On a nice day with parental supervision, launch "alka-seltzer rockets."

Weather

Grades 1-2
And Then It's Spring by Julie Fogliano
Achoo! Why Pollen Counts by Shennen Bersani
Clouds: A Compare and Contrast Book by Katharine Hall
Prairie Storms by Darcy Pattison

Activities:

• Keep a weather log and find patterns in temperature and precipitation.
• Create a "tornado in a bottle."
• Use cotton balls, glue and blue construction paper to show different types of clouds.

Dinosaurs

Grades 1-2
Dinosaur Bones by Bob Barner
Dino Treasures by Rhonda Lucas Donald- available in Spanish, too!
Dino Tracks by Rhonda Lucas Donald- available in Spanish, too!

Grades 3-5
How Dinosaurs Took Flight by Christopher Sloan
The Griffen and the Dinosaur: How Adrienne Mayor Discovered a Fascinating Link Between Myth and Science by Marc Aronson
The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins by Barbara Kerley

Activities:

• Setup a pretend "dig site" where kids can use paint brushes and gently remove sand and dirt from fossils
• Make dinosaurs out of construction paper shapes (ovals, triangles, rectangles, etc.)
• Create dinosaur track stamps out of sponges. Research different types of tracks.

Animals

Grades 1-2
Mammals: A Compare and Contrast Book by Katharine Hall
Once Upon an Elephant by Linda Stanek
Sharks and Dolphins: A Compare and Contrast Book by Kevin Kurtz
Been There, Done That: Reading Animal Signs by Jen Funk Weber
They Just Know: Animal Instincts by Robin Yardi
Sounds of the Savanna by Terry Castas Jennings
The Hungriest Mouth in the Sea by Peter Walters
Amphibians and Reptiles: A Compare and Contrast Book by Katharine Hall
Behold the Beautiful Dung Beetle by Cheryl Bardoe
Shark Baby by Ann Downer
On the Move: Mass Migrations by Scotti Cohn
A Day in the Deep by Kevin Kurtz
A Butterfly Called Hope by Mary Alice Monroe
Animal Helpers: Zoos by Jennifer Keats Curtis

Grades 3-5
Coyote: North America's Dog by Stephen R. Swinburne
Caring for Cheetahs by Rosanna Hansen
The Lucky Litter: Wolf Pups Rescued from Wildfire by Jennifer Keats Curtis
Animal Helpers: Sanctuaries by Jennifer Keats Curtis

Grades 6-8
The Life of the Rattlesnake by Jack Myers

Activities:

• Classify toy animals as mammals, amphibians, etc. and by where they primarily live (water, forest, farm, etc.)
• Using finger-paint, make animals out of your handprints.
• Visit a nature center, zoo, farm, etc. to learn more about animals.