Science

Our Curriculum Intent (2023-2034)

Our aim is to provide our children with an ambitious curriculum which is rich in opportunities to learn and explore vocabulary.

Year 1's Science Focus Question this half term is: What material would be best to make a boat and why?

Year 1 have begun exploring a range of everyday materials, considering their properties. We recognise that we have a variety of materials around us, including wood, plastic, glass and metal. We considered why these materials are chosen for different objects based on their property features e.g. Wood is used for tables because it is hard and cannot be bent easily. We then explored a range of different everyday objects into groups and recognised that some objects could be in more than one group (e.g. Our classroom chairs have metal legs and a plastic seat). Super Scientific exploration Year 1!

This half term, Year 3 have been studying the question: Is my classroom an appropriate place for a plant to grow? We have looked at the role of water, air, nutrients and light in the growing of a plant and how this helps a plant to grow. We have been watering our seeds regularly and can't wait to see our flowers grow!

We are learning about the properties of solids, liquids and gases. We investigated the similarities and differences between liquids and pouring solids. We can explain why rice is a solid and not a liquid.
 

In Science, Year 2 are exploring 'microhabitats'. To begin with, we explored different types of microhabitat, exploring photographs and discussing why the microhabitat will be suitable for the animal. We all recognised that the microhabitat provides food, water and shelter for the living thing. We then explored our school grounds to see which microhabitats we could find. Mrs Gledhill was so impressed with how well you all used Science knowledge such as 'predator' and 'camouflage' to describe how the micro-habitat helps the living thing to survive. 

We found:

- leaf litter

- fallen logs

- clumps of grass

- moss

- piles of sticks

- lumps of soil

Well done Year 2, some super Science investigations!

As part of our Science topic, the children in Year 3 took part in a Science investigation. The children were given two questions to investigate; do people with longer legs jump further and do people with longer arms throw further? The children planned their investigation, looked at variables and things they would change, things they would keep the same and made predictions about what they thought would happen. The children then completed the investigation. They started by measuring their legs and arms, they then jumped/threw a ball and measured how far they had jumped/how far the ball travelled to see if there was a link between people with longer arms and their legs if that affects the distance they jumped or threw the ball. The children loved investigating this question and were able to apply skills they have learnt in Maths into Science! They are in the process of communicating their results to Miss Leonard to let her know the outcome of the investigation. Check back for more pictures of this! Well done to everyone in Year 3!

During Science club, the children were posed the question ‘why do we have different teeth?’ The children used their observational skills to look in each others mouths and see what types of teeth we had. The children the researched this further and used posters to showcase their learning. Well done everyone!

As part of our Forces and Motion topic, Year 3 carried out a fair test to investigate which surface a toy car moves on the best. We investigated a number of different surfaces such as sandpaper, tin foil, card, the table and the carpet. To ensure the test was fair, we used the same amount of force to push the toy car each time and the same toy car. We will carry on our forces learning this week and investigate which surfaces the toy car moves on outside. Well done to all of Year 3!

Here is our Science Curriculum coming alive so far this year! We have displays and evidence from both Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2.

We hope you enjoy seeing our Science Curriculum in action! Check back next half term for some more pictures of our brilliant learning.

As part of our 'Reduce, Reuse, Recycle' themed Wonder Day, the children made little animal toys by decorating old egg trays. The children were very creative with their ideas and worked hard to bring them to life! 

Year 3 - Skeletons

We have been learning all about our amazing bodies in Science - in particular we have been focusing on the importance of the human skeleton. We learnt that the skeleton helps to keep us upright, it is vital in protecting our organs and it helps us to move! There are 206 bones in the body. We have thought of many mnemonics to help us to remember the names of the bones and we have really enjoyed playing 'Simon Says' to practise them! In our last lesson, each child accepted the challenge to cut out, label, and then assemble their own skeleton using the knowledge they have acquired throughout our half term. As always, Year 3 were brilliant and worked together to make sure that everyone completed their very own skeleton. Teamwork makes the dreamwork! ✨

To help launch our novel and space topic, Year 5 were lucky to take part in a Virtual Reality Space Workshop where every child in the classroom became an astronaut! The whole class simultaneously blasted off into space, piloting their research vessels around planets and moons, learning about the solar system. Who knows... perhaps we inspired the next generation of scientists and astronauts who may one day blast off into space for real!

We learnt that forces are measured in a unit called Newtons. We then learnt how to measure forces using a force meter and used this to consider how friction impacted the size of the force required to move an object on different surfaces.

In Science, we dissected flowers to help us learn about their structure. Dissecting a flower visually showed us the different parts of a flower. We learnt and revisited lots of scientific vocabulary today! Good work Year 5 scientists!

During our Science topic 'The Nature Library', Year 6 have been learning about the difference between vascular and non-vascular plants as well as classifying them in a number of different ways. Our favourite lesson was when we had to create our own garden centre floor plan and write a commentary for visiting customers. They all definitely look like places I would like to visit - well done, Year 6! You all showed super teamwork and communication skills during this activity. 

In Year 6, we have been learning about the circulatory system. During our first lesson, we created a circulatory system using three children on the playground to be the lungs, heart and rest of the body whilst the rest of the class became the blood stream and travelled around them in a figure of eight. In our second lesson, we created a human heart on the playground with lots of children being the different parts of the heart (eg. atriums, ventricles, valves, veins and arteries) and the rest of the class being the blood stream. By making these lessons practical, we were all really confident in labelling the diagrams and writing an explanation text in our books afterwards to show our excellent understanding. Finally, in our most recent lesson, we all made ‘blood soup’ which helped us to understand the different components of our blood. We have created a display to show all our super science work….