Science

Each term I will be sending home a knowledge organiser these can also be found in the 'Knowledge Organiser' tab. Please encourage your child to read through it and learn some of the vocabulary linked to the topics we will be learning. This will really them to engage in the lesson and will also help you to understand more about the topic we are teaching.

Summer term

Our theme for Summer 1 is... Water, water, water 

Our Key Questions are:

• How do you know the difference between solids, liquids and gasses?
• What is the water cycle and why is it important?

Lesson 1: How do you know the difference between Solid, Liquids and gasses?

Lesson 2: How can materials change states?

Explore BBC Bitesize to findout more about Solids, liquids and gasses.

Lesson 3: What role does condensation and evaporation play in the water cycle?

We made our own posters to explain the water cycle. Discover about the water cycle using BBC Bitesize

Lesson 4: Do all liquids evaporate?

This investigation proved very interesting for children and adults alike. We had a great desicsion about whether we thought all liquids would evaportate before working in small groups to pick some liquids that we were interested to learn more about.

We found out that all the liquids that we investiagated evaportated but the rate at which they evaportated changed depending on what liquid it was.

We also found out that the surface area of the liquid made a difference on how quick the liquid evaporated. 

We were surprised to find out that some liquids appeared to dry out more than evaporate and we wondered why this might be.

PVA glue really surprised us. We know it was a liquid but PVA glue helps to stick things together and the goes hard. More of the glue appeared to evaporate than we expected.

Spring term

Our theme for Spring 1 is... Teeth and the digestive system 

Our Key Questions are:

• What are the different fucntions of teeth?
• What does an animals' teeth tell us about waht it eats?
• How do I look after my teeth?
• What are the parts of the digestive system and what do they do?
• What happens to food when we eat it?

Lesson 1: What are the different parts of a tooth?

After learning about the different parts of a tooth, children made a tooth flip book. We discussed the function of each part as we made the book.

Lesson 2: Why do we have teeth and what are their purpose?

This lesson looked at the different types of teeth we have. Using mirrors we were able to look at the teeth inside our own mouth. 

One child kindly brought a tooth of theirs in so that we could have a closer look and compared that to the teeth from Miss Radcliffe's dog, Sammy. Children loved trying to guess which one was the human tooth and which as an animals tooth.

Lesson 3: How do we look after our teeth?

We watched the NewsRound video to find out about a dentist's advice on taking care of our teeth.

We then made our own leaflets about looking after our teeth.

Lesson 4: What is tooth decay?

After learning about tooth decay we carried out an experiement to explore how different types of drinks might impact on our teeth.

There are a number or variations that can be explored for this experiment. Watch the two videos below if you would like to try the experiment at home.

Experiment 1

Experiment 2 

Lesson 5: What are the teeth like of other animals?

In Year 3, we learnt about herbivores, carnivores and omnivores. In this lesson we looked in more detail at the teeth of different animals and how this linked to the food they ate. Click on the link to explore this a little more.

Lesson 6: What are the parts of the digestive system and what do they do?

During this lesson we explored the digsetive sustem in detail. We started by naming the parts of the digestive system and working in small groups to place the organs int he correct place, and matching them to the function they perform.

Lesson 7 : What happens to food when we eat it?

Having explored each aspect of the digestive system in detail. We took the time to act out the digestive system while recapping the function of each organ. Watch video to remind yourself of what we did in class.

We then completed flow charts and played dominoes record in more detail how the digestive system works.

Lesson 8: Do all animals have the same digestive system?

We started the lesson by exploring the digestive system of a cow. Although a cow has one stomach, it is divided into four parts, each with a differnet job. Click on the link to remind your self about how a cow digests food.

We then looked at the distestive system on a bird and compared both of their digestive systems to ours as humans.

Our final lesson for this unit inspired a number of chidren to research a range of other animals and how their digestive system works.

Explore teeth further using BBC Bitesize

Watch the video from BBC Bitesize to see how our body digests food.

Autumn term

Our theme for Autumn 1 is… Sparks Might Fly

Our Key Questions are:

• What are condctors and insulators?
• What happens if i remove or add bulbs and batteries to a circuit?
• How would our lives be different without electricity?

Lesson 1: What common appliances run on electricity?

Lesson 2: Can I construct a simple circuit and name the different parts?

Lesson 3: How can I identify if a bulb will light up? How does the number of batteries affect the brightness of a bulb?

This as a very practical lesson where we looked at images of different circuits and explored if it wasa complete circuit or not. Using a range of batteries (different sizes and different quantities), we investigated how they would affect the brightness of bulbs.

Lesson 4: What are conductors and insulators?

Conductors are materials that alow electricity to pass through while insolators will not allow electricity to pass through.

We set up our own experiment to find out which objects were conductors and insulators. Some groups found out that paperclips were conductors while others thought they were insolators. Looking closely we realised that some paperclips had a colourful plastic covering on them, acting as insulators and stopping the electricity from passing through. 

If you enjoyed this topic, you can find out more about Electricity on the BBC Bitesize website.

Our theme for Autumn 2 is… Sounds  

Our Key Questions are:

• How are sounds made?
• What is the difference between volume and pitch?

Lesson 1: How are sounds made?

Children worked hard to create an A-Z list of sounds and then explore if these could be grouped according to how the sound was made.

Lesson 2: What is a sound vibration?

Lesson 3: What is inside your ear?

Lesson 4: What is the difference between volume and pitch?

Using the website Charanga, that we use in Music, we took part in a number of quizzes that explored volume and pitch.

If you enjoyed this topic, explore BBC Bitesize to find out more about sound and how the ear works.