Autumn 1 - Electricity

In this unit children will identify common appliances that run on battery and mains electricity, and name some appliances that do the same job but are operated manually. They will learn the names and functions of simple electrical components including batteries, bulbs, buzzers, wires and switches. They will understand the need for a complete loop for a bulb to light or a buzzer to buzz, and will construct simple circuits to light a bulb and make a buzzer buzz. They will then insert a switch into the circuit to turn the bulb/buzzer on and off.

Working Scientifically, children will raise questions related to electrical insulation and conductivity. They will plan and carry out investigations, make predictions, record results in appropriate ways and draw conclusions. They will apply knowledge about electrical circuits and conductors to design and make a switch.

Autumn 2 - Dangers to Living Things

In this unit children will work towards answering the Quest question ‘How can changes to the environment affect the things that live there?’ They will construct and interpret food chains, identifying producer, prey, consumer and predator. They will realise that the availability of food is an important factor when considering how animals respond to change in the environment. Children will investigate the effect of a small change to an environment by placing carpet or other covering on the ground, and will consider the impact of larger changes to the environment such as fire and flood. They will consider how humans can reduce the impact of some environmental changes. They will finish by answering the Quest about the effects on pond life of diverting a river to build new houses, when the original course of the river feeds into the pond.

Spring 1 - Human Nutrition

In this unit children will develop their understanding of their personal health and how this is related to human nutrition, dentition and digestion. They will describe, sequence and investigate the simple functions and the basic parts of the digestive system in humans and they will identify and name the different types of teeth in humans and some other animals, and their simple functions. Children will understand how their teeth could decay and how they could keep teeth healthy.

Working Scientifically, children will have the opportunity to set up simple enquiries and fair tests, asking questions and using different types of scientific enquiries to answer them. They will have compared and contrasted human and other animal dentition. They will have conducted an investigation on tooth decay substituting eggshells as a close representation of human teeth. Children will have used their results to draw simple conclusions and raise further questions. Children will also have had the opportunity to make a comparison of the various qualities of toothpastes and they will have reported on their findings from their enquiries in various ways including written and oral presentations.

Spring 2 - Sound

In this unit children will work towards answering the Quest question, ‘How can we make different sounds?’ Children will identify and describe different sounds. They will learn that sounds are produced by vibrations and that these vibrations travel from the source of the sound through a variety of materials to the ear. Children will use musical instruments and household materials to investigate the range of ways of producing sounds and how the pitch and volume of a sound can be altered. They will have the opportunity to make sounds and will create a short soundtrack for a piece of film.

Hearing impaired children will need particular support in this unit through visual demonstrations of the properties of sounds and vibrations created. It is important for teachers to help children to be sensitive to those who are hearing impaired.

Working Scientifically, children will have the opportunity to investigate how sound travels through solids, liquids and gases. They will investigate changing the pitch of sounds and they will find patterns between the pitch of a sound and the features of the object that produced it. They will have the opportunity to investigate sound through creating their own instruments and they will investigate the pattern between the volume of a sound and the strength of vibrations which produced it. 

Summer 1 - Grouping Living Things

In this unit children will have been introduced to classification keys. They will have found out why scientists need to use classification keys and will have learnt about some newly discovered species. They will have looked at different ways of grouping living things and will have built up their knowledge of making and using classification keys. They will have started by classifying and identifying familiar items such as classmates or maths shapes but will have gone on to develop keys to classify a wide variety of living things. They will have compared the living things in the northern and southern most parts of the British Isles and compared this to their own location.

Children will have collected data about living things in different areas of the school grounds or local area. They will have presented the information in a series of classification keys as a guide to the living things around them. They will have looked at different classification keys and decided which ones are most effective and explained why.

Summer 2 - Changes of State

In this unit children will have identified, grouped and described different materials as solids, liquids or gases. They will have described and actively modelled simple scientific ideas of solids, liquids and gases in terms of arrangement of particles. They will have recognised that the same material can exist in different states. Children will have developed their ideas about states of matter and changes of state which can be reversed. They will have used their understanding to describe and explain familiar phenomena. They will have observed that some materials change state when they are heated or cooled and they will have had the opportunity to measure or research the temperature at which this happens expressed in degrees Celsius (°C). They will have had the opportunity to investigate how materials can be changed by heating and cooling and will have investigated melting and freezing in everyday situations e.g. by melting chocolate to make crispy cakes. Children will have used their knowledge of changes of state to identify the part played by evaporation and condensation in the water cycle and will have associated the rate of evaporation of water with temperature.

Working scientifically, children will have had the opportunity to investigate how materials change when they are heated or cooled and they will have set up simple practical enquiries to investigate evaporation and condensation. They will have made systematic and careful observations and, where appropriate, have taken accurate measurements using standards units, using a range of equipment, including thermometers and data loggers. They will have reported on their findings in a variety of ways including oral and written explanations.