Science

Autumn Term

Topic: Variation

In this topic the children will be taught to:

• Understand the difference between living and non-living
• Classify animals into different groups
• Recognise humans are animals
• Observe the difference and similarities in animals and plants
• Understand that animals live in different habitats and why

They will be introduced to:

• How to use a table to record information
• The idea of a fair test

Spring Term

Topic: Forces and Movement

Pupils will be taught to:

• Investigate how pushes and pulls can change the shape of objects, sometimes permanently
• Understand that forces can make things move, speed up, slow down and change direction
• Observe that the same amount of force does not make all objects travel at the same speed or cover the same distance
• Experiment to find how different surfaces and different heights can also affect the distance an object travels

The second topic, Materials, will extend into the summer term.

Summer Term

Topic: Characteristics of Materials, and Grouping and Changing Materials.

(This combined topic continues from the Spring Term).

The children will be taught to:

• Understand the difference between natural and manmade materials
• Classify materials according to their names and also their properties
• Observe how some materials can be altered through squashing, bending, twisting and stretching, and that sometimes they can return to their original shape
• Experiment in order to see the effects heating and cooling can have on some materials
• Investigate why we use different materials for different purposes
• Plan and execute own investigations.

Topic: Plants and animals in the local environment

In this topic we shall:

• Study some of the plants and animals living in and around a pond
• Recognize how different animals are adapted to live in different habitats
• Look at the life cycles of some animals
• Question the effect pollution has on the environment and how we change things.
• Learn to record our investigations in a variety of ways