Welcome to Science

Everyday Materials

Identify and compare materials including wood, plastic, glass, metal, water and rock

Distinguish between an object at the material from which it's made

Describe the physical properties of a variety of materials

Animals, including humans

Identify and name a variety of common animals including fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals 
 
Describe and compare the structure of a variety of common animals (fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals, including pets) 
 
Identify, name, draw and label the basic parts of the human body and say which part of the body is associated with each sense. 

Plants

Identify and name a variety of common wild and garden plants, including deciduous and evergreen trees 
 
Identify and describe the basic structure of a variety of common flowering plants, including trees. 

Seasons

Observe changes across the four seasons  
 
Observe and describe weather associated with the seasons and how day length varies.  

Use of Everyday Materials

Identify and compare the suitability of a variety of everyday materials, including wood, metal, plastic, glass, brick, rock, paper and cardboard for particular uses  

Find out how the shapes of solid objects made from some materials can be changed by squashing, bending, twisting and stretching.  

Animals, including Humans

Notice that animals, including humans, have offspring which grow into adults  
 
Find out about and describe the basic needs of animals, including humans, for survival (water, food and air)  
 
Describe the importance for humans of exercise, eating the right amounts of different types of food, and hygiene.  

Plants

Observe and describe how seeds and bulbs grow into mature plants  
 
Find out and describe how plants need water, light and a suitable temperature to grow and stay healthy.  

Living Things and their Habitats

Explore and compare the differences between things that are living, dead, and things that have never been alive  
 
Identify that most living things live in habitats to which they are suited and describe how different habitats provide for the basic needs of different kinds of animals and plants, and how they depend on each other  
 
Identify and name a variety of plants and animals in their habitats, including micro-habitats  
 
Describe how animals obtain their food from plants and other animals, using the idea of a simple food chain, and identify and name different sources of food.  

Rocks

Compare and group together different kinds of rocks on the basis of their appearance and simple physical properties  
 
Describe in simple terms how fossils are formed when things that have lived are trapped within rock  
 
Recognise that soils are made from rocks and organic matter.

Animals, including Humans

Identify that animals, including humans, need the right types and amount of nutrition, and that they cannot make their own food; they get nutrition from what they eat  
 
Identify that humans and some other animals have skeletons and muscles for support, protection and movement.  

Light

Recognise that we need light in order to see things and that dark is the absence of light  
 
Notice that light is reflected from surfaces  
 
Recognise that light from the sun can be dangerous and that there are ways to protect their eyes  
 
Recognise that shadows are formed when the light from a light source is blocked by an opaque object  
 
Find patterns in the way that the size of shadows change.  

Plants

Identify and describe the functions of different parts of flowering plants: roots, stem/trunk, leaves and flowers 
 
Explore the requirements of plants for life and growth (air, light, water, nutrients from soil, and room to grow) and how they vary from plant to plant 
 
Investigate the way in which water is transported within plants 
 
Explore the part that flowers play in the life cycle of flowering plants, including pollination, seed formation and seed dispersal.

Forces and Magnets

Compare how things move on different surfaces  
 
Notice that some forces need contact between two objects, but magnetic forces can act at a distance  
 
Observe how magnets attract or repel each other and attract some materials and not others  
 
Compare and group together a variety of everyday materials on the basis of whether they are attracted to a magnet, and identify some magnetic materials  
 
Describe magnets as having two poles  
 
predict whether two magnets will attract or repel each other, depending on which poles are facing.  

Electricity

Identify common appliances that run on electricity  
 
Construct a simple series electrical circuit, identifying and naming its basic parts, including cells, wires, bulbs, switches and buzzers  
 
Identify whether or not a lamp will light in a simple series circuit, based on whether or not the lamp is part of a complete loop with a battery  
 
Recognise that a switch opens and closes a circuit and associate this with whether or not a lamp lights in a simple series circuit  
 
Recognise some common conductors and insulators, and associate metals with being good conductors.  

Sound

Identify how sounds are made, associating some of them with something vibrating  
 
Recognise that vibrations from sounds travel through a medium to the ear  
 
Find patterns between the pitch of a sound and features of the object that produced it  
 
Find patterns between the volume of a sound and the strength of the vibrations that produced it  
 
Recognise that sounds get fainter as the distance from the sound source increases.  

Animals, including Humans

Describe the simple functions of the basic parts of the digestive system in humans 
 
Identify the different types of teeth in humans and their simple functions 
 
Construct and interpret a variety of food chains, identifying producers, predators and prey. 

States of Matter

Compare and group materials together, according to whether they are solids, liquids or gases  
 
Observe that some materials change state when they are heated or cooled, and measure or research the temperature at which this happens in degrees Celsius (°C)  
 
Identify the part played by evaporation and condensation in the water cycle and associate the rate of evaporation with temperature.  

Living Things and their Habitats

Recognise that living things can be grouped in a variety of ways  
 
Explore and use classification keys to help group, identify and name a variety of living things in their local and wider environment  
 
Recognise that environments can change and that this can sometimes pose dangers to living things.  

Earth and Space

Describe the movement of the Earth, and other planets, relative to the Sun in the solar system 

Describe the movement of the Moon relative to the Earth 

Describe the Sun, Earth and Moon as approximately spherical bodies

Use the idea of the Earth’s rotation to explain day and night and the apparent movement of the sun across the sky. 

Forces

Explain that unsupported objects fall towards the Earth because of the force of gravity acting between the Earth and the falling object 
 
Identify the effects of air resistance, water resistance and friction, that act between moving surfaces 
 
Recognise that some mechanisms, including levers, pulleys and gears, allow a smaller force to have a greater effect

Properties and Changes of Materials

Compare and group together everyday materials on the basis of their properties, including their hardness, solubility, transparency, conductivity (electrical and thermal), and response to magnets 

Know that some materials will dissolve in liquid to form a solution, and describe how to recover a substance from a solution 

Give reasons, based on evidence from comparative and fair tests, for the particular uses of everyday materials, including metals, wood and plastic 

Life Cycles and Reproduction

Describe the differences in the life cycles of a mammal, an amphibian, an insect and a bird  
 
Describe the life process of reproduction in some animals (link life cycles) 

Describe the life process of reproduction in some plants 

Describe the changes as humans develop to old age 

Evolution and Inheritance

Recognise that living things have changed over time and that fossils provide information about living things that inhabited the Earth millions of years ago 
 
Recognise that living things produce offspring of the same kind, but normally offspring vary and are not identical to their parents 
 
Identify how animals and plants are adapted to suit their environment in different ways and that adaptation may lead to evolution

Animals, including Humans

Identify and name the main parts of the human circulatory system, and describe the functions of the heart, blood vessels and blood 
 
Recognise the impact of diet, exercise, drugs and lifestyle on the way their bodies function 
 
Describe the ways in which nutrients and water are transported within animals, including humans

Electricity

Associate the brightness of a lamp or the volume of a buzzer with the number and voltage of cells used in the circuit 
 
Understand how electricity has changed over time 
 
Compare and give reasons for variations in how components function, including the brightness of bulbs, the loudness of buzzers and the on/off position of switches 
 
Use recognised symbols when representing a simple circuit in a diagram 

Light

Recognise that light appears to travel in straight lines  
 
Use the idea that light travels in straight lines to explain that objects are seen because they give out or reflect light into the eye  
 
Explain that we see things because light travels from light sources to our eyes or from light sources to objects and then to our eyes  
 
Use the idea that light travels in straight lines to explain why shadows have the same shape as the objects that cast them.  

Living Things and their Habitats

Describe how living things are classified into broad groups according to common observable characteristics and based on similarities and differences, including micro-organisms, plants and animals  
 
Give reasons for classifying plants and animals based on specific characteristics