These four lessons, designed for KS2, help children to understand light; different types, how it travels, what it is used for and its relationship with different materials. It involves a range of questions for children to brainstorm concepts and practical activities to test them. The objectives are as follows: LI: To understand what light is and how it allows us to see SC I know what light is / how light is formed I can identify whether a source of light is natural or man-made I understand how movement of light into our eyes allows us to see LI: To understand how light travels SC I can explain how light allows us to see I can create an investigation to test a theory I can predict the outcome of an investigation with reasoning I can explain the steps of an investigation, including annotated diagrams I can evaluate an investigation I can use scientific vocabulary LI: To sort and classify materials based on their transparency SC I can explain how shadows are formed I can identify the properties of different materials I can create an investigation to test a theory I can predict the outcome of an investigation with reasoning I can explain the steps of an investigation, including using annotated diagrams I can evaluate an investigation I can use scientific vocabulary LI: To understand the properties of reflective materials SC I can identify the properties of materials I can sort materials based on their reflective properties I know different examples of where reflective materials are used in every day life I can use clear diagrams and annotation to explain my ideas I can use scientific language

These three lessons, designed for KS2, help children to understand sound, how it travels, how sound can be different and what materials can block sound. The objectives are as follows: Lesson 1 - Objective: To understand that sounds are made when objects vibrate Success Criteria: I can understand that sounds are made when objects vibrate. I can compare how sounds travel through gases, liquids and solids I can investigate how sounds travel through different objects I can explain the results of my investigation using scientific diagrams/language The lesson poses various questions to children throughout the notebook presentation about what sound is, how we hear, how sound might travel differently, to allow them to demonstrate their prior knowledge or ideas. It also includes useful links which help to embed given facts, mini tasks to engage the class, and best of all, a creative main activity where children investigate whether sound travels through string telephones! The differentiated plenary is a 'fill-the-gaps' activity which assesses children's understanding from the lesson. Lesson 2 - Objective: To investigate how the pitch and volume of instruments can be changed Success Criteria: I can understand that sounds are made when objects vibrate. I can explain what is meant by the 'pitch' of sound I can explain what is meant by the 'volume' of sound I can make predictions I can alter the pitch and volume of various musical instruments Children meet this objective by first recapping what they have already learnt about sound, by learning the difference between 'pitch' and 'volume' using different links in the notebook and then by investigating pitch and volume using an online BBC Bitesize activity, noting their predictions and conclusions in their books. Musical instruments could be used in the lesson as well! Lesson 3 - LI: To investigate whether materials effect the movement of soundwaves SC: I can identify the properties of different materials I understand how sound travels through solids, liquids and gases I can make predictions I can identify whether an experiment is a fair test I can explain the results of an experiment The lesson starts by recapping previous learning, before brainstorming in what scenarios we might want sound to be blocked. Children then conduct an experiment, comparing which materials would be best to block sound.

The objective for this lesson is to understand the measurement of time and comes in two parts. The first gauges children's prior understanding of the following success criteria: * I know how many seconds are in 1 minute * I know how many minutes are in 1 hour * I know how many hours are in 1 day * I know how many days are in a week and year Included is a worksheet for children to complete, with extra challenges on the notebook board for your higher abilities to be extended. In the second part of the lesson I wanted to challenge and extend children's knowledge of time, so I linked in a TED animation about how time is linked to both Maths and Science. It explains the concept of time measurement using flip book animation, which children can relate to. From this, I challenged children to make a short flip book of their own, using one of the two examples modelled in the video. My kids absolutely loved this lesson, and even made longer and more detailed flip books at home afterwards using different time criteria!

These two worksheets can expand to form a Science topic over four to five lessons. Using their prior knowledge of materials and wind power, children independently design their own boat powered by wind either on paper or in their Science books. Existing examples could be shown. Then, at the start of the next lesson, children would use the first worksheet in this resource to evaluate each others designs using the following criteria: • Shape – How will this affect how it moves and balances on the water? • Size – How will this affect how the boat floats and balances? • Materials – Are they waterproof? How will you join them securely? • Sail – How will it steadily stay up and move the boat forwards? Following this, either in the same or next lesson, groups would then choose the best design or combination of design ideas from those on their table, to form a final group design of a boat with a sail. On the second sheet in this resource, they would then work together to plan their final design, using the following criteria: * I can consider the effect of water resistance in my boat design * I can make a sail that will catch wind * I can consider suitable materials to make my boat * I can annotate my design to explain material and shape choices Each group would draw their final boat design and list the materials needed to make it, before going on to make their boat in the following lesson, and then test them the lesson after that in a suitable outdoor location! (...we used a paddling pool!)

I used these lessons at the end of our Rocks topic in Science with my Year 3 class, but they were also used by Year 6 at their end of Evolution and Inheritance, so they are easily adaptable! The resource consists of a notebook of two lessons; one focusing on fossils, and the other on famous British fossil hunter Mary Anning. I used the latter lesson during a school inspection, and it went down well both with the visitor and the class! The lessons focus on develop children's understanding of fossils, how they link to rocks, and how fossil hunting is still important today. Luckily, at the time, Tiger stocked cheap fossil digging kits, so I bought some for the class to try in a third lesson and it was brilliant! I've seen them in other shops since and I'm sure they're available on the internet - photos are included of the children delicately chipping and brushing away.

This lesson gets children to investigate rocks practically - either in or outside of the classroom! It involves them comparing rocks by their size, shape, texture, durability, and many other factors, while also extending to thinking about why rocks are different. This is a cross-curricular lesson which links nicely with Maths, as it requires children to sort different rocks using a Venn Diagram. Included is a lesson presentation notebook and a worksheet and photographs from when I continued this lesson outside of the classroom on Hampstead Heath! Easily adaptable for a range of KS2 classes. Enjoy!

This activity allows children to demonstrate their understanding of what gravity is, how it is measured, and to practically investigate and compare the weight of different objects. The objective is to understand that gravity gives us weight, with the following steps to success: - I know gravity is a force - I know that gravity affects the weight of objects - I know that weight is measured in Newtons - I can measure and record the weight of different objects Challenge: I can explain the difference between weight and mass The worksheet involves children being able to explain the difference between weight and mass, to draw a newton meter, and to use one to measure the weight of different classroom objects, recording their results in table form. This worksheet can easily be adapted for different classes and abilities.

This activity would link well with primary teaching of forces, specifically gravity. It is in two parts: the first requires pupils to demonstrate their basic understanding by filling in missing words into a information paragraph about gravity (the missing words being at the bottom to select from). The second part requires children to demonstrate their understanding of gravity from own experiences, drawing pictures of where they have seen the force of gravity in action. Suitable for a Upper KS1 or Lower KS2 classes. Enjoy - and look out for more of my Science resources in my TES shop!

This resource is a class assembly that I did with my Year 3 and 4 classes about our cross-curricular topic for the term: Light. To make the script I split the class into five groups, and gave each group a question to research with helpful bullet points. They went away and did this over a lesson, making the notes from which I made a class assembly script! The script can easily be adapted to change children's names or to add or take away parts. The script also includes visual activities or objects that groups can be showing to support their part of the assembly. Group topics include: What is light? Sources of light Darkness Shadows Reflections It is designed to be an informative assembly, but fun and easily for an audience to follow. Enjoy!

This resource helps children to understand the concept of inheritance in biology using the following success criteria: I know that living things produce offspring of the same kind I know that living things pass down particular characteristics to their offspring I know that offspring will inherit characteristics from both parents I know that offspring are not identical to their parents In the activity they will think about their own characteristics and then compare these with their family's characteristics (parents, siblings). They will then use The Rugrats as an example to show how offspring can be similar to one or both of their parents, but not identical. Suitable for upper KS2.

This activity worksheet gets children to investigate the importance of photosynthesis in the plant lifecycle. It involves them planning the investigation (understanding what they want to find out and how they will achieve it), predicting what they think will happen, what equipment they will need, and how they will ensure the investigation is a fair test. The activity sheet is scaffolded to support different abilities and will support primary teaching of photosynthesis.

This activity gets children to practically investigate the permeability of rocks. To do this, they need to understand what ‘permeable’ and ‘impermeable’ means, predict whether rocks will be permeable or impermeable, support their predictions with explanations, observe rocks closely to investigate their permeability and write a conclusion based on the outcome of the investigation. The worksheet suggests that 3 rocks are used to test, and includes space to write/draw the rocks and to show their understanding and outcomes from the investigation. UPDATED 22/11/2016 to include whole lesson presentation flip/notebook! Woo!

These two worksheets allow children to describe (draw, feel, source) and compare (texture, size, durability, colour) different rock samples practically in the lesson. UPDATE 22/11/16: Resource now includes linking interactive lesson notebook presentation! Woo!

This lesson helps children to understand the difference between solids, liquids and gases by teaching them that each state of matter has different molecules. It starts by explaining what molecules are, understanding how they move by predicting which diagram is for which state of matter (with reason) and then linking solids, liquids and gases to every day objects to demonstrate their understanding. Lesson includes links to useful videos, talk partner opportunities and an idea/model for a lesson activity. Suitable for KS1 and Lower KS2.

This activity would be a good cross-curricular focus for developing Maths and Science skills as it covers a range of success criteria meeting both curriculum skills: * I know what thermometers are used for * I know the unit of measurement for temperature is Celsius * I understand what is meant by ‘room temperature’ * I understand what is meant by ‘boiling temperature’ * I can explain why temperatures might vary within a room * I can read the scales of thermometers to identify temperature It involves placing 4 containers of (boiling water in different parts of a classroom, for children to predict what will happen to each of them, considering possible factors in the room. This helps children to understand room temperature and how it can vary.

This worksheet allows children to thoroughly plan and design their own product that uses magnets, following this success criteria: I can list some ways in which magnets are used at home and school I can suggest other ways in which magnets could be used I can present ideas using labelled diagrams/notes This lesson would ideally be used after learning about forces and magnets, allowing children to creatively demonstrate and extended their understanding, cross-curricular with DT.