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Science

Studying Science provides children with the foundations for understanding the world around us. Science encourages us to ask questions, find answers and make close observations about how and why things work as they do. While we develop these rational explanations we also aim to develop a sense of excitement and curiosity about natural phenomena. Children enjoy finding out how science can be used to explain what is occurring, predict how things will behave and analyse causes.

Yearly Overview

Science at Queen Emma is very “hands on” and children are encouraged to “Work Scientifically” during each and every topic. As such they develop a variety of important skills including the ability to plan, observe and evaluate. They become accustomed to using a variety of tools and equipment and over time become adept at presenting and explaining their findings. Investigating is at the heart of Science and Queen Emma children know we value their thinking.

AutumnSpringSummer
Y1Everyday materials. Seasonal changesPlants. Seasonal changesAnimals. Seasonal changes
Y2Health and growth. Material propertiesChanging material properties. Electricity. Local plantsLocal animals (minibeasts). Forces
Y3Rocks and soils. Amazing animalsLight and darkForces and magnets. Plants. Living things
Y4Living things. Habitats. SoundInvestigations and ElectricityStates of Matter. Humans and animals. Food and digestion
Y5Forces: Gravity, water, air resistance and friction. Earth and Space: Sun, moon, night and dayLiving Things: Lifecycles and reproduction. Animals and humans: Changes, puberty and growing up. Lifecycle of a plantMaterials: Reversible and irreversible changes. Separating solids and liquids. Fair testing
Y6Light. Electricity. Living things. Evolution and inheritance.Animals (including humans)

Please click on the link to view our Science policy on our Policies page.

Examples Of Learning

Science Day 2020
Queen Emma had a fantastic Science Day based upon the British Science Week theme of ‘Our Diverse Planet.’ Each year group’s learning was based upon a continent and the children had a day filled with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) based activities.
Year 1- Asia- First the children discussed how people around the world are diverse and how that makes them special. They then went into the hall and drew around each other, thinking about their diverse qualities and also what similarities they all share.
Year 2- Australasia- Year 2 pupils learnt about the importance of forests in Australia and the devastating affect that the recent bush fires had on the environment and animals that make the forests their habitat. They had to use their engineering skills to build a tree, in pairs, using 4 pieces of recycled paper. Plus they weren’t allowed to use any glue, paper clips, blue tac or sellotape! The children really had to use Habit 2, Begin with the end in mind and Habit 6, synergize.
Year 3- Europe- Pupils had to work really hard using the ipads to research animals native to Europe and design a hotel for them to stay in. They had to think about the features of their habitat and why the animals would want to stay in their hotel.
Year 4- North America- We all know that parts of America can have a hot climate, so Year 4 used their scientific knowledge to create the best insulated pot for a plant. They planted their seed and had a variety of materials in order to insulate their pot. Let’s hope some of them grow!
Year 5- Africa- Year 5 used their Maths skills to look closely at the mathematical properties of a variety of African flags. They also made habitat hotels for African insects, thinking about what they would like. Plus there are a lot of African insects to build a home for!
Year 6- Antarctica- The pupils in Year 6 had a full day of learning, looking closely at the polar regions. First they explored and experimented with iron fillings and magnets, relating to the magnetic poles of Earth. Then they carried out an experiment of how to insulate water in a bottle. They took the temperature of the water and decided which materials would be best to insulate the bottle. Then they created their insulated bottle and kept recording the temperature.
All the pupils had a fantastic day during British Science Week and some of the children’s costumes were amazing. Thank you ever so much for everyone’s hard work in order to make the day so successful.

Reception

Reception have been exploring animals in their busy learning time and were talking about the fact that sea creatures can only breathe under water. How interesting!

Year 1

We had a fantastic day consolidating our learning about the zones of the ocean with a visiting expert called Stephen. He explained how scientists find out about the zones by travelling under the sea to different depths using special equipment. He also demonstrated the three zones using a bottle filled with liquids of different densities. We found out more amazing facts about the oceans and the creatures that live in the different zones. We also created a collage of the zones of the ocean.

Year 2

Penguin class got very messy exploring seeds during their science lesson. We learnt that all plants that have seeds are a fruit. Some fruits have internal seeds and others like strawberries have their seeds externally.We then planted some of these seeds. I wonder if any of them will grow in our country?

Year 2 have spent a chilly lesson exploring ice. Things that we discovered and wanted answering were;

  • Ice can melt and turns slippery when handled. The warmth from our hands make the ice melt which turns the ice into water. This is a reversible change.
  • Ice shrinks when it melts.
  • Some of the ice was opaque and other pieces were transparent. Why is this?
  • Salt speeds up the melting process if put onto ice.
  • Some ice is bumpy and rough but it can also be smooth.

Penguin and Polar Bear class in year 2 have looked at animals. They started off their learning by exploring what key things animals need in order to survive. They then crated their own mythical creature, explaining how they functioned (eg what they ate, how they breathed) Later on in their learning, they also looked at how humans can keep healthy and made a healthy food plate. This term Year 2 are exploring materials and their properties.

Year 3

Year 3 have started their year off learning about rocks and soils. They learnt about how rocks are formed (using chocolate!) and did an experiment on rock permeability. Year 3 loved the fossils and rocks day planned last term too. They’ve now moved onto learning about our bones and other animal skeletons.

Year 4

Year 4 have been working hard on how to classify living things by making a classification flow chart. They worked really hard in groups as some animals were really challenging to classify. For example where would you put a duck billed platypus?

Living Things and Habitats are Year 4’s science topic where they have been busy carrying out an experiment on woodlice and the conditions for their ideal habitat. The children went out and collected woodlice, then made a woodlice hotel, observing which area they preferred to stay in. Year 4 are now obviously woodlice experts!

Year 5

Giraffe and Zebra class kicked off the year with a thrilling science experiment relating to their topic, Forces. They spent their lessons carrying out an investigation on air resistance; making parachutes, which they launched at school. They’ve been looking scientifically at making experiments a fair test and following up their investigation with some reflections of why their parachutes either did or didn’t work.

Year 6

During our Science lesson, we demonstrated the principle of how we see objects.