Year 3/4 Living things (Biology)

Plants

Learn the names of fruit and vegetables.  Which part of the plant are you eating - the root, the flower, the stem or the leaves?

Dissect a plant and observe all the different parts.

Learn to recognise and name some plants e.g. buttercup, forget-me-nots, daisies, Ivy, Oak trees etc.

Visit Durham Botanical Gardens.

Rocks

Walk around your village - look at all the ways rocks are used e.g. walls, roads, gravel in gardens.

Which rocks are in your home?  Look at work tops, fireplaces, chopping boards, jewellery.

Research different types of rock e.g. marble, granite, sandstone.

Visit Whitescar Caves or the limestone pavements at Malham.

Animals

Learn about different animals, where they live and what they eat.  Visit a zoo such as South Lakes Safari Park.

Humans

Teeth - look at your teeth.  Look at the shape of them and think about what you do with your front teeth and what you do with your back teeth.  Look at any teeth you see on animal skeletons.

Ask questions when you visit the dentist!

Skeletons - look at the skeletons of animals - perhaps visit a museum such as Manchester Museum or Kendal.

Digestive system - make a digestive system out of playdough.

Year 5/6 Living things (Biology)

Plants

Learn about plant reproduction

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0SNi5yCtvU 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9OiGA5_mVs

Go on a seed hunt in your village - how will the seeds be spread?

Learn the names of as many plants as possible.

Visit Durham Botanical Gardens.

Humans

Learn all about the circulatory system. https://kidshealth.org/en/kids/heart.html

Learn about living a healthy lifestyle and try to make improvements to you own by eating a healthier diet or taking more exercise.

https://www.healthforkids.co.uk/staying-healthy/eating-healthily/

Animals

Visit the Jurassic coast in Dorset and go fossil hunting.

Visit a museum and learn about fossils and evolution. The museum at Manchester is very good and free.

https://www.visitmanchester.com/things-to-see-and-do/manchester-museum-p85711

Year 3/4 Forces (Physics)

Look for how magnets are used in your home e.g. the fridge door, everything that contains a motor, games, purse fastenings etc.

Learn how to map read with a compass.

Look at where springs are used in your home e.g. mattresses, trampolines, pens etc.

Visit Life Museum in Newcastle.

Year 5/6 Forces (Physics)

Research gravity, air resistance, upthrust, pulleys, gears, and friction.  Watch sport on television/online and look at how the athletes make themselves more streamline - observe their position and the equipment they use.  Watching winter sports is very useful e.g. tobogganing and skiing.  The less friction there is, the faster the person will travel.

Visit Life in Newcastle.

Year 3/4/5/6 Sound (Physics)

Go on a 'sound walk' and write down all the sounds you hear.  Try sitting in different places and listening e.g. a field and a town.  Try to identify if they are high-pitched sounds or low-pitched sounds.

What sounds help keep us safe?  Think about sirens, road crossings, fire alarms, carbon monoxide detectors etc.

Make a 'cup telephone' using string and two plastic cups.  How do they make the sound louder when you talk to someone?  

See how far away you can hear different sounds.  Can you hear high-pitched sounds further away than low-pitched sounds?

Year 3/4 Light (Physics)

Look for transparent, translucent and opaque objects in your home.

Look at labelling on sun creams and sunglasses in shops.

Look at yourself in concave and convex mirrors (front and back of a spoon) - how do you look different?

Look at shadows.  Put an object in you garden and watch how its shadow moves and changes length during the day.

Year 5/6 Light (Physics)

Learn about the parts of the eye at https://kidshealth.org/en/kids/eyes.html

Use a mirror to redirect light onto a target.

Learn how to send messages by flashing lights. https://mysteryscience.com/light/mystery-5/light-communication-engineering/131

Year 3/4/5/6 Earth and Space (Physics)

Explore these websites:

https://nineplanets.org/

https://www.nasa.gov/

https://www.esa.int/kids/en/learn

Make a model of the solar system with play dough.

Create a book about space.

Year 3/4/5/6 Materials (Chemistry)

Think about physical and chemical chemical changes in your home.  Physical changes are reversible (you can get back what you started with).  They include water becoming ice when it is cooled below zero degrees, water becoming water vapour when it warms e.g. in a kettle, sugar dissolving in hot drinks, melting and freezing.  Chemical changes are irreversible (you can not get back what you started with).  They include: making toast from bread, making jelly, cooking food, burning logs on a fire and boiling eggs.

Look at what things are made of.  Do you know how that product is made and where it is made in the world.  Do some research.  How is plastic made?  Where does rubber come from?  How many pieces of paper can be made from a tree?  Ask questions.

Make things using lots of different materials - paper, clay, Hamma beads, aqua beads, Shrinkies, plaster of paris, wood, metal ...

Watch 'How it's made' on TV.  It's all about how different things are manufactured.  'Food Unwrapped' is another programme which tells you more about where your food comes from.

Look for sieves and filters in your life - what do they do?  Try using them.

Year 5/6 Electricity (Physics)

• Practice drawing circuit diagrams using the correct symbols.
• Look at any instruction booklets that came with electrical objects in your home.  Can you find any circuit diagrams?
• Ask an adult to show you the inside of a plug or even better cut one off an old appliance – learn how to wire it and change the fuse.
• Look at your fuse box with an adult.  Ask them to explain what happens when something is wrong with the electricity in your home.
• Learn more about your home – Do you have loft insulation?  Do you have cavity wall insulation?  Do you have solar panels? Do you have low-energy light bulbs?  What temperature is your heating set to?  Is your heating/hot water on a timer?
• Record the temperature of a room in your house every hour during the day and create a line graph of the result.
• Sort your list into a 3 circle Venn diagram – those appliances that produce light or a change in temperature or movement (or any combination of these).
• Look at any electricity poles/pylons/substations/railway lines when you are out and about.  Remember the yellow warning triangle is there because the electricity can be dangerous.
• Look at all the batteries in your home and in the garage/shed/car/phone etc.  How are batteries identified (AA, AAA, CR3032 …).  Which ones are the strongest?  Are the strongest also the biggest? 

Remember to always be safe around electricity! 

Year 3/4 Electricity (Physics)

* Make a list of all the electrical objects you have in each room of your house. 

* Create a table of bar chart to show how many electrical appliances you have in each room of your house.

* Sort your list into a Venn diagram – those appliances that produce light or a change in temperature or both.

* Create posters reminding your family to turn off electrical objects when not in use e.g. the lights

* Learn more about your home – Do you have loft insulation?  Do you have cavity wall insulation?  Do you have solar panels? Do you have low-energy light bulbs?  What temperature is your heating set to?  Is your heating/hot water on a timer?

* Record the temperature of a room in your house every hour during the day and create a line graph of the result.

* Look at any electricity poles/pylons/substations/railway lines when you are out and about.  Remember the yellow warning triangle is there because the electricity can be dangerous.

* Take a reading from your electricity meter and see how much electricity you use in one week.  Can you use less the following week?