Science - Materials

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.

The Y5/6 students are learning about Electricity in the first half-term and Earth and Space after the October half-term.

Why not broaden and deepen your learning by doing some of these activities: 

• 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! 

The Y3/4 students are also learning about Electricity. Why not do some of these activities at home so that you can become an 'electricity expert'...

* 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?