Alresford Primary School

Science

Meet our Science co-ordinator, Miss Lilley.

Science at Alresford Primary

At Alresford Primary School we understand the need for all pupils to develop their scientific ability with links to other subjects and as a subject in its own right. A high quality science education provides the foundations for understanding the world. It involves studying the natural and physical world, leading to the drawing of conclusions. It is important to build on the curiosity, awe and wonder children have and to encourage them to embrace this. Teachers should provide children with opportunities to develop their existing understanding through a range of experiences, such as practical experiments and investigations, in order to open their minds to the world around them.

Below is an overview of the science curriculum that is taught from Year 1 to Year 6.

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Within each unit of science that is studied, children will conduct an experiment or investigaiton in order to allow them to work on the scientific enquiry skills. They will also have the chance to undertake some research of their own in order to learn more about their topic. They might be given a key 'big question' to answer or they may be able to devise their own questions that they would like to find the answer to.

Experiments and Investigations

There are five main types of investigation that all children will have the opportunity to take part in throughout each academic year. These are pattern seeking, compartive tests, fair tests, observing changes over time and identifying and classifying. The children's knowledge and understanding of the investigations will increase as they move through the school in the hope that the children will be able to conduct their own investigations by the time they reach Year 6.

Alresford's Science Policy

Below is a copy of our science policy.

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Science Club

Last term, we ran a Science Club with our Year 3 and 4 children. Supported by students from the local University, the children were able to take part in various investigations to spark their curiosity and inspire any budding scientists. The university students carefully planned a series of experiments that encouraged the children to ask questions and deepen their scientific understanding. Many of these experiments could be replicated at home if the children wished to investigate further.

We hope to run this again next year as it was very popular!

Science Week

From the 14th to 18th March we celebrated Science Week as a whole school. This year, the theme was 'Growth'. Miss Lilley started the week of with an assembly where we discussed what the word 'growth' meant and how it applied to different concepts. We even learnt that the Eiffel Tower 'grows' each year in the summer as it gets taller by 15cm when the metal structure expands!

Throughout the week, each year group based their learning around our Science Week theme.

Elephants (Reception)

The Elephant Class enjoyed learning all about the life-cycle of a frog. We talked about frogspawn, tadpoles, froglet and frog; some of these words were new to us and we enjoyed learning them and then using the words in our play. We looked closely at how a frog changes as it grows up and we read 'The Teeny Weeny Tadpole and non-fiction books about frogs. We also enjoyed using magnets to help catch the paperclip flies and experiment to see what else the magnet would stick to.

This week we also kept a close eye on our bean plants and observed how tall they were getting.

Please have a look through the photos at some of our activities.

Ladybirds (Year 1)

The Ladybird class used 'The Growing Story' in English this week to focus on exploring the 4 seasons and the changes that happen within them. We looked at pictures, collected objects, collected vocabulary, wrote sentences and answered questions. In Maths we focused on height and then moved onto length. This involved lots of discussion about if you are older, you must be taller. We investigated this with adults and children! In Science the children sorted seasonal objects and focused on what growing changes happen in each season. We also created seasonal trees. In PE we learnt about our heart rate and in art they made animals collages linked to animals growing.

Penguins (Year 2)

The Penguin class planted bean seeds and observed how they grew over a few weeks. We created a diary of a bean using what we had observed and learnt. We also put cress seeds in different conditions and recorded what happened in a table.

Bees and Butterflies (Year 3)

Year 3 focused on animal life cycles and the growing and changing they do throughout their life. We had caterpillars in our classes and watched them transform from caterpillars into butterflies. Our English was based on the story 'A Tadpole's Promise'. The children really enjoyed writing their own version of this story. In science we learnt about our bodies including our bones and muscles. We measured our femurs and investigated whether having a longer femur meant that you were able to jump further than someone with a shorter femur. We also talked about what makes a balanced diet and how to stay healthy in order to keep growing.

Turtles (Year 4)

During Science Week, we based our work around the book ‘Once There Were Giants’. We wrote wonderful poems about the lifecycle of animals and how they change when they grow.

In Maths, we investigated the trees on the school grounds and used an identification chart to work out what types of trees they were. We estimated and measured the girth of the trees; we estimated the height of the trees and their age as well. We used standard measuring tools like rulers, metre sticks and measuring tapes and we used non-standard measures like our hands and our arm spans too.

We did an experiment about digestion to see what happens inside our stomachs and discussed our findings using specific scientific vocabulary. We also thought about whether or not our organs grow as we grow. We focused on the stomach in particular from when we are born until we reach adulthood. We used different fruits to model the sizes, starting from a blueberry, right up to a melon! We then measured the capacity in millilitres (after converting from litres) to show how the capacity changes.

Year 5 (Tigers)

During Science Week, we looked at life cycles and reproduction process. The children found out about the life cycles of mammals, insects and amphibians. They also compared reproduction processeses between plants and mammals and analysed the gestation periods in different animals, spotting trends. All of our learning this week resulted in the children researching and creating a PowerPoint presentation to answer our big science question:

"What are the differences between the lifecycle of a mammal compared to an insect?"

Year 6 (Lions)

Our work for science week was based on the book, One Smart Fish by Chris Worrell. This was to support our Evolution and Inheritance topic, which we had already covered during autumn term. We focused this week on adaptation and particularly how animals adapt during winter. We had a visit from Hector the tortoise, who had just come out of hibernation and learnt about how other animals survive winter such as migrating, hibernating, changing diet/storing food or growing a thicker coat. We researched animals of our choice and produced information posters about them.

Alresford Primary School

Alresford Primary School

Science

Alresford Primary School

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Alresford Primary School

Alresford Primary School

Science

Alresford Primary School

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