These one-line emergency Science lessons plans are intended to be used as a prompt when no planning has been left for you as a supply teacher. They are not intended to be replacements for full lesson plans, and no liability can be accepted by us if you decide to use them. They are mainly from the top of NuttySupplier's head.
Work is split into year groups, and then further split into the Science scheme of work units.
Look at what different animals eat and predict what type of teeth they have (incisors for cutting into meat, molars for grinding plants.)
Helping plants grow well
Which foods come from plants? Look at ones which aren't obvious, such as cereal/grains.
Characteristics of materials
Give children a list of materials and explore their properties. Ask them to choose an object, i.e. ruler, and write (perhaps a table?) what it is made from, and how fit for purpose it would be made from different materials you have looked at.
Rocks and soils
Using rocks, can they spot where rock has been used in their school? Stone steps etc. can they think why rock isn't used in other places (refer to previous topic on characteristics of materials), and suggest other ways in which rock could be used (liken to The Flintstones, if it's still on TV!) Rock for a bed? Wheels?
Magnets and springs
Give all children an elastic band and after they have investigated its properties, ask them to think of 5 different ways in which it could be used. Explain/show what a spring is and look at their five uses, question whether or not a spring would be more appropriate.
Light and shadows
Investigate light (from OHP/IWB?) and it's affect on different materials. Density of shadows formed through cloth, paper, wood etc. Light acting upon materials, does it change the colour? Look carefully! Paint (arghh!) a spectrum of colours seen on one object with varying amounts/qualitites of light shone on it.
Work on how important it is to warm up muscles before exercise. Explain how muscles help us to move, then demonstrate a cold muscle (blue-tac, when cold it tears) and a warmed-up muscle using an elastic band. Children write up with illustrations in their books. Do some simple warm-up exercises with them in class.
Habitats
Hazardous Habitats: Imagine animals in the wrong habitat, how long could they stay there for without doing serious dammage to themselves/others in the environment? Elephant in a pond, human in the dessert, fish in the jungle.
Keeping warm
Survey of items in your house which help to keep things warm, keep things cool. Differences in your summer clothes and your winter clothes, look at head gear and what difference there is in the use of a cap and a wooly hat.
Solids, liquids and how they can be separated
Adding solids to water: imagine! Give children a list of solids in a table and they have to decide whether or not the solid will sink/dissolve/be easy to extract/change and of it's properties. E.g. custard powder, gravy granules (look at temperature of water, keep it a fair test!), soap (look at time in a fair test too), a stone, a coin, a tea bag, tea leaves (look at effect on the water with all.)
Friction
Using friction: investigate ways in which we need to control the level of friction so that it is useful, think of tread on tyres, on shoes, playground slides, goal keeper's gloves, shoe laces, ice-skating.
Circuits and conductors
Where do we find electricity in the classroom? How are we insulated from it? What materials are used and why? What if the material was changed? Do you know what would happen if we used wool instead? There's a very useful activity on BBC Science Clips (google it!)
Design a poster which shows children alternatives to unhealthy snacks, and which promotes exercise too.
Life cycles
Seed dispersal, what properties does a seed need to have to be dispersed by wind/animal/water/explosion?
Gases around us
Evaporation: why do people hang their clothes on the line on a sunny day? Hang them on the radiator, put them in the tumble dryer? What has happened to the water? Where did it go? Explore children's ideas and help annotate drawings.
Changing state
Reversible changes: what can we melt/freeze to make a solid/liquid/gas change state, but then let the temperature return to normal and the s/l/g will revert too? Water/wax... what can we not do this with? Eggs/clay (fired in kiln)
Earth, sun and moon
The Moon orbits the Earth, but it also revolves around the Earth. As it is orbiting as well as revolving, we always see the same side of the moon, we never see the 'far side'. What different shapes of moon have you seen? What causes it to appear to change shape?
Changing sounds
Recorders out! Explain that sounds are made air vibrating and the space that the air vibrates in is very important. Ask children to experiment with recorders how to change the pitch of the sound, and how that relates to the space in which the air can vibrate. Give one recorder per group of four/five!
Food chains: always starts with the producer, a plant, and keep the consumers in the same habitat. Ask which are prey/preditor. Draw/label 3 food chains.
Micro-organisms
Mouldy food: what is mould? Micro-organisms which are too small to be seen individually. Table different methods that are used in supoermarkets/in the home to preserve food. How do we store food to help prevent decay/these micro-organisms growing?
Micro-organisms
Produce a hygiene rules poster for the school canteen staff, after discussion about hygiene in the kitchen.
More about dissolving
Present children with a table of results (ficticious but sensible) of length of time taken for clothes to dry on the washing line at different times of the day/year. Ask children first of all to predict and explain predictions, and then they are to present results on a graph. (This isn't obviously about dissolving, but within this unit they must plan fair test, repeat observations and evaluate, representing data on graphs and interpreting!) Show different items of clothes, and ask children to reason why socks though smaller than T-shirts, took longer to dry whatever the time. (Materials.)
Reversible and irreversible changes
Give children a list of materials which can be mixed with water. Children to classify in a table those that can't be separated, those they would filter and those they would separate by evaporation. Centrifugal force introduction for more able?
Forces in action
Make a spinner, two paper strips 10cm x 2cm, joined with 1 paperclip and time the fall (from a decent height!) Ask children to predict whether it will fall more quickly/slowly with different lengths of wings. Work through whole experiment, fair test, results, graph, conclusion.
Forces in action
Make a spinner, two paper strips 10cm x 2cm, joined with 1 paperclip and time the fall (from a decent height!) Ask children to predict whether it will fall more quickly/slowly with different numbers of paperclips (weight). Work through whole experiment, results, graph, conclusion.
How we see things
How light travels. Design a system by which you could see round corners, secret agent!
Changing circuits
Draw a number of circuits on the board for the children to say if they will/will not work, and explain. Visit blogz circuits and work through activities, if you have access to a computer with Flash.
Enquiry in environmental and technological contexts
Post SATs stuff for Year 6! Ask the children to create a scientific quesition, give them expamples, that they then can plan how to answer. Plan the whole experiment, time scales, equipment needed, predictions. Focus on making sure it is a fair test and how to make absolutely certain that their investigations will actually answer their question, rather than a spin-off idea. Example lines of enquiry: how to make my light come on when I enter my house? (Pressure switches in circuits) Does the level of exposure to sunlight through the year affect the autumnal colour of a leaf? These questions will not be answered in your lesson! They are planning units, making children think about all factors and differentials in an investigation.
