SoFi is a soft robotic fish that can swim around coral reefs, taking close-up videos of the real fish without disturbing them as a human diver would.
Watch SoFi swim here:
Want to know more about the robo-revolution? Whizz Pop Bang: Robots Rock is available in our shop now!
Are you looking for planning resources for teaching teeth in year 4? Here’s how you can use our new downloadable teeth teaching resources to easily create memorable lessons that produce the sticky knowledge that Ofsted will be looking for…
Where to start?
Teeth should be taught before the digestive system. By year 4, most children will have lost several of their baby teeth and will be at the in-between stage with a mixture of adult teeth, baby teeth and some gaps. It’s fun to get pupils to look in a mirror and examine their own mouths! Children will already know that they have two sets of teeth. What they probably don’t know is that their adult teeth started growing while they were still a baby! They probably also don’t know how many teeth they have, what they are called and what they are used for. Our Model Mouth Lesson Pack answers all of these questions. It has been written by an experienced primary school teacher and is ideal for teaching teeth to year 4 pupils. The downloadable pack includes:
Why build a 3D model mouth rather than asking children to label
a worksheet?
All pupils learn differently, and to create sticky knowledge children need memorable experiences. The visual and kinaesthetic learners are more likely to remember making a 3D model mouth than filling in a worksheet. They will physically make 32 teeth and mould each tooth into the correct shape. Once the models are complete, you can discuss how we keep teeth healthy. Pupils could even practise brushing their model teeth
How to evidence the lesson
If your planning isn’t enough evidence, pupils could use the Keynote app on an iPad to record themselves describing their model mouth and each tooth’s name and function. If you need evidence in their books, you could print a photo of the model and during morning work the next day, pupils could label and annotate it. This would mean that they go back over their learning from the day before, helping the knowledge to stick. Our Wibble Wobble board game is also a good way for children to revisit the subject. Knowledge organisers can be an additional tool to help remind children of previous learning, or to use as a scaffold – not for answers!
What to cover next
Pupils should then research other animals, both herbivores and carnivores, that have teeth. What similarities and differences do they notice? Do all the animals have the same number of teeth? Do they all have molars, canines and incisors? Are they called something different? Why don’t some animals have teeth? Once children start researching, they will hopefully come up with lots of questions they would like to find out the answers to. Our downloadable Animal Antics text on vipers is a good place to start.
Further investigations
We also have another year 4 downloadable lesson plan on teeth, which is an observation over time enquiry. Pupils will set up an investigation to observe eggshells in different liquids. Eggshells and teeth are both made of calcium-based compounds so this is a good visual demonstration of how some drinks can cause damage to our teeth. Our lesson plans always explain the science behind the lessons – teachers can’t remember everything!
How to make teeth cross-curricular
Making the model mouth links to art and sculpture. There are also lots of ways to embed the pupil’s science learning in your school day. Using science texts in guided reading or whole class reading sessions is an easy way for children to delve further into the subject matter and acquire more knowledge. We have three reading comprehension packs for year 4:
We also have a bank of spectacular science images that are perfect for promoting discussion. They feature a striking scientific image, along with a couple of questions. As you click through the PowerPoint presentation, the answers to the questions will be revealed. Pupils should try to answer the questions as you go. The presentation to use for teeth is called ‘Smile crocodile’. It only takes ten minutes so it can slot into those awkward times in the school day – for example, straight after lunch while you are waiting for everyone to come in.
Whizz Pop Bang magazine and teaching resources are brilliant ways to enhance your school’s science teaching:
Prices from as little as £190 per year for a copy of Whizz Pop Bang magazine through the post each month and whole-school access to our ever-growing library of downloadable teaching resources, with unlimited teacher logins.
We’ve also just launched a new individual membership option so teachers and home educators can access all of our amazing downloadable resources for just £20 for the whole year.
“Using Whizz Pop Bang school resources has enabled investigations to be an integral part of my science planning. I now have investigations and experiments throughout my planning rather than just at the end. The lessons are easy to resource and the pack has everything I need to teach the lesson so it saves me time as well!” Louise Hampson, Year 3 teacher
Looking for some simple science activities to keep children busy during the holidays? Here are three fantastic ways to make paper soar through the air.
Discover new twists on paper planes – just download, print, cut, fold and launch! Try out one design, or challenge your children to make all three and compare how they travel.
Whizz Pop Bang is a top-quality, gender-neutral, advert-free science magazine for families everywhere. Each issue is packed with experiments, activities, amazing facts, puzzles, jokes, riddles and more. Find out more here and flick through a space-themed issue here!
The best time to spot the Lyrid meteor in the UK in 2021 is on the night of 21st – 22nd April. This year, it coincides with a gibbous Moon, which means that the night sky will be bright, which makes spotting meteors a little harder – but don’t be deterred! Follow these tips from the Royal Observatory in Greenwich for the best chance of meteor-spotting.
☄️Find a dark site with an unobstructed view of the sky.
☄️The best time to see the shower is in the early morning of the peak day, which this year is the morning of the 22 April (the night of the 21 April).
☄️Fill your view with the sky and wait! Lying on the ground is a great way to see as much as possible.
☄️Look towards the Vega constellation – here’s a handy map showing how to find it at this time of year thanks to Astronomy Now.
☄️Blanket optional but highly recommended. Reclining deckchairs make an even more comfortable way to view the sky.
☄️Remember to wrap up warm!
Image: Shutterstock
Whizz Pop Bang is a top-quality, gender-neutral, advert-free science magazine for families everywhere. Each issue is packed with experiments, activities, amazing facts, puzzles, jokes, riddles and more. Find out more here and flick through a space-themed issue here!
To celebrate International Women’s Day on Monday 8th March, we’ve shared some stories of some inspirational scientists. You’ll find more fantastic free reading resources, as well as loads of home science activities and experiments, right here!
Are you a primary teacher looking for inspiring scientist role models? Keep scrolling to find reading comprehensions about these incredible women!
Find out which of these scientists are trained to travel to the Moon, who started their career aged 13 and who blows things up for a living!
Jessica Watkins, NASA Astronaut
Nikita Hari, Electrical Engineer
Agnes Arber, Plant Scientist
Kate Biberdorf, Explosions Engineer
Jessica Watkins, NASA Astronaut
Read about fully trained astronaut Jessica Watkins who hopes to soon be able to fly to the Moon as part of the Artemis missions to the Moon! Includes the feature to print or to read on a tablet, as well as comprehension question and answer sheets. Ideal for Year 5 / P6.
Nikita Hari, Electrical Engineer
Find out what it’s like to be an electrical engineering whizz with this inspirational interview with Nikita Hari. Includes the feature to print or to read on a tablet, as well as comprehension question and answer sheet. Ideal for Year 6 / P7
Agnes Arber, Plant Scientist
Read about sensational scientist Agnes Arber, whose career as a plant scientist started when she was just 13! Includes the feature to print or to read on a tablet, as well as comprehension question and answer sheets. Ideal for Year 3 / P4
Kate Biberdorf, Explosions Engineer
Find out why Kate Biberdorf loves to blow things up to inspire her students! Includes the feature to print or to read on a tablet, as well as comprehension question and answer sheets. Ideal for Year 4 / P3
If you think these could be useful in your classroom, you’ll love Whizz Pop Bang’s amazing science and reading resources for schools! Find out more here.
British Science Week (5th-14th March 2021) was always first in my calendar as a Primary Science Co-ordinator and I usually started with very grand ideas! Whilst a whole week of science is brilliant, this year it might be more realistic to consider just planning one day – it will be just as exciting, but manageable both in school and for any pupils isolating at home. Here are some FREE ideas and resources for creating a super exciting Fly High Friday!
Did you know that Whizz Pop Bang magazine also creates curriculum-linked science resources for primary schools? Scroll to the bottom to find a brilliant offer that’s running throughout March 2021!
Here’s everything you need to make planning your science day as simple as possible:
Theme – Flight, linking with the curriculum topic of Forces with a comparative/fair testing enquiry and for EYFS the characteristics of learning.
Challenge the whole school to work together on a flight investigation!
The mission: who can make paper fly the farthest?
Keep reading to find activities and resources for each year group…
We all love to make a paper aeroplane but is that the only way to make paper fly? Here are some different ways:
How to make these suit all year groups:
For all these ideas you will only need paper, straws, sticky tape, glue and sticky tack – and some space, preferably outdoors! Each year group could have a go at making these different paper flying machines.
EYFS – Allow the children the time to explore how they can make paper fly. The teacher could demonstrate the air-powered rocket, then the children could make either the stunt planes or the straw planes. The children will choose the one they think will fly the farthest, try it and then the class teacher should record the result.
KS1 – Again allow the children the time to explore how they can make paper fly. Then the children should make each of the flying devices and choose the one they think flies the best, then test it. The teacher can collate all the results as a class.
Years 3 and 4 – children can choose their favourite design and then make adaptions to see if they can make it fly farther and record their results.
Years 5 and 6 – children can test each design and then make their own flying machines. They should throw their final design five times and calculate the mean result. This will be their final result.
We also have a reading comprehension about historical scientists the Wright Brothers, the team behind the world’s first powered flight.
At the end of the day all classes should share their results. This might be by email or you could hold a virtual assembly! Don’t forget to ask for photographs so you can make a display or share them on your school’s social media platforms. We would love to see what you’ve been doing so please tag us @whizzpopbangmag
Whizz Pop Bang magazine and teaching resources are brilliant ways to enhance your school’s science teaching:
Prices from as little as £190 per year for whole-school access to our ever-growing library of downloadable teaching resources, with unlimited teacher logins, as well as a copy of Whizz Pop Bang magazine through the post each month. Plus, we have an amazing offer of a 20% discount until 31st March 2021. Just apply the code SCIWEEK21 at the checkout to receive the discount. (Only available on whole-school subscriptions to the magazines and resources.)
We’ve just launched a new individual membership option so teachers and home educators can access all of our amazing resources for just £20 for the whole year.
“Using Whizz Pop Bang school resources has enabled investigations to be an integral part of my science planning. I now have investigations and experiments throughout my planning rather than just at the end. The lessons are easy to resource and the pack has everything I need to teach the lesson so it saves me time as well!”
Louise Hampson, Year 3 teacher
A Build Your Own Mars Colony is an out-of-this-world way to keep astronauts-in-training busy while staying safe at home! This space-age set contains everything an interplanetary explorer needs to make a 20-piece Martian scene. Best of all? We’ve got three to give away!
Thank you to our friends at Laurence King Publishing for this super space-age prize!
To be in with a chance of winning one of three kits, simply answer this question in the comments:
What’s the name of the Mars rover due to touch down on Thursday 18th February?
Good luck!
This competition closes at midnight on 12th February 2021. Whizz Pop Bang competition terms and conditions are here.
Looking for ways to fill half term with science? Sign up midnight on 4th February to receive Whizz Pop Bang: MISSION TO MARS as the first issue of your subscription!
Have you been reading about DINO GIANTS in Whizz Pop Bang magazine? Then you probably want to watch a video of the biggest dinosaur poos ever discovered!
Fossilised animal poos are known as coprolites. They are full of clues about what dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures liked to eat. The largest coprolite ever found was a Tyrannosaurus rex poo. It is full of crunched-up bones.
The largest collection of coprolites is owned by George Frandsen in the USA. In 2017, he had 1,277 fossilised dino poos, including the largest ever found! See him showing off the record-breaking dino poo here:
In this mega edition of Whizz Pop Bang, we’re looking at some of the most awesome creatures ever to have set foot on this planet – discover gigantic dinosaurs that were taller than houses, humungous flying reptiles that ruled the skies and petrifying prehistoric predators that patrolled the seas!
There are loads of dino activities for you to try at home – craft a balancing stegosaurus, create your own eco-friendly fossil dig kits and cast a replica dinosaur tooth!
You can also cut out and make roar-some paper dinosaurs that walk down slopes and discover the biggest dinosaur ever known, Argentinosaurus, which laid eggs as big as coconuts! Find out how animatronic dinosaurs work, meet a palaeontologist who solves the mysteries of how dinosaurs lived and read about William Buckland and Mary Morland, who studied the first dinosaur fossils. You can even take our Silly Science quiz, ‘Which dinosaur are you?!’ to discover what your life could have been like in the Cretaceous period!
It’s a truly colossal edition of Whizz Pop Bang!
Get ready to race with this marble of engineering! Slot together the press-out parts to create three twisting neon tracks, just waiting for marbles to shoot, spin and whizz around.
This clever marble run kit from Build Your Own includes an ingenious lift and drop marble elevator and run switches to randomise the courses. It’s Build Your Own’s most challenging creation yet – with a build time of four hours, this kit is bound to keep the whole family busy during long weekends at home.
Designed in the UK and made from high-quality sustainable cardboard, this is one amazing piece of kit and we’ve got THREE to give away to lucky winners!
To be in with a chance of winning one of three Build Your Own marble run kits, simply answer this question in the comments:
Who is Mae Jemison?
A An engineer and NASA astronaut
B A marbles champion
C A botanist
Good luck!
This competition closes at midnight on Monday 30th November 2020. Whizz Pop Bang competition terms and conditions are here.
Whizz Pop Bang is a top-quality, gender-neutral, advert-free science magazine for families everywhere. Each issue is packed with experiments, activities, amazing facts, puzzles, jokes, riddles and more. Find out more here!
In Whizz Pop Bag 62: Zoom to the Moon, we asked readers to write a poem inspired by the Moon.
The fantastic entries were out of this world! It was so hard to pick just three winners, but we eventually settled on Amelie, aged 8, Isabella, aged 9 and Isa, aged 8. Keep scrolling to read their Moon poems.
Each prize-winning poet won a Geosafari Vega 360 telescope from Learning Resources.
My moon by Isa aged 8
Silver sparkles, a bright light
the moon shimmers every night
If only I could go and see
I wonder what there would be?
I lay in bed in my dark room
When all of a sudden, a loud sonic boom!
I looked outside and couldn’t believe my eyes
A rocket in my garden! What a surprise.
Off I went, zoom zoom zoom,
Before I knew it, I was on the moon!
Could this be real? I rubbed my eyes
Chocolate-filled craters and mountains of pies
What more could there be, I started to think
Some delicious moon nectar for me to drink
I leaned in close, to fill up my mug
When all of a sudden I felt a warm hug
Oh no I thought, who could it be?
An alien or monster? I just couldn’t see!
‘Wake up sleepy-head’, I heard her say
I guess I’ll have to finish my adventure some other day.
Who holds the moon? by Amelie aged 8
Neither closer nor further in the night sky
The alluring moon hangs there so high
Landscapes of craters, mountains and seas
Luminous, it’s beauty bathes the trees
Have you wondered what force holds it there
For all to see, to dream and stare
Is it a wire, a rope or some string
No, there must be some invisible thing
Magnetism, is that what it could be
The reason the moon can’t break free
I struggle and ponder to find the theory
Although it takes time, it’s never dreary
I ponder and think, I jump up and come down
This is beyond me I say with a frown
Who knows not I, let’s wait and see
Ahh, maybe it’s the force of gravity
A Day Trip to the Moon by Isabella, aged 9
Gakk, Riley and Emmi, decided to go to the moon!
Y tried to warn them, that it could all end in doom!
Riley told them all, they should build a rocket,
Ready for this moment, he pulled a blueprint from his pocket,
Emmi tried to think, what else they needed to bring?
Gakk ran off and returned, with spades and a rubber ring!
“What on earth is that for?” Y shouted with glee,
Gakk smiled and said loudly “We are going to the sea!”
Riley laughed and shouted “ There aren’t any seas on the moon!”
“Yes there is!”, Gakk replied “you’ll see very soon!”
Emmi say to Y “We are going to need a ride”
Y says “Don’t worry, I have my moon buggy outside!”
Everything was assembled, Emmi climbed onto the first stair,
Y then shouted suddenly “Wait!, we can’t go anywhere”
“We haven’t got any rocket fuel and no money to pay!”
Emmi said “Never mind, we can go another day!”
These runners up each won a wonderful Y’s Wonder Club badge!
All About the Moon by Ada, aged 9.
The moon is dusty and far away.
It can be seen at night and sometimes day.
Wolves howl at the moon,
Bats swoop past the moon.
Moths navigate by the light of the moon.
Astronauts have stood on the moon.
Dropping a hammer, dropping a feather.
Testing the gravity.
Checking the weather.
The moon is bright on a dark night,
But it’s just reflecting the sun’s light.
With all that said, I bet it’s true,
We still don’t know all about the moon.
Team Moon by Layton, aged 6
Man has walked on the Moon,
NASA is going back really soon,
I wish I could be part of their team,
Being an Astronaut is my dream.
I love to stargaze with my mum,
When we have said goodnight to the Sun,
The stars all twinkle really bright,
But nothing is better than the Moon at night.
The Moon by Anna, aged 10
The moon is a silver coin tossed up high,
Glinting always in the dark black sky.
Will it land on heads or tails?
Will the moon landings succeed or fail?
The moon is a diamond, clear and bright,
Sparkling and shining all through the night.
Always staying in that same place,
In the deep black mines of mysterious space.
The moon is a guardian circling forever,
It and the Earth have always been together.
The moon watches over all that we see,
It watches you and it watches me.
The moon is a shapeshifter, changing shape and size,
Each night something different appears before our eyes.
Changing shape like cards shuffling, King, Queen, Ace,
Full, quarter, crescent, new, all the way up in space.
But whatever the moon is, it’s there every night,
Silver and glowing, clear and bright.
The moon is with us until the end,
And that’s why I say that the moon is my friend.
The Rhyming Moon by Louis, aged 6
Bright white
Night light
In space
I see a face
Made of cheese, if you believe
Wolves howl a tune
At the silvery moon.
Hey! Would you like to play on the moon tonight?
The Moon by Elijah, aged 11
Somewhere up in the clouds above,
Where no creature or human lies,
When the sun goes down and darkness thrives,
Look! It’s the moon! Standing bright and alive.
Where the stars eyes gaze onwards,
All those miles away,
up in the great black skies,
the moon is there,
to guide our way.
Always watching onwards,
Always one step ahead,
The moon sits,
Just waiting,
Waiting for the sun to go down,
For it is then that the moon can stand,
Bright and alive.
Moon Poem by Nicholas, aged 11
Moon, Moon glowing bright,
you are the queen of the night.
You shine from dusk till dawn,
but are faint when we wake in the morn.
Moon, Moon glowing bright,
you are the queen of the night.
Moon, Moon glowing bright,
centrepiece of our night.
Your cycles wax and wane,
you’re greater than the sun with its fiery mane.
Moon, Moon glowing bright,
centrepiece of our night.
Moon, Moon glowing bright,
you take the troubles from our night.
You shine within our darkest hour,
and give us your glory and power.
Moon, Moon glowing bright,
you take the troubles from our night.
Moon, Moon can you hear me?
You save ships tossed at sea,
you guide sailors who have lost their way
and when they’re safe they say:
Moon, Moon who gives us light,
our beaming saviour of this night.
