teaching primary science – Whizz Pop Bang Blog

Teaching Space in year 5

Posted on 6th September 2023 | by Kirsty Williams | Leave a Comment

Are you looking for planning resources to teach Space in Year 5? Here’s how you can use our downloadable lesson packs to create memorable lessons that produce the sticky knowledge Ofsted will be looking for…

Where to start?

Most children love space, but it is quite an abstract concept as they can’t properly experience it. Before they start investigating and experimenting, it’s important they are armed with the knowledge and vocabulary they need through watching video clips or reading suitable materials, as stated by Ofsted. Once they have this scientific understanding, it’s so important that pupils still have practical hands-on lessons so they can spot what is happening. Our knowledge organiser is a great aid to help them use the correct terminology in practical lessons.

How to sequence your lessons.

We have several lesson packs for teaching about space. When starting the topic, pupils need to know the order of the planets and how far away they are from Earth. In our lesson pack called ‘Make a solar system’, there is a simple paper model for pupils to make.

After they understand how far away the planets are, it is important to move on to the Moon and the Sun. We have a great lesson pack which teaches the phases of the Moon and explains how the Moon orbits Earth. Using our ‘Phases of the moon’ lesson pack, pupils will create their own Moon board that they can poke their head through, pretending to be the Earth.

Pupils should then understand how we get day and night. The Sun stays in the same place, but the Earth and Moon orbit around it and the Earth also rotates. Pupils will make a simple sundial which involves measuring the shadow to see how the Earth has moved position.

Once pupils have a clear understanding, you can then move on to discussing how scientists have found out information about other planets. We have two great lesson packs about looking for signs of life on Mars.

Plus, we have a new lesson pack on what alien life might look like on Ganymede, one of the many moons that orbit Jupiter.

Guided reading

To help consolidate pupils’ learning, adding texts with science content into your reading sessions is a great idea. We have over 20 different reading comprehensions related to space for Year 5. Here are just a few of them:

Whizz Pop Bang magazine and teaching resources are brilliant ways to enhance your school’s science teaching:

We provide downloadable science lesson plans, PowerPoint presentations, hands-on investigations and science reading comprehensions written by primary school teachers.
Whizz Pop Bang teaching resources link to the National Curriculum, ensuring correct coverage.
All of our resources are year group specific, ensuring progression between the years.
We make cross-curricular links to other subjects, such as English, Maths, History, Geography, Art, Design and Technology and PSHE.

Prices from as little as £197.99 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.

subscribe now

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.

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Teaching the unit sound in year 4

Posted on 3rd May 2022 | by Kirsty Williams | Leave a Comment

Are you looking for planning resources for teaching sound in year 4? Here’s how you can use our downloadable teaching resources to easily create memorable lessons that produce the sticky knowledge Ofsted will be looking for…

Where to start?

Sound is a fun topic to teach but it can be tricky to explain how sound travels in waves as the children can’t see it. We have lots of interesting ways to help your pupils explore and ‘feel’ sound, which cover the National Curriculum objectives you need to teach.

Telephones lesson pack

This pack links to our Victorian Science issue. This lesson is a great introduction to sound and begins with pupils feeling sound waves through a balloon. In pairs, they will create a simple string telephone and investigate how it works. Using photographs or a labelled diagram, they will then start to explain how sound travels from one cup to the other. As with all our lesson packs, the science is explained in the lesson plan and on the last slide of the PowerPoint presentation.

Bottle blower lesson pack

In this lesson, pupils will investigate how pitch changes when you alter the amount of water in a bottle. This links to our brilliant issue on sound called ‘Turn up the volume’, which is available to buy from our website.

Pin strummer lesson pack

This is a great lesson to teach towards the end of your unit on sound. Pupils will use the knowledge they have acquired and apply it to their own practical enquiry. They will make their own musical instrument – a pin strummer – and then change different variables to see how the pitch and volume changes.

How to evidence your practical lessons

If your planning isn’t enough evidence, pupils could use the Keynote app on an iPad and record themselves describing their investigation or activity. If you need evidence in their books, you could print a photo from the lesson 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. Do pupils need to write each step of an experiment? In my experience, asking pupils to write down everything they have done kills the learning. Choose one part from each investigation; that way they will do it well and it will enhance learning. Our knowledge organisers are really helpful with spellings and also help pupils to remember key concepts and vocabulary.

How to embed science across the curriculum

There are 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 several reading comprehension packs for year 4 linking to the topic of sound:

Reading comprehensions which link to the topic of sound

Whizz Pop Bang magazine and teaching resources are brilliant ways to enhance your school’s science teaching:

We provide downloadable science lesson plans, PowerPoint presentations, hands-on investigations and science reading comprehensions written by primary school teachers.
Whizz Pop Bang teaching resources link to the National Curriculum, ensuring correct coverage.
All of our resources are year group specific, ensuring progression between the years.
We make cross-curricular links to other subjects, such as English, Maths, History, Geography, Art, Design and Technology and PSHE.

Prices from as little as £197.99 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 have an individual membership option so teachers and home educators can access all of our amazing downloadable resources for just £20 for the whole year.

“We used the Bottle Blower investigation to discover how pitch changes. The children loved it and the resources were clear and colourful. The reading comprehension on the foley artists had my class fascinated with the subject matter as they were completely unaware what a foley artist was. Great to have the resources differentiated!” Mrs Godwin, Year 4 Class teacher

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Teaching Forces in year 5

Posted on 5th January 2022 | by Kirsty Williams | Leave a Comment

Are you looking for planning resources to teach forces in Year 5? Here’s how you can use our new downloadable marble run resource to create a memorable lesson that produces the sticky knowledge Ofsted will be looking for…

Where to start?

It’s hard to teach about forces as children can’t easily see what is happening. Before they start investigating and experimenting, it’s important they are armed with the knowledge and vocabulary they need through watching video clips or reading suitable materials, as stated by Ofsted. Once they have this scientific understanding, it’s so important that pupils still have practical hands-on lessons so they can spot what is happening. Our knowledge organiser is a great aid to help them use the correct terminology in practical lessons.

How should they investigate forces?

Our marble run lesson pack gets children to experiment with slowing down marbles in a marble run by changing the angles and adding friction. Pupils will learn a lot by investigating and applying the knowledge they have already acquired about gravity, friction and air resistance. Pupils will be learning the most when they are altering their marble runs and experimenting with trial and error. During this time, stop groups and ask them questions, encouraging them to use scientific vocabulary in their answers. Verbalising what they are seeing and doing will help to produce sticky knowledge.

How should the lesson be recorded?

Should pupils record every step of a practical lesson? In my experience, no, as this kills the enjoyment and does not reflect what they have learned. However, there are benefits to revising learning to help the knowledge stick. Revisiting the lesson the next day is beneficial. If you need evidence in their books for a looming book scrutiny, then take a photo and ask them to annotate it with expanded captions, explaining what happens to the marble at each point of the run. Or if you don’t need written evidence, get them to video their run and then narrate what is happening over the top.

Download the lesson pack now

Guided reading

To help consolidate pupils’ learning, why not introduce some forces-themed reading into your English sessions? Download our fascinating reading comprehension on Sir Isaac Newton; his laws of motion and his theory of gravity changed how we see the universe.

Whizz Pop Bang magazine and teaching resources are brilliant ways to enhance your school’s science teaching:

We provide downloadable science lesson plans, PowerPoint presentations, hands-on investigations and science reading comprehensions written by primary school teachers.
Whizz Pop Bang teaching resources link to the National Curriculum, ensuring correct coverage.
All of our resources are year group specific, ensuring progression between the years.
We make cross-curricular links to other subjects, such as English, Maths, History, Geography, Art, Design and Technology and PSHE.

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.

Subscribe for your school

We’ve also have an individual membership option so teachers and home educators can access all of our amazing downloadable resources for just £20 for the whole year.

Individual subscription

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Teaching Climate change in KS2

Posted on 8th September 2021 | by Kirsty Williams | Leave a Comment

Do you want to cover climate change in KS2 but don’t know where to start?

Climate change is not specifically mentioned in the National Curriculum, but we all know it’s an important topic that we need to teach. However, it is quite a complex subject and can be hard to explain to primary-age children.

We have dedicated a whole magazine to explaining this topic in a child-friendly way, without making it feel scary.

Order a copy of the magazine now

How to explain greenhouse gases to Year 3 and 4, to help them understand how our planet is getting warmer.

In our library of downloadable science teaching resources, you’ll find a new lesson pack that explains what climate change is, using simple terms so children can easily understand it. The lesson plan includes a simple experiment that uses chocolate, an upturned glass and a sunny spot to demonstrate the greenhouse effect.

Climate change can be a scary subject, so we’ve tried to make the messaging as positive as possible so that children understand that if we act now, it’s not too late. Even though they might not be old enough to vote or make rules about the way we live, they are never too young to speak up and influence those in power. We have included a flow chart to help them identify ways in which they are able to make positive changes towards helping to stop global heating. We have also included a climate pledge for children to fill in. Maybe your whole class could make a climate pledge together to display in class so that you can keep checking in and making sure you are all sticking to it.

How can I create a climate change debate in my classroom?

Debates are a great way to get children inspired and motivated. In our Year 5 and 6 pack, we have written a fictitious letter from a made-up sustainable energy department, stating that it would like to offer a few schools in the area some renewable energy resources. Your pupils can debate where might be a good place to install wind turbines or solar panels on your school premises and how the scheme might impact school life. The discussion pack also includes two explanation texts, one on solar panels and the other on wind turbines.

Year 5 and 6 Save our planet lesson pack

Guided reading

To help consolidate pupils’ learning, why not introduce some climate-themed reading into your English sessions from our downloadable reading resources?

We have an inspirational information text for Year 5 readers, showcasing the achievements of ten amazing young climate activists.

Inspire your Year 4 class by reading about the life of sensational scientist David Attenborough.

There’s a fascinating explanation text on wind turbines for Year 3.

For Year 6, we have an interview with plant biologist Professor Joanne Chory, who realised that she could use her knowledge of biology to help solve the problem of climate change.

Take me to all the teaching resources

“Great resources! Using as a whole class reading text – my year 4 class will love it! Lovely, visual text in the format of an interview and a good range of questions, (including ‘test style’) which all fit nicely into the VIPERS strands! Thank you!”
Year 4 teacher

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