Primary science: what you need to know
Not sure what your child is learning in science? Swot up with our two-minute parents' guide to primary-school science.
Science is taught throughout primary school though sometimes the topic might not be recognisable. If your child is involved in feeling different materials and talking about their properties or collecting and sorting items, they are doing science.
Primary science can be split in to four broad topics:
One of the most important aspects is thinking about safety, so always talk about wearing protective clothing, washing hands, and using the correct, well-maintained equipment.
These activities encourage children to start understanding the properties of and differences between materials and their possible uses.
This area focuses on sound, forces and electricity.
Children learn about humans, animals, plants and the environment.
TheSchoolRun offers a year-by-year guide to the primary-school science curriculum, as well as parents' introductions to the main primary science topics:
- What is light?
- What are food chains and food webs?
- What is electricity?
- What is the water cycle?
- What are igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rock?
- What is a habitat?
- Learning about space, plants, animals and the human body in primary school
- What is a force?
- What are magnets?
- What are adaptation and evolution?
- What is a life cycle?
- What are states of matter?
- What are materials?
- What is a fair test?
- What is sound?
