Animals, Including Humans
In the first half of Autumn Term, Year 3's science topic was Animals, Including Humans. We focussed on what we need to survive and how our skeletons and muscles work together to support and move and our bodies.
Our key learning questions:
CONFIDENCE
- What does a skeleton do?
- What is an invertebrate and vertebrate?
- How do we move?
Working Scientifically
- Identifying, classifying and grouping
Curiosity
As a hook into our science learning, year 3 watched part of a video about being a castaway on a desert island and we tried to imagine what we would need to survive. Pupils used the language of explanation to express and justify their ideas. From this activity, we broadened out our investigation to think about those things that all animals need to survive.
We then learnt about the importance of skeletons and muscles. Pupils really enjoyed identifying the skeletons of different animals. They also had fun making working models of hands which had moving fingers.
Challenge
For our challenge task, year 5 considered what skeletal and muscular factors might affect how good an arm wrestler someone is. Some children compared hand-span widths, others looked at the length of forearms and some groups compared the circumference of upper arms. We had great fun conducting an arm wrestling competition to test which factors had the most impact.
