Topic, Science and Creative Tasks

Art Support

Science Support

Science  - What do Y1 Scientists usually focus on?

Over the year under normal circumstances we would work on the following areas in turn:

- Animals and humans, senses and parts of the body

- Different types of materials and their properties 

- Seasonal changes

- Wild plants and garden plants

All year round we help children to learn: 

- How to be a good scientist 

So when you are doing Science encourage and help them to...

- Ask simple questions about what they are doing and seeing.  e.g. What happens when... What happens if...    Do all ..?    etc. 

- Realise that there are different ways of answering questions. 

- Look closely.

- Use what they have witnessed or experienced to answer the question they are investigating. 

- Use simple equipment 

  e.g. (ruler, magnifying glass, measuring jug, stopwatch, rain gauge, thermometers)

- Perform or carry out their own simple tests or experiments (alone or with support)

- Identify and name things they discover or experience (e.g. The kind of animal they have found etc. )

- Classify and group items (Such as plants, materials, animals.)

- Gather and record data or results as you are testing (perhaps drawing a table, drawing and labelling, noting down numbers or measurements, keeping a tally) 

Science Ideas

1. Investigate using the ideas on wildlife watch 

Indoor Activities - https://www.wildlifewatch.org.uk/indoor-activity-sheets

Outdoor Activities  - https://www.wildlifewatch.org.uk/outdoor-activity-sheets

Please find below a list of wildlife watch we think fit in with what Y1 cover.   

Animals and humans, senses and parts of the body

1. Bottle basking sharks 

Talk about basking sharks and how they move through the water. 

Talk about the parts of their body that help them to survive in water. 

2. Make a bird feeder  or How to make your own bird food and feeder

Talk about different animal diets - carnivores, herbivores and omnivores. Talk about what birds eat and prepare them a meal by making a bird feeder 

3. Make a bird hide and do some bird spotting with your homemade binoculars. 

Learn to look closely like a scientist. 

If it is dark try the How to watch moths activity

Boost your skills as a scientist. Record/ collect data about the things you see.

Identify the creatures that you see and find out their names. If you have some binoculars hanging around, learn how to look through them. 

You can access a helpful ID sheet for birds here. 

4.  How to help birds avoid the windows

Talk about the features of all birds and how they are different to us. Talk about how birds behave and some of the scrapes they get into with windows, falling from their nests, having eggs stolen, being handled by humans etc)

Do the craft or make something colourful of your own to put on your window to help the birds in your community to stay healthy and happy. 

5. Use the  Footprint trap  or Discover animal tracks and signs to detect who might be visiting your home.

Make a footprint trap and  try to work out which creatures have visited your home. Are these creatures mammals, insects, fish, birds or reptiles.  Talk about how they are the same and different e.g. 6 legs, 8 legs, a hard shell, no legs, a soft body etc. Then make a pooter, a wormery or a tumble trap to catch them in the act. 

6.  Make a hedgehog house or make a mammal tunnel

Talk about hedgehogs being mammals. Draw and label the parts of one or make a sculpture from dough and matchsticks. Make it a home. Remember it is not essential that this is made from a plastic box with adult support. You could make one from a cardboard box or other materials at home. 

7. Make a hibernaculum

Learn about reptiles and amphibians. What are the key features of a reptile or an amphibian. Draw and label some. Build a hibernaculum to attract things such as frogs and slow worms. 

8. Build a survival shelter 

Follow the instructions to build a survival shelter. Don't forget to take some snacks. Sit in it and spend some time being mindful. Use all of your senses. What can you hear? What can you see? What can you smell? What can you feel? What can you taste?

9. Start a nature table 

Go on a nature scavenger hunt. Collect small samples. Teach your child how to be responsible when collecting or picking up natural objects and remind them about the importance of safety. Make sure they wash their hands regularly during this activity. Think about how you could group the items. Write your ideas on separate sheets of paper by each group you made. Is there more than one way you could group them. Although it is challenging to do it in another way, this will help their skills as a Scientist because they will start to recognise there are different ways of answering questions. If you would like to email us or a friend a picture of your nature table. 

10. Mark and recapture snails. 

Learn how to collect information like a scientist. Talk about why scientists might need to mark snails and what would happen if we tried to count the number of visiting snails without marking them. Your child will need support with from you with the multiplication part of the calculation. If you have captured several snails there is no harm in holding a short snail race as you release them back into the wild. Use chalk to mark lanes for the race and a finish line. Remember - be gentle and kind to the snails!

11. Make a nature reserve. 

Learn how to record and group and identify the things you find. 

Make yourself a mini nature reserve and check on it regularly and see what you can find in there. 

Record what you see or find like a scientist. You could draw and label, draw up a table with headings, create a tally, draw a basic bar graph to keep track. 

12. Garden Workout 

Talk about why we need to keep our bodies healthy. 

Talk about the effects of being inactive. 

Enjoy some of the garden workout challenges or use alternatives from the PE page. 

Wild plants and garden plants

13. Mix a mocktail or Make nettle soup or Make dandelion tea

You don't need to make it from wild ingredients, leave this to the experts! This sheet however shows ingredients you might have in your house for mocktail making and it is a great opportunity to talk to your child about where their food starts life and look at pictures of common plants. 

What else do you have kicking around in your cupboards or the fridge that they might not realise started life looking very different. They might not yet associate the animal or plant with the food or realise they were picked by farmers before they reached the supermarkets.  E.g. Cereals came from crops. Chips and crisps come from potatoes in the ground. Baked beans grew on a plant once upon a time. This is a great activity for encouraging your child to be a scientist and ask lots of questions. Rememeber - you do not have to have all of the answers. It is ok to say "Let's find out together" or "Let's write it down and we will come back to it" or "I don't know now but I will find out for you". Talk about whether they think humans are carnivores, omnivores or herbivores. What are their reasons?

14. Make seed bombs or Grow plants of your own. 

Order some seeds and support the garden centres.

Find out what your seeds will grow into. If they are vegetable seeds, try the grow vegetables for wildlife activity to find out which animals enjoy your plants when they start to grow. Use the Grow a bee and butterfly garden activity to find out which flower seeds might attract wildlife. 

15. Natural dyes 

Learn about how artists and designers change the colour of your clothes. 

Cut up some light coloured clothes that no longer fit or find some old socks to dye. 

Save your online skins, tea bags, coffee grounds and those squishy raspberries that you have been meaning to throw out. 

16. Investigate trees 

First collect some simple pieces of equipment to take on our mission - a pieces of string  or tape measure, a notebook and pencil, a food bag to collect leaf samples, a crayon and paper to do a bark rubbing etc. Boost your skills as a scientist and identify what type of tree it is. When going for your daily form of exercise, investigate some of the trees you pass or if you have trees in your garden you could do this there. 

17.  Grow more trees 

Save those seeds and pips and grow your own tree. Talk about how long it takes for trees to grow as big as those we see down the school drive, at the park or on your street. 

Seasonal changes

18. Make a weather vane or a rain gauge or a kite. (No flying kites at the beach I'm afraid!)

Learn to use simple measuring equipment like a scientist. This involves adult support and is for those of you who love a little DIY in the garden. Other similar activities could include making paper windmills on straws etc.

2. Nature Home Learning Book

This is full of practical activities you can view and do even if you are unable to print it. 

Note this is not a book of worksheets.  Click here to download  

Other Science experiments that encourage curiosity and enjoyment

1. The Mad Science Website 

The explanation of the Science is meant for children much older but children will enjoy performing some of these experiments and observing what happens) Go to https://www.madsciencepromo.com/

Design Technology Support

DT -  What do Y1 pupils usually focus on?

Over the year under normal circumstances we would work on projects where children are involved in 

- Designing

- Making

- Evaluating 

- Developing their technical knowledge (mechanisms and stable structures)

- Cooking and Nutrition. 

Design Technology Ideas 

Designing and Making Projects

1. Make a balloon powered car from recycled materials

Taken from https://www.science-sparks.com/easy-balloon-car/

Alternatively, use construction to design your own. Keep testing it. Talk about what works well and what could be improved to make it move.  

https://www.science-sparks.com/balloon-powered-lego-car/ 

Building Structures/ Making Mechanisms Projects 

1. Make bridges and test their strength. 

Try folding or layering the paper 

Idea taken from https://www.science-sparks.com/building-bridges-engineering-challenge-for-kids/

Ready for a harder challenge -Click below to find out how to build a suspension bridge. 

https://www.pbs.org/parents/crafts-and-experiments/the-suspension-bridge-engineering-project

2. Make a Lego Zipline 

Taken from https://frugalfun4boys.com/engineering-challenges-clothespins-binder-clips-craft-sticks/

Other Lego Ideas available at 

Get a rope or a clothesline wire and create a Lego zip line. Learn about pulleys and wheels. 

Explore concepts like slopes and gravity!

Other ideas can be found here http://postris.com/list/349/12-fun-stem-activities-to-do-with-lego/ 

3. Explore Paper Structures / Towers 

How can you make them stronger?

Taken from https://allfortheboys.com/building-week-part-2-strong-shapes/

Some tower building in action - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qECPIVNn0jw

4. Cup tower and eggshell challenge

Taken from https://www.science-sparks.com/how-can-you-stand-on-a-paper-cup-without-breaking-it/ 

5. Fairytale Fails - Help the characters solve their problems 

Click below to view the pack. 

https://www.science-sparks.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/MrsMactivity_ScienceSparks_fairytale_experiments.pdf 

6.  Build a simple winch

Click the link to find out how. https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/easy-simple-stem-activities-challenges/

7.  Create other simple machines with different mechanisms. 

Archimedes Screw Exploration 

Launching Snowman

Tissue Box Catapult 

Rolling Pin Pulley

Banister Pulley

Working elevator model

Cooking and Nutrition. 

1. Find a recipe and bake

Learn about eating in moderation and maintaining a healthy and varied diet. This does not mean we are not allowed to have the foods we love but we have to make sensible choices about how much of them we have and how often we have them. 

	Also try the following sites for more recipes    https://www.nhs.uk/change4life   https://www.littlecooksco.co.uk/recipes/    https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/category/family-kids

2. Food/ Drink Tasting 

Sample some new foods or old foods you think you do not like. See if your taste buds have changed. 

Make yourself a clipboard for judging. Eat it slowly and write down some adjectives or describing words that pop into your head such as sour, hard, crunchy, sweet, squishy, slimy. What is good about it? What are you unsure about? Give each food you try a rating. 

Idea taken from https://b-inspiredmama.com/green-food-taste-testing-for-picky/

Music Support

Music - What does a Year 1 musician usually do?

- Use their voices expressively and creatively by singing songs and speaking chants and rhymes
- Plays tuned and un-tuned instruments musically
- Listens with concentration and understanding to a range of high-quality live and recorded music
- Experiments with, creates, selects and combines sounds using the interrelated dimensions of music

Music Ideas

1.Listen to music

Listen to a range of live and recorded music together. 

It is a good opportunity to introduce them to new music and share each family members favourites. 

Talk about which instruments you can hear. 

Tap your feet, clap your hands, or tap your knees to the beat.

Nod your head as you find the pulse. 

Talk about which emoji matches the music. Compare your answer with a grown-up. There is no right or wrong answer. 

2. Sing/Have an indoor Karaoke party or disco

Sing songs, chants and rhymes that you know already or learn a new one. 
If you have it in the evening turn the lights off and use torches to light up the room.

It could be an old classic, a song you learnt at school, a playground song your grown up sang when they were little, a current song, a religious song, a patriotic song, a nursery rhyme or a song from another country. 

Experiment with your voice. 

A list of songs that you might have heard before 

3. Make and play instruments

This is a great way to learn how to play tuned and un-tuned instruments musically. 
 

Make your own instrument - a shaker, a wrapping paper tube digeridoo, a set of panpipes from drinking straws, a drum kit from upturned pans, stringed instruments from an old box and elastic bands or a bottle xylophone. 

Top tip - You might want to set a time limit before you begin playing.  You're welcome!

Comb Kazoo

Jar Xylophone

31 Different homemade instruments to play

4. Compose your own music. 

Clap a beat for the person with the instrument to copy.

Play a short sequence of sounds on your instrument for someone else to copy using their instrument. 

Gradually make your patterns longer and more complex.

Compose your own piece of music.

Experiment and change the sounds in different ways.

Experiment with loud, soft, high, low, long, short, fast, slow etc.  

Experiment with different rhythms. 

Keep rehearsing your final idea. 

Put on a performance for your house. 

History Support 

Over the year under normal circumstances we would work on the following areas in turn:

- Changes within living memory. 

- Events beyond living memory that are significant nationally or globally
          

- The lives of significant people from the past who have contributed to national and international achievements.

- To compare life in different times. 
 

- Significant historical events, people and places in their own locality.

History Ideas

1. Make a Time Capsule 

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0088/6797/1123/files/Time_capsule.pdf?v=1586003038