Life Processes and Living Things  
Ourselves and other animals

Know the differences between living and non-living things:

Know that living things can move, reproduce, are aware of their surroundings, feed, get rid of waste, burn energy and can grow.
These things can be summarized as MRS NERG:

  • Movement
  • Reproduction
  • Sensitivity
  • Nutrition
  • Excretion
  • Respiration (burning energy)
  • Growth

Know the name of the main organs in the human body, what they are for and where they can be found:

  • Brain: controls all the other organs
  • Kidneys: filters poisonous waste from the blood
  • Lungs: puts oxygen into the blood
  • Intestine: digests food
  • Skin: protects the body from germsHeart: pumps blood
  • Arteries: carry blood away from the heart
  • Veins: carry blood back towards the heart
Teeth and eating

Know the names of the three main types of teeth, their shape and what they are for:

  • Inscisors: thin, flat ends for cutting. Used for cutting food. Often used by an animal that eats plants
  • Canine: sharp and pointed: used for tearing food. Often used by an animal that eats meat
  • Molars: blunt. Used for crushing or holding food.

Know how to keep teeth healthy:

  • Brush teeth regularly
  • Visit the dentist every 6 months
  • Eat non-sugary food
Moving and growing.

Know that the skeleton gives us our shape.
The bones are held together by muscles .
Muscles are often attached to the bones by tendons .

Muscles are responsible for making a bone move. Muscles usually come in pairs. One muscle contracts (gets shorter) and pulls while the other relaxes.

Know that as we get older we grow (increase in size).
We grow steadily as a child, grow quite quickly between aged about 10 years and 15 and then do not grow very much.

The head of a human does not grow as much as the rest of the body but when we are born the head is already quite well developed. This is why the head of a baby or young child looks quite large.

 
Variation and Classification

You need to undersand that there is a huge variety of animals and plants.
Becauseof this variety it is important to be able to put the animals and plants into groups (classify them).

You need to know the names of the main animal groups.
Know the features of each group and an example from each group.

Vertebrates (have a backbone):

  • Mammals: have fur, young born alive. eg fox, mouse
  • Birds: have feathers and can fly. eg robin, crow
  • Reptiles: have a body covered in scales. Lay eggs on land. eg lizare, snake
  • Amphibians: have a smoothe skin. Live on land but lay eggs in water. eg frog, toad
  • Fish: body covered in scales. Live under water. Have gills. eg goldfish, shark

Invertebrates (have no backbone or internal skeleton)

  • Insects: Have 6 legs and three parts to the body. Sometimes have wings. eh fly, wasp
  • Spiders (arachnids): have 8 legs and two parts to the body. eg spider, scorpian
  • Slugs: have no legs and a muscular foot

Know how to make and use a key to identify an animal or leaf

 
Living things in their environment

Habitats

  • You need to know that the place an animal or plant lives in is called its Habitat
    examples of different habitats are: pond, wood, field and garden
  • Know the names of some different plants and animals found in different habitats
    Pond: pond weed, pond snail, minnow, duck
    Wood: tree, badger, blackbird, owl, mouse,
    Field: grass, rabbit, fox
    Garden: cabbage, caterpillar, thrush
  • Know how animals and plants in two different habitats are suited to their environment
    Fish are straemlined so they can move through the water well.
    Bears have thick fur and a layer of fat under their skin so they are protected from the cold

 

Understand about feeding relationships and be able to write a food chain.

Know that all food chains start with a green plant. That the plant is eaten by a herbivore and the herbivore is eaten by a carnivore.

Know the meaning of the words connected with food chains:

  • Producer: a green plant eg cabbage
  • Herbivore: an animal that eats plants eg snail
  • Carnivore: an animal that eats animals meat (ie eats other animals) eg fox
  • Predator: a hunting animal eg fox

Prey: the animal being hunted eg rabbit

Be able to give an example of a food chain from a particular habitat eg

Pond habitat: pond weed tadpole small fish large fish

Wood habitat: oak tree beetle owl

Field habitat: grass rabbit fox

Garden habitat: cabbage catterpillar thrush cat

 

Know how to study a habitat
Studying a pond: equiptment needed:

  • Pencil and notebook
  • Pooter
  • Net
  • hand lens

Know how to keep safe:

  • Wash hands after visting the pond or touching pond water
  • Do not lean out over the water
  • Only go to the edge of the pond where you you know the water is shallow

Know the life cycle of a frog and a butterfly:

Frog: Adults frogs mate Eggs tadpole Adult

Buterfly: Adults butterflys mate Eggs caterpillar Adult
Keeping Healthy

You need to know:

  • that there are different food types and that, to stay healthy we need a balanced and varied diet.
  • A diet high in fat is bad for us because the fat can block our arteries.
  • that we need exercise to stay healthy and to maintain our muscles; and that when we exercise, our muscles work harder
  • The pule is a measure of our heart rate.
    If we exercise our heart rate goes up to get more oxygen to the muscles.
    When we stop exercising our heart rate goes down again to normal.
    The length of time it takes our heart rate to return to normal is called the 'recovery time' and a fit person will have a quicker recovery time .
  • how to measure and record your pulse, collecting data to construct a graph and interpret your findings
  • about the effects of drinking alcohol, smoking and drugs
  • that medicines are drugs and that, although the effects are usually beneficial, they can be harmful
Life Cycles

Know the names of the main organs in a flowering plant
Know where the main organs are in the plant and what they are used for:

  • Flower: Where seeds are made
  • Stem: supports the leaves and the flower. Transports food and water around the plant
  • Leaves: where food is made
  • Roots: support the plant and take water plus dissolved food from the soil

Know about the life cycle of a plant

Know that flowering plants reproduce and consider conditions which might affect germination

To germinate plants need the following conditions

  • water
  • oxygen
  • warmth

(note: no light is needed to germinate)

You need to know how to sow seeds in order to test these conditions fairly and that seeds can be dispersed in a variety of ways -by water, wind, explosions and animals.

Know how to make careful observation and comparison of fruits and seeds

Know how to name the reproductive parts of plants and to understand their functions

  • The stamens: make pollen
  • The stigma receives pollen during pollination
  • The ovary contains the ovules which wilkl become seeds
  • The petals attract insects

Know about the life cycle of plants:

  • pollination: when pollen lands on the stigma
  • fertilisation: when pollen grains join with the ovules
  • seed production: the ovules swell and turn into seeds
    The ovary becomes a fruit
  • seed dispersal: The seeds are spread away from the parent plant
  • germination: the seed lands and starts to grow into a new plant

Know about the kife cycle of a human

Know that adults have young and that these grow into adults which in turn produce young

Know the names of the man organs involved:

  • The baby (embryo) develops in the womb (uterus)
  • Before the egg can develop it needs to be fertilized by a man
  • The time that an unborn baby is inside the mother is called the gestation period.
  • In humans the gestation period is 9 months (36 weeks)

Know that human young are dependent on adults for a relatively long period compared with other animals

Know that if living things did not reproduce they would eventually die out
Interdependence and Adaptation

Know that green plants need sunight and water to grow well and that they are the source of food for all animals.

Know that plants produce a new material from air and water in the presence of light in a process known as photosynthesis.

Know that plants and animals can adapt themselves to help them survive in the environment:

  • A bramble has thorns to stop itself getting eaten
  • A moth can camoflauge itself so it cant be easily seen
  • A shark has a streamlined shape to slide rapidly through water
  • A petal has a nice colour and smell to attract insects to help get itself pollinated.
Micro-organisms

Know that there are many very small organisms which can cause illness or decay.
These organisms can get carried from one food source to another and how this can cause food poisoning.
These organisms can be used in food production and that these micro-organisms feed, grow and reproduce like other organisms.

Examples of useful microorganisms are:

  • Bacteria in the soil help dead plants and animals to rot
  • A fungus called yeast is used to make bread and wine
  • Bacteria are used to make yogurt and cheese.

 
Materials and their properties  

Grouping and classifying materials

Be able to sort everyday materials into the groups according to their properties:

  • Hard or soft
  • Heavy or light
  • Flexible (bendy) or rigid (stiff)
  • Rough or smooth
  • Transparent or opaque
  • Soak up water or do not soak up water

Know that some materials are good thermal insulators (heat does not go through them easily)
eg thick carpet, loft insulation, fur

Be able to describe an experiment to show how effective a material is at being a thermal insulator.

  • know how to make it a fair test
  • know what to measure
  • know what instruments to use

Know some properties of a metal:

  • Metals are good conductors of heat (heat goes through them easily)
  • Metals are good conductors of electricity (electricity will travel through them)

Understand the difference between solids, liquids and gases

  • Solids do not flow and cannot be compressed (squashed).
  • Liquids do flow but cannot be compressed.
  • Gases can flow and can be compressed

Changing materials

Know about the changes that occur when materials are heated and cooled

  • heating:
    a substance may melt eg ice or chocolate will melt when heated
    a substance may expand (get larger) eg a metal bridge will be slightly shorter when it is cold
  • cooling
    a substance may freeze or solidify eg water may freeze when cooled and turn into ice
    a substance may contract (get smaller) when cooled eg a metal bridge will be slightly longer when it is hot

Know that temperature is a measure of how hot or cold things are

Understand the part played by evaporation and condensation in the water cycle

Know that some changes are reversible eg

  • melting: eg ice melting
  • dissolving: eg sugar dissolving in water
  • evaporating: eg water evaporating from a puddle in the sun
  • condensation: eg steam condensing on a cold mirror
  • freezing: eg water freezing in a freezer

Know that some changes are permanent and cannot be reversed (irreversible) eg

  • burning
  • rusting
  • baking clay
  • cooking

Understand that manynew and useful materials can be formed during these changes eg making iron

 
Separating mixtures of materials

Know about various ways to separate materials eg

a) how to separate solid particles of different sizes by seiving

b) that some solids dissolve in water to give solutions but some do not.
eg salt dissolves in water but sand does not

Understand that if we were dissolving salt in water we can speed up the process a number of ways:

  • crushing the salt so the particles are smaller
  • stirring the water
  • using warm water
  • using more water

Be able to plan an experiment to show how the termperature of water effects the speed of something dissolving:

  • know what apparatus to use
  • how to make it a fair test
  • what to measure

Know that a solution that cannot dissolve any more solid is known as a saturated solution

c) know how to separate insoluble solids from liquids by filtering
eg sand can be separated from water by filtering

d) know that you can recover dissolved solids by evaporating the liquid from the solution
eg we can get salt back from salty water by evaporating the water

 

Gases Around Us

Know the following about gases

  • know the difference differences between solids, liquids and gases
  • know that air has weight and is all around us
  • know that the air in the gaps between particles can be observed by displacing it withwater.
  • be able to do careful experiments to measure the volumes of water needed to displace the air in different types of soil
  • .know that gases have useful properties and can be used to pressurise and to inflate objects
  • know that some gases are flammable and can be used as fuels
  • know that gases are formed when liquids evaporate
  • know that liquids are formed when gases condense
  • know that they flow in all directions and do not keep their shape or volume

 
Physical Processes  

Electricity

 

 

 

Know that some materials are conductors (allow electricity to flow through them)
and some materials are insulators (do not allow electricity to flow)
Metals (eg copper and aluminium) are good conductors of electricity
Non-metals (eg glass and plastic) are insulators

Simple circuits

Know how to make a circuit using a battery (or power supply) and a range of switches to make various components (bulbs or buzzers) come on

Know how to draw a circuit using drawings and by and by using circuit symbols

Know that a circuit needs to be complete before it will work

Know various ways of changing the brightness of a bulb eg

  • adding a battery to change the voltage
  • adding another bulb
  • changing the length of the wire in a circuit

 

Types of force

Know the names of various types of force eg

  • Magnetism
  • Gravity
  • Friction
  • Upthrust

Know that there are forces of attraction and repulsion between magnets and that there are forces of attraction between magnets and magnetic material.

Know that magnets have two poles, the North seeking pole(N) and the South seeking pole(S)

Understand that similar poles repel (push against) each other
eg North repels North

Understand that different poles attract (pull towards) each other
eg North repels North

Know that objects are pulled downwards because of the gravitational attraction between them and the Earth. Know that the pull of gravity on the Moon is less than that on the Earth

Understand that friction, including air resistance, as a force that slows moving objects and may prevent objects from starting to move.
Balanced and Unbalanced Forces

Know that forces are pushes and pulls

Know that forces can be measured using a spring balance (newton meter)

Know that forces are measured in Newtons

Know that forces are needed to do these for things:

  • start and to stop things moving
  • make things change direction
  • make things change shape

Know that gravitational attraction gives objects weight and that this can be measured in newtons with a forcemeter (spring balance)

Know the following about forces

  • that when objects are stationary, the forces acting on them are in balance
  • that whenever a force is applied, there is a force in the opposite direction
  • that when an object is submerged in water, the water provides an upward force called upthrust
  • that when an object floats, its weight is balanced by the upthrust
  • that unbalanced forces change the direction or speed of movement
  • that air resistance slows moving objects by exerting an opposite force
  • that friction is a force between two surfaces

 
Earth. Sun and Moon

You need to know

  • that the, Earth, Sun and Moon are approximately spherical
  • about the relative sizes of the Sun, Earth and Moon
    The Sun is about 100 times wider than the Earth which is 4 times wider than the Moon
  • about the Solar System and the planets that orbit the Sun
  • the names, relative positions and characteristics of the planets of our Solar System
    Mercury, Vnus, Earth, mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uanus, Neptune, Pluto
  • that the Sun appears to move across the sky over the course of a day
  • that it is the Earth that moves, not the Sun, and the Earth spins on its axis once every 24 hours
  • that it is daytime in the part of the Earth facing the Sun and night-time in the part of the Earth facing away from the Sun
  • that the Sun.rises in the general direction of the East and sets in the general direction of the West
  • to make observations of where the Sun rises and sets and to recognise patterns in these, then to record data and recognise trends
  • that the Earth takes one year to make one complete orbit of the Sun, spinning as it goes
  • that the changing seasons are caused by the Earth's tilt
  • that the Moon takes approximately 28 days to orbit the Earth
  • that the Moon gives out no light of its own
  • that the Moon's gravitational pull causes tides on Earth
  • that the different appearance of the Moon over 28 days provides evidence for a 28­ day cycle
Changing Sounds

You need to know that sounds are made when objects/materials vibrate

You need to know

  • that vibrations from sound sources travel through different materials to the ear
  • that some materials are effective in preventing vibrations from sound sources reaching the ear
  • that sound travels better and faster throug solids than it does through gases
  • that the term pitch describes how high or low a sound is
  • about factors affecting the pitch of a drum (the size, how tight the skin is)
  • that sounds can be made by air vibrating
  • about factors affecting the pitch of wind and stringed instruments
    (length of string, tighness of string, thickness of string)

Understand how sound can be made in a range of musical instruments

 

  • Be able to plan a test to measure or observe how well different materials muffle sound,
  • making it a fair test, making predictions, collecting results systematically and
  • analyzing their results.

 
How We See Things

You need to know that light travels from a source and that, when it is blocked, a shadow is formed.

Understand that light it is reflected when it hits a shiny surface.

Know the difference between shadows and 'reflections'.

Know that light travels in straight lines that light sources are seen when light from them enters the eyes.

Be able to show the path of light rays on a diagram by drawing them as straight lines with a single arrow on them

Be able to describe an experiment to measure how the size of a shadow changes when an aobject is moved closer o a source of light (eg a torch)

  • know what measurements to make
  • how to record the measurements and display them on a line graph