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Materials

MATERIALS (CHEMISTRY)

Statements in red are linked from other topics

Progression in Scientific

knowledge, concepts & skills

EYFS

(Early Learning Goals)

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

(States of Matter)

Year 5

Year 6

KS3

 

Concepts

Structure

Function

Cause and effect

Similarity and Difference

 

Working Scientifically

 

 

 

Children know about similarities and difference in relation to places, objects, materials and living things.

 

Children talk about features of their own immediate environment and how environments might vary from one another

 

Children make observations of animals and plants and explain why some things occur and talk about changes

Identify and name a variety of everyday materials (wood, plastic, glass, metal, water and rock)

 

Distinguish between an object and the materials from which it is made

 

Describe physical properties of everyday materials

 

Compare and group together everyday materials on the basis of their simple physical properties

 

 

Know the uses of different everyday materials (wood, metal, plastic, glass, rock, brick, paper, cardboard)

 

Classify and group materials based on their suitability for particular uses

 

Find out how solid objects can be changed by squashing, bending, twisting and stretching

 

Compare and group together different kinds of rocks on the basis of their appearance and simple physical properties

 

Describe in simple terms how fossils are formed when things that have lived are trapped within rock (Rocks)

 

Notice that some forces need contact between two objects, but magnetic forces can act at a distance (Forces and Magnets)

Compare and group materials according to whether they are solids, liquids or gases

 

Know that some materials change state (heating and cooling; no baking)

 

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

Compare and group everyday materials based on their properties including their hardness, solubility, transparency, conductivity (electrical and thermal) and response to magnets

 

Know that some materials will dissolve in liquid to form a solution and describe how to recover a substance from a solution

 

Use knowledge of solids, liquids and gases to decide how mixtures might be separated including through filtering, sieving and evaporating.

 

Give reasons, based on evidence from comparative and fair tests, for the particular uses of everyday materials, including metals, wood and plastic

 

Demonstrate that dissolving, mixing and changes of state are reversible changes

 

Explain that some changes result in the formation of new materials, and that this kind of change is not usually reversible, including changes associated with burning and the action of acid on bicarbonate of soda

 

Chemical reactions as the rearrangement of atoms

 

Representing chemical reactions using formulae and using equations

 

Combustion, thermal decomposition, oxidation and displacement reactions

 

Defining acids and alkalis in terms of neutralisation reactions

 

The pH scale for measuring acidity/alkalinity; and indicators.

 

Possible Learning Challenge Questions

 

Which materials should the Three Little Pigs have used to build their house?

 

 

What is our school made from?

 

Can materials be changed?

 

How would we survive without water?

Is it gone forever?