Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 6

Everyday materials

Use of everyday materials

Forces and magnets

States of matter

Properties and changes of materials

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

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

Describe the simple physical properties of a variety of everyday materials

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

Identify and compare the suitability of a variety of everyday materials, including wood, metal, plastic, glass, brick, rock, paper and cardboard for particular uses

Find out how the shapes of solid objects made from some materials can be changed by squashing, bending, twisting and stretching.

Compare how things move on different surfaces

Notice that some forces need contact between two objects, but magnetic forces can act at a distance

Observe how magnets attract or repel each other and attract some materials and not others

Compare and group together a variety of everyday materials on the basis of whether they are attracted to a magnet, and identify some magnetic materials

Describe magnets as having two poles

Predict whether two magnets will attract or repel each other, depending on which poles are facing.

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

Observe that some materials change state when they are heated or cooled, and measure or research the temperature at which this happens in degrees Celsius (°C)

Identify the part played by evaporation and condensation in the water cycle and associate the rate of evaporation with temperature.

Compare and group together everyday materials on the basis of 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.