app primary science standards file: trenyce (year 1 secure level...

APP primary science standards file:Trenyce (Year 1 secure level 1)

Table of Contents

Light and dark

Life cycles: Ourselves

Life cycles: Butterflies

Teddy materials

Investigating how to keep Teddy dry

The Garden Gang: Growing plants

Assessment summary

Pupil profile

Trenyce makes observable progress within level 1 over a relatively short period andhere her work moves from very simple low level 1 achievement to a secure level 1judgement.

Light and dark

Assessment focuses

AF2, AF3, AF4

Context

The class shared the book, Can't You Sleep, Little Bear? The pupils were keen tocommunicate and then investigate their ideas to help Little Bear in the dark cave.

Teaching and Learning Resources p.1tlr.nationalstrategies.dcsf.gov.uk

© Crown copyright 2011

Little Bear is afraid of the dark and Big Bear provides lanterns of increasing size tolight up their cave. Finally, they go outside and Big Bear shows Little Bear the Moon.

The pupils were asked to brainstorm the names of some light sources. They eachthen chose five or more of them to make drawings and to order them, from thebrightest to the dimmest.

In the following lesson, without any initial discussion, they were given four pictures oflight sources to sequence.

Waddell, M. illustrated by Firth, B (2005) Can't You Sleep, Little Bear? Walker BooksLtd., UK



The evidence

The worksheet is titled 'Light sources'. Down the centre of the page is a vertical line,labelled ‘dimmest’ at the top and ‘brightest’ at the bottom.The child has drawn andcoloured in a spotted circle and a rectangle topped with a triangle. These areattached to the line at the label ‘dimmest’. Below the circle, the teacher has written‘disco ball’, ‘Does it give off any light?’ and ‘yes’. The child has also drawn a sun



(labelled ‘brightest’ by the teacher) and an orange rectangle (labelled ‘dimmest’ bythe teacher). These aer both attached to the bottom of the line, where it's labelled'brightest'.

There are four illustrations: a sun, which is labelled as '1. Brightest'; a desk lamp,which is labelled as '2. Very bright'; a torce, which is labelled as '3. Quite bright'; anda candle, which is labelled as '4. Least bright'.

Teacher's notes

When Trenyce was prompted, encouraged and supported, she could show herunderstanding of this topic in different ways: verbally by sharing ideas and describingobservations, presenting evidence in a template provided, and through her owndrawings.

Her responses were not always correct and she often referred to an adult to seekclarification. She remembered using candles for birthday cakes and, when asked,said that they were not any good for lighting up a whole room.

Next steps

• Use of bright and dim torches to explore things in the dark (using a verylarge box with various objects inside).• Investigating the differences between light sources and objects that reflectlight.

Assessment commentary

Trenyce can begin to order objects according to their features and can use a fixedformat to present a conclusion based on previous learning. She is beginning to showawareness of links between ideas developed at school and her prior experiences athome.



Life cycles: Ourselves

Assessment focuses

AF3, AF5

Context

Pupils had considered ideas about themselves in their work in the Early YearsFoundation Stage. The activity here was planned as a diagnostic assessment task atthe beginning of a unit on ‘Ourselves’ to find out about their current understanding.They were asked to draw pictures of themselves as babies, as they are now, and asthey think they might be as adults. They then talked about the changes.



The evidence

The worksheet is titled ‘Ourselves’ and labelled with 3a. The child has hand-writtentheir name at the top.There are three panels, with a simple instruction below each.Below panel 1 it says ‘Draw a picture of you as a baby’. The child has drawn a tallfigure (head, smiling face, hair, long legs and feet), which the teacher has labelled‘Adult’. Below panel 2 it says ‘Draw a picture of you now’. The child has drawn a



head and legs, with some scribbling, which the teacher has labelled ‘Now’.Belowpanel 3 it says ‘Draw a picture of you, as you might look when you are grown up’.The child has drawn a head on its side, resting on a curve (which could be a belly),which the teacher has labelled ‘Baby’.

‘Ourselves’ worksheet © The Windmill Press. Used with kind permission.

Teacher's notes

Trenyce drew the pictures independently putting an individual drawing in each box.She did not follow the template correctly and, when asked, it was clear that this wasa reflection of her reading ability. Her drawings do not clearly show the changes frombeing a baby to being an adult, other than the increase in size. However, she couldsay that when she was a baby she ‘couldn't walk or feed myself’. She said that whenshe was an adult she would have ‘longer hair and wear bigger clothes’.

Next steps

Use of visual and creative aids, including scaled cut-outs of stages of the human lifecycle, and sorting these and cards with text labels into a sequence.


The evidence shows Trenyce describing the changes from baby to adult, using someeveryday terms, and presenting this independently in a template, although not in theprescribed order.

Life cycles: Butterflies

Assessment focuses

AF1, AF3

Context

This activity took place towards the end of the unit of work about ‘Ourselves’. Thepupils had previously looked at how we grow from babies to adults and they hadcompared people to other animals.



The pupils had the opportunity to look closely at caterpillars, in specially provided jarswith food supplies, and to discuss how the caterpillars would change as they grewand got older.

As a class, they were asked to think about where butterflies came from. They lookedat pictures and a video clip of butterflies and their life cycles.

They were asked to record what they knew about the life cycle of butterflies, so thatthey could apply their previous learning and combine this with the new informationfrom observations, discussions and the films. It was suggested that they used arrowsto show the sequencing, as they had seen before, but after that they were free todevise their own representations.

The evidence



Along the bottom of a page, the four stages of a butterfly’s life cycle are connectedwith arrows. These read: egg, caterpillar, chrysalis and butterfly.Above these, thechild has drawn and labelled an egg, a caterpillar, a caterpillar with a chrysalis, adifferent-coloured caterpillar with black head and chrysalis, and a butterfly with achrysalis.

Teacher's notes

When observing the caterpillars, Trenyce said that they were ‘getting bigger’. Sheasked some questions including, ‘What is the stuff in with them?’ and ‘Will they reallyturn into butterflies?’

She drew the different stages of the life cycle in the correct order and attempted touse simple arrows, although she shows the stages in a linear way. She was workingwith an adult at her table and was given some support in structuring her drawings butwas able to talk about the stages independently. By the end of the lesson sheshowed confidence in talking about the life cycle of a butterfly.

Next steps

• Clarification of the use of the term ‘cycle’ to indicate that the patternrepeats, with the butterflies producing eggs to start the next generation oflife.• Further work on reporting sequenced events in graphic format, includinguse of ICT for work on life cycles.• Focus on observation drawing (do caterpillars really have smiley faces?),linked with art.




Trenyce asks questions stimulated by her observations and successfully reports asequence of events based on observation and on secondary information sources.

Teddy materials

Assessment focuses

AF1, AF4

Context

Pupils were asked to bring in different materials that they could find in their indoorand outdoor environments.

They reviewed earlier work about senses, and talked about the look and feel of thematerials and how they could be sorted into groups.

They were given a template of a teddy with various labels, such as ‘soft’ and ‘shiny’.All the materials were placed together in the middle of the room and pupils had towork independently to find the right ones to stick onto the different parts of the teddy.



The evidence

The ‘before’ handout is a line drawing of a bear with ten areas on its body. The ‘after’handout shows the same handout covered in different materials: cotton wool,cellophane, embossed paper, sandpaper, shiny paper and sticks. The face, feet andpaws are all covered with cotton wool.

Teacher's notes

Trenyce used phrases such as, ‘this is crackly’, ‘it's shiny’, and ‘it's all soft’. Nosupport other than encouragement was given and she did manage to find suitablematerials for most of the properties.

Next steps

• Opportunities for Trenyce to begin to develop her own questions toinvestigate based on properties of materials and their suitability for differentpurposes.• Consideration of how properties can be used to sort and group materials,objects and living things.




Trenyce was able to name and talk about properties of materials that can bedetected using appropriate senses.

Investigating how to keep Teddydry

Assessment focuses

AF2, AF4, AF5

Context

The pupils brought different materials into school, and they were asked how theycould find out which one would be best at keeping Teddy dry in the rain.

They were provided with the structure for a simple investigation, which involvedsitting Teddy underneath different materials and pouring water on from a wateringcan. The pupils were asked to comment on what they might observe and what mighthappen.

The pupils then carried out the investigation outside, substituting plastic animals forthe teddy.

Teacher's notes

When speaking to the whole class, Trenyce did not volunteer suggestions about howto find out an answer. However, in a smaller group she was able to say that, ‘wecould put Teddy in the rain’. With further questioning and encouragement, it wasevident that she understood that Teddy would have to wear different things in the rainto see what was best to keep him dry.

After the experiment she was initially unable to say what we had found out, but whenasked which material was best for keeping Teddy dry she correctly pointed to theplastic. She explained that she knew this ‘because the water fell off of it’.



Next steps

Further investigations to encourage recording of observations and measurementsusing simple equipment.


Trenyce is able to identify a link to science in a familiar object. With prompting, shemakes simple suggestions about how to find an answer and uses her senses andsimple equipment to make observations. She can state some expectations of asimple investigation and can provide a meaningful comment on what happens.

The Garden Gang: Growing plants

Assessment focuses

AF2, AF3, AF4, AF5

Context

This work was linked to a literacy activity based on The Garden Gang series ofbooks.

The class had been learning about food. They had sorted different types of food andtalked about what farmers do. They looked at some potatoes, grown some timebefore in buckets. The buckets had become waterlogged, the potato plants werebeginning to die back, and the potatoes themselves were starting to decay.

Following suggestions from the pupils, the class planted potatoes, runner beans,radishes, peppers, onions and grass seed. For the runner beans, each pupil alsoplanted a bean in a clear plastic beaker with a wet paper towel. The pupils were ableto observe how the beans were growing, making comparisons between the one inthe beaker and the one in the soil.

The various plants also provided contexts for some work in mathematics, and thepupils made model gardens for design and technology work.

Fisher, J. (1979–1980) The Garden Gang series, Ladybird Books Ltd., UK



The evidence

Trenyce could say that the runner bean ‘needs soil to grow’ and with prompting shecould also say that she would have to ‘give it water’ and ‘put it outside for the sun’.She said it would ‘grow leaves’ but didn't say what might happen to the bean in theplastic beaker.



She actively visited the beans each morning and was enthusiastic about showinghow the bean in the beaker was ‘growing up’. As both beans grew she was able to



talk about the leaves and the roots ‘getting bigger’. When asked what would happento the beans, she said, ‘we could eat them’.

She asked about the grass seedlings, ‘Is this the same as the grass in real gardens?’

Teacher's notes

Trenyce said, when talking about the potatoes, ‘there's too much water, it's all soggy’.When asked what she would expect to find when she pulled up the plants she knewthat there would be potatoes ‘by the roots’. She observed that the potatoes were ‘abit squashy’.

Next steps

• Investigate the conditions that plants need to grow.• Discussion of how farmers and gardeners use ways to make sure thattheir plants grow as healthily as possible.• Simple comparison of life processes of plants and animals.


Trenyce recognises that the plants she has grown can be eaten. She uses everydayterms to talk about her sensed observations of plants and the changes they gothrough.

Assessment summary

AF1 Thinking scientifically

Trenyce asks questions and provides simple descriptions, recognising basic featuresand properties, and draws on her everyday experience.

AF2 Understanding the applications and implications ofscience

She understands that plants provide food and, in simple terms, that the conditions inwhich plants are grown make a difference to them. She is beginning to identify linksto science in familiar contexts.



AF3 Communicating and collaborating in science

She uses everyday terms to communicate her observations and uses a giventemplate for them, and also a given format to show a sequence of events.

AF4 Using investigative approaches

In talking about materials, butterflies and plants, Trenyce shows that she is using hersenses and some simple equipment in her observations, and she is beginning tomake simple suggestions about how to find things out through observation.

AF5 Working critically with evidence

In simple ways in spoken language, Trenyce can make statements of what she sees,including changes to living things. She is beginning to be able to make a statement ofher expectations of a simple investigation.

Overall assessment judgement

The first pieces of evidence in this collection show Trenyce working at low level 1 butshe makes progress through the level during the two terms from which this evidenceis drawn, and her further work is at secure level 1.

File Attachments

• pri_frmwrk_sci_trencye_assess_24441.pdf ( pdf 61 KB )



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