Key Stage One

Science TOOLKIT

To work scientifically

To understand plants

Biology: To understand animals and humans

S1. Ask simple questions.


S7. Identify and name a variety of common plants, including garden plants, wild plants and trees and those classified as deciduous and evergreen. 

S11. Identify and name a variety of common animals that are birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals and invertebrates. 

S2. Observe closely, using simple equipment.


S8. Identify and describe the basic structure of a variety of common flowering plants, including roots, stem/trunk, leaves and flowers. 

S12. Identify and name a variety of common animals that are carnivores, herbivores and omnivores. 

S3. Perform simple tests.


S9. Observe and describe how seeds and bulbs, grow into mature plants. 

S13. Describe and compare the structure of a variety of common animals (birds, fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals and invertebrates, including pets). 

S4. Identify and classify.


S10. Find out and describe how plants need water, light and a suitable temperature to grow and stay healthy. 

S14. Identify, name, draw and label the basic parts of the human body and say which part of the body is associated with each sense. 

S5. Use observations and ideas to suggest answers to questions. 

S15. Notice that animals, including humans, have offspring, which grow into adults. 

S6. Gather and record data to help in answering questions.


S16. Investigate and describe the basic needs of animals, including humans, for survival (water, food and air). 

S17. Describe the importance for humans of exercise, eating the right amounts of different types of food and hygiene. 

Key Stage One

Science TOOLKIT

To investigate living things

Chemistry: To investigate materials

To investigate seasonal change

S18. Explore and compare the differences between things that are living, that are dead and that have never been alive. 

S23.Distinguish between an object and the material from which it is made. 

S29. To be able to observe and describe weather associated with the seasons. 

S19.Identify that most living things live in habitats to which they are suited. 

S24.Identify and name a variety of everyday materials, including wood, plastic, glass, metal, water and rock. 

S30. To be able to observe and describe how day length varies. 

S20.Describe how different habitats provide for the basic needs of different kinds of animals and plants and how they depend on each other. 

S25.Describe the simple physical properties of a variety of everyday materials. 

S31. To be able to observe changes across the four seasons. 

S21.Identify and name a variety of plants and animals in their habitats, including micro-habitats. 

S26.Compare and group together a variety of everyday materials on the basis of their simple physical properties. 

S22.Describe how animals obtain their food from plants and other animals, using the idea of a simple food chain, and identify and name different sources of food. 

S27.Identify and compare the suitability of a variety of everyday materials, including wood, metal, plastic, glass, brick, rock, paper and cardboard for particular uses. 

S28. Find out how the shapes of solid objects made from some materials can be changed by squashing, bending, twisting and stretching. 

Lower Stage Two

Science TOOLKIT

To work scientifically

To understand plants

Biology: To understand animals and humans

S32. Ask relevant questions. 

S41. Identify and describe the functions of different parts of flowering plants: roots, stem, leaves and flowers. 

S48. Identify that animals, including humans, need the right types and amounts of nutrition, that they cannot make their own food and they get nutrition from what they eat. 

S33. Set up simple practical enquiries and comparative and fair tests. 

S42. Explore the requirements of plants for life and growth (air, light, water, nutrients from soil, and room to grow) and how they vary from plant to plant. 

S49. Identify that humans and some animals have skeletons and muscles for support, protection and movement. 

S34. Make accurate measurements using standard units, using a range of equipment, e.g. thermometers and data loggers. 

S43.Investigate the way in which water is transported within plants. 

S50. Describe the simple functions of the basic parts of the digestive system in humans. 

S35. Gather, record, classify and present data in a variety of ways to help in answering questions. 

S44. Explore the role of flowers in the life cycle of flowering plants, including pollination, seed formation and seed dispersal. 

S51. Identify the different types of teeth in humans and their simple functions 

S36. Record findings using simple scientific language, drawings, labelled diagrams, bar charts and tables. 

To investigate rocks

S52. Construct and interpret a variety of food chains, identifying producers, predators and prey. 

S37. Report on findings from enquiries, including oral and written explanations, displays or presentations of results and conclusions. 

S45. Compare and group together different kinds of rocks on the basis of their appearance and simple physical properties. 

To investigate living things

S38. Use results to draw simple conclusions and suggest improvements, new questions and predictions for setting up further tests. 

S46. Describe in simple terms how fossils are formed when things that have lived are trapped within rock.

S53. Identify and name a variety of living things (plants and animals) in the local and wider environment, using classification keys to assign them to groups. 

S39. Identify differences, similarities or changes related to simple, scientific ideas and processes. 

S47. Recognise that soils are made from rocks and organic matter. 

S54. Give reasons for classifying plants and animals based on specific characteristics. 

S40. Use straightforward, scientific evidence to answer questions or to support their findings. 

S55. Recognise that environments are constantly changing and that this can sometimes pose dangers to specific habitats. 

Lower Stage Two

Science TOOLKIT

To observe states of matter

To understand movement, forces and magnets

To understand light and seeing

S56. Compare and group materials together, according to whether they are solids, liquids or gases. 

S59.Compare how things move on different surfaces 

S65.Recognise that they need light in order to see things and that dark is the absence of light 

S57.Observe that some materials change state when they are heated or cooled, and measure the temperature at which this happens in degrees Celsius, building on their teaching in mathematics. 

S60.Notice that some forces need contact between two objects and some forces act at a distance.

S66. Notice that light is reflected from surfaces. 

S58.Identify the part played by evaporation and condensation in the water cycle and associate the rate of evaporation with temperature. 

S61.Observe how magnets attract or repel each other and attract some materials and not others. 

S67.Recognise that light from the sun can be dangerous and that there are ways to protect their eyes 

S62.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. 

S68.Recognise that shadows are formed when the light from a light source is blocked by a solid object 

S63.Describe magnets as having two poles 

S69. Find patterns in the way that the sizes of shadows change. 

S64.Predict whether two magnets will attract or repel each other, depending on which poles are facing. 

Upper Stage Two

Science TOOLKIT

To work scientifically

To understand animals and humans

To investigate living things and their habitats

S80. Plan enquiries, including recognising and controlling variables where necessary. 

S88. Describe the changes as humans develop from birth to old age. 

S92. Describe the differences in the life cycles of a mammal, an amphibian, an insect and a bird. 

S81. Use appropriate techniques, apparatus, and materials during fieldwork and laboratory work. 

S89. Identify and name the main parts of the human circulatory system, and explain the functions of the heart, blood vessels and blood. 

S93. Describe the life process of reproduction in some plants and animals. 

S82. Take measurements, using a range of scientific equipment, with increasing accuracy and precision. 

S90.Recognise the impact of diet, exercise, drugs and lifestyle on the way their bodies function. 

S94. Describe how living things are classified into broad groups according to common observable characteristics and based on similarities and differences, including microorganisms, plants and animals. 

S83. Record data and results of increasing complexity using scientific diagrams and labels, classification keys, tables, bar and line graphs, and models.

S91. Describe the ways in which nutrients and water are transported within animals, including humans.

S84. Report findings from enquiries, including oral and written explanations of results, explanations involving casual relationships, and conclusions.

S95. Give reasons for classifying plants and animals based on specific characteristics. 

S85. Present findings in written form, displays and other presentations.

 S86. Use test results to make predictions to set up further comparative and fair tests.

S87. Use simple models to describe scientific ideas, identifying scientific evidence that has been used to support or refute ideas or arguments.

Upper Stage Two

Science TOOLKIT

To understand evolution and inheritance

To investigate materials

To understand movement, forces and magnets

S96. To be able to recognise that living things have changed over time and that fossils provide information about living things that inhabited the Earth millions of years ago. 

S99. Compare and group together everyday materials based on evidence form comparative and fair tests, including their hardness, solubility, conductivity (electrical and thermal), and response to magnets. 

S105. Explain that unsupported objects fall towards the Earth be- cause of the force of gravity acting between the Earth and the falling object. 

S97. To be able to recognise that living things produce offspring of the same kind, but normally offspring vary and are not identical to their parents. 

S100.Understand how some materials will dissolve in liquid to form a solution and describe how to recover a substance from a solution. 

S106.Identify the effect of drag forces, such as air resistance, water resistance and friction that act between moving surfaces. 

S98. To be able to identify how animals are adapted to suit their environment in different ways and that adaptation may lead to evolution. 

S101. Use knowledge of solids, liquids and gases to decide how mixtures might be separated, including through filtering, sieving and evaporating. 

S107.Recognise that some mechanisms, including levers, pulleys and gears, allow a smaller force to have after effect. 

S102. Give reasons, based on evidence from comparative and fair tests, for the particular uses of everyday materials, including metals, wood and plastic. 

S103.Demonstrate that dissolving, mixing and changes of state are reversible changes. 

S104. 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, oxidisation and the action of acid on bicarbonate of soda. 

Upper Stage Two

Science TOOLKIT

To understand light and seeing

To understand electrical circuits

To understand the earth’s movement in space

S108.Recognise that light appears to travel in straight lines. 

S112.Associate the brightness of a lamp or the volume of a buzzer with the number and voltage of cells used in the circuit. 

S115. To be able to describe the movement of the Earth, and other planets, relative to the Sun in the solar system. 

S109. Use the idea that light travels in straight lines to explain that objects are seen because they give out or reflect light into the eye. 

S113.Compare and give reasons for variations in how components function, including the brightness of bulbs, the loudness of buzzers and the on/off position of switches. 

S116. To be able to describe the Sun, Earth and Moon as approximately spherical bodies. 

S110. Explain that we see things because light travels from light sources to our eyes or from light sources to objects and then to our eyes. 

S114. Use recognised symbols when representing a simple circuit in a diagram. 

S117. To be able to describe the movement of the Moon relative to the Earth. 

S111. Use the idea that light travels in straight lines to explain why shadows have the same shape as the objects that cast them. 

S118. To be able to use the idea of the Earth’s rotation to explain day and night and the apparent movement of the Sun across the sky.