The best time to spot the Lyrid meteor in the UK in 2022 is on the night of 22nd – 23rd April. The Lyrids begin on the 14th April this year which is 2 days before a full moon so the sky will still be pretty bright at the peak of the shower which will make spotting meteors a bit tricky – but don’t be deterred! Follow these tips from the Royal Observatory in Greenwich for the best chance of meteor-spotting.
☄️Find a dark site with an unobstructed view of the sky. ☄️The best time to see the shower is in the early morning of the peak day, which this year is the morning of the 23rd April (the night of the 22nd April). ☄️Fill your view with the sky and wait! Lying on the ground is a great way to see as much as possible. ☄️Look towards the Vega constellation – here’s a handy map showing how to find it at this time of year thanks to Astronomy Now. ☄️Blanket optional but highly recommended. Reclining deckchairs make an even more comfortable way to view the sky. ☄️Remember to wrap up warm!
Image: Canva
Whizz Pop Bang is a top-quality, gender-neutral, advert-free science magazine for families everywhere. Each issue is packed with experiments, activities, amazing facts, puzzles, jokes, riddles and more. Find out more here and flick through a space-themed issue here!
Whizz Pop Bang is the world’s most awesomely amazing kids’ science magazine, bursting with hands-on experiments, facts and fun, and we want to help support you when teaching your children about science!
Here is a FREE printable, hands-on science experiment to make a model wind turbine which will help you entertain, excite and educate any primary aged child!
Our science activities are downloadable and printable and are designed for children from 6 to 12, but this downloadable activity is particularly perfect for year 2, P3 (Scotland) and 6-year-olds and 7-year-olds as they tie in with the relevant National Curriculum objectives and topics.
Print, cut and craft a working wind turbine!
You will need: Printable template (below) A paper straw A wooden skewer A stapler and staples A few beads that are large enough to thread onto the skewer Sticky tack
If you have any comments or questions about our free year 2 science experiments and reading comprehensions, please leave a comment for us. Or do you have any science homeschool ideas or general home educating ideas for 6 and 7-year-olds? We’d love to hear from you!
Whizz Pop Bang magazine and teaching resources are brilliant ways to enhance your school’s science teaching:
We provide downloadable science lesson plans, PowerPoint presentations, hands-on investigations and science reading comprehensions written by primary school teachers.
Whizz Pop Bang teaching resources link to the National Curriculum, ensuring correct coverage.
All of our resources are year group specific, ensuring progression between the years.
We make cross-curricular links to other subjects, such as English, Maths, History, Geography, Art, Design and Technology and PSHE.
Prices from as little as £197.99 per year for a copy of Whizz Pop Bang magazine through the post each month and whole-school access to our ever-growing library of downloadable teaching resources, with unlimited teacher logins.
We’ve also launched a new individual membership option so teachers and home educators can access all of our amazing downloadable resources for just £20 for the whole year.
Whizz Pop Bang is the world’s most awesomely amazing kids’ science magazine, bursting with hands-on experiments, facts and fun, and we want to help support you when teaching your children about science!
Here is a FREE science reading comprehension about harvest mice which will help you entertain, excite and educate any primary aged child! It’s been written by our experts to teach your year 2 child all about living things and habitats, your P3 child about biodiversity and interdependence.
Our free science worksheets are downloadable and printable and are designed for children from 6 to 12, but this downloadable activity is particularly perfect for year 2, P3 (Scotland) and 6-year-olds and 7-year-olds as they tie in with the relevant National Curriculum objectives and topics.
Read all about the smallest rodent in Europe, the tiny harvest mouse! Find out how they are related to other rodents, how much they weigh, what they use their tails for, how they protect themselves from predators, where they build their nests and what their babies are called.
This downloadable reading pack includes: – A reading spread about harvest mice for you to print or for your child to read on a tablet. – Reading comprehension question sheet and answer sheet
Topic links: Year 2 living things and habitats, P3 Biodiversity and interdependence
The reading comprehension included here was designed to be read at A3 size, so text may appear too small when printed at A4. They work really well on a tablet or monitor, or you may need to print them on two pages of A4 if your printer allows.
If you have any comments or questions about our free year 2 science experiments and reading comprehensions, please leave a comment for us. Or do you have any science homeschool ideas or general home educating ideas for 6- and 7-year-olds? We’d love to hear from you!
Whizz Pop Bang magazine and teaching resources are brilliant ways to enhance your school’s science teaching:
We provide downloadable science lesson plans, PowerPoint presentations, hands-on investigations and science reading comprehensions written by primary school teachers.
Whizz Pop Bang teaching resources link to the National Curriculum, ensuring correct coverage.
All of our resources are year group specific, ensuring progression between the years.
We make cross-curricular links to other subjects, such as English, Maths, History, Geography, Art, Design and Technology and PSHE.
Prices from as little as £197.99 per year for a copy of Whizz Pop Bang magazine through the post each month and whole-school access to our ever-growing library of downloadable teaching resources, with unlimited teacher logins.
We’ve also launched a new individual membership option so teachers and home educators can access all of our amazing downloadable resources for just £20 for the whole year.
Whizz Pop Bang is the world’s most awesomely amazing kids’ science magazine, bursting with hands-on experiments, facts and fun, and we want to help support you when teaching your children about science!
Here is a FREE science activity for your child to grow their own pet which will help you entertain, excite and educate any primary aged child while teaching them all about living things.
Our free science experiments are downloadable and printable and are designed for children from 6 to 12, but this downloadable activity is particularly perfect for year 2, P3 (Scotland) and 6-year-olds and 7-year-olds as they tie in with the relevant National Curriculum objectives and topics.
Grow your own grass pets to learn about what seeds need in order to grow.
Design and make your own grass head pets, then discover what plants need in order to grow!
You will need: Soil or compost 2 tbsp. grass seed Old nylon tights Plant pot or bowl Elastic bands Googly eyes, felt or beads Needle and thread or glue
Topic links: Year 2 plantsand P3 biodiversity and interdependence
If you have any comments or questions about our free year 2 science experiments and reading comprehensions, please leave a comment for us. Or do you have any science homeschool ideas or general home educating ideas for 6- and 7-year-olds? We’d love to hear from you!
We provide downloadable science lesson plans, PowerPoint presentations, hands-on investigations and science reading comprehensions written by primary school teachers.
Whizz Pop Bang teaching resources link to the National Curriculum, ensuring correct coverage.
All of our resources are year group specific, ensuring progression between the years.
We make cross-curricular links to other subjects, such as English, Maths, History, Geography, Art, Design and Technology and PSHE.
Prices from as little as £197.99 per year for a copy of Whizz Pop Bang magazine through the post each month and whole-school access to our ever-growing library of downloadable teaching resources, with unlimited teacher logins.
We’ve also launched a new individual teacher resources membership option so teachers and home educators can access all of our amazing downloadable resources for just £20 for the whole year.
Whizz Pop Bang is the world’s most awesomely amazing kids’ science magazine, bursting with hands-on experiments, facts and fun, and we want to help support you when teaching your children about science!
Here is a FREE science reading comprehension about crabs which will help you entertain, excite and educate any primary aged child! It’s been written by our experts to teach your year 2 child all about living things and habitats, your P3 child about biodiversity and interdependence.
Our free science worksheets are downloadable and printable and are designed for children from 6 to 12, but this downloadable activity is particularly perfect for year 2, P3 (Scotland) and 6-year-olds and 7-year-olds as they tie in with the relevant National Curriculum objectives and topics.
Read about the ultimate recyclers of the seas, crabs! Discover why these cool crustaceans have an exoskeleton, how they walk and more!
This downloadable reading pack includes: – A reading spread about crabs for you to print or for your child to read on a tablet. – Reading comprehension question sheet and answer sheet.
Topic links: Year 2 living things and habitats, P3 Biodiversity and interdependence
The reading comprehension included here was designed to be read at A3 size, so text may appear too small when printed at A4. They work really well on a tablet or monitor, or you may need to print them on two pages of A4 if your printer allows.
If you have any comments or questions about our free year 2 science experiments and reading comprehensions, please leave a comment for us. Or do you have any science homeschool ideas or general home educating ideas for 6- and 7-year-olds? We’d love to hear from you!
Whizz Pop Bang magazine and teaching resources are brilliant ways to enhance your school’s science teaching:
We provide downloadable science lesson plans, PowerPoint presentations, hands-on investigations and science reading comprehensions written by primary school teachers.
Whizz Pop Bang teaching resources link to the National Curriculum, ensuring correct coverage.
All of our resources are year group specific, ensuring progression between the years.
We make cross-curricular links to other subjects, such as English, Maths, History, Geography, Art, Design and Technology and PSHE.
Prices from as little as £197.99 per year for a copy of Whizz Pop Bang magazine through the post each month and whole-school access to our ever-growing library of downloadable teaching resources, with unlimited teacher logins.
We’ve also launched a new individual membership option so teachers and home educators can access all of our amazing downloadable resources for just £20 for the whole year.
Win a brilliant Earth Science dig kit and get stuck in with erupting volcanoes, growing crystals and uncovering pyrite!
The National Geographic Explorer Science Series Earth Science Kit is a must-have for any promising young scientist! There are so many fun activities in this kit that it’s perfect to share. It’s a great way to spend quality family time together or to use as part of your home school curriculum. Plus, you can learn the science behind crystals, volcanoes, tornadoes, and gemstones together with the help of the full-colour learning guides.
We have 3 Science Activity kits to give away!
To be in for a chance of winning, just answer this question in the comments:
Uncover hours of fun with this Ultimate Gemstone Dig Kit from National Geographic!
The extra-large dig brick has 20 amazing gemstones hidden inside. Your kids will love discovering them all using the included dig tool and brush and then get a close-up view of each with the magnifying glass. A full-colour learning guide provides fascinating facts about each gemstone, and easy-to-follow instructions make excavating each gemstone a whole lot of fun! Gemstones include two types of agate, three types of quartz, tiger’s eye, snowflake obsidian, amethyst, aragonite, aventurine, hematite, desert rose, a geode piece, green fluorite, pyrite, red jasper, sodalite, turquenite, blue calcite, and labradorite.
Explore glow-in-the-dark science with PUTTY, SLIME, CRYSTALS AND MORE!
The days are getting shorter and the nights are drawing in but fear not, this fun STEM kit from Bandai is sure to brighten any dark evening! Inquisitive minds will love discovering the world of glow-in-the-dark by making glowing slime and growing their own crystals! We’ve got THREE Glow-in-the-Dark Mega Science Kits to give away!
The National Geographic Glow-in-the-Dark Mega Science Kit is an astounding collection of experiments and activities that all glow when the lights are out! Inside the kit, you’ll find a crystal growing set that produces a glow-in-the-dark crystal specimen you can proudly display.
There are two DIY slime packs in this kit as well, allowing you to mix and play with your own glow-in-the-dark purple and green slime! And glow-in-the-dark putty will astound kids as they use the included UV light keychain to draw pictures and words that glow when the lights are off!
There is so much included in this Mega Kit: one glowing crystal seed, two DIY slime powders in glowing green and glowing purple, two slime containers, one glowing putty in a storage tin, one wernerite rock, one UV light, and a full-colour learning guide that takes you through each experiment step by step.
Our very knowledgeable robot, Y, has another challenge for you this week. Y’s Wonder Club club is for budding scientists to share their adventures in science with our robot, Y, and other Whizz Pop Bang readers. All Whizz Pop Bang subscribers are automatically joined to Y’s Wonder Club and for a limited time this summer we’re opening up the club for everyone!
We have two weeks left so get ready for your scientist in training to put their capes on and become an Eco Hero! If you missed our previous weeks, go back and have a look at the Wildlife Watcher and Super Scientist badges to collect them all! We’ve got some great summer holiday activities that not only keep the kids entertained but do good for the planet too!
Complete these three challenges to earn your Whizz Pop Bang Eco Hero badge…
1) Upcycle something
Choose an item that’s reaching the end of its life or is destined for the bin and transform it into something useful. For example, you could make a pencil case from an old bag, tie-die a stained t-shirt or freshen up an old wooden stool with bright paints.
2) Make an environmentally friendly change
Make a lifestyle change that enables you or your family to cause less harm to the environment. Perhaps you could ask your parents if you could walk, cycle or scoot into school or to the park, instead of driving. Maybe you could reduce the amount of single-use plastics you use at home, eat less meat, or help your family to reduce your food waste.
3) Help to raise awareness
Spread the word about an environmental issue that you feel strongly about. You could design and put up a poster about an environmental issue, e.g. reminding your school friends to bring in reusable water bottles or encouraging awareness in your neighbourhood of toads or hedgehogs on the roads. You could write to your MP or your local shops or cafes to ask them to make environmentally friendly changes. Or maybe you could join an environmental campaign or protest.
Here’s how to apply for your badge:
1. Download the Eco Hero application form. Print it out and complete the first page of the application form to tell us about how you’ve helped the environment. Attach any photos or drawings that you’d like to send to us. If you don’t have a printer, you can type your answers into an email or write your answers on a plain piece of paper and send us a photograph of it.
2. Ask your parent or guardian to pay the £1-per-badge postage and packing fee, which can be done online at whizzpopbang.com/shop/719619/badge-postage-and-packing/. Add the order confirmation number to the second page of the application form.
3. Ask your parent or guardian to fill in the second page of the form.
4. Photograph or scan your completed form and any other documents and email them to Y@whizzpopbang.com with the subject line as ‘Eco Hero Badge’. Alternatively, post your completed application to Eco Hero Badge, Whizz Pop Bang, Unit 7, Global Business Park, 14 Wilkinson Road, Cirencester, GL7 1YZ. Please note that it can take up to 12 weeks for delivery of the badges.
Another week of the summer holidays is here, –are you looking for screen-free activities to keep those little brains entertained? For a limited time only, applying for Y’s Wonder Club badges is open to everyone (not just Whizz Pop Bang subscribers)!
This week we’re earning our Super Scientist badges. We’ll take you through the actual steps that scientists follow to study and investigate while ensuring they are conducting a fair test!
Earn a collectible high-quality enamel Super Scientist badge by getting curious! Think up a question, investigate it and record the results and conclusions.
Challenge 1: Think up a question What would you like to investigate? It could be almost anything… Do birds sing more often when it’s sunny? Which type of surface is best for bouncing balls on? Does your pet hamster have a favourite colour?! Make a prediction of what you think your results will be (scientists call this a hypothesis).
Challenge 2: Investigate it Plan and carry out an experiment to investigate your question. When you’re experimenting, remember to only change one thing at a time and try to keep all other variables the same. For example, if you’re trying to find out which surface is best for bouncing, you would need to always drop the ball from the same height, always use the same ball and measure the height of its first bounce. It would be more accurate to repeat the tests a few times on each surface and calculate the average bounce height if you can.
Challenge 3: Tell us what you discovered! Tell us about your results and conclusions. Did they surprise you? Did they lead to more questions that you’d like to investigate further?
How did you get on? Did you follow along with our Super Scientist week? Send your application in to us to receive your badge just like these super-duper scientists!
Download the Super Scientist application form. Print it out and complete the first page of the application form to tell us about your science investigation. Attach any photos or drawings that you’d like to send to us. If you don’t have a printer, you can type your answers into an email or write your answers on a plain piece of paper and send us a photograph of it.
Ask your parent or guardian to fill in the second page of the form. The postage and packing for the first 500 successful applicants is being sponsored by The Great Science Share for Schools so there’s no need to pay postage and packing for this badge. We will update this page and the form once the 500 badge limit has been used up.
Email your completed form (or a photograph or scan of it), together with any other documents to Y@whizzpopbang.com with the subject line as ‘Super Scientist badge’. Alternatively, post your completed application to Super Scientist Badge, Whizz Pop Bang, Unit 7, Global Business Park, 14 Wilkinson Road, Cirencester, GL7 1YZ. Please note that it can take up to 12 weeks for delivery of the badges.
