Science Week March 2022 – Growth

As science coordinator, you will have been trying to work out what to do for science week this year. Whizz Pop Bang has lots of resources available for your teachers to use, which have all the planning already done and link with this year’s theme of ‘growth’.

You may want to come up with a whole-school investigation, but I am sure your colleagues are also looking for ideas for their year groups. We have two FREE activities based on plants which are suitable for all year groups.

Free science lesson activities for primary science, blooming water lily and chromatography flowers.

Plus, we have teaching resources available for the year groups 2 to 6, including a memorable lesson planned and ready to use and a bank of reading comprehensions.


Year 2 Science – We are growing all the time and need to fuel our bodies with the right food to help. Pupils will analyse a recent meal, examine food labels and have fun making tasty, healthy ‘super seed energy balls’.

Year 2 science lesson about food.

Reading comprehensions

Our year 2 reading comprehension texts are differentiated to make them accessible to more children in your class. 

Year 3 Science – As we grow, we develop muscles. Investigate how our muscles work with this investigation.

Science lesson for year 3 about muscles.

Reading comprehensions

Year 4 Science – All animals need to eat to grow. In this pack, pupils will discover that a coral reef is in fact both living and dead. They will make their own edible polyp and learn the importance of the coral polyp in the reef ecosystem. 

year 4 science lesson pack on coral reef ecosystems

Reading comprehensions

Year 5 Science – Investigate different life cycles – there are lots of weird and wonderful examples out there! Our lesson pack on life cycles involves pupils making their own 3D model of a life cycle.

Year 5 lesson pack on life cycles.

Reading comprehensions

Year 6 Science – Everything which is alive and growing has its own DNA. Get your year 6 science pupils to investigate and make their own double helix model with our lesson pack.

year 6 science lesson pack on DNA

Reading comprehensions

Don’t forget to ask teachers to take photographs so you can make a display or share them on your school’s social media platforms. We would love to see what you have been doing too, so please tag us @whizzpopbangmag

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, Design and Technology and PSHE.

Prices from as little as £190 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 teaching resource membership option so teachers and home educators can access all of our amazing resources for just £20 for the whole year

“Using Whizz pop bang school resources has enabled investigations to be an integral part of my science planning. I now have investigations and experiments throughout my planning rather than just at the end. The lessons are easy to resource, and the pack has everything I need to teach the lesson, so it saves me time as well!” Louise Hampson, Year 3 teacher 


Post Comment

Teaching Climate change in KS2

Do you want to cover climate change in KS2 but don’t know where to start?

Climate change is not specifically mentioned in the National Curriculum, but we all know it’s an important topic that we need to teach. However, it is quite a complex subject and can be hard to explain to primary-age children.

We have dedicated a whole magazine to explaining this topic in a child-friendly way, without making it feel scary.


How to explain greenhouse gases to Year 3 and 4, to help them understand how our planet is getting warmer.

In our library of downloadable science teaching resources, you’ll find a new lesson pack that explains what climate change is, using simple terms so children can easily understand it. The lesson plan includes a simple experiment that uses chocolate, an upturned glass and a sunny spot to demonstrate the greenhouse effect.

Year 3 and 4 Climate change lesson pack

Climate change can be a scary subject, so we’ve tried to make the messaging as positive as possible so that children understand that if we act now, it’s not too late. Even though they might not be old enough to vote or make rules about the way we live, they are never too young to speak up and influence those in power. We have included a flow chart to help them identify ways in which they are able to make positive changes towards helping to stop global heating. We have also included a climate pledge for children to fill in. Maybe your whole class could make a climate pledge together to display in class so that you can keep checking in and making sure you are all sticking to it.

How can I create a climate change debate in my classroom?

Debates are a great way to get children inspired and motivated. In our Year 5 and 6 pack, we have written a fictitious letter from a made-up sustainable energy department, stating that it would like to offer a few schools in the area some renewable energy resources. Your pupils can debate where might be a good place to install wind turbines or solar panels on your school premises and how the scheme might impact school life. The discussion pack also includes two explanation texts, one on solar panels and the other on wind turbines.

Year 5 and 6 Save our planet lesson pack

Guided reading

To help consolidate pupils’ learning, why not introduce some climate-themed reading into your English sessions from our downloadable reading resources?

We have an inspirational information text for Year 5 readers, showcasing the achievements of ten amazing young climate activists.

Inspire your Year 4 class by reading about the life of sensational scientist David Attenborough.

There’s a fascinating explanation text on wind turbines for Year 3.

For Year 6, we have an interview with plant biologist Professor Joanne Chory, who realised that she could use her knowledge of biology to help solve the problem of climate change.

Great resources! Using as a whole class reading text – my year 4 class will love it! Lovely, visual text in the format of an interview and a good range of questions, (including ‘test style’) which all fit nicely into the VIPERS strands! Thank you!

Year 4 teacher


Post Comment

Teaching teeth in year 4

Are you looking for planning resources for teaching teeth in year 4? Here’s how you can use our new downloadable teeth teaching resources to easily create memorable lessons that produce the sticky knowledge that Ofsted will be looking for…

Where to start?

Teeth should be taught before the digestive system. By year 4, most children will have lost several of their baby teeth and will be at the in-between stage with a mixture of adult teeth, baby teeth and some gaps. It’s fun to get pupils to look in a mirror and examine their own mouths! Children will already know that they have two sets of teeth. What they probably don’t know is that their adult teeth started growing while they were still a baby! They probably also don’t know how many teeth they have, what they are called and what they are used for. Our Model Mouth Lesson Pack answers all of these questions. It has been written by an experienced primary school teacher and is ideal for teaching teeth to year 4 pupils. The downloadable pack includes:

  • A teeth lesson plan
  • A PowerPoint presentation
  • Instructions for making a model mouth
  • A printable Wibble Wobble tooth game
Model Mouth lesson pack

Why build a 3D model mouth rather than asking children to label
a worksheet?

All pupils learn differently, and to create sticky knowledge children need memorable experiences. The visual and kinaesthetic learners are more likely to remember making a 3D model mouth than filling in a worksheet. They will physically make 32 teeth and mould each tooth into the correct shape. Once the models are complete, you can discuss how we keep teeth healthy. Pupils could even practise brushing their model teeth

How to evidence the lesson

If your planning isn’t enough evidence, pupils could use the Keynote app on an iPad to record themselves describing their model mouth and each tooth’s name and function. If you need evidence in their books, you could print a photo of the model and during morning work the next day, pupils could label and annotate it. This would mean that they go back over their learning from the day before, helping the knowledge to stick. Our Wibble Wobble board game is also a good way for children to revisit the subject. Knowledge organisers can be an additional tool to help remind children of previous learning, or to use as a scaffold – not for answers!

A3 vocabulary poster and Knowledge organiser

What to cover next

Pupils should then research other animals, both herbivores and carnivores, that have teeth. What similarities and differences do they notice? Do all the animals have the same number of teeth? Do they all have molars, canines and incisors? Are they called something different? Why don’t some animals have teeth? Once children start researching, they will hopefully come up with lots of questions they would like to find out the answers to. Our downloadable Animal Antics text on vipers is a good place to start.

A non-chronological report on vipers

Further investigations

We also have another year 4 downloadable lesson plan on teeth, which is an observation over time enquiry. Pupils will set up an investigation to observe eggshells in different liquids. Eggshells and teeth are both made of calcium-based compounds so this is a good visual demonstration of how some drinks can cause damage to our teeth. Our lesson plans always explain the science behind the lessons – teachers can’t remember everything!

Dissolving teeth lesson pack

How to make teeth cross-curricular

Making the model mouth links to art and sculpture. There are also lots of ways to embed the pupil’s science learning in your school day. Using science texts in guided reading or whole class reading sessions is an easy way for children to delve further into the subject matter and acquire more knowledge. We have three reading comprehension packs for year 4:

We also have a bank of spectacular science images that are perfect for promoting discussion. They feature a striking scientific image, along with a couple of questions. As you click through the PowerPoint presentation, the answers to the questions will be revealed. Pupils should try to answer the questions as you go. The presentation to use for teeth is called ‘Smile crocodile’. It only takes ten minutes so it can slot into those awkward times in the school day – for example, straight after lunch while you are waiting for everyone to come in.

Spectacular science image

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, memorable lessons 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 £190 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 just 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

“Using Whizz Pop Bang school resources has enabled investigations to be an integral part of my science planning. I now have investigations and experiments throughout my planning rather than just at the end. The lessons are easy to resource and the pack has everything I need to teach the lesson so it saves me time as well!” Louise Hampson, Year 3 teacher 


Post Comment