Nettles are know mainly for one thing, and it doesn’t make them too popular: their stings! In fact, these much-maligned plants play an important role in our natural world.
Image: Shutterstock
They provide a home for insect species, including butterflies and moths, and are a safe place to live as many grazing animals avoid eating them (for one obvious and painful reason!) Over winter, they are a good habitat for aphids, providing an early food source for ladybirds and blue tits. Later in the year, they produce large amounts of seeds which are very useful for seed-eating birds.
They’re also a great source of nutrients for humans, and spring is a great time to go and harvest some nettles. Just remember to wear gloves and pick away from busy roads and above the height of a cocked dog’s leg đ
Did you know that rocks can morph from one type to another? Itâs all happening right under your feet! In this rocking edition of Whizz Pop Bang, get busy cooking up a chocolate rock cycle, making your own fossils, starting a rock collection, and cutting out and making a twisty rock cycler toy!
You can also find out about mountain goats, make nettle soup and meet space geologist Katie Joy, who studies rocks from the Moon! Find how pneumatic drills can smash up almost anything, discover ten awesomely amazing rocks with superpowers, meet James Hutton, the first person to realise how the rock cycle works, and chip away at the mystery of the walking stones of Death Valley! Rock on!
Ofsted has just published a new research review into science. This is a huge document that takes a lot of digesting! To help you to navigate it, weâre planning to take a closer look at some of the key points for primary school teachers over the coming weeks. Firstly, letâs look at what Ofsted says about curriculum materials, including the use of textbooks:
âThere is evidence that some textbooks in England have become narrowly linked to examinations [footnote 134] and can be a source of misconceptions.[footnote 135] However, high-quality science textbooks fulfil several valuable roles in supporting pupilsâ learning.[footnote 136] For example, they can give clear delineation of contentwith a precise focus on key concepts and knowledge.â
Firstly, we must remember that Ofsted’s science review is not just for primary but also up to KS5. As a primary teacher with over 20 years of experience, I cannot imagine using textbooks effectively with any year group in a primary classroom. It takes me back to my own primary school experience, where the dusty, outdated books were pulled out and I was told to turn to page 96 and that was the only teacher interaction for the entire lesson! This is not what Ofsted is suggesting. At the heart of this is the need for good quality science texts and resources that are accurate and donât contain misconceptions.
The good newsâŚ
This is almost permission to ask your senior leaders for money to spend on good quality science-related texts. The first step should be to check what resources you already have. Make sure that you donât have any outdated science books lurking in the school library. Then check each classroom has access to the relevant science texts for their year group. This will show any gaps.
Magazines are a great source of information. Whizz Pop bang is a monthly magazine which has a team of expert science writers. These are listed at the front of each magazine.
This means everything that is published is scientifically accurate, up-to-date and is written for children to understand in a fun and engaging way. There is new content every month, so itâs never outdated.
An example feature page from issue 70 ‘Terrific Teeth’
Each magazine features an interview with a scientist, an explanation text, instructions to make something eco-friendly, a non-chronological report on an animal and a historical biography of a scientist, explaining how they made a new scientific discovery. In the research review, Ofsted states that pupils should know about how science has helped in the past:
âAs pupils learn science, they also learn about its uses and significance to society and their own lives.[footnote 7] This will highlight the significant contribution science has made in the past. For example, by eradicatingsmallpox and discovering penicillin.â
If you subscribe to the school resources, you will get access to a huge back catalogue of these texts as PDFs in our reading comprehension packs. They have been grouped by year group to ensure progression.
Are you looking for planning resources for teaching teeth in year 4? Hereâs 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 forâŚ
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. Itâs 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 donât know is that their adult teeth started growing while they were still a baby! They probably also donât 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
If your planning isnât enough evidence, pupils could use the Keynote app on an iPad to record themselves describing their model mouth and each toothâs 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 â not for answers!
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 donât 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 â teachers canât 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 pupilâs 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:
Interview with a dentist, an explanation text about an electric toothbrush and the history of the toothbrush.
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 âSmile crocodileâ. It only takes ten minutes so it can slot into those awkward times in the school day â 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 schoolâs 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 ÂŁ190 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 ÂŁ20 for the whole year.
âUsing 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!â Louise Hampson, Year 3 teacher
In Whizz Pop Bang: TERRIFIC TEETH, we interview a dentist who is also an expert on the narwhal tusk which he describes as “the coolest tooth on the planet!” He’s so intrigued by it that he based this brilliant graphic novel on this incredible tusk.
This gorgeously-illustrated tale tells the story of an EcoâHero who is called to the High Canadian Arctic to help the narwhals. Discover the Inuit Legend of the Narwhal, the effects of climate change and impacts of industrial development and the mystery of the narwhal’s legendary tusk.
Meet Picoh! Picoh is a smart little robot that can speak, look around and interact with you when you connect it to a computer. Its LED matrix eyes can blink and change shape. It can smile and frown and it has lights and sound in its shoulders. Whatever Picoh does is all up to your programming skill!
To be in with a chance of winning one of three Picohs from ohbot.co.uk, all you have to do is to code Picoh to tell a joke or say what you love about science! You could also code some actions if you like.
To create your program and see a virtual version of Picoh carrying out your commands, use a web browser such as Chrome and Edge (not Safari) to go to https://scratch.ohbot.co.uk. On the far left of the screen, click on the Ohbot code section (at the bottom) and then drag and drop any commands you want to use. Donât forget to put an event command at the beginning, e.g. âWhen space key pressedâ. If you need some help, read our guide below. Once youâve finished, click on âFileâ and then select âSave to your computerâ to export your program. Email your Scratch file to win@whizzpopbang.com by 8th July 2021. The winning entries will be judged by the Ohbot team, and winners will be selected according to the skill of the coding as well as the funniness/ originality/ cuteness of Picohâs speech!
How to program PicohâŚ
Scratch is a coding platform thatâs ideal for beginners. Itâs really easy to use â simply load https://scratch.ohbot.co.uk in a browser (not Safari) and then you simply drag command blocks from the left-hand panel and drop them into your Scratch coding project. The command blocks click together like the pieces of a jigsaw. The website https://scratch.ohbot.co.uk is all set up for you to start programming Picoh.
To begin, you need to move an event block into your coding project. For example, you could choose âWhen green flag clicked’. This tells the computer to begin your program when someone clicks on the green flag icon.
The âMotionâ and âLooksâ sets of command blocks donât work with Picoh. Instead, select the bespoke section of command blocks, called âOhbotâ (at the bottom left of the screen). Choose one of these blocks and place it underneath your event block. Some of the blocks have dropdown menus that give you more options, for example you can choose to set Picohâs top lip position to 10.
Run your program by clicking on the green flag icon (if that was the event block you chose) and see what happens to Picohâs lip.
To make Picoh talk, select a âSpeakâ command block and type in the words you would like Picoh to say. You can set Picoh’s lips to move automatically when it speaks by choosing the ‘Set lip to’ command and dragging the ‘lip’ command onto that block. You can also change Picohâs eye shape and make Picohâs head turn or nod. Play around with the command blocks to see what Picoh can do. You can even add in a comic pause by using a control command block to make Picoh wait for a set amount of time! Once youâre happy with your program, click on âFileâ and then âSave to computerâ to export your program. Email your Scratch file to win@whizzpopbang.com by 8th July 2021.
If you need some more help, you can download the file below, which is a ready-built Scratch program for Picoh. Once you’ve downloaded the file, go to https://scratch.ohbot.co.uk and then upload the file into your project by clicking âFileâ and then âLoad from your computerâ. Click the green flag icon to watch Picoh in action, then take a look at the blocks of code to see how it was coded. Notice how there are two threads of code (one over to the right of the page). You can alter the code so that Picoh speaks the words that you choose, and you can also change Picohâs actions too if you like.
We’ve got four epic construction kits to give away thanks to Basic Fun UK!
Create four different blasters and target models with the K’NEX K-FORCE Battle Bow Building Set. Use the battle bow to strike targets â it’s up to you whether you’re an agent or an archer!
The set comes with five soft foam darts that can be fired up to 22 metres! Containing 165 classic pieces made of durable plastic material, this set include rods and connectors that join in different ways to build customisable battle gears and target models. The set is also compatible with the entire K-FORCE Build and Blast⢠line.
Looking for some simple science activities to keep children busy during the holidays? Here are three fantastic ways to make paper soar through the air.
Discover new twists on paper planes â just download, print, cut, fold and launch! Try out one design, or challenge your children to make all three and compare how they travel.
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!
The best time to spot the Lyrid meteor in the UK in 2021 is on the night of 21st â 22nd April. This year, it coincides with a gibbous Moon, which means that the night sky will be bright, which makes spotting meteors a little harder â but don’t be deterred! Follow these tips from the Royal Observatory in Greenwich for the best chance of meteor-spotting.
âď¸Find a dark site with an unobstructed view of the sky. âď¸The best time to see the shower is in the early morning of the peak day, which this year is the morning of the 22 April (the night of the 21 April). âď¸Fill your view with the sky and wait! Lying on the ground is a great way to see as much as possible. âď¸Look towards the Vega constellation â here’s a handy map showing how to find it at this time of year thanks to Astronomy Now. âď¸Blanket optional but highly recommended. Reclining deckchairs make an even more comfortable way to view the sky. âď¸Remember to wrap up warm!
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!
Thanks to our friends at Laurence King Publishing, we’ve got five copies of this beautiful book to give away!
Leap into the blue ocean and join your sea turtle guide who’ll lead you on an adventure from the sunny surface to the deepest depths of the oceans.
Explore the five oceans and the creatures that live in these incredible habitats. In A Turtle’s View of the Ocean Blue by Catherine Barr, readers will see our oceans in action and learn what we can all to help to save them.
All over the Roman empire were mints where coins were made.
To make a coin, they put a disc of silver, gold, copper or bronze between two harder metal ‘dies;’ with back-to-front pictures and writing on them. Then they hit them with a big hammer, squashing them together and stamping the coin on both sides.
