Theme EYFS Y1 Y2 Y3 Y5
Plants Children know about similarities and differences in relation to places, objects, materials and living things. They talk
about the features of their own immediate environment and how environments might vary from one another. They
make observations of animals and plants and explain why some things occur and talk about changes.		 • Identify and name a variety of
common wild and garden
plants, including deciduous
and evergreen trees.
• Identify and describe the
basic structure of a variety of
common flowering plants,
including trees.		 • Identify and name a variety of
plants and animals in their
habitats, including microhabitats.
• Observe and describe how
seeds and bulbs grow into
mature plants.
• Find out and describe how
plants need water, light and a
suitable temperature to grow
and stay healthy.		 • Identify and describe the functions of
different parts of flowering plants: roots,
stem/trunk, leaves and flowers.
• 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.
• Investigate the way in which water is
transported within plants.
• Explore the part that flowers play in the
life cycle of flowering plants, including
pollination, seed		 • Describe the life
process of reproduction
in some plants and
animals.
Theme EYFS Y1 Y2 Y3 Y5 Y6
Animals Children know about similarities and differences in relation to places, objects, materials and living things. They talk
about the features of their own immediate environment and how environments might vary from one another. They
make observations of animals and plants and explain why some things occur and talk about changes.		 • Identify and name a
variety of common
animals including fish,
amphibians, reptiles, birds
and mammals.
• Identify and name a
variety of common
animals that are
carnivores, herbivores and
omnivores.
• Describe and compare the
structure of a variety of
common animals (fish,
amphibians, reptiles, birds
and mammals,		 • Identify and name a
variety of plants and
animals in their
habitats, including
micro-habitats.
• Notice that animals,
including humans,
have offspring which
grow into adults.
• Find out about and
describe the basic
needs of animals,
including humans,
for survival (water,
food and air).		 • Identify that animals,
including humans, need the
right types and amount of
nutrition, and that they cannot
make their own food; they get
nutrition from what they eat.
• Identify that humans and
some other animals have
skeletons and muscles for
support, protection and
movement.		 • Describe the
differences in the life
cycles of a mammal,
an amphibian, an
insect and a bird.
• Describe the life
process of
reproduction in some
plants and animals.		 • Describe the ways in
which nutrients and
water are transported
within animals,
including humans.
Theme EYFS Y1 Y2 Y4 Y6
Habitats Children know about similarities and differences in relation to places, objects, materials and living things. They talk
about the features of their own immediate environment and how environments might vary from one another. They
make observations of animals and plants and explain why some things occur and talk about changes.		 • Observe changes
across the four
seasons.
• Observe and
describe weather
associated with the
seasons and how
day length varies.		 • Explore and compare the differences
between things that are living, dead,
and things that have never been
alive.
• Identify that most living things live in
habitats to which they are suited and
describe how different habitats
provide for the basic needs of
different kinds of animals and plants,
and how they depend on each other.
• Identify and name a variety of plants
and animals in their habitats,
including micro-habitats.
• 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.		 • Recognise that living things
can be grouped in a variety
of ways.
• Explore and use
classification keys to help
group, identify and name a
variety of living things in
their local and wider
environment.
• Recognise that
environments can change
and that this can sometimes
pose dangers to living thing.
• Construct and interpret a
variety of food chains,
identifying producers,
predators and prey.		 • Describe how living things are
classified into broad groups according
to common observable characteristics
and based on similarities and
differences, including micro-organisms,
plants and animals.
• Give reasons for classifying plants and
animals based on specific
characteristics.
Theme EYFS Y2 Y3 Y4 Y6
Evolution Children know about similarities and differences in relation to places, objects, materials and living things. They talk
about the features of their own immediate environment and how environments might vary from one another. They
make observations of animals and plants and explain why some things occur and talk about changes.		 • Identify that most living things live in
habitats to which they are suited and
describe how different habitats provide
for the basic needs of different kinds of
animals and plants, and how they
depend on each other.		 • Describe in simple
terms how fossils are
formed when things
that have lived are
trapped within rock.		 • Recognise that
environments can change
and that this can
sometimes pose dangers
to living thing.		 • Recognise that living things
produce offspring of the same
kind, but normally offspring vary
and are not identical to their
parents.
• Identify how animals and plants
are adapted to suit their
environment in different ways and
that adaptation may lead to
evolution.
• Recognise that living things have
changed over time and that fossils
provide information about living
things that inhabited the Earth
millions of years ago.
Theme EYFS Y1 Y2 Y3 Y4 Y5 Y6
Humans Children know about similarities and differences in relation to places, objects, materials and living things. They talk
about the features of their own immediate environment and how environments might vary from one another. They
make observations of animals and plants and explain why some things occur and talk about changes.		 • Identify, name, draw
and label the basic
parts of the human
body and say which
part of the body is
associated with
each sense.		 • Notice that animals,
including humans,
have offspring
which grow into
adults.
• Find out about and
describe the basic
needs of animals,
including humans,
for survival (water,
food and air).
• Describe the
importance for
humans of
exercise, eating the
right amounts of
different types of
food, and hygiene.		 • Identify that animals,
including humans, need
the right types and
amount of nutrition, and
that they cannot make
their own food; they get
nutrition from what they
eat.
• Identify that humans
and some other animals
have skeletons and
muscles for support,
protection and
movement.		 • Describe the
simple
functions of the
basic parts of
the digestive
system in
humans.
• Identify the
different types
of teeth in
humans and
their simple
functions.		 • Describe the
changes as
humans
develop to
old age.		 • Identify and name the
main parts of the
human circulatory
system, and describe
the functions of the
heart, blood vessels
and blood.
• Recognise the impact
of diet, exercise,
drugs and lifestyle on
the way their bodies
function.
• Describe the ways in
which nutrients and
water are transported
within animals,
including humans.
Theme EYFS Y1 Y2 Y3 Y5
Materials and their properties Children know about similarities and differences in relation to places, objects, materials and living things. They talk
about the features of their own immediate environment and how environments might vary from one another. They
make observations of animals and plants and explain why some things occur and talk about changes.		 • Distinguish between an
object and the material
from which it is made.
• Identify and name a
variety of everyday
materials, including
wood, plastic, glass,
metal, water, and rock.
• Describe the simple
physical properties of a
variety of everyday
materials.
• Compare and group
together a variety of
everyday materials on
the basis of their simple
physical properties.		 • Identify and compare the
suitability of a variety of
everyday materials, including
wood, metal, plastic, glass,
brick, rock, paper and
cardboard for particular uses.		 • Compare and group
together different kinds of
rocks on the basis of their
appearance and simple
physical properties.
• Describe in simple terms
how fossils are formed
when things that have
lived are trapped within
rock.
• Recognise that soils are
made from rocks and organic matter		 • Compare and group together everyday
materials on the basis of their
properties, including their hardness,
solubility, transparency, conductivity
(electrical and thermal), and response
to magnets.
• Give reasons, based on evidence from
comparative and fair tests, for the
particular uses of everyday materials,
including metals, wood and plastic.
Theme EYFS Y2 Y4 Y5
Changing materials Children know about similarities and differences in relation to places, objects, materials and living things. They talk
about the features of their own immediate environment and how environments might vary from one another. They
make observations of animals and plants and explain why some things occur and talk about changes.		 • Find out how the shapes of solid
objects made from some
materials can be changed by
squashing, bending, twisting and
stretching.		 • Compare and group materials together,
according to whether they are solids,
liquids or gases.
• Observe that some materials change state
when they are heated or cooled, and
measure or research the temperature at
which this happens in degrees Celsius
(°C).
• Identify the part played by evaporation and
condensation in the water cycle and
associate the rate of evaporation with
temperature.		 • Know that some materials will dissolve in liquid to
form a solution and describe how to recover a
substance from a solution.
• Use knowledge of solids, liquids and gases to
decide how mixtures might be separated, including
through filtering, sieving and evaporating.
• Demonstrate that dissolving, mixing and changes
of state are reversible changes.
• 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 and the action of acid on
bicarbonate of soda.
Theme EYFS Y2 Y3 Y5
Forces Children know about similarities and differences in relation to places, objects, materials and living things. They talk
about the features of their own immediate environment and how environments might vary from one another. They
make observations of animals and plants and explain why some things occur and talk about changes.		 • Find out how the shapes of solid objects
made from some materials can be
changed by squashing, bending, twisting
and stretching.		 • Compare how things move on different
surfaces.
• Notice that some forces need contact between
two objects, but magnetic forces can act at a
distance.
• Observe how magnets attract or repel each
other and attract some materials and not
others.
• 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.
• Describe magnets as having two poles.
• Predict whether two magnets will attract or
repel each other, depending on which poles
are facing.		 • Explain that unsupported objects fall
towards the Earth because of the force of
gravity acting between the Earth and the
falling object.
• Identify the effects of air resistance, water
resistance and friction, that act between
moving surfaces.
• Recognise that some mechanisms,
including levers, pulleys and gears, allow a
smaller force to have a greater effect.
Theme EYFS Y1 Y3 Y6
Light Children know about similarities and differences in relation to places, objects, materials and living things. They talk
about the features of their own immediate environment and how environments might vary from one another. They
make observations of animals and plants and explain why some things occur and talk about changes.		 • Identify, name, draw and label the basic parts
of the human body and say which part of the
body is associated with each sense.		 • Recognise that they need light in order
to see things and that dark is the
absence of light.
• Notice that light is reflected from
surfaces.
• Recognise that light from the sun can
be dangerous and that there are ways
to protect their eyes.
• Recognise that shadows are formed
when the light from a light source is
blocked by an opaque object.
• Find patterns in the way that the size
of shadows change.		 • Recognise that light appears to travel in
straight lines.
• 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.
• 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.
• Use the idea that light travels in straight lines to
explain why shadows have the same shape as
the objects that cast them.
Theme EYFS Y1 Y5
Earth and Space Children know about similarities and differences in relation to places, objects, materials and living things. They talk
about the features of their own immediate environment and how environments might vary from one another. They
make observations of animals and plants and explain why some things occur and talk about changes.		 • Observe changes across the four seasons.
• Observe and describe weather associated with the
seasons and how day length varies.		 • Describe the movement of the Earth, and other planets, relative to the Sun
in the solar system.
• Describe the movement of the Moon relative to the Earth.
• Describe the Sun, Earth and Moon as approximately spherical bodies.
• Use the idea of the Earth’s rotation to explain day and night and the
apparent movement of the sun across the sky.
Theme EYFS Y2 Y4
Electricity Children know about similarities and differences in relation to places, objects, materials and living things. They talk
about the features of their own immediate environment and how environments might vary from one another. They
make observations of animals and plants and explain why some things occur and talk about changes.		 • Identify common appliances that run on electricity.
• Construct a simple series electrical circuit, identifying and
naming its basic parts, including cells, wires, bulbs, switches
and buzzers.
• Identify whether or not a lamp will light in a simple series
circuit, based on whether or not the lamp is part of a complete
loop with a battery.
• Recognise that a switch opens and closes a circuit and
associate this with whether or not a lamp lights in a simple
series circuit.
• Recognise some common conductors and insulators, and
associate metals with being good conductors.		 • Associate the brightness of a lamp or the volume of a buzzer with the
number and voltage of cells used in the circuit.
• 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.
• Use recognised symbols when representing a simple circuit in a diagram.
Theme EYFS Y1 Y4
Sound Children know about similarities and differences in relation to places, objects, materials and living things. They talk
about the features of their own immediate environment and how environments might vary from one another. They
make observations of animals and plants and explain why some things occur and talk about changes.		 • Identify, name, draw and label the basic parts of the human body and say
which part of the body is associated with each sense.		 • Identify how sounds are made, associating some of them
with something vibrating.
• Recognise that vibrations from sounds travel through a
medium to the ear.
• Find patterns between the pitch of a sound and features of
the object that produced it.
• Find patterns between the volume of a sound and the
strength of the vibrations that produced it.
• Recognise that sounds get fainter as the distance from the
sound source increases.