Year 6 has begun yet another exciting unit with a truly inspiring Hook on 'Forces'. We feel that learning at home should be just as fun and accessible as it is in school and that in no way will online learning be a barrier to what we can achieve.
For this Hook, lots of research went into finding experiments that could be accessible to every child with a lot of thought put into maximum outcomes with limited resources. We felt that children may not have access to scientific equipment but by carefully choosing experiments children could access using for example, paper, their body, water, they could all enjoy the experiments at home. To accompany the experiments, we used inspiring videos that the children could watch again and again even after the lesson had finished. It was wonderful for teachers to receive more videos of children taking part in the experiments later in the day with siblings and parents.
The objective was to learn about a range of forces and began with a knowledge organiser of key vocabulary. The experiments were as follows;
1) The Paper plane experiment using the video below for inspiration
2) The Newton water gravity experiment
3) The balance and centre of gravity experiment
It is important to keep lessons varied and exciting for children, and through vibrant and awe inspiring slides, Year 6 is trying hard to ensure the learning remains as creative, purposeful and effective as possible so that children have life long skills, a broadened knowledge bank and are inspired to ‘find out more’ long after lessons with teachers finish.
We love to hear feedback from the children and often use quizzes and polls to find out what children have learned and what they have enjoyed most so that we can constantly reflect and develop our online lessons.
‘I can't believe it worked. It was amazing. How did the paper stay in place?' Misha 6H
‘I really loved the world record plane the Suzanne - I am really happy to know that it worked when I tried it for myself; Jonas 6M
‘The hook was fantastic. I really enjoyed the world record aeroplane activity and the gravity defying water experiment.’ Elsa 6M
“I enjoyed the hook because not only was it informative to learn about forces, but the experiments let us try investigative skills too!” Rachel 6S
The children used a trial and error approach to the experiments so that they could feel secure that it is not about getting it right the very first time, but that science is a process where we must predict, ask questions, investigate, reflect, conclude and evaluate. The next steps are to carry out the Galileo Pisa experiment to truly understand how Aristotle's theory of mass and gravity was discredited and to construct questions based on this. They will learn more about Newton’s Laws, carry out more investigations and observe an investigation carried out by members of the Year 6 team based on air resistance. We always aim to inspire a true love of learning through our Hooks and all of the lessons we plan. We hope that the Forces unit really does just that!
May the force be with all of us!
Here are the Hook slides for further reading and for you to enjoy with your children at home. We will leave you with this question that the children contemplated;
Year 6 Team
You can read about the Year 6's last Hook on the 'Silk Roads' here.