Key Stage 2 · Year 4 · ages 8 or 9
Year 4 science: what your child learns
Year 4 science covers grouping living things, digestion and teeth, states of matter, sound and electricity. Children use keys to identify plants and animals, follow food through the digestive system, and work out producers, predators and prey in food chains. They watch materials change state and water evaporate, link pitch and volume to vibrations, and build simple series circuits to test conductors and insulators.
Guides for parents
Year 4 science
Digestion, teeth and food chains
What Year 4 children learn about the human digestive system, the four types of teeth and how to build and read food chains, with a worked example and ideas for home.
Year 4 science
Simple circuits and conductors
How Year 4 children build simple series circuits, learn why a bulb lights or not, use switches and test which materials are conductors or insulators, with home ideas.
Year 4 science
Grouping living things and keys
How Year 4 children group plants and animals, use classification keys to identify local creatures, and learn how changing environments can put living things at risk.
Year 4 science
Sound, pitch and volume
How Year 4 children learn that sounds come from vibrations, travel through materials to the ear and vary in pitch and volume, with a worked investigation and home ideas.
Year 4 science
States of matter and the water cycle
How Year 4 children sort solids, liquids and gases, learn melting, freezing, evaporation and condensation, measure temperatures in °C and explain the water cycle.
Everything in the Year 4 science curriculum
The National Curriculum topics for Year 4, in the order the National Curriculum lists them.