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Draft curriculum content
This page is based on the draft Year 5 content for Science, which is currently open for feedback. Schools are not required to implement changes until the consultation process is confirmed.
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In Year 5, your child will test their ideas and begin to understand how to read simple scientific diagrams like food webs and life cycles. They learn that arrows and labels have specific meanings and help explain how things work. They begin to use science conventions to organise their thinking and communicate clearly. Their understanding of how living and non-living things interact with their environment starts to deepen.
Physical Science#
Materials#
With your child, you could:
- weigh different objects, like a feather, an apple, or a rock, using a kitchen scale, explain that heavier objects have more ‘stuff’ called matter
- fill containers with water and notice that when an object is dropped in, the water level changes, the object takes up space and pushes the water aside
- notice that larger objects take up more space than smaller objects, regardless of how heavy they are
- put objects in water and observe which float and which sink, for example, most wood floats but a coin will sink
- compare a piece of foam and a rock that are the same size, the rock is heavier because it is denser and has more matter packed into it.
What the teacher will focus on
The teacher will focus on density and buoyancy, both in air and water. The student will develop their understanding of mass and volume as separate properties, how density connects them, and why density determines whether objects float or sink in liquids.
For example, by the end of the year, your child may be able to:
- describe mass as the amount of matter in an object, measured in grams or kilograms
- describe volume as the amount of space an object takes up, measured in cubic meters or litres
- state that objects can have the same volume but different masses and vice versa, and that the relationship between mass and volume is called density
- predict whether objects will float or sink based on their density compared to water
- explain that less dense materials float on more dense materials, and more dense materials sink in less dense materials, for example, oil is less dense than water, so it floats on top.
Motion and forces#
With your child, you could:
- hold a magnet near different objects like paperclips, coins, paper, and notice that some are attracted to the magnet and some are not, and talk about how magnetic forces can pull without touching
- get two magnets and put them end to end, showing how they repel and attract each other, and talk about magnets having poles
- drop objects like a ball and explain that all objects fall down, then discuss the invisible force, gravity, that pulls everything towards Earth
- compare lifting a heavy object to a light one and discuss how gravity pulls down on objects, the heavier objects have more mass, while light objects have less mass
- blow on a piece of paper and notice how air pushes against it, then talk about air being a fluid that creates resistance
- push your hand slowly and then quickly through water in a sink or tub, and notice how it feels harder to move fast because of water resistance
- make a simple parachute using a plastic bag and string, drop it from a height, and talk about how air resistance slows it down
- compare floating objects like a sponge and a stone and talk about why some float and others sink, introducing the idea of buoyant force.
What the teacher will focus on
The teacher will focus on forces that can act without contact, such as gravity and magnetism, and forces that act through fluids, like air resistance, water resistance, and buoyancy. Children will test which metals are attracted to magnets, conduct experiments around falling objects, and explore how air and water can slow movement. They will also investigate why some objects float while others sink, and how the properties of fluids affect these forces.
Teachers will introduce simple machines, such as levers and pulleys. Your child will develop an understanding of non-contact forces, such as magnetism and gravity, and contact forces in fluids, learning that weight is a result of gravity acting on mass and that buoyancy depends on the density of the object and the fluid.
For example, by the end of the year, your child may be able to:
- explain that non-contact forces work at a distance without objects touching, for example, magnetism and gravity
- demonstrate magnetic poles using 2 magnets, opposite poles attract, like poles repel
- identify that magnets attract some metals, like iron, but not all metals
- see that gravity is a non-contact force pulling objects towards Earth by dropping objects from different heights
- explain that weight is the force of gravity acting on an object’s mass, for example, using their own mass in kg to calculate their weight on Earth and on the Moon
- point out everyday tools and kitchen implements that are simple machines, and explain that they reduce effort, change the direction of a force, or increase the effect of a force
- predict how magnets will interact and how simple machines will help move or lift objects
- explain that fluids (liquids and gases) exert forces on objects moving through them
- demonstrate air resistance by comparing how a flat object and a scrunched ball fall
- investigate water resistance by moving objects slowly and quickly through water
- explain that buoyancy is an upward force that can make objects float or sink depending on density.
Earth and Space#
With your child, you could:
- track when the Sun rises and sets depending on the season
- draw or photograph the shape of the Moon, noticing how it changes from a full circle to crescent to quarter shapes in a regular pattern, the lunar cycle
- look at a globe and explain that it is a scale model of the Earth, and that it is tilted, which causes the Earth to have seasons, in summer, we are tilted towards the sun, so the sunlight is more direct, making it warmer
- shine a torch on a ball to show how more light falls on the middle than the poles, which is why the North and South Poles are much colder.
What the teacher will focus on
The teacher will focus on the shapes of the Earth and the Moon, as well as their relative positions compared to the Sun. They will also look at the repeating patterns as the Moon orbits the Earth while the Earth orbits the Sun.
For example, by the end of the year, your child may be able to:
- explain that the Earth, Moon, and Sun are roughly spherical and that the Earth is tilted on its axis
- use models to show how Earth's tilt causes seasons, as different parts receive more or less direct sunlight as Earth orbits, which changes daylight lengths and temperatures
- draw a labelled diagram of the lunar cycle, showing how the Moon appears to change shape in a regular waxing and waning pattern
- explain that the Moon reflects light from the Sun and its changing appearance depends on the positions of the Moon, Earth, and Sun
- track that the Moon rises and sets at different times each day in a 29-day cycle
- explain how Maramataka, the Māori lunar calendar, can be used to guide food gathering and production.
Biological Science#
Organism diversity#
With your child, you could:
- look at the outside of an apple and ask why one end has a stalk and the other has a flower shape
- open the base of a flower where the petals meet to find the part that holds the eggs (using a magnifying glass), then cut an apple in half and compare how the seeds are arranged like the eggs were arranged inside the flower
- carefully open a seed, such as an apple, orange, pea, bean, and look at its structures.
What the teacher will focus on
The teacher will focus on explaining how plants, animals, and fungi reproduce in different ways, relating this to the environment in which they live and how they obtain their nutrition.
For example, by the end of the year, your child may be able to:
- describe the different ways animals, plants and fungi reproduce, for example, cows give birth to live young, turtles, birds, and insects lay eggs, plants produce seeds, and fungi have spores
- draw a labelled diagram to show how fruits develop from flowers
- identify how flowering plants spread their seeds by different methods, for example, wings, hooks or attractive fruits or flesh for animals to eat
- explain how plants and fungi can make offspring by extending parts of themselves, for example, strawberries send out runners and spider plants make plantlets at the end of long stalks.
Body systems#
With your child, you could:
- use a paint brush to pollinate tomato flowers, watch the fruit develop, and draw each stage
- take a cutting from a geranium and put it in a glass of water for a couple of weeks until it grows roots, change the water regularly
- observe the fairy ring of mushrooms in a field
- seal some damp bread in a plastic bag, leave it in a warm place for a week, then observe the fungi that grows on it
- wait for a mushroom to open, gently remove the stalk and place it upside down on white paper, then carefully lift the mushroom and look at the pattern formed on the paper, if possible, use a magnifying glass to look at the spores causing the pattern
- watch animals being born or hatching from eggs.
What the teacher will focus on
The teacher will focus on explaining the difference between sexual and asexual reproduction, and the advantages and disadvantages of each method.
For example, by the end of the year, your child may be able to:
- explain that all living organisms reproduce to maintain populations and species
- describe sexual reproduction, where two parents create offspring that share characteristics of both
- identify that animals reproduce sexually: females produce eggs, males produce sperm, which combine during fertilisation to create a new individual
- draw and label a diagram showing how flowering plants reproduce sexually: flowers contain eggs fertilised by pollen to make seeds, which are then dispersed, such as by wind or hooks
- describe asexual reproduction in plants, where new individuals are identical copies, formed via runners or tubers
- step through germination: seeds grow into new plants under suitable conditions, moisture, warmth, oxygen
- explain that fungi reproduce sexually and asexually through fruiting bodies like mushrooms that produce spores, which spread via wind or animals and grow in suitable locations.
Ecosystems#
With your child, you could:
- make compost from kitchen and garden waste and talk about how the scraps have ended up looking like soil
- watch animals eating plants, for example, a rabbit or sheep eating grass
- cut out pictures of predators and prey from magazines and make a collage
- watch insects like bees on flowers and talk about how both the insect and plant benefit
- talk about why we use flea treatments for our cats and dogs, or why heads get itchy when there are nits present.
What the teacher will focus on
The teacher will focus on explaining how ecosystems are groups of different plants, animals, and fungi that interact with each other and the environment, including water, land, and air, and how there can be specific relationships between different animal and plant groups.
For example, by the end of the year, your child may be able to:
- draw a simple nutrient cycle showing producers (plants) making sugars through photosynthesis, consumers (animals) and decomposers (fungi)
- describe predators as hunters that eat other animals, for example, a shark hunts and eats a snapper
- state that mutualism is when two or more different organisms benefit from interacting with each other, for example, a bee pollinates a flower and in return gains nectar
- describe that parasitism is when one organism benefits and the other is harmed, but not usually killed, like fleas on a dog
- explain that soils are a rich ecosystem with rock particles, air, water, plants and animals, and fungi, which help break down and recycle decaying material.
