This Year 2 Materials lesson planning pack, 'Exploring Everyday Materials', contains seven ready-to-teach KS1 Science lessons to help your class identify, classify and describe the everyday materials around them. Through fun activities and investigations, your Year 2 children will explore the properties of materials, such as wood, plastic, metal, glass and fabric, and start to explore the uses of everyday materials.

These Year 2 Materials lessons are completely ready for you to download and deliver to your class. Each of the seven lessons comes with a detailed lesson plan with differentiated activities and an alternative activity, a slideshow for the whole-class teaching input and a range of printable teaching resources, such as worksheets, challenge cards and information sheets, to support your class as they explore the uses of everyday materials.

Lesson 1

Sorting Materials

In this Sorting Materials Year 2 Science lesson, your KS1 class will take a look at some familiar materials, such as wood, glass and plastic, and generate vocabulary to describe these materials. They will then go on to explore how materials can be sorted into different groups according to various criteria.

This Sorting Materials Year 2 planning pack contains everything you need to deliver this lesson to your class, including a lesson plan, a fun and engaging slideshow for the whole-class input, differentiated activity ideas and a range of printable teaching resources.

What's included:

Lesson plan
Slides
Activity ideas
Picture sheet
Differentiated worksheets

View Lesson 1

Lesson 2

Natural and Man-Made Materials

Your KS1 class will explore the difference between natural and man-made materials in this lesson. The included slideshow presentation for the teaching input explains the differences between natural and man-made materials and gives your Year 2 children the chance to identify examples of each.

During their independent learning activities, they can then express their understanding of natural and man-made materials in a variety of ways.

This ready-to-teach lesson comes fully prepared with an easy-to-follow lesson plan with three-way differentiation plus an alternative activity, a slideshow for the teaching input, and a range of printable teaching resources.

What's included:

Lesson plan
Slides
Activity ideas
Differentiated worksheets

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Lesson 3

Changing Shape

This fun, tactile lesson encourages your Year 2 class to think about which materials can be squashed, bent, twisted and stretched, as well as whether the changes made are permanent or temporary.

Your children will start by exploring how plasticine changes from squashing, bending, twisting and stretching. They will then have the opportunity to explore different materials, such as sponges and elastic bands, to see what happens when they are manipulated. Do they keep their shape? Can you change the shape back?

This lesson pack contains all the resources you need in order to deliver this lesson, including a lesson plan, slideshow and printable teaching resources. It's all ready for you to download and teach!

What's included:

Lesson plan
Slides
Activity ideas
Differentiated worksheets

View Lesson 3

Lesson 4

Metal and Plastic

During this lesson your Year 2 class will explore objects that are sometimes made from metal and sometimes made from plastic. They will begin to think about the purpose of the object and circumstances when using a particular material is appropriate.

Your class will also explore objects that are made from metal and plastic, like a frying pan, and discuss why each material has been used

A lesson plan, slideshow and printable teaching resources are all included in this planning pack.

What's included:

Lesson plan
Slides
Activity ideas
Differentiated worksheets
Fact cards

View Lesson 4

Lesson 5

Turning Wood into Paper

In this lesson, your Year 2 class will discover how wood is made into paper. They will be encouraged to think logically about why we write on paper and not wood, and why wood is generally cut into uniform planks before it is used.

During their independent learning activities, your KS1 children can learn more about the paper making process, explore deforestation or try making a bridge out of paper that a toy car can cross.

Everything you need in order to teach this lesson is included within this download – a lesson plan, a slideshow for the teaching input, differentiated activity ideas and a range of printable teaching resources.

What's included:

Lesson plan
Slides
Activity ideas
Differentiated worksheets
Fact sheet
Challenge card

View Lesson 5

Lesson 6

Investigating Spoons!

Now that your Year 2 class have begun to look at materials scientifically, they will explore in more detail how the material used effects the purpose of an object. They will do this by looking at different objects (like a plastic, a metal and a wooden spoon) and discussing where and when they are likely to be used and by who.

To finish the lesson your class will decide the best materials to use when making products for characters with different problems.

This lesson contains a lesson plan, a slideshow presentation for the teaching input, differentiated activity ideas and a range of printable teaching resources.

What's included:

Lesson plan
Slides
Activity ideas
Differentiated worksheets

View Lesson 6

Lesson 7

Material Inventions and Discoveries

The final lesson in this series looks at the inventions of Dunlop, Macintosh and McAdam and why their material inventions were so important. Your Year 2 class will also find out about some modern day material inventions in order to gain an understanding that materials are still being changed today.

The activities for their independent learning time encourage your KS1 children to think about materials like denim and come to conclusions about why it was invented. Your class will also have the opportunity to come up with their own material inventions before completing the End of Unit Quiz.

This lesson comes fully planned and ready to teach, including a detailed lesson plan, a slideshow for the teaching input, differentiated activity ideas and a range of printable resources.

What's included:

Lesson plan
Slides
Activity ideas
Differentiated worksheets
Reason cards
Invention sheets
End of unit quiz

View Lesson 7