Science 1

Some properties of an object can be measured: how long it is, how much flat space it covers and how heavy it is.

Some things about an object can be measured, not just seen.

Five actions can change an object: bending, twisting, stretching, cutting and breaking, like bending a straw or snapping a cracker in two.

An action is something you do to an object.

Length is how long an object is from end to end, and a pencil standing up has the same length, which is then called its height.

Length is how far it is from one end of an object to the other.

Bending and twisting are different actions: bending a pipe cleaner gives it a curve or a corner, and twisting it turns one end one way and the other end the other way.

When you bend something, you push it so it curves or folds, like bending your arm at the elbow.

Area is how much flat space an object covers, so a placemat covers more of a table than a sticky note does.

Area is the amount of flat space something covers.

Seven words tell which way something moves: up, down, forward, backward, sideways, toward and away from.

A kite goes up and comes down.

Fast and slow are about how quickly something moves: a dog runs across the park in a few seconds, and a snail takes many minutes to cross a leaf.

Speed is how fast something moves.

The way an object moves can be changed by its shape, the material it is made of, the texture of its surface and the other objects it meets.

Four things change how an object moves.

Up and down are different directions from forward and backward: a ball thrown to a friend goes forward, and it also goes up and then down.

Up and down are about higher and lower.

The bigger one is not always the faster one: a big turtle is much slower than a small mouse.

Big things are not always faster than small things.

Information about a place is gathered with the senses: we see the trees, hear the birds, smell the flowers and feel the wind.

Your senses are how you learn about the world around you.

Alberta has four seasons, summer, fall, winter and spring, and they come in the same order every year.

A season is a part of the year with its own kind of weather.

Migration is when animals travel from one area to another and back again at the same times each year, as the seasons change.

Some animals do not stay in one place all year.

The seasons change what people choose to wear: warm coats, mittens and boots in winter, and sun hats and shorts in summer.

Before you go outside, the season helps you decide what to put on.

Each sense finds something the others miss: ears can hear a woodpecker tapping that eyes cannot see behind the leaves.

Your eyes cannot see behind a tree, but your ears can hear a woodpecker drumming there.

Plants and animals are both living things: they grow, and they need food and water to live.

A pine tree starts as a tiny seed and grows taller every year.

Every animal needs four things to live: food, water, air and shelter.

These are needs, not treats: without any one of them, an animal cannot survive.

Plants and animals live all over the Earth, from hot deserts to icy oceans, and each kind lives where it can meet its needs.

There are plants and animals almost everywhere: cactuses in deserts, penguins on the ice, fish in the deepest seas, and moss on mountaintops.

Plants make their own food, using sunlight in their leaves, and animals have to find their food, the way a robin hunts for worms.

A plant's leaves catch sunlight and use it, with air and water, to make food for the plant.

Air is the need people forget, because it is invisible, but an animal cannot live more than a few minutes without it.

You can see an animal eat and drink.

Instructions are directions that can be followed, and they come in different forms: spoken, recorded, shown in pictures or written.

A teacher saying 'put on your coat, then line up' is giving spoken instructions.

A hand-washing poster with pictures gives instructions without a single spoken word.

Pictures can show each step: wet your hands, add soap, rub, rinse, dry.

The same instructions give the same result in any form: picture steps and spoken steps for a paper boat make the same boat.

What matters is the steps, not how they are given.

Instructions work when each step is finished before the next one starts, so no step gets missed.

If you try to do everything at once, you lose your place and skip something.

Following two or three steps exactly, like the steps for a paper puppet, gives a result you can see and check.

Instructions are made to get a result.

An investigation can start with curiosity: wondering which ball bounces highest is a question you can find out by testing.

Being curious means wanting to know something.

A prediction is a likely answer to a question, based on what you already know, like predicting that a wooden block will float because wood floats in the bath.

A prediction is not just any answer.

Scientists find answers by investigating, not by just knowing: they wonder, try things and look closely.

Scientists do not just know the answers.

A prediction is not a wild guess: it uses what you know, like 'the big sponge will soak up more water because it is bigger'.

A wild guess comes from nowhere: 'the red sponge, because I like red'.

Many people investigate: teachers, students, scientists, police officers and doctors all find things out by asking questions and gathering clues.

Investigating is not just for people in labs.