Year 2 squash, bend, twist and stretch different materials in science

This week, our eager Year 2 scientists have been busy finding out how the shapes of solid objects made from different materials can be changed by squashing, bending, twisting and stretching.

Children first discussed what they thought these terms might mean and used their bodies to demonstrate these different movements. All children worked together in partners to creatively show the movements and came up with some excellent demonstrations that ‘wowed’ us all! We then began to discuss these terms in a scientific way and how we could perform them working scientifically.

After this, children looked at a range of everyday items and discussed as a class how we could change the shape of each one. Our items included; a sponge, a straw, a pencil, some string, elastic bands, a rock and plasticine.

Children then considered what their predictions might be for certain items - this was tricky without touching! Our scientists then went to work on exploring, stretching, twisting, bending and squashing the items. It was important to work as a group, so that everyone was able to observe closely and share their results. Children then gathered their data and recorded it accurately in their own tables.

Some of the results we were surprised by and this led us to discuss what other items we could test also.

We hope that your scientists will want to continue their investigations using a range of items at home this weekend (with permission of course!)