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Term pack

Year 6 Science

Name: ________________________

Skills in this pack

  • Living and non-living
  • Materials around us
  • States of water and the water cycle
  • Exploring magnets
  • Temperature and its measurement
  • Measuring length

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Year 6 Science · 1 of 6

Living and non-living

Use the features of living beings to sort living from non-living, and follow a life cycle round from one stage to the next.

Before you start

Which way each part of this germinating seed grows.

123
  1. 1. Shoot
  2. 2. Seed
  3. 3. Root

The shoot grows upwards into the air and the root downwards into the soil. Turn the seed upside down before planting it and the root still finds its way down.

  1. 1.Avadhi finds a shell lying still on the sand. What does her mother tell her about it?

    • a) It stopped being living once it stopped moving
    • b) Shells are empty by the time they reach the shore
    • c) It is a stone that looks like a shell
    • d) It may be part of the body of a living snail

  2. 2.A car moves along a road. Why does the chapter still put it in the non-living group?

    • a) It does not grow, and it cannot produce another car
    • b) It was made in a factory rather than born
    • c) It moves too fast to be living
    • d) It runs on fuel instead of on food

  3. 3.A mosquito's life cycle joins up, so start it from the egg and put the four stages in order from there.

    • Egg
    • Larva
    • Adult
    • Pupa

  4. 4.A frog's life cycle joins up too. Start from the eggs and put the four stages in order from there.

    • Eggs
    • Adult frog
    • Froglet
    • Tadpole

  5. 5.The touch-me-not folds its leaves when you brush against them. What does that show?

    • a) The leaves have died at that moment
    • b) Plants respond to stimuli, as animals do
    • c) The plant is trying to move somewhere else
    • d) The plant is excreting

  6. 6.Anything that prompts a living being to respond has a one-word name. What is it?

  7. 7.Tap the part of this germinating seed that grows downwards.

    Write the number of the part.

    123

  8. 8.Match each word to what it means.

    • Stimulus
    • Excretion
    • Reproduction
    • getting rid of the body's waste
    • what keeps a kind of living being going
    • anything that prompts a living being to respond

Living and non-living · Year 6 Science · www.arenapublications.com/learn

Year 6 Science · 2 of 6

Materials around us

Group materials by whether you can see through them, whether they dissolve in water, and whether they shine — and say what makes something matter.

Before you start

How much of the shape behind each pane gets through.

123
  1. 1. Window glass
  2. 2. Butter paper
  3. 3. Cardboard

The same shape sits behind each of the three panes: sharp through the transparent one, blurred through the translucent one, and hidden by the opaque one. Translucent is its own group, not a weak kind of transparent.

  1. 1.Sort each material by how much you can see through it.

    Groups: Transparent · Translucent · Opaque

    • Frosted glass
    • Air
    • Butter paper
    • Wood
    • Cardboard
    • Window glass

  2. 2.Arranging objects into groups on the basis of a property they share has a name. What is it?

  3. 3.A freshly cut piece of iron shines, but an older piece looks dull. What does the chapter give as the reason?

    • a) Iron is non-lustrous once it has been cut
    • b) The older piece has stopped being a metal
    • c) Air and moisture have acted on the older surface
    • d) The older piece was not iron to begin with

  4. 4.Which units does the chapter give for measuring mass?

    • a) Metre and centimetre
    • b) Second and minute
    • c) Litre and millilitre
    • d) Gram and kilogram

  5. 5.Match each word to what it describes.

    • Transparent
    • Translucent
    • Opaque
    • you can see through it clearly
    • you cannot see through it
    • you can see through it, but not clearly

  6. 6.Anything that occupies space and has mass is given one general name. What is that name?

  7. 7.Sort each material by whether its surface shines.

    Groups: Lustrous · Non-lustrous

    • Paper
    • Jute
    • Gold
    • Aluminium
    • Copper
    • Rubber

  8. 8.Rubber is harder than sponge but softer than iron. What does that tell you about hardness?

    • a) Rubber has no hardness of its own
    • b) Hardness changes with the weather
    • c) It is relative — a material is hard or soft compared with another
    • d) Sponge and iron are the same hardness

Materials around us · Year 6 Science · www.arenapublications.com/learn

Year 6 Science · 3 of 6

States of water and the water cycle

Tell the three states of water apart by how they behave, name the changes between them, and follow water round the water cycle.

Before you start

The stages water passes through on its way from the ocean and back again.

1234
  1. 1. Evaporation
  2. 2. Condensation
  3. 3. Rain
  4. 4. The ocean

Water rises from the ocean as vapour, cools high up into cloud droplets, falls back as rain and flows to the ocean again. There is no first stage — water has been going round this loop far longer than anyone has been watching it.

  1. 1.Clothes take longer to dry on a rainy day than on a dry one. What is the reason the chapter gives?

    • a) Rainwater is heavier than ordinary water
    • b) The air already holds a lot of water vapour
    • c) Evaporation stops below a certain temperature
    • d) Cloth soaks up more water when it is cloudy

  2. 2.Cloud droplets are light enough to float. What has to happen before they fall as rain?

    • a) The droplets freeze solid and drop as ice
    • b) Many droplets join into drops heavy enough to fall
    • c) The cloud runs out of dust particles to sit on
    • d) The wind pushes the droplets downwards

  3. 3.Water is put into a freezer and turns into ice. What is this change called?

    • a) Freezing
    • b) Evaporation
    • c) Melting
    • d) Condensation

  4. 4.Dew forms on plants overnight, and drops gather under the lid of a boiling pan. What is the name of the change turning water vapour back into liquid?

  5. 5.Water moves round between the Earth's surface and the atmosphere and comes back again. This circulation has a two-word name. What is it?

  6. 6.Sort each substance by the state it is in.

    Groups: Solid · Liquid · Gas

    • Milk
    • Stone
    • Water
    • Oxygen
    • Ice
    • Water vapour

  7. 7.An ice cube left on a table turns into water. What is this change called?

    • a) Melting
    • b) Freezing
    • c) Condensation
    • d) Evaporation

  8. 8.Wet clothes dry, a mopped floor dries, and a puddle disappears. What is the name of the change turning that water into vapour?

States of water and the water cycle · Year 6 Science · www.arenapublications.com/learn

Year 6 Science · 4 of 6

Exploring magnets

Sort materials into magnetic and non-magnetic, find the poles of a magnet, and work out what happens when two magnets are brought together.

Before you start

Along a bar magnet, the pull is strongest at some places and weakest at others.

123
  1. 1. North pole
  2. 2. The middle
  3. 3. South pole

Iron filings crowd at the two ends and hardly any stick along the middle. The two ends behave the same way towards filings; what tells them apart is how they behave towards another magnet.

  1. 1.A piece of wood is slipped between a bar magnet and a compass needle. What happens to the needle's deflection?

    • a) It stops at once, because wood blocks magnets
    • b) It doubles, because wood strengthens the magnet
    • c) The needle turns to point at the wood instead
    • d) It stays much as it was — the magnet's effect reaches through the wood

  2. 2.The North pole of a bar magnet is brought towards the North pole of a compass needle. What does the needle do?

    • a) It spins right round and stops
    • b) It moves closer
    • c) It stays exactly where it was
    • d) It moves away

  3. 3.Put the steps for turning an ordinary iron sewing needle into a floating compass back into order.

    • Push the needle through a piece of cork
    • Stroke the needle from end to end with one pole of a magnet, 30 to 40 times
    • Check the needle now attracts iron filings
    • Float the cork in a bowl of water

  4. 4.Which of these is a shape the chapter names for a magnet?

    • a) A cone magnet
    • b) A ring magnet
    • c) A cube magnet
    • d) A spiral magnet

  5. 5.Two magnets are brought close, pole to pole. Sort each pairing by what it does.

    Groups: Attract · Repel

    • Two unlike poles, North facing South
    • Two unlike poles, South facing North
    • Two like poles, South facing South
    • Two like poles, North facing North

  6. 6.Which of these is good practice for looking after a magnet?

    • a) Tap it with a hammer to straighten it
    • b) Store it loose at the bottom of a bag
    • c) Keep it away from a mobile phone
    • d) Warm it gently before use

  7. 7.A magnet hangs from a thread and is free to turn. It settles along a line joining which two directions? Answer with both, joined by a hyphen.

  8. 8.Iron filings are scattered under this bar magnet. Tap the part where the fewest of them would stick.

    Write the number of the part.

    123

Exploring magnets · Year 6 Science · www.arenapublications.com/learn

Year 6 Science · 5 of 6

Temperature and its measurement

Say why touch cannot judge hotness, read a thermometer correctly, and convert a Celsius temperature to the Kelvin scale.

Before you start

Slide along this laboratory thermometer's scale. Its range runs from one end to the other, and each small step is ten degrees.

-101030507090110

A clinical thermometer covers nothing like this stretch, which is why it cannot be used on boiling water or on ice.

  1. 1.The normal temperature of a healthy human body is taken to be what, in degrees Celsius? Answer with a number.

  2. 2.Why must a laboratory thermometer be read while its bulb is still in the water?

    • a) The scale becomes unreadable out of water
    • b) The liquid column starts to fall the moment it is taken out
    • c) The glass cracks if it is lifted out too quickly
    • d) The reading takes an hour to settle

  3. 3.A temperature of 37.0 °C on the Celsius scale is the same temperature as which reading on the Fahrenheit scale?

    • a) 100 °F
    • b) 37.0 °F
    • c) 98.6 °F
    • d) 273.15 °F

  4. 4.What is the name of the device that measures temperature?

  5. 5.One hand comes out of warm water and the other out of ice-cold water. Both go into the same bowl of tap water, and they report different things. What does the chapter conclude?

    • a) Touch is not a reliable way to decide how hot something is
    • b) The tap water changed temperature in between
    • c) One of the hands is faulty
    • d) Warm water makes whatever follows feel cold

  6. 6.Between which two temperatures does human body temperature normally stay?

    • a) 0 °C and 100 °C
    • b) 35 °C and 42 °C
    • c) -10 °C and 110 °C
    • d) 20 °C and 30 °C

  7. 7.A thermometer that reads a person's temperature without touching them has a name in the chapter. Which is it?

    • a) A laboratory thermometer
    • b) A clinical thermometer
    • c) A mercury thermometer
    • d) A non-contact, or infrared, thermometer

  8. 8.What liquid does the chapter say a laboratory thermometer generally holds?

    • a) Air on its own
    • b) Alcohol coloured red, or mercury
    • c) Oil coloured green
    • d) Water coloured blue

Temperature and its measurement · Year 6 Science · www.arenapublications.com/learn

Year 6 Science · 6 of 6

Measuring length

Say why standard units are needed, convert between kilometre, metre, centimetre and millimetre, and read a scale the right way.

Before you start

Slide along this 15-centimetre scale. Between each pair of big marks there is 1 cm, and each of those is cut into 10 parts of 1 mm.

0123456789101112131415

The smallest length this scale can measure is 1 mm, which is one-tenth of one of these steps.

  1. 1.A 15-cm scale is drawn out below. Which mark sits at 7 cm?

    Mark the line with an X.

    0123456789101112131415

  2. 2.A road is 7 km long. How many metres is that? Answer with a number.

  3. 3.You want to measure the girth of a tree trunk. Which is the right instrument?

    • a) A 15-cm plastic scale
    • b) A pair of dividers
    • c) A flexible measuring tape
    • d) A rigid metre scale

  4. 4.Sort each unit by whether it is a standard unit or one taken from the body.

    Groups: Standard unit · Unit taken from the body

    • Centimetre
    • Handspan
    • Kilometre
    • Angula
    • Metre

  5. 5.Match each unit to the kind of length it suits.

    • Kilometre
    • Centimetre
    • Millimetre
    • large distances such as a railway track between two cities
    • everyday objects such as the length of a pencil
    • very small lengths such as the thickness of a page

  6. 6.A stick is laid against a broken scale. One end reads 3.0 cm and the other reads 14.0 cm. How long is the stick, in centimetres?

    • a) 14.0
    • b) 11.0
    • c) 17.0
    • d) 3.0

  7. 7.Which of these is written correctly, following the chapter's rule for unit symbols?

    • a) 15 cms
    • b) 15 cm.
    • c) 15 cm
    • d) 15 Cm

  8. 8.Put the steps for measuring a curved line with a thread back into order.

    • Lay a thread along the curved line
    • Straighten the thread out
    • Mark where the curve begins and ends on the thread
    • Measure the thread against a metre scale

Measuring length · Year 6 Science · www.arenapublications.com/learn

Answer keys — Year 6 Science

In the same order as the worksheets.

Living and non-living

  1. 1. d) It may be part of the body of a living snail
  2. 2. a) It does not grow, and it cannot produce another car
  3. 3. 1. Egg 2. Larva 3. Pupa 4. Adult
  4. 4. 1. Eggs 2. Tadpole 3. Froglet 4. Adult frog
  5. 5. b) Plants respond to stimuli, as animals do
  6. 6. stimulus
  7. 7. 3 — Root
  8. 8. Stimulus → anything that prompts a living being to respond; Excretion → getting rid of the body's waste; Reproduction → what keeps a kind of living being going

Materials around us

  1. 1. Window glass → Transparent; Air → Transparent; Frosted glass → Translucent; Butter paper → Translucent; Wood → Opaque; Cardboard → Opaque
  2. 2. classification
  3. 3. c) Air and moisture have acted on the older surface
  4. 4. d) Gram and kilogram
  5. 5. Transparent → you can see through it clearly; Translucent → you can see through it, but not clearly; Opaque → you cannot see through it
  6. 6. matter
  7. 7. Copper → Lustrous; Aluminium → Lustrous; Gold → Lustrous; Paper → Non-lustrous; Jute → Non-lustrous; Rubber → Non-lustrous
  8. 8. c) It is relative — a material is hard or soft compared with another

States of water and the water cycle

  1. 1. b) The air already holds a lot of water vapour
  2. 2. b) Many droplets join into drops heavy enough to fall
  3. 3. a) Freezing
  4. 4. condensation
  5. 5.
    • water cycle
    • the water cycle
  6. 6. Ice → Solid; Stone → Solid; Water → Liquid; Milk → Liquid; Water vapour → Gas; Oxygen → Gas
  7. 7. a) Melting
  8. 8. evaporation

Exploring magnets

  1. 1. d) It stays much as it was — the magnet's effect reaches through the wood
  2. 2. d) It moves away
  3. 3. 1. Stroke the needle from end to end with one pole of a magnet, 30 to 40 times 2. Check the needle now attracts iron filings 3. Push the needle through a piece of cork 4. Float the cork in a bowl of water
  4. 4. b) A ring magnet
  5. 5. Two like poles, North facing North → Repel; Two like poles, South facing South → Repel; Two unlike poles, North facing South → Attract; Two unlike poles, South facing North → Attract
  6. 6. c) Keep it away from a mobile phone
  7. 7.
    • north-south
    • south-north
  8. 8. 2 — The middle

Temperature and its measurement

  1. 1.
    • 37
    • 37.0
  2. 2. b) The liquid column starts to fall the moment it is taken out
  3. 3. c) 98.6 °F
  4. 4. thermometer
  5. 5. a) Touch is not a reliable way to decide how hot something is
  6. 6. b) 35 °C and 42 °C
  7. 7. d) A non-contact, or infrared, thermometer
  8. 8. b) Alcohol coloured red, or mercury

Measuring length

  1. 1. 7
  2. 2. 7000
  3. 3. c) A flexible measuring tape
  4. 4. Centimetre → Standard unit; Kilometre → Standard unit; Metre → Standard unit; Handspan → Unit taken from the body; Angula → Unit taken from the body
  5. 5. Kilometre → large distances such as a railway track between two cities; Centimetre → everyday objects such as the length of a pencil; Millimetre → very small lengths such as the thickness of a page
  6. 6. b) 11.0
  7. 7. c) 15 cm
  8. 8. 1. Lay a thread along the curved line 2. Mark where the curve begins and ends on the thread 3. Straighten the thread out 4. Measure the thread against a metre scale

Year 6 Science · www.arenapublications.com/learn