Year 6: Full Lesson Plan - Manual / Resource - Page 2
Y6 Science Lesson Plan: Fascinating Functions
Prior learning
Pupils should be familiar with key functions of the human body and some of its systems, including
muscular, digestive and skeletal systems, from lower KS2. They should be able to apply their
understanding of these systems to a new system - the circulatory.
Pupils should be familiar with the importance of good nutrition for growing and keeping strong.
Pupils should be familiar with the way human bodies change as they age, and how this impacts bodily
function.
Timing
Teaching activity
Let’s get moving!
Start the lesson by getting active! Ask the children to
feel for their pulse (model this). Ask them to observe
how fast their heart is beating for 30 seconds. You can
use the timer on the slide in the Lesson Presentation.
5 mins
Next, ask the pupils to do some physical activity. This
could be star jumps, hops, jogging on the spot, etc. Then
ask them to immediately feel their pulse for 20 seconds
and compare how this is different.
Bring the class back to their seats and ask them to
consider why you just got active. What does it tell us?
The aim here is to get pupils engaged in the concept of
cause and effect - doing one thing leads to another,
albeit on a larger scale in terms of the lesson!
Show children the learning objective and explain that
today they will be exploring how a person’s lifestyle
affects how their body functions, particularly the heart.
Teacher notes
Adapt the physical
activity so that all
children can be involved
and make sure the action
completed is accessible
to all.
You might like to take
this aspect of the lesson
outdoors - for example,
if this session
immediately follows a
break time or lunch, you
could stay out on the
playground to do it! If so,
you’ll need a manual
stopwatch.
The way our bodies function
Explain to the pupils that they’ve just seen what a bit
of exercise does to the body. Ask pupils to talk in pairs
and discuss:
10 mins
What does it mean to be healthy?
What does it mean to be physically fit?
Can you think of three things which affect how well
your body works (functions)?
Some pupils may benefit
from pre-teaching the
vocabulary and basic
concepts in preparation
for this lesson.
Bring the class back and ask them to feed back their
answers. Explore the information on slides 5 and 6
summarising the things that affect the way our body
functions.
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