Working Scientifically Skills Pack for KS1 and KS2: Skill Slides, Model Answers and Progression

Teach each working scientifically skill with your class, live on the whiteboard

This pack gives you a ready-made slide for each of the six working scientifically skills, for KS1 and KS2. Put the slide on your interactive whiteboard during any investigation, talk it through with the class and type their ideas straight into the boxes. The skill gets taught inside the science you are already doing, so it adds nothing to your planning time.

What you get

• 33 presentation slides in PowerPoint and Google Slides, and in Canva as a presentation and a whiteboard. The Canva versions work with a free Canva account.
• A KS2 and a KS1 slide for each skill: observing and measuring, identifying and classifying, asking questions and planning, setting up tests, recording and presenting data, and drawing conclusions and evaluating.
• A model answer after every skill slide, so the class can see what a good answer looks like.
• A progression slide for each skill that shows how it grows from Year 1 to Year 6, with an example of what a child might say.
• A whole-school skills tracker. Click a term and turn it pink when a year group has practised that skill.
• A 16-page A4 teacher guide with every model answer.
• An A4 sticker sheet of 40 mm round stickers, so each child's book shows which skill they practised. Print it on 40 mm round labels (Avery L7780 or Label Planet LP24/40R), or on plain paper to cut out and glue in.

For subject leaders

Every class uses the same steps for each skill, so working scientifically looks the same from Year 1 to Year 6. The progression slides show staff what each year group should be doing, and the tracker shows which skills each year group has covered. The stickers make a book look quick, because you can see the skills at a glance.

For class teachers

KS1 slides have four steps and KS2 slides have six, so the questions suit the age group. The model answers show the children what a good answer looks like before they write their own. You can print any slide at A3 for groups to use on paper.

How you receive it

You download the PowerPoint file, a Start Here sheet with the links to the Google Slides version and the two Canva versions, the teacher guide and the sticker sheet. Click the link for the version you want, and you get your own copy to edit.

Goes well with

The Scientific Enquiry Planning Pack (£9.99) gives you a planning slide for each type of scientific enquiry, with a model answer after each one.

The six free Working Scientifically progression displays show how each skill develops from Year 1 to Year 6.

You can read about each skill in the blog series Progression in Science: Working Scientifically.