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Physical ScienceMatter Interactions and EnergyYear 1 Science

Light, shadows and sound

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What this lesson covers

  • Things that give us light
  • Dark means there is no light
  • How a shadow is made, and how it changes
  • Why we never look straight at the Sun
  • Sounds come from things that shake fast
  • Loud and quiet sounds
Key idea

Where light comes from

  • Light lets us see.
  • The Sun gives us light in the day.
  • A torch, a lamp, a fire and a phone screen give light too.
  • Things that give out their own light are called light sources.
Key idea

What is dark?

  • When there is no light at all, it is dark.
  • In a dark room you cannot see colours or shapes, because your eyes need light to see.
  • The Moon looks bright at night, but it does not make its own light. It shines with light from the Sun.
Key idea

Try it: does it make its own light?

Key idea

Never look at the Sun

  • The Sun is so bright that it can hurt your eyes, even in a few seconds.
  • Never look straight at the Sun, even with sunglasses on.
  • Never look at the Sun through binoculars or a telescope.
Key idea

How a shadow is made

  • Light travels in straight lines.
  • When an object is in the way, the light cannot get through it.
  • The dark shape behind the object, where light cannot reach, is its shadow.
A torch shines light at a toy; the toy blocks some of the light, leaving a dark shadow on the wall behind it
Worked example

Moving the torch

  • Room 2 shone a torch at a toy dinosaur and measured its shadow on the wall with hand spans.
Where the torch wasShadow height (hand spans)
Close to the toy6
In the middle4
Far from the toy2
Two drawings: with the torch close to the toy the shadow on the wall is big; with the torch far away the shadow is small
  1. Close: 6 hand spansbiggest
  2. Far: 2 hand spanssmallest
  3. The closer the torch, the bigger the shadow
Key idea

Try it: shadow size and the torch

Key idea

Shadows move outside

  • Outside, the Sun makes your shadow.
  • In the morning and late in the day the Sun is low, so your shadow is long.
  • Around lunchtime the Sun is high, so your shadow is short.
  • If a torch moves to one side, the shadow moves to the other side.
Key idea

Making sounds

  • A sound is made when something shakes back and forth very fast.
  • This fast shaking is called vibrating.
  • Shake a rattle, tap a drum or pluck a rubber band and you make a sound.
  • Put your fingers on your throat and hum. You can feel it vibrate.
A rubber band stretched between two pegs, drawn in three positions to show it moving fast up and down after a pluck, with curved lines for the sound
Worked example

Loud and quiet

  • How loud or quiet a sound is, is called its volume.
  • Room 2 tried different actions and listened to the sound each one made.
What they didThe sound
Tapped a pot gently with a wooden spoonQuiet
Hit the pot hard with the spoonLoud
Shook a bottle of rice slowlyQuiet
Shook the bottle fastLoud
  1. A gentle tap or slow shake made a quiet soundsmall action
  2. A hard hit or fast shake made a loud soundbig action
  3. A bigger action makes a louder sound
Key idea

Try it: loud or quiet?

Common mistakes

  • My shadow is a picture of me, like in a mirror.
    A shadow is the dark patch where your body blocks the light, so it has your outline but no colours or face.
  • The Moon makes its own light.
    The Moon only shines because light from the Sun bounces off it.
  • It is safe to look at the Sun if I wear sunglasses.
    Sunglasses do not protect your eyes enough; never look straight at the Sun.
Try it at home

Shadow puppets with a torch

You need: a torch, a small toy, a plain wall, a room you can make dark

  1. Stand the toy on a table near the wall and make the room dark.
  2. Shine the torch at the toy from close up. Look at the size of the shadow.
  3. Move the torch slowly away from the toy, and see the shadow change.
  4. Move the torch to one side, then to the other side.
  5. Look for this: the shadow is biggest when the torch is close, and it moves the opposite way to the torch.

Safety: Ask an adult to stay with you in the dark room so nobody trips, and never shine the torch into anyone's eyes.

Your turn

1

Which two of these give their own light: the Sun, a mirror, a torch, the Moon?

2

Is it safe to look straight at the Sun?

3

You move a torch closer to a toy. What happens to the shadow?

4

How can you make a drum sound louder?

5

What is the string doing when a guitar makes a sound?

Show answer

1. The Sun and a torch. 2. No, never, even with sunglasses. 3. It gets bigger. 4. Hit it harder. 5. It is vibrating, shaking back and forth very fast.

Summary

Recap

  • Light comes from light sources like the Sun, a torch and a fire.
  • Dark is when there is no light.
  • A shadow is made when an object blocks light. It changes when the light or the object moves.
  • Never look straight at the Sun.
  • Sounds are made by things vibrating. A bigger tap or shake makes a louder sound.
Maths

The maths behind it

Year 1 MathsLonger, Heavier, Holds More
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