Guess Who!?
This afternoon, we began our brand new science project called ‘Grouping and Classifying’. We started by discussing what classification means and soon realised that it is the arrangement of living and non-living things into groups or categories. We discussed how this is used in our everyday lives, such as:
-sorting cutlery into types
-sorting recycling into different bins
-the way food is sorted into categories in the supermarket.
The children were then given a range of objects and were tasked with classifying them based on their observable features. The rest of the class then had to guess how the objects had been classified by simply looking at how the groups were split.
We concluded our first session by discussing why scientists use classification. It was fascinating seeing how living things can be put into groups in order to help them study living things. Classification keys also normally involve sub-questions in order to break down the groups into even smaller ones. The children then had a go at this playing the game ‘Guess Who’ and thought carefully on what questions would be useful to ask in order to break the people down into smaller groups quickly in the fewest amount of questions.
Well done, Year 4. Next week, the children will use classification keys in order to name and identify both animals and plants. They will also attempt to create their very own classification key and test each other’s out in order to see if they work effectively.
