Year 4 Scientists classifying leaves!

In science, Year 4 are learning about Living Things and Their Habitats. For the past few weeks, our focus has been on classification; creating classification keys to classify different types of plants and animals.

On Tuesday, the children of Ash and Birch explored outside the classroom into Broadford's playground to collect different types of leaves. We are indeed in the middle of winter so it was difficult to find some! We all looked very carefully for leaves on the floor. We then came back inside and worked in pairs to create our classification keys.

We first planned on whiteboards and then drew the classification key on A3 paper. We learned different technical vocabulary, such as lobate, serrate, entire (words that describe the edge of the leaf). We then put this to use for our closed-questions (e.g., Is the edge of the leaf serrated?)

The children worked extremely hard to create their classification key and worked so well in pairs using their reciprocity skills!

Miss Islam and Miss Young are extremely impressed with the amount of scientific enquiry and curiosity in both Birch and Ash!