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Important update from TheSchoolRun
For the past 13 years, TheSchoolRun has been run by a small team of mums working from home, dedicated to providing quality educational resources to primary school parents. Unfortunately, rising supplier costs and falling revenue have made it impossible for us to continue operating, and we’ve had to make the difficult decision to close. The good news: We’ve arranged for another educational provider to take over many of our resources. These will be hosted on a new portal, where the content will be updated and expanded to support your child’s learning.
What this means for subscribers:
- Your subscription is still active, and for now, you can keep using the website as normal — just log in with your usual details to access all our articles and resources*.
- In a few months, all resources will move to the new portal. You’ll continue to have access there until your subscription ends. We’ll send you full details nearer the time.
- As a thank you for your support, we’ll also be sending you 16 primary school eBooks (worth £108.84) to download and keep.
A few changes to be aware of:
- The Learning Journey weekly email has ended, but your child’s plan will still be updated on your dashboard each Monday. Just log in to see the recommended worksheets.
- The 11+ weekly emails have now ended. We sent you all the remaining emails in the series at the end of March — please check your inbox (and spam folder) if you haven’t seen them. You can also follow the full programme here: 11+ Learning Journey.
If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected]. Thank you for being part of our journey it’s been a privilege to support your family’s learning.
*If you need to reset your password, it will still work as usual. Please check your spam folder if the reset email doesn’t appear in your inbox.
Year 4 Investigative skills worksheets
Gases all around us
Gases are all around us, but they can be hard to spot! Help your child work through this investigation into the gases we can see and what they're used for.
Repeating experiments: changing sounds
A practical investigation into pitch and how sounds change in different conditions.
Researching invertebrates
All of these animals are invertebrates (they have no backbone). Can you do some research on them to find out how their bodies are structured, what they eat and what habitat they live in?
Why do we use grit?
When the roads are slippery in winter we spread grit and then salt on them. But is salt the most effective solid we could use? Conduct this simple experiment to investigate!
What is evaporation?
In this investigation you are going to see if water can move – or does it just change?
Understanding evaporation
Evaporation is the process by which a liquid such as water turns into a gas. In this simple experiment you will investigate how this process takes place.
Pollution investigation
Unfortunately human activities can have negative impacts on habitats and the animals that live in them. This investigation will help you to understand the impact of an oil spill on our ocean habitats.
Observing electricity
Choose a selection of small electrical objects, preferably two-battery operated. Look closely at how the batteries are arranged. Open up a plug and look at the wires, all going in different directions. Can you work with your adult helper to put the plug back together? If you have an electricity meter clock, look at the dial turning and how much electricity you are using.
How does sound resonate?
Resonance is described as the intensification and prolongation of sound, especially of a musical tone, produced by sympathetic vibration. Now ask an adult if you can borrow some glasses to investigate how the amount of water in a glass can affect the resonance sound made.
Electricity in our homes
Choose a room in your house and find all the things that use electricity to make them work. Can you find and draw the electricity source (the plug, switch or battery)? Remember: things that run off batteries also use electricity! If you are drawing light switches, add lines to show the wires which must run up to the light to make it work (even if they are hidden)
Condensation investigation
There is water in air! This simple experiment will help you to quickly see this.
Make a telephone
Have fun with your child whilst they learn more about sound and its properties.
Understand sound and hearing
Your child will have tons of fun doing this experiment whilst learning all about sound and hearing.
Keeping warm investigation
This worksheet prompts your child to think about how they would plan an investigation into keeping warm.
Experimenting with pitch
Suggestions for activities to try at home to help your child investigate factors that affect pitch.
Make a bottle instrument
An activity to encourage children to think about how the amount of air in an instrument affects the pitch it makes.
Predictions and conclusions: changing state
A worksheet describing a prediction regarding changing state with questions for children to think about, using their investigative skills.