National curriculum content
- Recognise that light appears to travel in straight lines
- Use the idea that light travels in straight lines to explain that objects are seen because they give out or reflect light into the eye
- Explain that we see things because light travels from light sources to our eyes or from light sources to objects and then to our eyes
- Use the idea that light travels in straight lines to explain why shadows have the same shape as the objects that cast them.
Lesson objectives
- Describe how light travels.
- Explain how the size of a shadow can be changed.
- Explain how our shadows change throughout the day and why.
- Demonstrate how we can change the direction in which light travels.
- Describe the structure of the eye and its function.
- Observe how light can be manipulated.
What we want children to know
- That light DOES NOT come from our eyes, but is reflected from an object into our eyes.
- That shadows are always the same shape as the object blocking them.
- Shadows can change size depending on the position of the light source.
- Light is formed by a spectrum of waves of different colours.
- That rainbows are formed due to refraction.
- Our eyes have different layers and a number of components.
What skills we want children to develop
- Accurately measure how shadows change over a period of time.
- Manipulate the direction that light can travel.
- Identify different components of the eye and explain their function
Vocabulary
Cornea, eye, image, iris, lens, light, light ray, mirror, pupil, reflection, shadow, straight, sun, symmetry