Electricity at Primary Level
A list containg lesson plans, activity sheets, short video clips to introduce lessons and teaching ideas all relating to electricty.
- ALL
- Video
- Activity sheet
Video
How Electricity is Used
A short video clip suitable as a short starter activity to challenge children to think about how electricity is used.
Examples of the uses of electricity, shown in the video include:
• lighting
• heating
• generating movement (electric motors)
• computers
• cooking (microwave oven)
The Apprentice Electrician
A short video showing a great way of presenting electricity to Year Four.
Working in groups as apprentice electricians children perform a variety of timed tasks in order to receive a certificate.
Tasks include making a circuit with a light in it, making a circuit with a buzzer and making a circuit with two lights.
Electricity
This video shows great ways of presenting electricity, they are:
A role-playing activity demonstrating how electricity is instant with the use of a skipping rope circuit.
Year Five children work in groups to design and create electrical circuit games.
Children in Years Five and Six ask questions to guess which electrical component is hidden in a box.
All ideas could be adapted to be used with younger children.
Electricity Circuits
A video of a Year six lesson on introducing electrical circuits. It shows a game matching pictures of components with their descriptions and symbols. A great way to develop thinking and communication skills and assesses the previous knowledge at the start of the topic.
Role play with children physically representing the different parts of a circuit.
Things That Use Electricity
A short video which encourages primary school children to think about the items in a house that use electricity.
A great way of introducing the topic of electricity.
Activity sheet
Electricity: it's electric
This Hamilton Trust resource includes lesson plans, practical activities and printable sheets for Year Four work on circuits and conductors.
The lessons are:
• What is a circuit?
• Mains electricity vs batteries
• Electrical conductors
• Cables and plugs
• Switches
• Brighter bulbs
Electricity
Six lessons on electricity from Hamilton Trust. The resources include lesson plans, practical activities and worksheets. Suitable for upper KS2 children revise simple circuits then gain lots of hands on experience with symbols, diagrams and incomplete circuits. They investigate the effect of the length of wire in a circuit, compare series and parallel circuits and finally face some circuit challenges!
Steady Hand Games
A great activity to see circuits in action and also could be extended into a D & T project on designing a game.
Children need to navigate a wire loop along a bent wire course without touching them together and completing the circuit. If this happens, the circuit is completed and a buzzer sounds. It can be designed in any shape and switches can be built in.
Circuit Clowns
Great for Year Four lessons on circuits. A variety of electrical circuits are used to make a clown with a nose that lights up and a bow tie that spins. Children use a range of components that include wire, batteries, buzzers, lights and switches.
