Safe Ways to Investigate: a skill companion

A small set of reusable sheets that grow one inquiry skill: planning the safe steps of a test, telling a safe action from a risky one, and tidying up at the end. Print the scaffolds once and slot them into the science lessons you are already teaching.

What a skill companion is

Inquiry skills are not a topic of their own. Planning a safe test grows inside the science units a class teaches all year, such as Changing Materials, Making Sounds and Earth and the Sky. So this pack is not a full term of lessons. It is a safe-steps planner, a safety checklist and cut-out safe-or-risky cards, a map of where they fit, a short stand-alone mini-lesson and an answer sheet.

Start here: five minutes

1. Read the pairing map on the next page: it shows which scaffold fits which science lesson.
2. Print the safe-steps planner and the safety checklist, one each per child, whenever a lesson runs a hands-on test.
3. Cut out the safe-or-risky cards once. They are reused all year, in any topic.
4. Open the free interactive unit on your board when you want a worked example of the skill.
5. Run the one-page mini-lesson first if you want to teach the skill before folding it into a topic.

No science background needed

This pack is written for the busy generalist teacher. Each scaffold explains itself in plain words, and the answer sheet gives model responses and look-fors for every Year 2 topic, so you can walk in and use it.

Slot the skill into your science lessons

The same skill of planning a safe test fits into every science unit. This map shows a hands-on test children can run in each Year 2 topic, the safe steps to plan for it, and which scaffold to reach for. You do not run these as extra lessons; you fold them into the science you teach.

The safe test, on the board

When you want a worked example on the board, open the interactive unit and use the picture that matches the step children are working on.

• Choose the safer way to set up: “Pick the safer way to fill the cups”.
• Change just one thing and hold the rest safe and fair: “Follow the steps and change just one thing”.
• Sort the safe actions from the risky ones: “Sort the safe actions from the risky ones”.

How the scaffolds build the skill

The safe-steps planner turns a test into a short list of safe steps, in order. The safety checklist is the quick check children run before they start. The safe-or-risky cards sharpen the hardest part: telling a safe action from a risky one. Used together across the year, they make planning a safe test a habit.

Our safe test plan

Before you start a test, plan the safe steps and write them in order. Then follow your own plan. Ask an adult for help with anything warm, heavy or sharp.

Our question

Our prediction (a sensible guess)

Our safe steps, in order

1. Before we start, ask an adult to
2. Keep our space
3. During the test, only touch
4. At the end, tip out, dry spills and

Teacher note: children plan their own steps. Any step that uses something warm, heavy or sharp is a step an adult helps with. Model one plan on the board before children write their own.

Are we ready? Safety check

Tick every box before you begin. If a box is still empty, that is the thing to fix first.

All boxes ticked? Then we are ready to start.

Teacher note: any empty box is the thing to fix first. Sort it out together before the test begins, so every child starts safely.

Safe or risky?

Cut out the cards. Sort them into two piles: safe ways to run a test, and risky ways. A safe tester keeps the safe pile and fixes the risky ones.

Teacher note: the two piles are “safe” and “risky”. The answer sheet lists which is which, and why. The blank cards let children add their own safe steps.

Plan it safe

Use this stand-alone lesson to teach the skill on its own, before you fold it into a science topic. It runs the scaffolds in this pack in one short block, so children meet the whole skill in one go and then reuse the sheets all year.

We are learning to

• plan the safe steps of a test before we start,
• tell a safe action from a risky one,
• tidy up so the space is safe for the next class.

Success criteria

• I can plan a safe way to test my question.
• I can spot a risky action and say how to fix it.

You need

• the safe-or-risky cards (scaffold 3), one set per table, cut out ahead or by fast finishers,
• the safe-steps planner and the safety checklist (scaffolds 1 and 2), one each per child,
• a simple test to plan together, such as which cup keeps water warmest,
• the free interactive unit on your board, if you have one (optional).

Lesson flow (about 30 minutes)

Running it shorter? Stop after Safe or risky, and pick up Plan it safe inside your next science lesson, where children plan a real investigation.

Watch for these ideas

• Doing the risky thing because it is faster. Faster is not worth a burn or a fall.
• Forgetting the tidy-up. The test is not finished until the space is safe again.
• Thinking safe means no fun. A safe plan still lets you find a real answer.

Make it easier, make it bigger

• Easier: sort just four cards, two safe and two risky.
• Bigger: write a brand-new safe step on a blank card and swap it with another table to sort.

Answers and look-fors

The next sheet has the card answers, model safe steps across the Year 2 topics, and a quick three-level guide.

Answers and look-fors

Safe or risky? card answers

The blank cards children write are marked the same way: does the action keep everyone safe, or could it lead to a burn, a fall, a slip or a mess?

Safe-steps planner: what a good plan looks like

Plans will vary, and that is fine. The point is safe steps in order, with an adult helping for anything warm, heavy or sharp. Here is a safe step that fits each Year 2 topic.

A quick three-level guide

A child at standard plans safe steps in order, tells safe from risky, and tidies up. The skill grows all year, so keep the scaffolds coming back in every science topic.