Use these circuits worksheets for Year 4 to investigate simple battery-and-bulb circuits and introduce the idea of switches…
Investigating circuits Year 4 worksheet
This worksheet offers students diagrams of simple battery-and-bulb circuits. Pupils have to predict whether each circuit has been completed properly so the bulb lights up.
They can then test the circuit to see if they were correct, and make scientific deductions as to why the circuit did or did not work.
Introducing a switch worksheet
This circuits Year 4 worksheet looks at simple circuits, and introduces a switch. There are nine diagrams for children to predict if the bulb will light up or not, and for them to test out to see if they were correct.
Learning objectives
Pupils will need to recognise that a switch opens and closes a circuit. They’ll need to associate this with whether or not a lamp lights in a simple series circuit, based on whether or not the lamp is part of a complete loop with a battery.
Pupils can try constructing the simple series circuits, trying different components such as bulbs, buzzers and motors, and including switches. They could then go on to use their circuits to create simple devices.
Pupils should observe patterns. For instance:
- bulbs get brighter if you add more cells
- metals tend to be conductors of electricity
- some materials can be used to connect across a gap in a circuit, and some cannot
Find out more about Sigma Science. Download our free electricity Year 4 PowerPoint.
