Grade 5 NST Term 2 Week 5: Uses of Metals and Magnet Investigations

Your Week Ahead

This week your Grade 5 learners dive into one of the most hands-on topics in the Term 2 Natural Sciences and Technology programme: the uses of metals. The focus is on investigating how magnets interact with everyday metal objects like coins, iron filings, nails, drawing pins, paper clips, and wire. From there, learners continue building their understanding of how the specific properties of a metal determine what it is used for in real life.

This topic sits in an important spot in the curriculum sequence. Learners have already been introduced to materials and their properties in earlier grades, so they are coming in with some background knowledge about classifying materials. What changes this week is the depth of thinking expected. Grade 5 learners are now asked to make connections between a property (like being magnetic or being flexible) and a practical application (like using iron in construction or copper in electrical wiring). That cause-and-effect reasoning is a key science skill you will be developing throughout these lessons.

Before you start, it is worth doing a quick check on what your learners already know. Most will have played with magnets before and will have strong intuitions, but those ideas are not always accurate. Some learners think all metals are magnetic, for example. This week gives you a great opportunity to test those assumptions through investigation and help learners build more accurate scientific understanding through evidence rather than assumption.

This Week’s Lesson Plan

The three lessons this week move from investigation to application, giving learners time to gather evidence before drawing conclusions.

Day 1: Introduce magnets and magnetic materials. Learners investigate which everyday metal objects (coins, nails, paper clips, iron filings, wire, drawing pins) are attracted to a magnet and record their findings in a simple table. Discuss results as a class and address the common misconception that all metals are magnetic.

Day 2: Explore the properties of different metals in more depth. Learners examine characteristics such as hardness, flexibility, conductivity, and lustre using available samples and resources. Connect each property to a familiar use, for example copper wire in plugs because copper conducts electricity well, or steel in scissors because it is hard and holds a sharp edge.

Day 3: Consolidate learning through a structured activity where learners match metals to their uses and justify their choices using property language. Wrap up with a class discussion or short written response: why does it matter which metal we choose for a job?

Download Your Lesson Plan

Download the full 3-day lesson plan as a Word document. Includes detailed activities, differentiation notes, and assessment guidance.

Download Lesson Plan (Word)