Y6 Science: Inheritance & Variation | Full Unit

A no-prep, 5-lesson science unit on Evolution and inheritance, written for Year 4 (ages 8-9). Phenomenon-first and three-dimensional: every lesson opens with something to wonder about and builds toward the unit’s big question. Open and teach — full teacher plans, projectable slides, three differentiated pupil worksheets per lesson, a complete printable lab pack, a knowledge organiser, and a baseline + end-of-unit assessment.

Big question: Why do living things look like their parents but not exactly the same — and can where they grow up change how they turn out?

What’s included

• 5 × Teacher lesson plans (Word) on the 5E spine (Engage · Explore · Explain · Elaborate · Evaluate)
• 5 × Pupil worksheets in 3 differentiated tiers (Support / Core / Stretch)
• 5 × Projectable slide decks (PowerPoint, 16:9 widescreen)
• 1 × Full lab pack (Word) — investigation question, fair-test variables, household and lab equipment lists, a real risk assessment, a blank results table, and analysis + conclusion scaffolds
• 1 × Knowledge organiser (Word, A4 landscape)
• 1 × Baseline + end-of-unit assessment with a teacher answer key and three-dimensional items
• Hand-coded diagrams with clear labels for the unit’s key ideas — never AI-generated
• Original illustrations for every phenomenon hook

Lesson outline

1. Living things resemble their parents
2. Variation: alike but not the same
3. Which traits are inherited?
4. How the environment changes traits
5. Inherited or environment? Putting it together