Science · Grades 5–6 and 7–8

String of lights

Your child finds what every circuit needs, then compares two ways of wiring one.

Your child checks four things the Pet believes about a drawn string of lights: where the real break is, what finishes the loop, what a switch does, and what happens when a bulb is pulled. At Grade 7–8 the same string is compared wired two ways, series and parallel, and your child predicts which one goes dark when a bulb comes out.

Grades 5–6 and 7–8
15 min
Nothing to prepare
On the screen

Free to sign up.

Is it a good fit?

Ready if Your child knows a torch needs a battery and can follow a drawn loop with a finger.
Too much today? Start with Circuit rescue: the same complete-loop idea, 1–2 to 5–6.
Too easy? The Grade 7–8 level: series against parallel, the middle bulb pulled from both, and why a home is wired the way it is.

What your child practises

A complete loop
Conductors and insulators
Reading a circuit diagram
Series against parallel (Grade 7–8)

Listen for

“It has its own way back, so the others stay lit.”

If your child says something like this, in their own words, the idea has landed. Finishing the rounds means they took part; this is the learning.

Your part

Nothing for the game itself
Each question has a Read it to me button

Take it off the screen (optional)

Look at a real string of lights together and work out, from what happens when one bulb is out, which way it is wired.

The full design

What it is

Electricity needs a loop, all the way round, out from the battery and back. Break it anywhere, by a gap, an open switch or a missing bulb, and nothing lights. At 7–8 the same string wired two ways answers a different question: why does pulling one bulb sometimes take the whole string down, and sometimes just itself?

How it goes

The Pet's claim sits over the drawn string. Your child checks it by tapping the one gap in the wire, sorting three household things into conducts or insulates, or choosing from three. At 7–8 two strings sit side by side, and a prediction never shows the answer in the picture before it is checked: the pulled bulb is drawn, the others stay dark in both strings until a correct answer reveals which one really goes dark. Four rounds make a game.

The Pet

It believes something the loop does not show, never your child: "the battery is broken", "a switch does nothing when it is open", "more bulbs means more electricity, so it should be brighter". It asks your child to follow the wire, out from the battery and back, and when a round is answered it says what the loop showed. Its dare is the next step up: at 5–6, find a real conductor and a real insulator at home; at 7–8, look at a real string of lights and say which way it is wired.

By band

One drawn string, a battery and up to three bulbs. 5–6: find the real break in a gapped loop (it is never the battery's fault); which of three household things finishes the loop, a paperclip or a key, not a pencil or a rubber band; an open switch is a gap on purpose; pull one bulb from a two-bulb string and the other one goes dark too, because they share one loop. 7–8: the same string drawn two ways, series and parallel, told apart behind the same lit-up look; pull the middle bulb from both and predict which goes fully dark (series) and which keeps its other two lit (parallel); the same battery on four bulbs in series glows dimmer than on two, because the push is shared around the one loop; and why a lamp burning out at home never takes the fridge with it.

What it grows

England's national curriculum asks a Year 6 child to associate a lamp's brightness with the circuit it is in and to compare and give reasons for variations in how components function, including an open or closed switch; by key stage 3 it names series and parallel circuits by name, and that the same battery shared among more bulbs in series means less for each.

Done, and what counts as evidence

Done means the four rounds answered. "Found the one gap" or "said which string stays lit, and why" is an observation you may keep. The best record is off the screen: a real conductor hunt, or a look at a real string of lights at home.

What's personal

Nothing: the string is a drawn model, and the memo says so. No real battery, wire or bulb is asked for.