• Quick retrieval from earlier learning (Adaptations to habitats). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
• Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.

1. Why do ducks have webbed feet? (to push through water when swimming / to keep their feet warm / to grip branches / to dig burrows) → to push through water when swimmingPrompt: Webbed feet work like flippers.
2. Adaptations: which statement is true? (Animals choose to grow adaptations when they need them. / Every animal can live in every habitat. / Cactus spines help reduce water loss and protect it from animals. / A giraffe's neck grew longer because its parents stretched.) → Cactus spines help reduce water loss and protect it from animals.Prompt: Adaptations take many generations to appear.
3. Adaptations: which statement is NOT true? (An adaptation is a feature that helps a living thing survive in its habitat. / Cactus spines help reduce water loss and protect it from animals. / Fish have gills to take oxygen from water. / A giraffe's neck grew longer because its parents stretched.) → A giraffe's neck grew longer because its parents stretched.Prompt: Can an animal decide to change its body for its babies?

• Show a picture of an unusual animal and ask where it might live and how it survives there.
• Share the objective: Camouflage, warning colours and mimicry. Read the success criteria together.

• Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
• Example: Which survival trick is this: a stick insect on a twig?
• Step 1: The animal's colour or shape matches its surroundings, so it is hard to see.
• Step 2: So the answer is: camouflage (blending in)
• Answer: camouflage (blending in)
• Pause after each step and ask a student to say what comes next.

• Do these together. Students try each step on whiteboards before you reveal it.
• Use the hints as prompts rather than giving the answer.

1. Which survival trick is this: a wasp's yellow and black stripes? (camouflage (blending in) / warning colours / mimicry (copying another animal)) → warning coloursPrompt: Is the animal hiding, showing off a warning, or pretending to be something else?
2. Peppered moths in a city with sooty, dark tree trunks were mostly dark. In the countryside they were mostly pale. Why? (The moths chose their colour. / Soot painted the moths. / Birds ate the moths that did not match the trees. / Dark moths are faster.) → Birds ate the moths that did not match the trees.Prompt: Which moths were easiest for birds to spot?

• Students work on the student sheet. Circulate and check the first two answers of every student early.
• Students who finish: write a question of their own for a partner, with the answer.

The 6 questions are on the student sheet below, with answers in the key.

• Two questions on their own. Sort answers into got it / nearly / not yet to plan the next lesson.

1. True or false? Bright colours always mean an animal is easy prey. (True / False) → FalsePrompt: Hiding, warning or copying?
2. Which survival trick is this: a stick insect on a twig? (camouflage (blending in) / warning colours / mimicry (copying another animal)) → camouflage (blending in)Prompt: Is the animal hiding, showing off a warning, or pretending to be something else?

Free online practice with hints and printable worksheets for this skill: eurekami.com/science/grade-3.