• Quick retrieval from earlier learning (How fossils form; Igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
• Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.

1. What type of rock is sandstone? (igneous / sedimentary / metamorphic) → sedimentaryPrompt: Did it form from cooled magma, from layers of sediment, or from heat and pressure changing another rock?
2. In how a fossil forms, what happens straight after "minerals slowly replace the bones over millions of years"? (an animal dies / the soft parts rot away / the rock is worn away and the fossil is uncovered / it is quickly buried by mud or sand) → the rock is worn away and the fossil is uncoveredPrompt: Only the hard parts usually become fossils.
3. What type of rock is pumice? (igneous / sedimentary / metamorphic) → igneousPrompt: Did it form from cooled magma, from layers of sediment, or from heat and pressure changing another rock?

• Pass round different rocks and ask how each one might have formed.
• Share the objective: How fossils form and what they reveal. Read the success criteria together.

• Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
• Example: Why do we have very few fossils of jellyfish?
• Step 1: Soft-bodied organisms rarely fossilise, which is one reason the fossil record is incomplete.
• Step 2: So the answer is: They have no hard parts, so they usually rot before being preserved
• Answer: They have no hard parts, so they usually rot before being preserved
• 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. Footprints and burrows preserved in rock are called… (crystals / trace fossils / body fossils / minerals) → trace fossilsPrompt: They show the traces of activity, not the body itself.
2. Fossils: which statement is NOT true? (Fossils form in a few years. / Fossils show that many species have become extinct. / Insects can be preserved in amber (fossilised tree resin). / Fossils in deeper rock layers are usually older.) → Fossils form in a few years.Prompt: Did people ever meet a living T. rex?

• 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 5 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. Why do we have very few fossils of jellyfish? (They have no hard parts, so they usually rot before being preserved / They live on land / They are too big / Jellyfish never existed in the past) → They have no hard parts, so they usually rot before being preservedPrompt: Most fossils are bones, shells or teeth.
2. Fossils: which statement is NOT true? (Most living things that ever lived did not become fossils. / Humans and dinosaurs lived at the same time. / Fossils in deeper rock layers are usually older. / Insects can be preserved in amber (fossilised tree resin).) → Humans and dinosaurs lived at the same time.Prompt: Did people ever meet a living T. rex?

Free online practice with hints and printable worksheets for this skill: eurekami.com/science/grade-6.