• Quick retrieval from earlier learning (Body parts and the five senses). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
• Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.

1. Which body part do you use for hearing a whisper? (ears / tongue / nose / eyes) → earsPrompt: Is it about seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting or touching?
2. Which of these do you do with your ears? (reading a book / hearing a whisper / feeling a cold ice cube / tasting salty crisps (chips)) → hearing a whisperPrompt: Act out each one. Which body part are you using?
3. Our senses: which statement is true? (Smell helps us taste food. / We hear with our eyes. / Each part of the tongue can only taste one flavour. / Only fingers can feel touch.) → Smell helps us taste food.Prompt: Think about what each body part does.

• Ask everyone to find their pulse, then jump for 30 seconds and find it again.
• Share the objective: Senses send information to the brain, which decides what to do. Read the success criteria together.

• Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
• Example: What does this sense organ detect: skin?
• Step 1: So the answer is: touch, pressure, heat and cold
• Answer: touch, pressure, heat and cold
• 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. What does this sense organ detect: eyes? (sound / light / smells (chemicals in the air) / touch, pressure, heat and cold) → lightPrompt: Each sense organ detects one kind of information.
2. Food tastes of less when you have a blocked nose. Why? (The tongue stops working. / The brain switches off. / Much of what we call flavour comes from smell. / Food changes when you are ill.) → Much of what we call flavour comes from smell.Prompt: Try holding your nose while eating.

• 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. What does this sense organ detect: tongue? (tastes (chemicals in food) / smells (chemicals in the air) / sound / light) → tastes (chemicals in food)Prompt: Each sense organ detects one kind of information.
2. How does information get from your fingertips to your brain? (along nerves, as electrical signals / through the air / through the blood / through your bones) → along nerves, as electrical signalsPrompt: Nerves are like wires running through your body.

Free online practice with hints and printable worksheets for this skill: eurekami.com/science/grade-4.