• Quick retrieval from earlier learning (Reduce, reuse or recycle?). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
• Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.

1. Is this reducing, reusing or recycling: putting glass bottles in the bottle bank? (reduce / reuse / recycle) → recyclePrompt: Reduce = use less. Reuse = use again. Recycle = make into something new.
2. Which of these is a way to recycle? (giving outgrown clothes to a friend / taking the same cloth bag to the shop each week / putting empty cans in the recycling bin / switching off lights when you leave a room) → putting empty cans in the recycling binPrompt: Is the item used less, used again, or turned into something new?
3. A class drinks from paper cups and throws them away every day. Which change makes the biggest difference? (Everyone uses their own refillable bottle. / Throw the cups away twice as fast. / Use a new cup for every sip. / Use bigger paper cups.) → Everyone uses their own refillable bottle.Prompt: Which choice means fewer cups are thrown away?

• Show a food web and ask what would happen if one animal disappeared.
• Share the objective: Actions that help or harm the environment. Read the success criteria together.

• Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
• Example: Does this help or harm the environment: picking all the wild flowers in a meadow?
• Step 1: These actions waste resources or hurt living things.
• Step 2: So the answer is: harms
• Answer: harms
• 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. Does this help or harm the environment: picking all the wild flowers in a meadow? (helps / harms) → harmsPrompt: Would animals, plants, water or air be better off or worse off?
2. Bees are visiting fewer gardens. How can a school help? (Plant flowers that bees like. / Cut down all the flowers. / Spray the flowers with paint. / Cover the garden in concrete.) → Plant flowers that bees like.Prompt: What do bees feed on?

• 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. Does this help or harm the environment: pouring paint into a stream? (helps / harms) → harmsPrompt: Would animals, plants, water or air be better off or worse off?
2. Why does planting trees help the planet? (Trees use up all the water so nothing else can drink. / Trees give homes to animals and clean the air. / Trees make rubbish. / Trees make the air dirtier.) → Trees give homes to animals and clean the air.Prompt: Who lives in trees, and what do leaves take in from the air?

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