• Quick retrieval from earlier learning (Senses send information to the brain, which decides what to do). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
• Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.

1. What does this sense organ detect: skin? (sound / smells (chemicals in the air) / touch, pressure, heat and cold / light) → touch, pressure, heat and coldPrompt: Each sense organ detects one kind of information.
2. The brain stores information from your senses. How does this help you? (You can remember dangers and recognise people and places. / It stops you feeling pain. / It makes your senses unnecessary. / It makes you see in the dark.) → You can remember dangers and recognise people and places.Prompt: How do you know a stove might be hot even before touching it?
3. What does this sense organ detect: nose? (light / smells (chemicals in the air) / tastes (chemicals in food) / touch, pressure, heat and cold) → smells (chemicals in the air)Prompt: Each sense organ detects one kind of information.

• Show a picture of an unusual animal and ask where it might live and how it survives there.
• Share the objective: Animal senses: echolocation, heat-sensing and more. Read the success criteria together.

• Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
• Example: Which special sense does this animal use: rattlesnake (pit viper)?
• Step 1: It can strike warm mice in the dark.
• Step 2: So the answer is: heat-sensing pits that "see" warm prey
• Answer: heat-sensing pits that "see" warm prey
• 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 special sense does this animal use: butterfly? (tastes with its feet / echolocation: hears echoes of its own squeaks / sees ultraviolet patterns on flowers / heat-sensing pits that "see" warm prey) → tastes with its feetPrompt: Think about where it lives and how it finds food.
2. Many deep-sea fish live in total darkness. Which sense would be least useful there? (smell / touch / sight in normal daylight colours / sensing movement in the water) → sight in normal daylight coloursPrompt: What is missing in the deep sea?

• 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. Which special sense does this animal use: honeybee? (heat-sensing pits that "see" warm prey / echolocation: hears echoes of its own squeaks / sees ultraviolet patterns on flowers / tastes with its feet) → sees ultraviolet patterns on flowersPrompt: Think about where it lives and how it finds food.
2. True or false? All animals have exactly the same five senses as humans. (True / False) → FalsePrompt: Match the sense to how the animal lives.

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