• Quick retrieval from earlier learning (Animal body parts and the jobs they do). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
• Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.

1. What job does this body part do: an eagle's sharp claws (talons)? (to keep enemies away / to grab food and suck up water / to feel its way in the dark / to grip and carry prey) → to grip and carry preyPrompt: Think about where the animal lives and what it eats.
2. Which body part helps an animal breathe underwater? (a porcupine's quills / an elephant's trunk / a butterfly's long tongue (proboscis) / a fish's gills) → a fish's gillsPrompt: Picture the animal doing the job.
3. A hummingbird has a long, thin beak. What does this suggest about its food? (It eats leaves from tall trees. / It reaches deep into flowers for nectar. / It tears meat. / It cracks hard nuts.) → It reaches deep into flowers for nectar.Prompt: What shape of tool would you use to reach inside a narrow tube?

• Show a picture of an unusual animal and ask where it might live and how it survives there.
• Share the objective: Inventions inspired by animals and plants. Read the success criteria together.

• Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
• Example: Which part of nature inspired this design: self-cleaning paint that rain washes clean?
• Step 1: Water rolls off lotus leaves and carries dirt away.
• Step 2: So the answer is: a lotus leaf
• Answer: a lotus leaf
• 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 part of nature inspired this design: hook-and-loop fastener (Velcro)? (a duck's webbed feet / burrs that stick to dog fur / a humpback whale's bumpy flippers / a kingfisher's beak) → burrs that stick to dog furPrompt: Which animal or plant part does the same job?
2. A team wants a coat that keeps people warm in snow. Which animal feature could they copy? (a frog's damp skin / a polar bear's thick fur / a cactus's spines / a fish's scales) → a polar bear's thick furPrompt: Which animal stays warm on the ice?

• 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 part of nature inspired this design: swimming flippers? (a kingfisher's beak / a humpback whale's bumpy flippers / burrs that stick to dog fur / a duck's webbed feet) → a duck's webbed feetPrompt: Which animal or plant part does the same job?
2. True or false? Engineers never learn anything from animals. (True / False) → FalsePrompt: Think of Velcro, flippers and reflectors.

Free online practice with hints and printable worksheets for this skill: eurekami.com/science/grade-1.