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

1. In how a fossil forms, what happens straight after "minerals slowly replace the bones over millions of years"? (an animal dies / the rock is worn away and the fossil is uncovered / the soft parts rot away / 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.
2. In which type of rock are fossils usually found? (sedimentary / metamorphic only / igneous / lava) → sedimentaryPrompt: This rock forms from layers of mud and sand.
3. In how a sea shell becomes a fossil, what happens straight after "layers of sediment cover it"? (the fossil is found in the rock millions of years later / its shell sinks to the sea floor / the sediment slowly turns into rock / a sea creature dies) → the sediment slowly turns into rockPrompt: Fossils form very slowly, buried in rock.

• Pass round different rocks and ask how each one might have formed.
• Share the objective: Compare fossils with living plants and animals. Read the success criteria together.

• Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
• Example: Which living thing is most similar to this fossil: woolly mammoth?
• Step 1: Both have trunks and tusks; mammoths had long hair for cold climates.
• Step 2: So the answer is: elephant
• Answer: elephant
• 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 living thing is most similar to this fossil: ammonite (coiled shell)? (lions and tigers / nautilus / dragonflies today / the ginkgo tree) → nautilusPrompt: Look for a shared feature: trunk, shell, wings, teeth or leaf shape.
2. How is a woolly mammoth different from an elephant today? (It had no trunk. / It had thick, long hair and small ears for cold weather. / It lived in the sea. / It could fly.) → It had thick, long hair and small ears for cold weather.Prompt: Mammoths lived during the Ice Age.

• 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 living thing is most similar to this fossil: ammonite (coiled shell)? (the ginkgo tree / modern birds / nautilus / elephant) → nautilusPrompt: Look for a shared feature: trunk, shell, wings, teeth or leaf shape.
2. True or false? Woolly mammoths were close relatives of elephants. (True / False) → TruePrompt: Which fossil groups are extinct, and which have living relatives?

Free online practice with hints and printable worksheets for this skill: eurekami.com/science/grade-3.