• Quick retrieval from earlier learning (Name the landform from its description). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
• Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.

1. Which landform is this: land with water on three sides? (volcano / island / plateau / peninsula) → peninsulaPrompt: Is it high or low? Flat or steep? Is water around it?
2. Which description matches a plateau? (land with water all around it / a wide, flat area of land / a high, flat area of land with steep sides / low land between hills or mountains, often with a river) → a high, flat area of land with steep sidesPrompt: Picture the landform from above and from the side.
3. True or false? A plain is a very steep landform. (True / False) → FalsePrompt: Picture each landform: high, low, flat or surrounded by water?

• Pass round different rocks and ask how each one might have formed.
• Share the objective: Earth changes: fast or slow?. Read the success criteria together.

• Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
• Example: Is this a fast change or a slow change: a storm washing away part of a beach?
• Step 1: These changes happen suddenly.
• Step 2: So the answer is: fast (minutes to days)
• Answer: fast (minutes to days)
• 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. Is this a fast change or a slow change: a storm washing away part of a beach? (fast (minutes to days) / slow (many years)) → fast (minutes to days)Prompt: Could you watch it happen in one day?
2. Three of these are slow changes. Which one is NOT? (waves slowly shaping a cliff / an earthquake cracking a road / a cave forming in limestone / mountains wearing down) → an earthquake cracking a roadPrompt: How long does each change take?

• 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. Scientists say the Grand Canyon took millions of years to form. What evidence suggests this? (The canyon looked the same last week. / People dug it with spades. / The river wears away only a tiny amount of rock each year, but the canyon is very deep. / Canyons are always old.) → The river wears away only a tiny amount of rock each year, but the canyon is very deep.Prompt: Small changes add up over a very long time.
2. Three of these are fast changes. Which one is NOT? (a landslide after heavy rain / a storm washing away part of a beach / a flood covering fields / a glacier carving a valley) → a glacier carving a valleyPrompt: How long does each change take?

Free online practice with hints and printable worksheets for this skill: eurekami.com/science/grade-2.