• Quick retrieval from earlier learning (Severe weather and staying safe). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
• Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.

1. What is a hurricane? (a huge, powerful storm with very strong winds and heavy rain that forms over warm oceans / a sunny day / a light shower / an earthquake) → a huge, powerful storm with very strong winds and heavy rain that forms over warm oceansPrompt: It is also called a typhoon or tropical cyclone in some places.
2. Which kind of severe weather is this: streets covered in water after a storm? (flood / tornado / blizzard / heatwave) → floodPrompt: Is it about water, wind, snow or heat?
3. Severe weather: which statement is NOT true? (In a heatwave you should drink water and stay in the shade. / It is safe to walk through fast-flowing flood water. / Flood water can be dangerous even when it looks shallow. / Lightning can strike tall objects such as trees.) → It is safe to walk through fast-flowing flood water.Prompt: One sentence is a famous myth about lightning.

• Show today's forecast and ask what it means for the class and how forecasters know.
• Share the objective: Designs that reduce damage from weather hazards. Read the success criteria together.

• Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
• Example: Which design best reduces damage from this hazard: blizzard (heavy snow)?
• Step 1: Ploughs clear snow and grit melts ice.
• Step 2: So the answer is: snow ploughs and grit (salt) for roads
• Answer: snow ploughs and grit (salt) for roads
• 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 design best reduces damage from this hazard: heatwave? (flood barriers and houses built on stilts / reservoirs and rain barrels to store water / underground storm shelters / shade trees, light-coloured roofs and cool public spaces) → shade trees, light-coloured roofs and cool public spacesPrompt: What does the hazard do: bring water, wind, heat, cold or electricity?
2. Why are new homes in flood areas sometimes built with the living rooms upstairs? (To see the river better. / Stairs stop water. / Floodwater is less likely to reach the upper floor. / Upstairs is warmer.) → Floodwater is less likely to reach the upper floor.Prompt: Where does floodwater go first?

• 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 design best reduces damage from this hazard: drought? (flood barriers and houses built on stilts / shade trees, light-coloured roofs and cool public spaces / reservoirs and rain barrels to store water / storm shutters and strongly fixed roofs) → reservoirs and rain barrels to store waterPrompt: What does the hazard do: bring water, wind, heat, cold or electricity?
2. A town floods every few years. Engineers suggest two plans. How should the town choose? (Do nothing and hope. / Compare how well each plan works, its cost and its effects on people and nature. / Pick the one with the longest name. / Choose at random.) → Compare how well each plan works, its cost and its effects on people and nature.Prompt: Good engineers weigh up several criteria.

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