• 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 light shower / an earthquake / a sunny day) → 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? (Weather forecasts help people prepare for storms. / Lightning can strike tall objects such as trees. / It is safe to walk through fast-flowing flood water. / In a heatwave you should drink water and stay in the shade.) → 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: lightning? (snow ploughs and grit (salt) for roads / underground storm shelters / reservoirs and rain barrels to store water / a lightning rod on top of a building) → a lightning rod on top of a buildingPrompt: 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? (Pick the one with the longest name. / Compare how well each plan works, its cost and its effects on people and nature. / Do nothing and hope. / 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.

• 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 8 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: lightning? (a lightning rod on top of a building / shade trees, light-coloured roofs and cool public spaces / storm shutters and strongly fixed roofs / snow ploughs and grit (salt) for roads) → a lightning rod on top of a buildingPrompt: What does the hazard do: bring water, wind, heat, cold or electricity?
2. Why do cities plant trees and build parks that can soak up rain? (Soil and plants soak up heavy rain, so less water floods the streets. / Trees stop rain falling. / Parks make storms smaller. / Concrete soaks up more water than soil.) → Soil and plants soak up heavy rain, so less water floods the streets.Prompt: What happens to rain that lands on concrete?

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