• Quick retrieval from earlier learning (Reduce, reuse or recycle?). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
• Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.

1. Is this reducing, reusing or recycling: turning off the tap while you brush your teeth? (reduce / reuse / recycle) → reducePrompt: Reduce = use less. Reuse = use again. Recycle = make into something new.
2. Which of these is a way to recycle? (taking the same cloth bag to the shop each week / refilling a water bottle / putting empty cans in the recycling bin / using a jam jar to store pencils) → putting empty cans in the recycling binPrompt: Is the item used less, used again, or turned into something new?
3. A class drinks from paper cups and throws them away every day. Which change makes the biggest difference? (Use bigger paper cups. / Use a new cup for every sip. / Everyone uses their own refillable bottle. / Throw the cups away twice as fast.) → Everyone uses their own refillable bottle.Prompt: Which choice means fewer cups are thrown away?

• Show a food web and ask what would happen if one animal disappeared.
• Share the objective: Actions that help or harm the environment. Read the success criteria together.

• Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
• Example: Does this help or harm the environment: picking all the wild flowers in a meadow?
• Step 1: These actions waste resources or hurt living things.
• Step 2: So the answer is: harms
• Answer: harms
• 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. Does this help or harm the environment: building a bug hotel? (helps / harms) → helpsPrompt: Would animals, plants, water or air be better off or worse off?
2. Turtles in the sea can get tangled in plastic bags. What is the best way to help? (Leave plastic bags on the beach. / Paint the turtles. / Throw more bags into the sea. / Use cloth bags and put rubbish in a bin.) → Use cloth bags and put rubbish in a bin.Prompt: How could we stop plastic reaching the sea?

• 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. Does this help or harm the environment: leaving the tap running? (helps / harms) → harmsPrompt: Would animals, plants, water or air be better off or worse off?
2. Which way to school is kindest to the air? (walking or cycling / being driven by car and then by another car / in a car with the engine left running outside / being driven in a car alone) → walking or cyclingPrompt: Which one makes no fumes?

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