• Quick retrieval from earlier learning (Plants make food from air and water). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
• Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.

1. How plants grow: which statement is true? (Plants take in oxygen and give out only carbon dioxide all day. / Most of a plant's mass comes from carbon dioxide in the air and from water. / Plants get most of their mass by eating soil. / The energy in plant food comes from the soil.) → Most of a plant's mass comes from carbon dioxide in the air and from water.Prompt: Where does a tree's wood really come from?
2. In a famous experiment, a willow tree grew by 74 kg in 5 years, but the soil lost only about 0.06 kg. What does this show? (Trees do not grow. / The tree's mass did not mainly come from the soil. / The soil got heavier. / Trees eat soil.) → The tree's mass did not mainly come from the soil.Prompt: Compare how much the tree gained with how much soil was lost.
3. How plants grow: which statement is NOT true? (Plants get most of their mass by eating soil. / Most of a plant's mass comes from carbon dioxide in the air and from water. / Plants make their own food using light energy. / Plants release oxygen into the air.) → Plants get most of their mass by eating soil.Prompt: One sentence repeats an old idea that experiments disproved.

• Show a food web and ask what would happen if one animal disappeared.
• Share the objective: The energy in food started as sunlight. Read the success criteria together.

• Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
• Example: Why do the arrows in a food chain point from the food to the eater?
• Step 1: Arrows follow energy from producer to consumers.
• Step 2: So the answer is: They show the direction energy flows.
• Answer: They show the direction energy flows.
• 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. A lion never eats plants. Where did the energy in its food originally come from? (the Moon / the Sun, captured by plants that its prey ate / the ground / the lion's own body) → the Sun, captured by plants that its prey atePrompt: What did the zebra eat?
2. True or false? Nearly all the energy in food chains comes from the Sun. (True / False) → TruePrompt: Trace the energy back to the start of the chain.

• 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. True or false? Animals get energy directly from sunlight like plants. (True / False) → FalsePrompt: Trace the energy back to the start of the chain.
2. A lion never eats plants. Where did the energy in its food originally come from? (the Moon / the ground / the lion's own body / the Sun, captured by plants that its prey ate) → the Sun, captured by plants that its prey atePrompt: What did the zebra eat?

Free online practice with hints and printable worksheets for this skill: eurekami.com/science/grade-5.