• 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: sending old newspapers to be made into new paper? (reduce / reuse / recycle) → recyclePrompt: 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 / turning off the tap while you brush your teeth / putting empty cans in the recycling bin / buying fruit without plastic wrapping) → putting empty cans in the recycling binPrompt: Is the item used less, used again, or turned into something new?
3. Banana peel and apple cores can go in a compost bin. What happens to them? (They turn into new bananas straight away. / They rot down into rich soil for plants. / They turn into plastic. / They stay the same for ever.) → They rot down into rich soil for plants.Prompt: What do tiny living things like worms do to old food?

• Show a food web and ask what would happen if one animal disappeared.
• Share the objective: Sort waste into the right recycling group. Read the success criteria together.

• Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
• Example: Which recycling group should this go in: a used envelope?
• Step 1: Paper and card can be pulped and made into new paper.
• Step 2: So the answer is: paper and card
• Answer: paper and card
• 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 recycling group should this go in: a soup tin (can)? (paper and card / glass / metal / food waste (compost)) → metalPrompt: What material is it made of?
2. Three of these go in the metal group. Which one does NOT? (a soup tin (can) / a clean foil tray / a drinks can / a glass milk bottle) → a glass milk bottlePrompt: Name the material of each thing.

• 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? Banana peel should go in the glass bin. (True / False) → FalsePrompt: Think about what each thing is made of.
2. Three of these go in the metal group. Which one does NOT? (a clean foil tray / a glass milk bottle / a drinks can / a soup tin (can)) → a glass milk bottlePrompt: Name the material of each thing.

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