• Quick retrieval from earlier learning (Adaptations to habitats). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
• Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.

1. How does a polar bear's thick layer of fat help it? (It keeps the bear warm. / It makes it lighter. / It helps it breathe under water. / It helps it see in the dark.) → It keeps the bear warm.Prompt: The Arctic is very cold.
2. Adaptations: which statement is true? (Every animal can live in every habitat. / A giraffe's neck grew longer because its parents stretched. / Animals choose to grow adaptations when they need them. / An adaptation is a feature that helps a living thing survive in its habitat.) → An adaptation is a feature that helps a living thing survive in its habitat.Prompt: Adaptations take many generations to appear.
3. Adaptations: which statement is NOT true? (Cactus spines help reduce water loss and protect it from animals. / A giraffe's neck grew longer because its parents stretched. / Some animals use camouflage to hide from predators. / Fish have gills to take oxygen from water.) → A giraffe's neck grew longer because its parents stretched.Prompt: Can an animal decide to change its body for its babies?

• Show a picture of an unusual animal and ask where it might live and how it survives there.
• Share the objective: When an environment changes: move, adjust or die out. Read the success criteria together.

• Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
• Example: What is a likely effect of this change: a pond dries up in a drought?
• Step 1: So the answer is: frogs and fish that cannot leave may die
• Answer: frogs and fish that cannot leave may die
• 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. What is a likely effect of this change: Arctic sea ice melts earlier each spring? (polar bears have less time to hunt seals on the ice / animal homes are split and crossing becomes dangerous / woodland birds lose nest sites and many move away / flowers may bloom before the insects that feed on them hatch) → polar bears have less time to hunt seals on the icePrompt: Which living things depend on what was lost or changed?
2. Why are wildlife bridges and tunnels built over and under busy roads? (So animals can cross safely between parts of their habitat. / To give cars more space. / So animals can watch traffic. / To keep animals in one place.) → So animals can cross safely between parts of their habitat.Prompt: What happens when a road splits a forest?

• 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. After a forest fire, which living things usually return first? (grasses and small fast-growing plants / bears / owls that nest in big trees / old oak trees) → grasses and small fast-growing plantsPrompt: Which grow fastest from seeds or roots?
2. What is a likely effect of this change: spring arrives earlier as the climate warms? (polar bears have less time to hunt seals on the ice / woodland birds lose nest sites and many move away / animal homes are split and crossing becomes dangerous / flowers may bloom before the insects that feed on them hatch) → flowers may bloom before the insects that feed on them hatchPrompt: Which living things depend on what was lost or changed?

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