• Quick retrieval from earlier learning (Animal body parts and the jobs they do). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
• Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.

1. What job does this body part do: an elephant's trunk? (to breathe underwater / to pick up and eat food / to feel its way in the dark / to grab food and suck up water) → to grab food and suck up waterPrompt: Think about where the animal lives and what it eats.
2. Which body part helps an animal pick up and eat food? (a tortoise's shell / a bird's beak / a cat's whiskers / a butterfly's long tongue (proboscis)) → a bird's beakPrompt: Picture the animal doing the job.
3. Why do fish have fins and a tail? (to breathe air / to keep warm / to see in the dark / to swim and steer in water) → to swim and steer in waterPrompt: How does a fish move forward and turn?

• Show a picture of an unusual animal and ask where it might live and how it survives there.
• Share the objective: Inventions inspired by animals and plants. Read the success criteria together.

• Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
• Example: Which part of nature inspired this design: self-cleaning paint that rain washes clean?
• Step 1: Water rolls off lotus leaves and carries dirt away.
• Step 2: So the answer is: a lotus leaf
• Answer: a lotus leaf
• 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 part of nature inspired this design: hook-and-loop fastener (Velcro)? (a humpback whale's bumpy flippers / a kingfisher's beak / burrs that stick to dog fur / a duck's webbed feet) → burrs that stick to dog furPrompt: Which animal or plant part does the same job?
2. Gecko lizards can walk up walls. What have scientists made by copying their feet? (smoother ice skates / heavier boots / louder alarms / grippy pads that stick without glue) → grippy pads that stick without gluePrompt: How do geckos stay on smooth glass?

• 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. Engineers want a robot hand that can grip a slippery wet bottle. Which animal should they study? (an octopus, with its suction cups / a jellyfish, which has no grip / a bird's feathers / a snail's shell) → an octopus, with its suction cupsPrompt: Which animal holds onto slippery rocks underwater?
2. Which part of nature inspired this design: swimming flippers? (a duck's webbed feet / a kingfisher's beak / burrs that stick to dog fur / a lotus leaf) → a duck's webbed feetPrompt: Which animal or plant part does the same job?

Free online practice with hints and printable worksheets for this skill: eurekami.com/science/grade-1.