• Quick retrieval from earlier learning (Living and non-living things). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
• Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.

1. Is it living or never alive: child? (living / never alive) → livingPrompt: Does it grow and need food?
2. Which of these has never been alive? (grass / metal spoon / child / sunflower) → metal spoonPrompt: Living things grow, feed and have young.
3. Living things: which statement is true? (Plants are living things. / Only animals are living things. / Clouds are alive because they move and grow. / A teddy bear is alive because it looks like a bear.) → Plants are living things.Prompt: Living things grow, feed and have young.

• Show a picture of an unusual animal and ask where it might live and how it survives there.
• Share the objective: What animals need to survive. Read the success criteria together.

• Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
• Example: Why does a rabbit need a burrow?
• Step 1: A burrow keeps the rabbit safe from predators and bad weather.
• Step 2: So the answer is: for shelter and to stay safe
• Answer: for shelter and to stay safe
• 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. How does a fish get the oxygen it needs? (it does not need oxygen / from the food it eats / by jumping out to breathe air with lungs / from the water, using its gills) → from the water, using its gillsPrompt: Fish have special parts on the sides of their heads.
2. What animals need: which statement is true? (Fish do not need oxygen. / Animals only need food, never water. / Animals get energy from their food. / Animals can make their own food from sunlight, like plants.) → Animals get energy from their food.Prompt: Think about what you need to live.

• 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 5 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. What animals need: which statement is NOT true? (Animals need air to breathe. / Animals need water to survive. / Many animals need shelter from weather and predators. / Animals can make their own food from sunlight, like plants.) → Animals can make their own food from sunlight, like plants.Prompt: One sentence is a mistake.
2. A pet hamster needs… (food, water, air and a safe cage to shelter in / only food / only water / nothing, it looks after itself) → food, water, air and a safe cage to shelter inPrompt: Pets need the same basic things as wild animals.

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