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

1. Why does sand at the beach feel hot on a sunny afternoon? (The Sun has been warming it all day / People walking on it / Sand is always hot / The sea heats it) → The Sun has been warming it all dayPrompt: Where does the heat come from?
2. Sunlight: which statement is true? (White clothes get hotter in the sun than black clothes. / It is usually cooler in the shade than in sunshine. / Shade is warmer than sunshine. / The Sun only warms things in summer.) → It is usually cooler in the shade than in sunshine.Prompt: Think about standing in the sun and in the shade.
3. Sunlight: which statement is NOT true? (It is usually cooler in the shade than in sunshine. / The Sun warms the land, air and water. / White clothes get hotter in the sun than black clothes. / Dark colours warm up faster in sunlight than light colours.) → White clothes get hotter in the sun than black clothes.Prompt: Which colour reflects sunlight?

• Wind up a toy or stretch an elastic band and ask where the energy goes.
• Share the objective: Energy stores and transfers. Read the success criteria together.

• Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
• Example: Which energy store is most important here: a drawn bow?
• Step 1: Stretched or squashed objects have an elastic potential energy store.
• Step 2: So the answer is: elastic potential (stretch or squash)
• Answer: elastic potential (stretch or squash)
• 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 energy store is most important here: a child at the top of a slide? (thermal (heat) / chemical / gravitational potential (height) / kinetic (movement)) → gravitational potential (height)Prompt: Is it moving, raised up, stretched, hot, or able to release energy by reacting?
2. Which are ways energy can be transferred? (energy cannot move / only by fire / only by wires / by heating, by electric current, by light and sound, by forces) → by heating, by electric current, by light and sound, by forcesPrompt: Think of a lamp, a speaker and a kettle.

• 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. Which of these mainly has a thermal (heat) energy store? (a sandwich / a cup of hot tea / a book on a high shelf / a stretched trampoline) → a cup of hot teaPrompt: Think about what each object is doing.
2. Which energy store is most important here: a book on a high shelf? (gravitational potential (height) / chemical / elastic potential (stretch or squash) / thermal (heat)) → gravitational potential (height)Prompt: Is it moving, raised up, stretched, hot, or able to release energy by reacting?

Free online practice with hints and printable worksheets for this skill: eurekami.com/science/grade-4.