• 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: switching off lights when you leave a room? (reduce / reuse / recycle) → reducePrompt: Reduce = use less. Reuse = use again. Recycle = make into something new.
2. Which of these is a way to recycle? (buying fruit without plastic wrapping / putting glass bottles in the bottle bank / using a jam jar to store pencils / taking the same cloth bag to the shop each week) → putting glass bottles in the bottle bankPrompt: Is the item used less, used again, or turned into something new?
3. Which of these makes the LEAST rubbish? (a new plastic bag every day / paper plates thrown away after lunch / single-use plastic cutlery / a reusable lunchbox) → a reusable lunchboxPrompt: Which one can be used again and again?

• 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: an old comic? (paper and card / glass / metal / food waste (compost)) → paper and cardPrompt: What material is it made of?
2. Three of these go in the metal group. Which one does NOT? (a soup tin (can) / a drinks can / a cardboard egg box / a clean foil tray) → a cardboard egg boxPrompt: 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. Three of these go in the food waste (compost) group. Which one does NOT? (carrot tops / a cardboard egg box / apple core / eggshells) → a cardboard egg boxPrompt: Name the material of each thing.
2. Which recycling group should this go in: an empty jam jar? (paper and card / glass / metal / food waste (compost)) → glassPrompt: What material is it made of?

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