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

1. How are the seeds of this plant mainly spread: acorns buried by squirrels? (wind / animals / water / exploding pods) → animalsPrompt: Are the seeds light and fluffy, hooked or tasty, able to float, or in a pod?
2. What is pollination? (moving pollen from the male part of a flower to the female part / planting seeds in soil / watering a plant / leaves falling in autumn (fall)) → moving pollen from the male part of a flower to the female partPrompt: Pollen has to reach the stigma.
3. Which plant's seeds are mainly spread by animals? (cherries / sea bean / gorse / dandelion) → cherriesPrompt: Think about the shape of each seed or fruit.

• Bring in a plant that has been kept in the dark next to one in the light, and ask what happened.
• Share the objective: Plant reproduction: seeds versus runners, bulbs, tubers and cuttings. Read the success criteria together.

• Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
• Example: How is this new plant produced: a daffodil bulb splitting into new bulbs?
• Step 1: A new plant grows from part of one parent and is identical to it.
• Step 2: So the answer is: from part of one parent (asexual reproduction)
• Answer: from part of one parent (asexual reproduction)
• 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 is this new plant produced: a sunflower growing from a seed? (from seeds (sexual reproduction) / from part of one parent (asexual reproduction)) → from seeds (sexual reproduction)Prompt: Did it come from a seed, or from a piece of one plant?
2. Gardeners take cuttings from a rose bush with perfect flowers. Why not just plant its seeds? (Seeds are only for trees. / Cuttings grow into plants identical to the parent; seeds may differ. / Cuttings grow slower. / Rose seeds never grow.) → Cuttings grow into plants identical to the parent; seeds may differ.Prompt: Which method has only one parent?

• 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. What is one advantage of plants making seeds rather than copies? (Seeds need no pollination. / Seeds are always identical. / Seeds create variety, so some young may survive changes such as new diseases. / Copies spread further.) → Seeds create variety, so some young may survive changes such as new diseases.Prompt: If every plant were identical, one disease could affect them all.
2. How is this new plant produced: a spider plant's baby plantlets? (from seeds (sexual reproduction) / from part of one parent (asexual reproduction)) → from part of one parent (asexual reproduction)Prompt: Did it come from a seed, or from a piece of one plant?

Free online practice with hints and printable worksheets for this skill: eurekami.com/science/grade-5.