• 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. How can you keep a playground cooler on a sunny day? (take away all the trees / add more metal / paint it black / put up a shade (canopy) or plant trees) → put up a shade (canopy) or plant treesPrompt: What blocks sunlight?
2. Sunlight: which statement is true? (Shade is warmer than sunshine. / It is usually cooler in the shade than in sunshine. / The Sun only warms things in summer. / White clothes get hotter in the sun than black clothes.) → 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. / The Sun gives us light but no warmth. / Dark colours warm up faster in sunlight than light colours.) → The Sun gives us light but no warmth.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: lava from a volcano? (elastic potential (stretch or squash) / thermal (heat) / chemical / kinetic (movement)) → thermal (heat)Prompt: Is it moving, raised up, stretched, hot, or able to release energy by reacting?
2. A ball is dropped. Which energy store decreases as it falls? (kinetic / gravitational potential / elastic / nuclear) → gravitational potentialPrompt: It is getting lower.

• 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. A moving car speeds up. What happens to its kinetic energy? (It decreases / It stays the same / It increases / It becomes zero) → It increasesPrompt: Kinetic energy depends on speed.
2. Which of these mainly has a elastic potential (stretch or squash) energy store? (a stretched trampoline / a rolling football / a flying aeroplane (airplane) / a sandwich) → a stretched trampolinePrompt: Think about what each object is doing.

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