• Quick retrieval from earlier learning (Food groups and a balanced diet). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
• Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.

1. Which nutrient is lard a good source of? (carbohydrates (for energy) / protein (for growth and repair) / fats (stored energy) / vitamins and minerals (to stay healthy)) → fats (stored energy)Prompt: Is it a starchy food, a meat or bean, an oil, or a fruit or vegetable?
2. Which plate is the most balanced meal? (fish, rice and vegetables / only butter / chips, crisps and cake / only sweets) → fish, rice and vegetablesPrompt: A balanced meal has foods from several groups.
3. Which food is a good source of vitamins and minerals (to stay healthy)? (lard / olive oil / porridge oats / carrots) → carrotsPrompt: Think about which group each food belongs to.

• Ask everyone to find their pulse, then jump for 30 seconds and find it again.
• Share the objective: The digestive system. Read the success criteria together.

• Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
• Example: What does saliva do?
• Step 1: Saliva moistens food and contains an enzyme (amylase) that begins breaking down starch.
• Step 2: So the answer is: wets food and starts to digest starch
• Answer: wets food and starts to digest starch
• 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. What does the stomach do? (absorbs most of the water / churns food with acid and enzymes / chews food / filters the blood) → churns food with acid and enzymesPrompt: It has strong muscular walls.
2. In the path of a bite of apple, what comes straight after "teeth chew it"? (water absorbed in the large intestine / nutrients absorbed in the small intestine / swallowed down the oesophagus (esophagus) / churned with acid in the stomach) → swallowed down the oesophagus (esophagus)Prompt: Picture food travelling from top to bottom.

• 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. In the journey of food through the digestive system, what comes straight after "large intestine"? (mouth / oesophagus (esophagus) / small intestine / rectum) → rectumPrompt: Food is chewed first.
2. Where are most nutrients absorbed into the blood? (the small intestine / the large intestine / the mouth / the stomach) → the small intestinePrompt: It is a very long, folded tube.

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