• Quick retrieval from earlier learning (Which way will it move? Predict from the forces). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
• Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.

1. A book lies still on a table. Gravity pulls it down. Why doesn't it fall? (The book is holding on to the table. / The table pushes up with an equal force, so the forces are balanced. / There is no gravity indoors. / The book is too light for gravity.) → The table pushes up with an equal force, so the forces are balanced.Prompt: Is there a force pushing up as well as down?
2. True or false? An object with balanced forces must be still. (True / False) → FalsePrompt: Compare the sizes and directions of the forces.
3. True or false? Unbalanced forces can make an object start, stop, speed up or turn. (True / False) → TruePrompt: Compare the sizes and directions of the forces.

• Drop a sheet of paper and a scrunched-up sheet together and ask why one falls faster.
• Share the objective: Use patterns of motion to predict what happens next. Read the success criteria together.

• Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
• Example: A playground swing takes 3 seconds to swing forward and back once. The pattern repeats. How many complete swings will it make in 24 seconds?
• Step 1: 24 ÷ 3 = 8
• Step 2: So the answer is: 8
• Answer: 8
• 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. A rocking horse takes 4 seconds to swing forward and back once. The pattern repeats. How many complete swings will it make in 12 seconds? → 3Prompt: Each swing takes the same time.
2. A ball is dropped from 120 cm. It bounces to 60 cm, then 30 cm. Each bounce reaches half the height of the one before. How high will the next bounce be? → 15 cmPrompt: Look at how each height compares to the one before.

• 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 ball is dropped from 80 cm. It bounces to 40 cm, then 20 cm. Each bounce reaches half the height of the one before. How high will the next bounce be? → 10 cmPrompt: Look at how each height compares to the one before.
2. A pendulum clock ticks once every second. How do clockmakers make a pendulum swing more slowly? (make it shorter / make the pendulum longer / paint it gold / push it harder each time) → make the pendulum longerPrompt: Compare a long rope swing with a short one.

Free online practice with hints and printable worksheets for this skill: eurekami.com/science/grade-3.