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

1. Why do owls have very large eyes? (to see well at night when they hunt / to smell food / to keep warm / to look scary) → to see well at night when they huntPrompt: When are most owls active?
2. Adaptations: which statement is true? (Animals choose to grow adaptations when they need them. / Some animals use camouflage to hide from predators. / A giraffe's neck grew longer because its parents stretched. / Every animal can live in every habitat.) → Some animals use camouflage to hide from predators.Prompt: Adaptations take many generations to appear.
3. Adaptations: which statement is NOT true? (Fish have gills to take oxygen from water. / An adaptation is a feature that helps a living thing survive in its habitat. / Cactus spines help reduce water loss and protect it from animals. / Animals choose to grow adaptations when they need them.) → Animals choose to grow adaptations when they need them.Prompt: Can an animal decide to change its body for its babies?

• Show a picture of an unusual animal and ask where it might live and how it survives there.
• Share the objective: When an environment changes: move, adjust or die out. Read the success criteria together.

• Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
• Example: What is a likely effect of this change: a pond dries up in a drought?
• Step 1: So the answer is: frogs and fish that cannot leave may die
• Answer: frogs and fish that cannot leave may die
• 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 is a likely effect of this change: a forest is cut down for farmland? (animal homes are split and crossing becomes dangerous / frogs and fish that cannot leave may die / flowers may bloom before the insects that feed on them hatch / woodland birds lose nest sites and many move away) → woodland birds lose nest sites and many move awayPrompt: Which living things depend on what was lost or changed?
2. A wetland is drained to build houses. What can the ducks living there do? (grow gills / fly to another wetland if one is nearby / live inside the new houses / turn into land animals overnight) → fly to another wetland if one is nearbyPrompt: Birds can travel. Can every animal?

• 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. Why are wildlife bridges and tunnels built over and under busy roads? (So animals can watch traffic. / To give cars more space. / So animals can cross safely between parts of their habitat. / To keep animals in one place.) → So animals can cross safely between parts of their habitat.Prompt: What happens when a road splits a forest?
2. What is a likely effect of this change: spring arrives earlier as the climate warms? (animal homes are split and crossing becomes dangerous / polar bears have less time to hunt seals on the ice / frogs and fish that cannot leave may die / flowers may bloom before the insects that feed on them hatch) → flowers may bloom before the insects that feed on them hatchPrompt: Which living things depend on what was lost or changed?

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