• Quick retrieval from earlier learning (Reduce, reuse or recycle?). Students answer on mini whiteboards.
• Show answers together and note who needs support in the main task.

1. Is this reducing, reusing or recycling: buying fruit without plastic wrapping? (reduce / reuse / recycle) → reducePrompt: Reduce = use less. Reuse = use again. Recycle = make into something new.
2. Which of these is a way to reuse? (putting empty cans in the recycling bin / putting glass bottles in the bottle bank / giving outgrown clothes to a friend / switching off lights when you leave a room) → giving outgrown clothes to a friendPrompt: Is the item used less, used again, or turned into something new?
3. A class drinks from paper cups and throws them away every day. Which change makes the biggest difference? (Throw the cups away twice as fast. / Everyone uses their own refillable bottle. / Use bigger paper cups. / Use a new cup for every sip.) → Everyone uses their own refillable bottle.Prompt: Which choice means fewer cups are thrown away?

• Show a food web and ask what would happen if one animal disappeared.
• Share the objective: Sort waste into the right recycling group. Read the success criteria together.

• Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
• Example: Which recycling group should this go in: a used envelope?
• Step 1: Paper and card can be pulped and made into new paper.
• Step 2: So the answer is: paper and card
• Answer: paper and card
• 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 recycling group should this go in: eggshells? (paper and card / glass / metal / food waste (compost)) → food waste (compost)Prompt: What material is it made of?
2. Three of these go in the paper and card group. Which one does NOT? (a cardboard egg box / a used envelope / a glass sauce bottle / an old comic) → a glass sauce bottlePrompt: Name the material of each thing.

• 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. Three of these go in the metal group. Which one does NOT? (a clean foil tray / apple core / a drinks can / a soup tin (can)) → apple corePrompt: Name the material of each thing.
2. Which recycling group should this go in: a glass milk bottle? (paper and card / glass / metal / food waste (compost)) → glassPrompt: What material is it made of?

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