• 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. Which T-shirt gets warmest in the sun? (a black T-shirt / a white T-shirt / a yellow T-shirt / a pale blue T-shirt) → a black T-shirtPrompt: Dark colours absorb more light.
2. Sunlight: which statement is true? (Dark colours warm up faster in sunlight than light colours. / White clothes get hotter in the sun than black clothes. / Shade is warmer than sunshine. / The Sun only warms things in summer.) → Dark colours warm up faster in sunlight than light colours.Prompt: Think about standing in the sun and in the shade.
3. Sunlight: which statement is NOT true? (The Sun warms the land, air and water. / White clothes get hotter in the sun than black clothes. / Dark colours warm up faster in sunlight than light colours. / It is usually cooler in the shade than in sunshine.) → White clothes get hotter in the sun than black clothes.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: water behind a high dam? (kinetic (movement) / gravitational potential (height) / chemical / elastic potential (stretch or squash)) → gravitational potential (height)Prompt: Is it moving, raised up, stretched, hot, or able to release energy by reacting?
2. When you rub your hands together, the movement energy is transferred to… (thermal energy (they warm up) / chemical energy / elastic energy / nuclear energy) → thermal energy (they warm up)Prompt: How do your hands feel?

• 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. Which of these mainly has a gravitational potential (height) energy store? (a child at the top of a slide / a flying aeroplane (airplane) / a drawn bow / a cup of hot tea) → a child at the top of a slidePrompt: Think about what each object is doing.
2. A moving car speeds up. What happens to its kinetic energy? (It stays the same / It decreases / It becomes zero / It increases) → It increasesPrompt: Kinetic energy depends on speed.

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