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

1. To bend your arm at the elbow, which muscle contracts? (the heart / the biceps / the stomach / the triceps) → the bicepsPrompt: It is on the front of your upper arm.
2. Skeleton and muscles: which statement is true? (Calcium helps keep bones strong. / Muscles can push bones as well as pull them. / Bones are dead, like rocks. / Babies and adults have exactly the same number of bones.) → Calcium helps keep bones strong.Prompt: Think about what happens when you break a bone.
3. What are the three main jobs of the skeleton? (digestion, breathing and seeing / keeping warm and cooling down only / making food from sunlight / support, protection and movement) → support, protection and movementPrompt: Without it you would be floppy.

• Ask everyone to find their pulse, then jump for 30 seconds and find it again.
• Share the objective: Skeleton jobs, joints and muscle pairs. Read the success criteria together.

• Work through the example out loud, saying why you do each step, not just what you do.
• Example: You bend your knee to lift your foot behind you. What do the hamstrings and quadriceps do?
• Step 1: In an antagonistic pair, when one muscle contracts the other relaxes.
• Step 2: So the answer is: hamstrings contract, quadriceps relax
• Answer: hamstrings contract, quadriceps relax
• 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. You straighten your arm at the elbow to push a door. What do the biceps and triceps do? (biceps contract, triceps relax / triceps contract, biceps relax / both contract / both relax) → triceps contract, biceps relaxPrompt: Muscles can only pull, never push.
2. What joins a muscle to a bone? (a nerve / a tendon / cartilage / a ligament) → a tendonPrompt: The other connector joins bone to bone.

• 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 type of joint lets your shoulder move in almost every direction? (fixed / hinge / ball and socket / pivot only) → ball and socketPrompt: The knee and elbow move like a door. The shoulder is different.
2. Bones, joints and muscles: which statement is NOT true? (The skeleton supports the body and protects organs. / The elbow is a ball-and-socket joint. / Ligaments hold bones together at joints. / Cartilage reduces friction between bones at a joint.) → The elbow is a ball-and-socket joint.Prompt: Is bone living tissue?

Free online practice with hints and printable worksheets for this skill: eurekami.com/science/grade-7.