Thinking resources

Students are assessed on their ability to identify the main idea in a text about bridge construction.

This task assesses close reading and making inferences about the setting, backdrop, props, costumes, and acting required in a performance of the Junior Journal play "Too Much Noise".

Students are assessed on their ability to find details to identify the main idea of a text about cultural change in a Pacific context.

Students read a personal recount about family relationships in a Pacific context. Assessment focus: the author's construction of two characters and an evaluation of them.

Students produce a simple written description, using nouns and adjectives with some precision.

Students make inferences from a poem. SJ-2-4-1993. Text provided.

Students read a newspaper article about outdoor activities then answer some comprehension questions.

This comprehension task assesses a student's ability to make inferences about a character's feelings based on the evidence in a written and visual text, and their own prior experience.

Task: Use close observation of photos and prior knowledge, to write explanations of how the special features of animal tongues help animals survive in their habitats. Assessment focus: structure and function.

Task: Select which state of water applies to a list of places where water can be found. Assessment focus: states of water.

Task: Look for similarities and differences in fruit to answer questions about observation and evidence.

Task: Look for the similarities and differences in how students draw graphs to display information.

Task: Complete a diagram of part of the water cycle and answer a question about rain. Assessment focus: Question a) – the water cycle and conventions of diagrams; question b) – evaporation of a solution.

Task: Match the parts of a water cycle to the parts represented in a model of the water cycle and compare how they are the same and different. Assessment focus: interpreting a model.

Task: Students answer questions about a Southern Ocean food web. Assessment focus: interpreting food webs.

Students to apply their understanding of basic wave behaviour at the sea shore to make an inference about waves in a different but analogous context: to predict where the worst damage might occur in an earthquake.

Task: Decide which of two graphs e.g., tally chart, pictograph, bar graph is represented by a picture and explain how the graph/s are interpreted.

Task: Predict, observe and explain what will happen when a balloon containing another balloon filled with water is thrown. Assessment focus: making and explaining predictions and observations.

Task: Predict, observe and explain what will happen when a balloon containing another balloon filled with water is thrown. Assessment focus: making and explaining predictions and observations.

Task: Predict, observe and explain what will happen when a balloon containing another balloon filled with water is thrown. Assessment focus: making and explaining predictions and observations.

For this practical task students follow a plan to determine the best temperature for the reaction of rennet with milk. Students need to make observations and write a report on their findings.

Task: Match everyday terms about properties with their meanings. Use their understanding about properties of paper and their uses to justify appropriate questions to investigate. Assessment focus: asking questions about paper properties.

Students outline four ways of improving a given plan for an investigation to make it a fair test.

Task: Plan a fair test to see if adding salt water to water affects how long it takes to freeze. Assessment focus: managing variables.

Task: Create, use and identify ‘rules’ based on observable and/or measurable physical properties of common plastics. Assessment focus: classifying & identifying.