Task: Students read a pH scale to determine how it shows the increasing strength of an acid and a base solution and decide from different pH products what the effect would be on an acidic soil. Assessment focus: interpreting a pH scale.
Students identify common spelling errors, taken from the essential word lists, and write the identified errors correctly. Students also identify lines of text without errors.
Task: Students read a short written text to explain how the special features of wild ginger help it survive. Assessment focus: explanation of wild ginger's special features and why it is a pest plant.
Task: Identify from an experiment the preferred living conditions of slaters, and use a fact file to suggest reasons why. Assessment focus: interpreting results of an investigation.
Task: Students give oral explanations about how the features of a weta or a mallard duck help it survive in its environment. Peer assessment sheets are included. Assessment focus: structure and function.
Students write a set of instructions after reading a science article about growing crystals. Students assess their own writing using the supports provided.
Students identify the topic sentence, supporting sentences and summary sentence in a given paragraph. They then write their own paragraph, working to include these elements.
Students predict the outcome of throwing five dice and confirm their predictions by conducting an experiment and calculating probabilities. After discussing how to get better estimates, they pool their results with others to get a more accurate estimate of how good their predictions were.