Check it! - Changes as you grow - Year 5

The 'Check It!' series from Focus Education provides a comprehensive review system for Year 5 students to reinforce their understanding of life cycles in humans and various animals. The materials suggest incorporating regular opportunities for children to revisit and consolidate their learning. A variety of creative ideas are presented to engage students, such as 'Brain dump!', where children spill all they know on a topic, and 'Give me FIVE!', which prompts them to list five facts or stages related to a subject. Other techniques include adding information to a mind map, expanding on given statements, and using 'Retrieval Pyramids' to structure the recall of knowledge with different levels of difficulty.

The resources encourage students to explore the concept of life cycles in depth. For example, 'Give me 5!' challenges them to name five stages of human development and five changes that occur as we age. The 'Expand and Elaborate' activity prompts further thinking by starting with a basic fact about human development, such as the beginning of life in the womb or the onset of puberty, and then asking students to add more detail. Additional questions stimulate discussion about the meaning of terms like 'teenage' and 'puberty', the differences between males and females, the life cycle of a frog, and how plants reproduce. The 'Pyramid Check' is designed to assess understanding at various levels, ensuring that all pupils can answer the foundational questions while the more advanced students are challenged by the higher tiers.