Pupils needing extra support

Could record findings on a whiteboard by ticking or crossing to indicate if the material was absorbent in the adult-led task; should use simple property labels (for example, hard and soft) and six carefully chosen objects which are easily classified in the independent task.

Pupils working at greater depth

Could draw on their own experiences to guess whether the materials will be absorbent before testing in the adult-led task; could rank the six materials from most absorbent to least absorbent; could choose some additional materials to test; could be encouraged to use the challenge word cards (see pages 5–7 of the Resource: Property labels) for the independent task.