Science

Vertebrates, stars, energy and materials

An AR classroom game for Grade 3. Learners can aim with their hands at the camera or play by tapping the screen.

This set has 4 rounds in an interactive sorting activity.

Play Host a classroom

A look before you play

Sample questions

A few real prompts from the game to help you choose an activity for your class.

01
Sort the living things into groups.
Sort into
- vertebrate
- invertebrate
- a fish
- an insect
- a bird
- a shellfish
Read the explanation
Vertebrates have an internal skeleton.
02
Sort the bodies in the sky into groups.
Sort into
- a star
- a planet
- the sun
- the earth
- the Pole Star
- mars
Read the explanation
A star gives out its own light; a planet reflects a star's light.
03
Sort the energy sources into groups.
Sort into
- renewable
- non-renewable
- sunlight
- coal
- wind
- oil
Read the explanation
Renewable energy replaces itself; non-renewable energy runs out.

Before you play

Game teaching guide

What children will practise

Sorts four distinctions: vertebrate or invertebrate, star or planet, renewable or non-renewable energy, transparent or opaque material. Each round comes from a different unit, so the set is not tied to any single indicator; use it as a cross-unit review.

What's in the worksheet

4 questions, a sorting game with four items each - Fish and birds are vertebrates; insects and shellfish are not - The Sun and the Pole Star are stars; Earth and Mars are planets - Sunlight and wind are renewable; coal and oil are non-renewable - Clear glass and clear water are transparent; wood and cardboard are opaque

How to use it in class

A cross-unit Grade 3 review, about 6-8 minutes in teams. Question 2 needs a pause: ask whether the Sun is a star like the ones we see at night, then confirm that it is. Before question 1, have children feel their own backbone. After question 3, ask what kind of energy the nearest power station uses. You can link it to a class and record it in the gradebook.

Common sticking points

- Question 2: calling the Sun a planet, or not a star at all, because it is huge and seen by day. Stress that a star gives its own light. - Question 1: calling the shellfish a vertebrate because of its hard shell. Separate them: the shell is outside, not a bone inside. - Question 2: putting the Pole Star with planets because the name is unfamiliar. Explain that it is a star used to find north.