Day 1 · Monday
Mathematics
I can tell time to the nearest minute.
Builds on: Needs Grade 2 clock reading to the nearest 5 minutes and counting by 5s to 60. One-minute check: set the clock to 8:25. Your child reads it (8:25).
- minute mark – one of the small marks around a clock; each one stands for 1 minute
Materials: Analog clock with movable hands and minute marks. A paper-plate clock works. Write 1 to 12 around it and draw 4 small marks between each pair of numbers. Pin on two paper hands with a paper fastener., Digital clock (for the homework check), Notebook, Pencil
5 min · Warm-Up
Spaced review from Week 24 Day 4. Ask: "A string ends 1 quarter-inch mark past 6. How long is it?" (6 1/4 inches) Then practice ×5 facts with no timer. Ask 5 × 4, 5 × 7 and 5 × 9 (20, 35, 45). Count by 5s to 60 while your child touches each clock number.
10–15 min · Mini-Lesson
Say: "The short hand is the hour hand. The long hand is the minute hand." Point to the small marks. Say: "Each number is 5 more minutes. Each small mark is a minute mark, and it stands for 1 minute." Set the clock to 3:22. Ask: "Which number did the minute hand just pass?" (The 4.) Count by 5s to the 4: 5, 10, 15, 20. Then count the small marks by 1s: 21, 22. Say: "The minute hand is 2 marks past the 4, so it shows 22 minutes." Ask: "Which two numbers is the hour hand between?" (3 and 4) Say: "Use the number the hour hand has passed. So the time is 3:22." Now your child does more. Set the clock with the minute hand 3 marks past the 9 and the hour hand close to 8. Your child counts by 5s to the 9, then by 1s. Ask: "Is the hour 7 or 8?" (7. The hour hand has not reached 8, so the time is 7:48.)
10–15 min · Guided Practice
You set each time. Your child counts aloud, then writes the time. 1) Minute hand 2 marks past the 3, hour hand between 2 and 3 (2:17). 2) Minute hand 1 mark past the 8, hour hand between 9 and 10 (9:41). 3) Minute hand 3 marks past the 11, hour hand almost at 12 (11:58). Ask: "Why is it not 12:58?" (The hour hand has not reached 12.) 4) Your child sets the clock to 6:04 (4 marks past the 12) and tells why the hour is 6. If stuck, say: "Find the number the minute hand just passed. Count by 5s to it. Then count the small marks by 1s."
15–20 min · Independent Practice
You set the clock for problems 1 to 4. Your child writes each time. 1) Minute hand 1 mark past the 1, hour hand just past 1 (1:06). 2) Minute hand 3 marks past the 6, hour hand between 4 and 5 (4:33). 3) Minute hand 3 marks past the 2, hour hand just past 11 (11:13). 4) Minute hand 3 marks past the 7, hour hand between 12 and 1 (12:38). Now your child sets the clock and tells where the minute hand points. 5) 5:19 (4 marks past the 3). 6) 8:52 (2 marks past the 10; the hour hand is close to 9). 7) Lena looks at the kitchen clock. The hour hand is between 6 and 7. The minute hand is 2 marks past the 5. What time is it? (6:27) 8) Dad looks at his watch. The hour hand is just past 9. The minute hand is 4 marks past the 12. What time is it? (9:04)
5 min · Exit Ticket
Read each question aloud. Your child answers on paper and may look at the clock.
Watch for: Reading the next hour when the hour hand is close to it, such as reading 11:58 as 12:58.
Try: Ask: "Has the hour hand reached the next number yet?" If not, your child uses the number it has passed.
Exit ticket (3 questions)
- The minute hand is 3 marks past the 8. How many minutes past the hour is it?
- The hour hand is between 2 and 3. The minute hand is 1 mark past the 9. What time is it?
- The hour hand is almost at 5. The minute hand is 4 marks past the 10. What time is it?
Show answers
- 43 minutes
- 2:46
- 4:54
Support: Start with the minute hand on a clock number, such as 4:20 and 9:35. Then move the minute hand 1 mark more and read again (4:21 and 9:36).
Extend: Your child reads 3 times and tells the minutes until the next hour. Sample: 7:48 is 12 minutes before 8, because 48 + 12 = 60.
Homework: Your child reads 5 times on a clock with hands at home and writes each one. At least 2 times must not end in 0 or 5. Check each time with a digital clock. Sample: 6:43.
English Language Arts
I can tell how two texts about the same topic focus on different parts of it, and I can use new science words.
Builds on: Needs main idea and key details (Week 7) and comparing two articles on one topic (Week 16). One-minute check: ask, "What is a main idea?" (what a text is mostly about)
- focus – the part of a topic that a text teaches the most about
Materials: Reader's notebook, Ruler, Pencil, 6 index cards or paper slips
5 min · Warm-Up
Word study: the endings -tion and -sion. Write action and vision. Say: "The ending -tion says /shun/. The ending -sion often says /zhun/." Your child writes six words on cards: action, station, lotion, vision, division, mansion. Your child reads each word aloud and sorts the cards by ending. Ask: "Which -sion word says /shun/?" (mansion) Spaced review from Week 24. Ask: "A cereal box says, 'Try the crunchiest flakes ever!' What is the author's purpose?" (to persuade)
10–15 min · Mini-Lesson
Say: "Two texts can share a topic but teach different parts of it. The part a text teaches most about is its focus." Say: "Read to find out what each text mostly teaches about bees." Take turns reading aloud. Text 1, "Inside the Hive": A honeybee hive is a busy home. One queen lays all the eggs, sometimes more than 1,000 in a single day. Worker bees do every other job. Young workers clean the cells and feed the larvae, or baby bees. Older workers guard the door and fly out to gather nectar and pollen. Bees turn nectar into honey and store it in wax cells for winter. In summer, a worker bee lives about six weeks. Text 2, "Bees on the Farm": When a bee visits a flower to drink nectar, pollen sticks to its fuzzy body. The bee flies to the next flower, and some pollen rubs off. This is called pollination. Because the flower gets pollen, it can make seeds and fruit. Apples, blueberries and cherries all depend on pollinators like bees. Some farmers rent hives each spring so that bees will pollinate their orchards. In summer, a worker bee lives about five to six weeks. Think aloud: "Both texts are about honeybees. That is the topic. Text 1 keeps telling about jobs in the hive. So that is its focus." Use the ruler to draw two columns: Text 1 focuses on | Text 2 focuses on. Write "jobs inside the hive" in the first column.
10–15 min · Guided Practice
1) Ask: "What does Text 2 keep telling about?" (how bees carry pollen and help plants make fruit) Your child writes it in the second column. 2) Ask: "Which two details fit each focus?" (Text 1: the queen lays eggs; young workers feed larvae. Text 2: pollen rubs off; farmers rent hives.) 3) Your child points to larvae and pollination. Ask: "Which nearby words tell each meaning?" ("or baby bees"; "This is called" points back to pollen moving between flowers.) 4) Write pollen, pollinate, pollinator, pollination. Ask: "Which small word hides in all four?" (pollen) Say: "A word you know can unlock a longer word." Your child reads pol|li|na|tion in syllables. If stuck, say: "If this text had one heading, what would it be? That heading is the focus."
15–20 min · Independent Practice
Your child works in the notebook. 1) Add two more details under each focus. 2) Write the main idea of each text in one sentence. 3) Write what nectar, larvae, pollen and pollination mean, using the texts. 4) Write a heading that fits each whole text. Look for: main ideas that match each focus. Samples: "Honeybees share the work of the hive." "Bees help flowers make fruit." Meanings should come from the texts. Nectar is a sweet drink in flowers. Pollen is flower dust that sticks to bees.
5 min · Exit Ticket
Read each question aloud. Your child may look back at both texts and answers in the notebook.
Watch for: Listing facts without saying what each text mostly teaches.
Try: Ask, "What one heading fits this whole text?" Write the heading above the column before adding any facts.
Exit ticket (3 questions)
- Which text would you read to learn who feeds baby bees? Why?
- What are "pollinators" in Text 2? Which word you know helps you?
- Name one thing Text 1 teaches that Text 2 does not.
Show answers
- Text 1, because its focus is the jobs inside the hive.
- Animals, like bees, that move pollen between flowers. The words pollen and pollination help.
- Any one: the queen lays the eggs; workers clean, feed and guard; honey is stored in wax cells.
Support: Read each text twice. Pause after every sentence and ask, "Is this about the hive or about flowers?" Your child points to the column.
Extend: Your child writes a three-sentence Text 3 with a new focus, such as how beekeepers collect honey. Your child names its focus.
Homework: Your child teaches a family member the words pollen and pollination, using Text 2 (10 minutes). Look for the meaning in your child's own words, not read from the page.
Science
I can identify cirrus, cumulus, stratus and cumulonimbus clouds and tell what weather each often brings.
Builds on: Needs the Week 23 Sky Journal sketches of wispy, puffy, flat and tall clouds. One-minute check: ask "Name the five parts of weather." (Temperature, precipitation, wind, clouds and humidity.)
- cirrus – thin, wispy clouds very high in the sky, made of ice
- cumulus – puffy white clouds that look like heaps of cotton
- stratus – a flat gray layer of cloud that spreads across the sky
- cumulonimbus – a giant, tall storm cloud, dark underneath, that brings thunderstorms
Materials: 12 cotton balls, 1 sheet of dark blue or black paper, Glue, White crayon or chalk, Science notebook and pencil, A window or outdoor spot with a view of the sky
5 min · Day 121 — Cloud Types — Wonder Warm-Up
Spaced review from Week 24. Ask: "Engineers test a design and find a failure point. What do they do next?" (They improve it and test again.) Then look out a window. Ask: "Describe the clouds you see with three words." Now the wonder. Ask: "Can a cloud's shape give a clue about the weather?"
10–15 min · Mini-Lesson
Say: "Clouds are made of tiny water drops or bits of ice floating in the air." Say: "A cloud's shape gives a clue about the weather, not a promise." Say: "Cirrus clouds are thin, wispy streaks, very high up. They are made of ice. The name means curl of hair." Say: "Cirrus clouds often come in fair weather. Many of them can mean a change in a day or so." Say: "Cumulus clouds are puffy white heaps with flat bottoms. The name means heap. They usually come on fair days." Say: "Stratus clouds make a flat gray layer, like a blanket over the sky. The name means layer. They may bring drizzle." Say: "The tall, dark storm clouds from Week 21 are called cumulonimbus clouds. They are giant towers, dark underneath. Nimbus means rain cloud. They bring thunderstorms." Ask: "Which cloud name means layer?" (Stratus.) Ask: "Which cloud is made of ice and looks like thin hair?" (Cirrus.) Ask: "A puffy cloud grows taller all afternoon and turns dark below. What might be coming?" (A thunderstorm. It is turning into a cumulonimbus cloud.) If stuck, say: "Is it wispy, puffy, flat or tall?"
15–20 min · Investigation / Hands-On
Cotton Cloud Chart and Sky Tally. 1) Fold the dark paper into four boxes. 2) Your child builds one cloud in each box and glues it down. Cirrus: pull 1 cotton ball into thin wisps near the top. Cumulus: glue 3 whole balls in a heap. Stratus: stretch 2 balls into one flat sheet. Cumulonimbus: stack 5 balls into a tall tower with a wide top. 3) With the white crayon, label each box with the cloud's name and its usual weather. 4) Go outside or to a window. Safety: never look straight at the sun. Match the real sky to the chart. 5) Start a Sky Tally in the notebook. Draw a table with three columns: Date, Cloud type, Weather. Add one row every day this week. Use the same place and time of day. On Day 4 you will count the rows. Real skies are often mixed, and some days are clear. Say: "Real results vary. Pick the closest match, or write clear."
10 min · Science Notebook Entry
Your child draws and labels all four cloud types, with the usual weather under each. Then give three frames. "Today I saw ___ clouds. They looked ___. They often mean ___." Sample: "Today I saw cumulus clouds. They looked puffy with flat bottoms. They often mean fair weather."
5 min · Wrap-Up & Exit Ticket
Ask the three exit questions aloud; the cotton chart may stay in view. Praise shape words and the word usually.
Watch for: Thinking every gray or dark cloud is a storm cloud.
Try: Set the flat stratus sheet beside the tall tower on the chart. Say: "Storm clouds are tall. Look at the shape first, then the color."
Exit ticket (3 questions)
- What are clouds made of?
- A low, flat gray layer covers the sky all morning. Which cloud type is it, and what might it bring?
- Which cloud type did you see today? What shape clue told you?
Show answers
- Tiny water drops or bits of ice floating in the air.
- Stratus. It may bring drizzle or light rain.
- Answers vary. Look for: a type that matches the sky and a shape word, such as wispy, puffy, flat or tall. On a clear day, accept "no clouds."
Support: Start with shapes only: hair, heap, blanket and tower. Add the four names once your child can point to each shape.
Extend: For 3 days, your child checks whether puffy clouds grow taller by afternoon, as they often do on warm days.
Homework: Look at the sky tomorrow morning and add a row to the Sky Tally. Look for: a cloud type or the word clear.