Day 2 · Tuesday

Objective: I can explain how Plains nations depended on the bison and how they live today.

Standards: D2.Geo.4.3-5, D2.His.2.3-5, D2.His.4.3-5, D2.His.5.3-5

Materials: U.S. map, 1 sheet of paper, Tape, 8 index cards, Notebook, Pencil

1. Warm-Up · 5 min

   Spaced review from Week 11. Ask: "What is the land like in much of the Midwest?" (Flat or gently rolling, with rich soil.) Then point to the Great Plains on the map. Say: "These are wide grasslands. What if your main food walked away across the grass each season?"

2. Mini-Lesson · 10–15 min

   Say: "Plains nations include the Lakota, Cheyenne, Comanche, Crow, Kiowa and Pawnee." Say: "Huge herds of bison, often called buffalo, lived on the Plains." Say: "Hunters wasted very little. Meat was food. Hides became clothing and tipi covers. Bones became tools. Sinew became thread." Say: "A tipi is a cone of long poles covered with hides." Say: "Not every Plains nation moved all year. The Pawnee also farmed and lived in earth lodges." Say: "Spanish colonists brought horses. On horseback, hunters could travel farther and faster." Say: "In the 1800s, hunters from the United States killed millions of bison, mostly for their hides. Fewer than 1,000 were left. Plains nations lost their main food. The U.S. government forced them onto reservations." Say: "Today many Plains nations raise their own bison herds." Ask: "Which nation also farmed?" (The Pawnee.) "Who brought horses?" (Spanish colonists.) "What happened to the bison in the 1800s?" (Hunters killed almost all of them.) If stuck, say: "Tell me one thing a family got from a bison."

3. Activity / Source Work · 15–20 min

   1) Write meat, hide, bones and sinew on four index cards. Write food, clothing and tipi covers, tools, and thread on four more. Your child matches each part to its use. 2) Your child rolls the paper into a cone, tapes it and draws a door. Ask: "Why was a home like this useful for following the herds?" (It was light and quick to take down and move.) 3) Read this source aloud. It was written for this lesson from real history. "Two views of the bison, 1870s. A Lakota mother: The bison give us food, our homes and our tools. Our whole way of life follows the herd. A hide hunter: Each hide sells for about three dollars. I shoot as many as I can before winter." 4) Ask: "What does the bison mean to each speaker? Which words are your evidence?" (To her, food, homes and a way of life. To him, three dollars a hide.) 5) Ask: "Why did they see the bison so differently?" (Her family needed bison to live. He wanted to earn money.)

4. Notebook Entry · 10 min

   Your child makes a fact card with five headings: Region, Nations, Homes, Main food, Today. Sample: Great Plains; Lakota, Cheyenne, Pawnee; tipis and earth lodges; bison. Under Today, write: "Many Plains nations are bringing bison back to their lands." Then finish the frame: "For Plains nations the bison meant ___. For hide hunters it meant ___."

5. Exit Ticket · 5 min

   Read each question aloud. Your child answers in the notebook. Praise answers that show two points of view fairly.

Homework: Your child tells a family member three ways the bison was used and one thing Plains nations do with bison today. Look for the present tense.

Objective: I can solve sharing word problems where I find how many are in each group.

Standards: 3.OA.A.3, 3.OA.A.2

Materials: 30 counters (dried beans, coins or buttons), 6 paper plates or cups, Notebook, Pencil

1. Warm-Up · 5 min

   Spaced review from Day 1. Read: "3 bags hold 8 apples each. How many apples?" Your child answers with an equation (3 × 8 = 24). Then practice ÷5 and ÷6 facts with no clock. Ask 35 ÷ 5, 30 ÷ 6 and 48 ÷ 6 (7, 5, 8). Your child names the multiplication fact that helps each time.

2. Mini-Lesson · 10–15 min

   Say: "Today's stories are sharing stories. We know the total and the number of groups. We find how many are in each group." Read aloud: "24 candies are shared equally by 6 friends. How many candies does each friend get?" Ask: "What is the total?" (24) "How many groups?" (6 friends) "What is unknown?" (How many each friend gets.) Set out 6 plates. Your child deals 24 beans, one to each plate, round and round. Write 24 ÷ 6 = ?. Ask: "How many are on each plate?" (4) "Does every friend get the same number?" (Yes.) Say: "So 24 ÷ 6 = 4. Each friend gets 4 candies." Say: "Check with multiplication. 6 groups of 4 is 24." Write 6 × 4 = 24. Now your child does more. Read: "Rosa has 35 beads. She makes 5 bracelets with the same number on each. How many beads are on each bracelet?" Your child sketches 5 circles, writes the equation and checks. (35 ÷ 5 = 7; 7 beads; 5 × 7 = 35)

3. Guided Practice · 10–15 min

   Your child sketches circles, writes an equation with ? and answers in a sentence. 1) 30 crayons are shared equally by 5 children. How many does each child get? (30 ÷ 5 = 6; 6 crayons) 2) 27 strawberries go equally into 3 bowls. How many are in each bowl? (27 ÷ 3 = 9; 9 strawberries) 3) A ribbon is 32 inches long. It is cut into 4 equal pieces. How long is each piece? (32 ÷ 4 = 8; 8 inches) If stuck, say: "What is being shared? Write that total first. How many plates do we need?"

4. Independent Practice · 15–20 min

   For problems 3 to 8, your child writes an equation with ? and a multiplication check. Problems 5 to 8 also need an answer sentence. 1) 40 ÷ 5 = ? (8). 2) 54 ÷ 6 = ? (9). 3) Draw 18 dots shared into 3 circles. (18 ÷ 3 = 6) 4) Draw 28 dots shared into 4 circles. (28 ÷ 4 = 7) 5) 49 stickers go equally onto 7 pages. How many are on each page? (7 stickers) 6) Mr. Okafor puts 40 chairs in 4 equal rows. How many are in each row? (10 chairs) 7) 63 marbles are shared equally among 7 jars. How many are in each jar? (9 marbles) 8) A rope is 36 feet long. It is cut into 6 equal pieces. How long is each piece? (6 feet)

5. Exit Ticket · 5 min

   Put the plates away. Read each question aloud; your child answers on paper.

Fact fluency: ÷5, ÷6 facts

Homework: A family member tells 2 sharing stories. Your child sketches and solves each. Sample: 20 grapes shared by 4 people; 20 ÷ 4 = 5 grapes each.

Objective: I can create a clear problem that matters to my character.

Standards: W.3.3.A, RL.3.3

Materials: Writer's notebook with yesterday's plan, Three index cards, Pencil

1. Warm-Up · 5 min

   Word study, about 3 minutes. Your child writes tiger, music, swimming and digging, then draws a line between the syllables. (ti|ger, mu|sic, swim|ming, dig|ging) Ask: "Why does the first part of tiger say a long i?" (It is an open syllable. It ends in a vowel.) Spaced review from Week 8. Ask: "Fact or opinion: Dogs are the best pets?" (opinion)

2. Mini-Lesson · 10–15 min

   Ask: "What small problem did you have this week?" (Sample: a lost shoe.) Say: "Problems are the seeds of stories. A story problem must matter to the character." Write three types. Say: "Vs. means against." Person vs. person: Diego and his sister both want the last library copy of a book. Person vs. nature: thick fog rolls in while Ines hikes back to camp. Person vs. self: Hana freezes halfway up a climbing wall, though she practiced all summer. Ask: "Why does Hana's problem matter to her?" (She worked hard and wants to reach the top.) Say: "Rising action makes the problem grow." Read the model: Ines wanted to reach camp before dark, but fog hid the trail. First, she could not find the next trail marker. But then her flashlight flickered. But then the path split in two. Think aloud: "Each sentence makes it harder for Ines. Nothing is fixed yet." Ask: "What might Ines do next? How would that change the story?" (Sample: She stops and listens for the creek by camp, then follows the sound.)

3. Guided Practice · 10–15 min

   Write each problem type on an index card. Read each one aloud. Your child points to the right card and says why. 1) "A raccoon keeps tipping over Wes's bird feeder." (Nature. An animal causes the trouble.) 2) "Zara and Malik both want to be team captain." (Person. Two people want the same thing.) 3) "June knows the answer, but she is afraid to raise her hand." (Self. The trouble is a fear inside her.) 4) Your child writes the problem in the new plan with the frame "___ wants ___, but ___." Name its type together. If stuck, say: "Who or what is in the way: a person, nature or a feeling inside?"

4. Independent Practice · 15–20 min

   Your child drafts the rising action for the new story. 1) Copy the problem sentence. 2) Write 3 to 5 sentences. Each one makes things a little harder: a second try fails, time runs out, or someone laughs. 3) Use "but then" twice, or two time-order words. 4) After each sentence, ask: "Is it getting harder?" Look for: the problem is not solved yet, each sentence adds trouble, and the verbs stay in the past tense.

5. Exit Ticket · 5 min

   Ask the three questions. Your child reads the problem sentence aloud for question 3.

Homework: Ask a family member about a problem they had as a child, and name its type. Then read your own book for 15 minutes. Look for: your child says who or what was in the way.

Objective: I can explain that the energy in every food chain starts with the sun.

Standards: 3-LS4-3

Materials: Flashlight, A houseplant or a leaf, Three kitchen foods: a piece of cheese, an egg and a cracker, Sheet of paper, Science notebook, Pencil

1. Day 57 — Energy from the Sun — Wonder Warm-Up · 5 min

   Spaced review from Week 10. Ask: "Is the sun living? Use the Living Checklist." (No. It does not eat, grow or reproduce.) Then ask: "Where does grass get the energy to grow?" Write the guess down to check later.

2. Mini-Lesson · 10–15 min

   Shine the flashlight on the houseplant or leaf. Say: "Pretend this light is the sun. Plants catch energy from sunlight. They use it, with air and water, to make food. That is photosynthesis." Say: "When a cow eats grass, some of that energy moves into the cow. When you drink milk, energy moves again." Draw it on paper: sun, grass, cow, milk, person. Draw a wavy line from the sun to the grass. Say: "The wavy line is sunlight. Nothing eats the sun." Draw arrows for the rest. Say: "An animal can live only where its food can live." Ask: "Which food passed energy to the cow?" (The grass, and before that the sun.) Ask: "Could a rabbit live where no plants grow?" (No. It would have no food.) Ask: "Is the sun a producer?" (No. It is not alive. It is the energy source.) If stuck, say: "Ask what it ate, again and again, until you reach a plant. Then name the sun."

3. Investigation / Hands-On · 15–20 min

   Trace It Back to the Sun. Safety: handle the egg gently and wash hands after touching it. Nothing is eaten. 1) Your child picks up the cheese and traces it backward aloud. Cheese came from milk. Milk came from a cow. The cow ate grass. The grass used sunlight. 2) Do the egg: a hen laid it, the hen ate grain, the grain plant used sunlight. 3) Do the cracker: it is made from wheat, and wheat used sunlight. 4) Record in a table: Food, Steps back to the sun, Number of steps. Expect cheese 4, egg 3, cracker 2. 5) Ask: "Which chain is shortest? What does every chain pass through?" (The cracker. A plant.) A food with many ingredients has many chains. Pick one ingredient.

4. Science Notebook Entry · 10 min

   Your child draws two sun-to-me chains, each starting with a wavy line from the sun. Above the wavy line they write "sunlight energy." Then give the frame: "Without the sun, ___ because ___." Look for: "Without the sun, plants could not make food because they need sunlight. Then animals would have nothing to eat." Check the warm-up guess.

5. Wrap-Up & Exit Ticket · 5 min

   Ask the three questions aloud. Praise any chain that reaches the sun through a plant.

Homework: At dinner, your child picks one food and traces it back to the sun for a family member. Look for a plant just before the sun.