Day 1 · Monday

Objective: I can fix tricky map skills from Weeks 10 and 11, like regions and landforms.

Standards: D2.Geo.2.3-5, D2.Geo.10.3-5

Materials: Blank U.S. map (a hand-drawn outline is fine), U.S. map with states, for checking, 5 colored pencils, 10 index cards, Finished Social Studies Checks from Weeks 10 and 11, Notebook, Pencil

1. Warm-Up · 5 min

   Spaced review from Week 3. Ask: "What does a compass rose show?" (The directions north, south, east and west.) Then look over the Week 10 and Week 11 checks together. Circle each missed item. Ask the big question: "Which two places do you mix up most?"

2. Mini-Lesson · 10–15 min

   Reteach two skills that often get mixed up. Skill 1, Southeast and Southwest. Your child puts a finger on the bottom edge of the map. Say: "That is south. Slide right, toward the Atlantic. That is the Southeast." "It is warm and wet, with beaches and swamps like the Everglades." Say: "Go back to south. Slide left. That is the Southwest. It is hot and dry and touches Mexico." Skill 2, the two mountain ranges. Say: "The Rockies are in the West. They are tall and jagged." "The Appalachians are in the East. They are much older, so wind and rain wore them low and round." Your child makes a tall pointed tent with two hands for the Rockies. Then make a low round hill for the Appalachians. Ask: "Florida is warm with swamps. Which region?" (Southeast.) Ask: "Arizona is hot and dry. Which region?" (Southwest.) Ask: "Which mountains are older? How does their shape show it?" (The Appalachians. They are worn low and round.) If stuck, say: "Find south first. Then ask: Atlantic side or Mexico side?" If neither skill was missed, review the Great Lakes and the path of the Mississippi.

3. Activity / Source Work · 15–20 min

   Region relay. 1) Your child colors the five regions on the blank map from memory, using the colored pencils. Check against the other map and fix any state in the wrong color. 2) Your child labels the Rockies, the Appalachians and the Mississippi River. 3) Play "Which region?" Write ten clues on cards. Your child places each card on the map and names the region. Everglades and Atlanta (Southeast). Detroit and corn (Midwest). Phoenix and mesas (Southwest). Boston and maple syrup (Northeast). Seattle and Alaska (West). 4) Keep a tally chart with two columns: Right on first try, Needed a second try. Ask after each card: "What on the map is your evidence?" (Sample: "Phoenix is in Arizona, near Mexico.") Expect at least 8 of 10 on the first try. Redo missed cards at the end. Your child's tally may differ. Look for the pattern: which region gets missed most?

4. Notebook Entry · 10 min

   Your child writes the right answer for every missed check item. Use the frame: "The answer is ___ because ___." Sample: "The answer is the Appalachians because they are worn low and round." If nothing was missed, your child writes both rules from today in their own words.

5. Exit Ticket · 5 min

   Put the maps away. Read the questions aloud. Praise answers that give a clue as a reason.

Homework: Your child quizzes a family member with five "Which region?" cards and checks the answers. Look for: your child gives a helpful clue when an answer is wrong.

Objective: I can catch up on division by modeling sharing and grouping and using fact families.

Standards: 3.OA.A.2, 3.OA.B.6

Materials: 30 counters (dried beans, coins or buttons), 6 cups or paper plates, 4 paper triangles (cut 2 paper squares corner to corner), Notebook, Pencil

1. Warm-Up · 5 min

   Spaced review from Week 13. Ask 6 × 0 and 9 × 1 (0, 9). Then try ÷3 and ÷4 facts with no clock. Ask 12 ÷ 3, 21 ÷ 3, 16 ÷ 4 and 28 ÷ 4 (4, 7, 4, 7). Your child names the multiplication fact that helped with one of them.

2. Mini-Lesson · 10–15 min

   Say: "This week we catch up. Today is division. Division tells two stories." Count out 24 beans and set out 6 cups. Say: "Sharing story. 24 beans are shared equally among 6 cups. How many go in each cup?" Your child deals the beans one at a time. Ask: "How many in each cup?" (4) Write 24 ÷ 6 = 4. Ask: "What did the 6 tell us?" (The number of cups.) Tip the beans back into one pile. Say: "Grouping story. 24 beans go in piles of 6. How many piles?" Your child scoops piles of 6. Ask: "How many piles?" (4) "What did the 6 tell us this time?" (How many in each pile.) Say: "Same equation, two stories. So 24 ÷ 6 = 4." Ask: "Which multiplication fact is in the same family?" (6 × 4 = 24) Now your child does more. Say: "Show 15 ÷ 3 as sharing, then as grouping." (Sharing: 3 cups with 5 in each. Grouping: 5 piles of 3. Both show 15 ÷ 3 = 5.)

3. Guided Practice · 10–15 min

   Make fact-family triangles together. 1) Write 4, 6 and 24 in the corners of a paper triangle, with 24 at the top. Your child writes the two multiplication facts (4 × 6 = 24, 6 × 4 = 24). Then your child writes the two division facts (24 ÷ 4 = 6, 24 ÷ 6 = 4). 2) Make a triangle for 5, 8 and 40. Cover the 8. Ask: "Which fact finds the hidden number?" (40 ÷ 5 = 8) 3) Cover the 40 instead. Ask the same question. (5 × 8 = 40) 4) Read: "30 crayons go in boxes of 5." Ask: "Sharing or grouping? How many boxes?" (Grouping; 30 ÷ 5 = 6) If stuck, say: "Do we know the number of groups, or how many are in each group?"

4. Independent Practice · 15–20 min

   Your child works alone and checks each answer with multiplication. 1) 18 ÷ 3 (6). 2) 32 ÷ 4 (8). 3) 27 ÷ 3 (9). 4) Draw 12 ÷ 4 as sharing: 4 circles with dots dealt out (3 in each). 5) Draw 12 ÷ 4 as grouping: rings around every 4 dots (3 groups). 6) Make a triangle for 3, 7 and 21. Write the multiplication facts (3 × 7 = 21, 7 × 3 = 21). Write the division facts (21 ÷ 3 = 7, 21 ÷ 7 = 3). 7) 36 stickers are shared equally among 4 children. How many does each child get? (9) 8) 24 muffins go in boxes of 3. How many boxes? (8) Last, your child tells which story was sharing and which was grouping. (Problem 7 is sharing; problem 8 is grouping.)

5. Exit Ticket · 5 min

   Put the cups and beans away. Read each question aloud; your child answers on paper and draws for question 1.

Fact fluency: ÷3, ÷4 facts

Homework: Make a fact-family triangle for 4, 9 and 36. Cover one corner and quiz a family member. Answers: 4 × 9 = 36, 9 × 4 = 36, 36 ÷ 4 = 9, 36 ÷ 9 = 4.

Objective: I can punctuate dialogue correctly every time (catch-up day).

Standards: L.3.2.C, W.3.3.B

Materials: Narrative draft, 4 index cards, Two colored pens, 4 sticky notes, Notebook

1. Warm-Up · 5 min

   Flex week, catch-up day 1. Word study, about 3 minutes: review un-, re- and dis-. Ask: "What does each prefix mean?" (Un-: not or the opposite. Re-: again. Dis-: not or the opposite of.) Write unlock, untie, redo, replay, disobey and distrust in the notebook. Your child reads each word and sorts it by prefix. Spaced review from Week 13. Ask: "Is adding a missing period revising or editing?" (Editing.)

2. Mini-Lesson · 10–15 min

   Say: "Today we fix the trickiest skill from Week 11. Dialogue is a sandwich. The two quotation marks are the slices of bread. The filling is the spoken words plus their comma or end mark. The speaker tag stays outside the sandwich." Write four patterns in the notebook. 1) "The bus is here," said Theo. 2) "Is that my seat?" asked Theo. 3) "Hold on tight!" yelled Theo. 4) Theo said, "The bus is here." Think aloud on pattern 1. Say: "Theo's words get bread on both sides. The comma is filling, so it sits inside. The period waits until the very end." On patterns 2 and 3, say: "The question mark or exclamation point is filling too. The tag still starts with a small letter, unless it starts with a name." On pattern 4, say: "The tag comes first, so a comma follows it. The first spoken word gets a capital." Your child points to every comma and end mark.

3. Guided Practice · 10–15 min

   Write one spoken line on each of four sticky notes. Note 1: I lost my boot. Note 2: Where did you leave it. Note 3: It is floating away. Note 4: Grab the net. Write one tag on each of four index cards: said Jo, asked Dad, yelled Jo, Dad said. Your child pairs a note with a tag. Then they write the sentence, with spoken words and marks in one color and the tag in the other. Check each one against these answers. 1) ("I lost my boot," said Jo.) 2) ("Where did you leave it?" asked Dad.) 3) ("It is floating away!" yelled Jo.) 4) (Dad said, "Grab the net.") If stuck, say: "Read only the words that come out of the mouth. Put bread around those."

4. Independent Practice · 15–20 min

   1) Your child finds every line of dialogue in the narrative. They check each line against the four patterns and fix mistakes. 2) They write a new 6-line conversation in the notebook. Two cousins hear a strange noise in the attic. Each pattern appears at least once, and each new speaker starts a new line. Short model: "Did you hear that?" asked Ravi. Lin said, "It came from the attic." 3) They check every line for three rules. Quotation marks hug the spoken words. The comma, question mark or exclamation point sits inside them. The first spoken word has a capital.

5. Exit Ticket · 5 min

   Write the first two items with no marks. Your child rewrites them, then answers the third aloud.

Homework: Listen at dinner. Write 3 things a family member says as dialogue. Look for: quotation marks, the right mark inside them, and a speaker tag.

Objective: I can sort producers, consumers and decomposers and draw food chain arrows the right way.

Standards: 3-LS4-3

Materials: 11 role cards from Week 10: oak tree, grass, sunflower, rabbit, deer, hawk, raccoon, honeybee, mushroom, bread mold, earthworm (remake on index cards if lost), 9 food chain cards: sun, clover, rabbit, fox, grass, grasshopper, frog, snake, hawk (reuse the role cards where names repeat), 3 paper plates labeled Producer, Consumer, Decomposer, 6 paper arrows cut from scrap paper, Soft ball or rolled-up sock (the energy), Scored Week 10 and Week 12 checks, if you kept them, Science notebook and pencil

1. Day 66 — Flex Catch-Up: Food Roles and Arrows — Wonder Warm-Up · 5 min

   Spaced review from Week 10. Name six living things, one at a time: oak tree, robin, mushroom, deer, sunflower, bread mold. Your child points to the right plate for each. (Producer, consumer, decomposer, consumer, producer, decomposer.) Note any misses. Then the big question: "What does a food chain arrow really carry?"

2. Mini-Lesson · 10–15 min

   Say: "Today we fix the two trickiest ideas. First, roles. A producer makes its own food from sunlight, air and water. A consumer eats other living things. A decomposer breaks down dead things and returns nutrients to the soil." Hold up the grass, deer and mushroom cards. Your child names each role and tells how it gets food. (Producer, consumer, decomposer.) Say: "Second, arrows. An arrow shows where the energy goes. It points from the food to the eater." Lay clover, rabbit and fox in a row with arrows between them. Say: "The rabbit gets energy from the clover. The fox gets energy from the rabbit." Ask: "Which way does the arrow point between clover and rabbit?" (Toward the rabbit.) "Who gets the energy?" (The rabbit.) "Is an earthworm a producer?" (No. It is a consumer that eats dead leaves.) If stuck, say: "Point to the eater. The arrow's tip touches the eater."

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

   Energy Toss. 1) Lay four cards in a line on the floor: sun, clover, rabbit, fox. 2) Your child holds the ball, the energy, at the sun. They carry it to each card and say: "The sun gives energy to the clover. The clover is eaten by the rabbit. The rabbit is eaten by the fox." 3) Your child lays a paper arrow along each path the ball took. 4) Mistake hunt. Turn one arrow backward while your child looks away. They find it and fix it. 5) Your child builds a new chain: sun, grass, grasshopper, frog, snake, hawk. They repeat the walk and lay the arrows. 6) Role sort. Your child sorts the 11 role cards onto the plates. (Producers: oak tree, grass, sunflower. Consumers: rabbit, deer, hawk, raccoon, honeybee, earthworm. Decomposers: mushroom, bread mold. The earthworm eats dead leaves, which helps the decomposers.) Look for two things. Every chain starts with the sun and a producer. Every arrow tip touches the eater.

4. Science Notebook Entry · 10 min

   In the notebook, your child draws one food chain that starts with the sun and has three living things. Above it they write: "The arrow carries the energy." They label each living thing P or C. If you kept the Week 10 and Week 12 checks, they redo missed items in another color. Sample: sun → grass → grasshopper → frog.

5. Wrap-Up & Exit Ticket · 5 min

   Read the three questions aloud, and let your child draw for question 2. Praise any idea they missed before and get right now.

Homework: Draw two food chains from your yard or kitchen. Label each part P, C or D. Look for arrows that point to the eater.