Day 3 · Wednesday

Objective: I can describe the jobs of the President and the executive branch.

Standards: D2.Civ.1.3-5, D2.Civ.5.3-5

Materials: Notebook, Pencil, 8 index cards, A quarter or a one-dollar bill, Branch tree from Day 1

1. Warm-Up · 5 min

   Spaced review from Week 19. Ask: "Who leads many towns and cities?" (A mayor.) Show the quarter or the dollar bill. Ask: "Whose face is this?" (George Washington, the first President.) Then ask: "What do you think a President does all day?"

2. Mini-Lesson · 10–15 min

   Say: "The executive branch carries out the laws. The President leads it." Count four jobs on your fingers. "The President signs or vetoes bills, leads the armed forces and meets leaders of other countries. The President also chooses people to lead federal departments." Say: "The Vice President helps, and takes over if the President cannot serve." Say: "The Cabinet is a group of advisers. Most of them lead a department, such as Agriculture or Transportation." Say: "The country elects a President every four years. A person can be elected President only twice." Say: "A President must be 35 or older and a citizen from birth." Say: "The President must follow the laws and the Constitution too." Say: "Each state has a governor. A governor leads a state's executive branch, much as a mayor leads a town." Ask: "Can the President make a law alone?" (No. Congress makes laws.) "Who leads a state?" (The governor.) If stuck, say: "Look at the tree. Which branch holds that job?"

3. Activity / Source Work · 15–20 min

   Job sort. 1) Write eight cards. "Signs or vetoes bills." "Leads the armed forces." "Meets leaders of other countries." "Chooses Cabinet members." "Votes on a bill in the Senate." "Decides a court case." "Leads a state." "Leads a town." 2) Your child sorts them under two headings: President's jobs and Not the President's job. Expect four in each pile. 3) For each "not" card, your child names who does it. (A senator, a judge, a governor, a mayor.) 4) Your child lays the four President cards on the executive branch of the tree. Ask: "What does the tree show about the President's power?" (It has limits. Other branches hold other jobs.) 5) Read this made-up schedule aloud. "A President's day. 9:00, meet the Cabinet about a big storm. 11:00, sign a bill from Congress. 2:00, phone the leader of Canada. 4:00, visit soldiers at an Army base." 6) Ask: "Match each line to a job card. What is your evidence?" (Sample: phoning Canada's leader matches meeting leaders of other countries.) For the Cabinet meeting, accept "chooses Cabinet members" with a reason.

4. Notebook Entry · 10 min

   In the notebook, your child draws a ladder with three rungs: Mayor (town), Governor (state), President (country). Next to each rung, write one job. Then fill in: "The governor of our state is ___." Sample: "President: signs or vetoes bills. Governor: leads our state. Mayor: leads our town."

5. Exit Ticket · 5 min

   Read the three questions aloud. Praise answers that show the limits on a President's power.

Homework: Your child tells a family member three facts about the President's job and one about a governor's job. Look for four true facts.

Objective: I can place fractions greater than 1 on a number line.

Standards: 3.NF.A.2.B, 3.NF.A.3.C

Materials: Centimeter ruler (30 cm), Unlined paper, turned sideways, Pencil, Colored pencil (for drawing jumps)

1. Warm-Up · 5 min

   Spaced review from Week 12. Read: "48 stickers go 6 on each page. How many pages?" (48 ÷ 6 = 8) Then practice ×6 facts with no clock. Ask 6 × 4, 6 × 7, 6 × 8 and 6 × 9 (24, 42, 48, 54). For a slow fact, use the ×5 fact and add one more group.

2. Mini-Lesson · 10–15 min

   Say: "The number line keeps going past 1. Every whole is cut the same way." Draw a line 24 cm long with the ruler. Label 0 at the left end, 1 at 12 cm and 2 at 24 cm. Say: "I want fourths. Each whole needs 4 equal spaces." Make a tick every 3 cm. Count the ticks together from 0: 1/4, 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 5/4, 6/4, 7/4, 8/4. Label each one. Ask: "Which fraction is at 1?" (4/4) "Which is at 2?" (8/4) Write 5/4. Start at 0 and draw 5 jumps with the colored pencil. Say: "I land one jump past 1, at 15 cm." Say: "So 5/4 is between 1 and 2. It is one jump of 1/4 past 1." Now your child does more. Your child draws a 24 cm line from 0 to 2 with a tick every 6 cm. Ask: "What size is each space?" (1/2) Your child labels 1/2, 2/2, 3/2 and 4/2, then marks 3/2. (3/2 is at 18 cm, one jump past 1.)

3. Guided Practice · 10–15 min

   1) Draw a line 18 cm long from 0 to 3. Each whole is 6 cm. Make a tick every 2 cm for thirds. Your child labels 3/3 under 1, 6/3 under 2 and 9/3 under 3. 2) Your child places 7/3 on that line. (7 jumps; 7/3 is at 14 cm, one jump past 2.) 3) Draw a 24 cm line from 0 to 2 with a tick every 2 cm. Ask: "What size is each space?" (1/6) Your child places 9/6. (9/6 is at 18 cm, three jumps past 1.) 4) Ask: "Is 10/6 between 0 and 1 or between 1 and 2?" (Between 1 and 2. 6/6 is 1 and 12/6 is 2.) If stuck, say: "How many parts make 1 whole? Count that many jumps to reach 1. Then keep counting."

4. Independent Practice · 15–20 min

   Your child uses 24 cm lines from 0 to 2, with 1 at 12 cm. 1) Place 6/4, with a tick every 3 cm. (6/4 is at 18 cm.) 2) Place 7/6, with a tick every 2 cm. (7/6 is at 14 cm.) 3) Place 4/2, with a tick every 6 cm. (4/2 is at 24 cm, which is 2.) 4) Place 11/6, with a tick every 2 cm. (11/6 is at 22 cm.) 5) Draw a 16 cm line from 0 to 2, with 1 at 8 cm and a tick every 1 cm. Each space is 1/8. Place 9/8. (9/8 is at 9 cm, one jump past 1.) 6) On the sixths line, you put a dot at 20 cm. Ask: "Which fraction is at the dot?" (10/6) 7) A grasshopper starts at 0 on a line in fourths. It makes 8 jumps of 1/4. Which whole number does it land on? (2, because 8/4 = 2) 8) Ben is at 13/8 on a line in eighths. Is he between 0 and 1 or between 1 and 2? How many jumps past 1? (Between 1 and 2. He is 5 jumps past 1, because 8/8 is 1.)

5. Exit Ticket · 5 min

   Your child may sketch a line for each question.

Fact fluency: ×6 facts

Homework: Your child draws an 18 cm line from 0 to 3 with a tick every 3 cm. Each space is 1/2. Your child labels each tick and circles the whole numbers. Answer: 2/2, 4/2 and 6/2 are 1, 2 and 3.

Objective: I can use facts that can be checked as evidence in my essay.

Standards: W.3.1.B, L.3.6, RF.3.3.A, L.3.4.B, L.3.1.C

Materials: Essay draft, Writer's notebook, Kitchen scale or ruler, One paperback book and one hardcover book, Pencil

1. Warm-Up · 5 min

   Word study: dictation. Say this sentence twice: "The breakable cup was fixable, so there was great excitement." Your child writes it. Check it together. Underline the base word in breakable, fixable and excitement. Spaced review from Week 15. Ask: "What do we call a group of lines in a poem?" (a stanza)

2. Mini-Lesson · 10–15 min

   Say: "A fact can be checked or proven. An opinion tells what someone thinks." Hold up the notebook. Say: "This notebook is the best one." Ask: "Fact or opinion?" (opinion) Measure it with the ruler or weigh it. Say what you find, such as "This notebook is 11 inches tall." Ask: "Fact or opinion?" (Fact. We just checked it.) Teach three fact starters: According to, In fact, It is true that. Model with the two books. Say: "My reason is that a paperback is easier to carry." Weigh or measure both books. Write a sentence with your real numbers. Sample: "In fact, my paperback is half an inch thick, and the hardcover is over an inch thick." Word link: "Something we can check is checkable. Words such as excitement and agreement name things we cannot touch. They are abstract nouns." Show one in evidence: "The new park brought excitement to our street."

3. Guided Practice · 10–15 min

   Read this student paragraph, "Window Beans." Another reason is that beans are the best plant for kids. Beans are so cool. Everyone loves them. They are the greatest plant ever. 1) Ask: "How many facts did you hear?" (None. Every sentence is an opinion.) 2) Ask: "What could we measure or count about a bean plant?" (its height, the days until it sprouts, the number of leaves) 3) Rewrite one sentence together as a fact with a starter. (Sample: In fact, a bean seed can sprout in about a week.) 4) Open your child's essay. Find the spot right after one reason where a fact would help. Decide how to check it: measure, count, look in a book or ask an expert. Write the fact together. If stuck, say: "What could we measure, count or look up about this?"

4. Independent Practice · 15–20 min

   Your child works in the essay draft. 1) Add at least two facts that can be checked, in two different body paragraphs. 2) Use a different starter for each fact. 3) In the margin, write how each fact could be checked. 4) Write one evidence sentence that uses an -able or -ment word, such as enjoyable or excitement. Look for: facts with no opinion words such as best or cutest. Each fact has a way to be checked and fits its paragraph's reason.

5. Exit Ticket · 5 min

   Your child answers the first two questions aloud and shows the essay for question 3.

Homework: Read for 15 to 20 minutes. Then measure or count one thing that fits your essay topic. Write it as a fact sentence with a starter. Look for: a number and no opinion words.

Objective: I can explain that Earth's climate has changed over long periods and that scientists measure it carefully.

Standards: 3-ESS2-2

Materials: Long strip of paper, about 3 feet (tape sheets end to end), Plain paper, Markers or crayons, A picture of a woolly mammoth from a book, or your own sketch, Science notebook and pencil

1. Day 98 — Earth's Climate Changes Over Time — Wonder Warm-Up · 5 min

   Spaced review from Week 11. Ask: "What is an adaptation?" (A body feature or behavior that helps a living thing survive where it lives.) Then the wonder. Show the mammoth picture, or sketch an elephant with long shaggy hair and small ears. Say: "Woolly mammoths once lived across cold northern lands." Ask: "What does thick fur tell you about the climate there long ago?" (It was very cold.)

2. Mini-Lesson · 10–15 min

   Say: "Earth's climate has changed many times over its very long history." Say: "In the last ice age, thick sheets of ice covered much of Canada and the northern United States. It ended about 12,000 years ago." Say: "Nobody had thermometers then. Scientists read clues instead." Name three clues. Fossils are remains or traces of living things from long ago. They show what lived in a place. Layers of old ice hold tiny bubbles of air from long ago. Tree rings show good and poor growing years. On plain paper, draw a tree stump with eight rings. Make rings 3 and 4 wide and rings 6 and 7 very thin. Say: "A tree adds one ring each year. A wide ring often means a warm, wet year. A thin ring often means a dry or cold year." Ask: "Which years were good for growing?" (Years 3 and 4.) Ask: "Which years were hard?" (Years 6 and 7.) Ask: "Can one tree prove it? What would make us more sure?" (No. Many trees showing the same pattern.) Say: "People have kept thermometer records for about 150 years. They show Earth's average temperature has risen about 2°F." If stuck, say: "Thick fur, thick ice. What do both tell us?"

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

   Climate Clue Timeline. 1) Lay the strip flat. Your child marks 12 equal spaces along it, each one hand wide. 2) Say: "Each space stands for 1,000 years." 3) They label the left end "12,000 years ago" and the right end "Today". 4) At the left end they draw ice sheets and a mammoth with markers. 5) At the right end they draw your area now. 6) Say: "Thermometer records cover only about 150 years." They color a thin stripe at the right end, about as wide as a finger. 7) Ask: "How do we know about all the rest?" (From clues such as fossils, ice layers and tree rings.) 8) They list three differences between the two drawings in a table with two columns: Ice age, Today. Expect differences about ice, temperature and living things.

4. Science Notebook Entry · 10 min

   Your child copies the two-column table into the notebook and adds rows for temperature, ice, animals and plants. They finish this frame. "Scientists know the climate was different long ago because ___." Sample: "Scientists know the climate was different long ago because mammoth fossils and old ice show it was much colder."

5. Wrap-Up & Exit Ticket · 5 min

   Ask the three exit questions aloud. Praise answers that name a clue as evidence.

Homework: Ask an older relative how winters or summers felt when they were young. Write one sentence about it. Look for: your child can say whether one memory is weather or climate.