Day 4 · Thursday

Objective: I can explain opportunity cost as the next-best thing I give up when I make a choice.

Standards: D2.Eco.1.3-5

Materials: Notebook, Pencil, 3 index cards for the choice cards, 8 play $1 bills from Day 3, 3 paper slips for the kite, book and paint set

1. Warm-Up · 5 min

   Spaced review from Week 23. Ask: "Name two things a good proposal tells the council." (Sample: the problem, who it affects, a solution, a cost or a worry.) Then ask: "If you spend all your money on one thing, what happens to the other things you wanted?" Accept any answer.

2. Mini-Lesson · 10–15 min

   Say: "Every time we choose, we give something up. Opportunity cost is the next-best thing you give up." Your child counts out 8 play dollars. Write on three slips: kite $8, book $8, paint set $8. Say: "Maya has $8. Each thing costs $8, so she can buy only one." Say: "Maya ranks them. The kite is first, the book is second and the paint set is third." Put the slips in that order. Say: "She buys the kite." Your child pays $8 and takes the kite slip. Say: "Her opportunity cost is the book. Only the book. It was her next-best choice." Ask: "Why isn't the paint set her opportunity cost?" (It was her third choice. She would have picked the book next.) Say: "Time has an opportunity cost too. Jamal watches a show for 30 minutes. His next-best choice was playing outside." Ask: "What is Jamal's opportunity cost?" (30 minutes of playing outside.) Ask: "Can a choice that costs no money have an opportunity cost?" (Yes. You give up another way to use the time.) If stuck, say: "Ask: What was my second choice? That one, only that one, is the opportunity cost."

3. Activity / Source Work · 15–20 min

   Decision chart. 1) Write three choice cards. Card A: "You have $8. Buy a jump rope or a puzzle book." Card B: "After dinner: bake cookies with Grandma or play a board game with a cousin." Card C: "Save $5 toward a bike or buy a $5 snack now." 2) Your child draws a chart with five columns: Choice, Option 1, Option 2, I chose, Opportunity cost. 3) For each card, your child names one benefit and one cost of each option. Then choose, and name the opportunity cost. 4) Keep one thing the same on every card: only two options, and you cannot have both. 5) After each card, ask: "What is your evidence that this was the better choice for you?" (Look for a benefit your child named.) 6) Try a family example together, such as a movie night or a game night this weekend. Add it as a fourth row. Choices vary. Look for the pattern: the opportunity cost is always the option not chosen.

4. Notebook Entry · 10 min

   The decision chart stays in the notebook. Under it, your child finishes: "Thinking about opportunity cost helps me because ___." Sample: "Thinking about opportunity cost helps me because I compare what I get with what I give up before I choose."

5. Exit Ticket · 5 min

   Read the three questions aloud. Your child answers aloud or in the notebook. Praise answers that name only the next-best choice.

Homework: Your child tells a family member about one choice made today and its opportunity cost. Look for: the next-best option, not the thing chosen.

Objective: I can measure to the nearest quarter inch and record my data.

Standards: 3.MD.B.4, 3.NF.A.2

Materials: Inch ruler with quarter-inch marks, 1 sheet of printer paper (8 1/2 by 11 inches), 10 crayons or pencils of different lengths, Notebook, Pencil

1. Warm-Up · 5 min

   Spaced review from Week 20 Day 3. Your child counts by fourths from 0 to 8/4. Ask: "Which whole numbers are at 4/4 and 8/4?" (1 and 2) Then practice ÷4 facts with no clock. Ask 8 ÷ 4, 20 ÷ 4, 28 ÷ 4 and 40 ÷ 4 (2, 5, 7, 10).

2. Mini-Lesson · 10–15 min

   Show the ruler. Say: "Each inch is split into 4 equal parts. Each part is a quarter inch, or 1/4 inch." Count the marks from 1 to 2 together: 1 1/4, 1 1/2, 1 3/4, 2. Say: "The 2/4 mark is the 1/2 mark. It is a little longer." Fold the sheet of paper in half, long edge to long edge. Lay its short side on the ruler from 0. Ask: "Where does it end?" (at the first quarter mark after 4) Say: "That is 4 whole inches and 1/4 inch more. So the folded paper is 4 1/4 inches wide." Now your child does more. Draw a line that ends at the third quarter mark after 3. Your child measures it. (3 3/4 inches)

3. Guided Practice · 10–15 min

   1) Your child measures a crayon to the nearest quarter inch (answers vary). 2) Your child measures a pencil (answers vary). Remeasure both yourself. 3) Say: "Data are measurements we collect. A line plot shows data as Xs above a number line." Write this data. Pencil lengths in inches: 6, 6 1/4, 6 1/4, 6 1/4, 6 1/2, 6 3/4, 6 3/4, 7. Draw a line and mark 6, 6 1/4, 6 1/2, 6 3/4 and 7 at equal spaces. Add the title "Pencil Lengths" and the label "Length in inches." Together, draw one X above the line for each pencil. 4) Ask: "Which length has the most Xs? How many Xs in all?" (6 1/4 inches; 8) If stuck, say: "Count the small marks after the whole inch. One mark is 1/4. Two marks are 1/2."

4. Independent Practice · 15–20 min

   1) Name the quarter-inch marks between 7 and 8 (7 1/4, 7 1/2, 7 3/4). 2) Which mark is halfway between 1 and 1 1/2? (1 1/4) 3) Measure 10 crayons or pencils to the nearest quarter inch. Record each length in a table. (Answers vary. Remeasure 3 yourself.) 4) Draw a line plot of your 10 lengths. Add a title and the label "Length in inches." (Check: 10 Xs, each above its length.) 5) Which length has the most Xs on your plot? (Answers vary. Check against the plot.) 6) Draw a line 1 3/4 inches long. (It ends at the third quarter mark after 1.) 7) A leaf ends at the first quarter mark after 3. How long is it? (3 1/4 inches) 8) A nail ends at the second quarter mark after 2. How long is it? (2 2/4 inches, which is 2 1/2 inches)

5. Exit Ticket · 5 min

   Your child keeps the ruler. Read each question aloud; your child answers on paper.

Fact fluency: ÷4 facts

Homework: Measure 5 more small things at home to the nearest quarter inch. Add them to the table. Sample: a key, 2 1/4 inches.

Objective: I can explain what a character knows and thinks, compare it with my own point of view, and recount a story I heard as one of its characters.

Standards: RL.3.6, SL.3.2, W.3.3

Materials: Reader's notebook, Pencil

1. Warm-Up · 5 min

   Word study: meaning. Ask: "Which review word means 'the most funny'?" (funniest) "Which names a room for sleeping?" (bedroom) "Which names a deal that two people both say yes to?" (agreement) "Which names the happy feeling before a party?" (excitement) Your child uses one in a sentence. Spaced review from Week 19. Ask: "What does a hook do in an introduction?" (It grabs the reader's attention.)

2. Mini-Lesson · 10–15 min

   Say: "A character knows only what they see, hear and think. The reader often knows more." Read this aloud. "Where Is Mittens?": Leah looked under the bed, behind the couch and inside every closet. She called her cat's name again and again. No Mittens. "She ran away," Leah said, and her eyes filled with tears. She began to draw a LOST CAT poster. Meanwhile, Mittens was curled up in the laundry basket, fast asleep under a warm towel. Think aloud: "Leah thinks Mittens ran away. I know something Leah does not. Mittens is asleep in the basket. The word 'Meanwhile' showed me what Leah could not see." Write the frame: Leah thinks ___, but I know ___. Ask: "How do you feel about Leah's worry?" (Answers vary. Sample: "I feel sorry for her, but I am not worried, because the cat is safe.")

3. Guided Practice · 10–15 min

   Say: "Now listen to a traditional fable from Aesop. Do not read along." Read it aloud once. "The Tortoise and the Hare": A hare laughed at a tortoise for being slow. "Race me, then," said the tortoise. The hare shot ahead until the tortoise was out of sight. "I have plenty of time," he said, and he lay down under a shady tree for a nap. The tortoise never stopped. Step by step, he plodded past the sleeping hare. When the hare woke, the sun was low. He sprinted to the finish line, but the tortoise was already there, and the other animals were cheering. 1) Your child recounts the main events in order and tells the lesson. (Slow and steady wins the race.) 2) Ask: "What does the hare know when he lies down? What does he not know?" (He knows he is far ahead. He does not know the tortoise will pass him.) 3) Ask: "Who knows the tortoise passed him?" (The tortoise and the reader.) 4) Your child finishes: "The hare thinks ___. I think ___ because ___." (Sample: "The hare thinks a nap is safe. I think it is a mistake, because the tortoise keeps going.") If stuck, say: "Close your eyes like the hare. What can you see now?"

4. Independent Practice · 15–20 min

   Your child writes the race as the hare would tell it, in 5 to 7 sentences. 1) Start with: "I could not believe how slow that tortoise was." 2) Use I, me and my. 3) Tell only what the hare saw, heard and thought. 4) End with how the hare feels at the finish line. 5) Below the story, add two sentences: "The hare thinks ___. I think ___ because ___." Checklist: I, me and my; events in order; nothing the hare could not see; a feeling at the end. Sample ending: "When I woke up, the sun was low. I ran my fastest, but he was already there. I felt foolish."

5. Exit Ticket · 5 min

   Your child answers with the hare retelling open. Listen for the difference between the hare's view and your child's.

Homework: Tell a family member about your day as you saw it. Then retell one part as a pet or a toy in your home might see it. Look for something the pet or toy could not know.

Objective: I can test my instrument outdoors, compare its reading with a trusted source and make an improvement.

Standards: 3-5-ETS1-3, 3-ESS2-1

Materials: Prototype instrument on its plate base, Compass or phone compass, Today's local weather report (radio, TV, newspaper or phone), Science notebook and pencil, Tape and spare parts from the box, 1 sticky note, Watch or clock

1. Day 119 — Test and Improve — Wonder Warm-Up · 5 min

   Spaced review from Day 3. Ask: "What is a prototype for?" (To test the idea and find what to fix.) Then ask: "How could we tell whether your instrument gives a correct reading?" Take ideas. (Sample: compare it with the weather report.)

2. Mini-Lesson · 10–15 min

   Say: "Engineers test in a fair way. Then they use the results to improve the design." Say: "A reading is accurate when it is close to a trusted source. Our trusted source is the local weather report." Check today's report together and write down its wind direction. Ask: "Suppose the report says west, but a vane points east. Is that vane accurate?" (No. Check that N on the plate faces north.) Say: "A fair test keeps things the same: same spot, same height, same way of reading. Stand in the open, away from walls that bend the wind." Ask: "Why take three readings instead of one?" (Wind shifts. Three readings show the pattern.) Say: "A failure point is the part that stops working, such as a base that tips. Fix one failure point at a time." Ask: "We change two things and it works better. What is the trouble?" (We cannot tell which change helped.) If stuck, say: "Which change would you thank?" The report covers your whole area, so a near match counts. Next-door directions, such as west and northwest, are close.

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

   Test, Improve, Retest. 1) In the notebook, draw a table: Test, My reading, Report, Match (yes, close or no), Notes. 2) Set the instrument outdoors in an open spot. Use the compass to turn the plate so N faces north. 3) Test 1: take three readings, one minute apart by the watch. Your child reads where the point aims and records each one. 4) Compare with the report. 5) Find one failure point or one way to be more accurate. Samples: the base tips, the straw sticks, the tail bends. 6) Write one change on the sticky note. Make only that change, using the tape and spare parts. 7) Test 2: same spot, same way, three more readings. 8) Ask: "Did the change help? What is your evidence?" On a calm day, fan the vane with the notebook from one yard away, on four sides. Look for the point facing the fan each time. For a rain gauge, compare with the reported rainfall in inches. Real results vary. A change that does not help is still useful evidence.

4. Science Notebook Entry · 10 min

   Under the table, your child writes from these frames. "My failure point was ___. I changed ___. After the change, ___." Sample: "My failure point was the tipping base. I added pebbles to the cup. After the change, the vane stayed up and matched the report twice."

5. Wrap-Up & Exit Ticket · 5 min

   Read the three exit questions aloud; your child may use the table. Praise evidence from the before and after readings.

Homework: Your child takes one reading with the instrument this evening and records it. Look for the time and a wind named by where it comes from.