Day 3 · Wednesday

Objective: I can plan a 3D map of my state that shows landforms and bodies of water.

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

Materials: 2 cups flour, 1 cup salt, About 3/4 cup water, 1 mixing bowl, Sturdy cardboard (about 12 inches by 12 inches), A physical map of your state (atlas or library book), Pencil, Notebook

1. Day 23 — Flex: Salt-Dough Relief Map, Part 1 — Big Question Warm-Up · 5 min

   Spaced review from Week 4. Ask: "Name two landforms that are low places." (A valley and a canyon.) Then ask the day's wonder: "If you were a bird flying over our state, what land and water would you see?" Your child lists five features from memory. Check them on the physical map.

2. Mini-Lesson · 10–15 min

   Say: "A relief map shows how high the land is. Mountains stand up. Valleys dip down. Plains stay flat. Today we plan and shape one. Tomorrow we paint it and add a key." Open the physical map. Point to its key. Say: "On many physical maps, green shows low land. Tan and brown show higher land. Blue shows water. Always check the key, because maps differ." Ask: "Where is the highest land in our state? How do you know?" (Answers vary. Look for the color the key gives for high land.) "Where is the lowest land?" (Answers vary. Often near a coast or a big river.) "Find one river. Which direction does it run?" (Answers vary. Check with the compass rose.) If stuck, say: "Put your finger on the key first. Now find that color on the map."

3. Activity / Source Work · 15–20 min

   Plan, mix and build. 1) Your child draws the state's outline on the cardboard in pencil. A rough shape is fine. 2) Using the physical map, your child marks two landforms and two bodies of water inside the outline. Your child says each one's place with a direction word. Sample: "The mountains are in the west." 3) Mix the flour and salt in the bowl. Add water a little at a time until the dough holds together. 4) Press a thin layer of dough inside the outline, about as thick as a pencil. 5) Build up mountains and hills. Pinch a valley. Press a finger line for each river and a dent for each lake. 6) Check each feature against the physical map. Ask: "What is your evidence that this river belongs here?" (It is in the same place on the physical map.) Safety: salt dough is not food. Wash hands after. Keep the dough and the map away from pets, because the salt can make dogs very sick. Leave the map in a warm, dry spot overnight.

4. Notebook Entry · 10 min

   In the notebook, your child sketches the plan: a small outline with each feature labeled. Then your child lists six symbols or colors for tomorrow's key. Sample list: blue for water, green for low land, brown for high land, a star, a dot, a tree.

5. Wrap-Up & Exit Ticket · 5 min

   Read the three exit questions aloud while your child looks at the map. Praise features that match the physical map, not neat dough.

Homework: Your child tells a family member which landforms are on the map and why each is in that spot. Look for a direction word in each answer.

Objective: I can use place value clues to solve number riddles.

Standards: 3.NBT.A.1, 3.NBT.A.2

Materials: Digit cards 0 to 9 (cut from paper or index cards), Place-value chart drawn on paper (hundreds, tens, ones), 4 index cards for writing riddles, Notebook, Pencil

1. Warm-Up · 5 min

   Spaced review from Weeks 2 and 3. Your child solves in the head 350 + 250 (600) and 700 − 450 (250). Then add and subtract 100. Say a number; your child says 100 more, then 100 less. Use 340 (440, 240), 615 (715, 515), 892 (992, 792).

2. Mini-Lesson · 10–15 min

   Say: "Today you are a number detective. Clues lead to a secret number." Read one clue at a time. "I am a 3-digit number. My hundreds digit is 4. My tens digit is 2 more than my hundreds digit. My ones digit is 0. Who am I?" Put the 4 card in the hundreds column. Ask: "What is 2 more than 4?" (6) Put the 6 in the tens and the 0 in the ones. Say: "The number is 460. A good detective checks every clue." Reread each clue; your child makes a checkmark for each. Now your child does more. Read: "My digits are 2, 7 and 5. My ones digit is 5. I round to 300 when rounded to the nearest 100." Your child builds both numbers and tests them. (275 and 725; only 275 rounds to 300.)

3. Guided Practice · 10–15 min

   Your child uses the cards and checks every clue. 1) "I am 100 more than 563." (663) Ask: "Is that also 10 less than 673?" (Yes.) 2) "My hundreds digit is 8. My tens digit is 0. My ones digit is 4 less than my hundreds digit." (804) 3) "I am between 500 and 600. My digits add to 6." (501 or 510) Ask: "Why are there two answers?" (Both fit every clue.) 4) "I am a 2-digit number. My ones digit is 5. I round to 70 when rounded to the nearest 10." (65) If stuck, say: "Put down the digits you know. Test each card in the empty place."

4. Independent Practice · 15–20 min

   Your child solves each riddle, with cards if needed. 1) "My hundreds digit is 3. My tens digit is 3 more. My ones digit is 1 less than my tens digit." (365) 2) "I am 10 more than 295." (305) 3) "I am 100 less than 407." (307) 4) "My digits are 6, 2 and 8. I am the greatest number they can make." (862) 5) "Add 125 to 250 to find me." (375) 6) "My digits are 4, 5 and 6. My tens digit is 6. I round to 500 when rounded to the nearest 100." (465) 7) "I am the greatest 3-digit number with all odd, all different digits." (975) 8) Your child writes 2 riddles on index cards, with the answers on the back.

5. Exit Ticket · 5 min

   Read each question aloud; your child answers without the cards. Then you solve your child's two riddles and your child checks you.

Fact fluency: Adding and subtracting 100 mentally

Homework: Write 2 number riddles for a family member to solve tonight. Check their answers against every clue. Sample: "My hundreds digit is 7, my tens digit is 1 and my ones digit is 7." (717)

Objective: I can plan my own fable with animal characters, a problem and a moral.

Standards: W.3.3, W.3.3.A, RL.3.2, RL.3.7

Materials: Writer's notebook, Two sheets of plain paper, Pencil, Crayons, Your child's own book

1. Warm-Up · 5 min

   Word study, flex review. Dictate: "We saw a bird hop on the beach." Your child writes it, then checks each word against yours. Look at ir in bird, the short o in hop and ea in beach. Spaced review, Week 4. Ask: "Name two features of a folktale." (Any two: a clever character, a pattern of three, a lesson, told aloud for many years.)

2. Mini-Lesson · 10–15 min

   Say: "Fable writers often choose the moral first. Then they invent a story that teaches it. Watch me plan one." Write each step as you say it. "Step 1, my moral: Look before you leap. Step 2, two animals with one trait each: a hasty frog and a careful turtle. Step 3, the setting: a pond in spring. Step 4, the problem: Frog jumps into a deep bucket without looking. Step 5, how the lesson is learned: Turtle tips the bucket over, and Frog starts looking first." Fold a sheet of plain paper into four boxes and label them Beginning, Problem, Turning Point, Ending. Sketch quickly with crayons and write one sentence in each box: [1. Frog and Turtle sat by the pond one spring morning. 2. Frog leaped into a bucket without looking and could not climb out. 3. Turtle pushed the bucket over, and Frog tumbled out. 4. After that, Frog always looked before he leaped.] Think aloud: "In box 2, I draw Frog's huge eyes and the tall bucket walls. My words never say he is scared. The picture adds that."

3. Guided Practice · 10–15 min

   Your child writes a plan in the writer's notebook: Moral, Animals and Traits, Setting, Problem, How the Lesson Is Learned. 1) Your child chooses a moral. Offer ideas if needed: Kind words open doors. Practice makes progress. Small helpers matter. 2) Ask: "Which two animals fit, and what is each one like inside?" (Sample: a boastful rooster and a quiet mouse.) 3) Ask: "What problem will make one animal learn the lesson?" (The problem must match the moral.) 4) Ask: "What will one picture show that your words will not say?" (A feeling, the weather or a setting detail.) If stuck, say: "Who needs to learn this lesson? What mistake would teach it?"

4. Independent Practice · 15–20 min

   Your child folds the second paper into four boxes and makes a storyboard. 1) Label the boxes Beginning, Problem, Turning Point, Ending. 2) Sketch each part. 3) Write one sentence under each sketch. 4) Star the picture detail that the words do not say. Look for: both animals and the place named first; events in a sensible order; an ending that teaches the moral. Keep the plan and storyboard for tomorrow.

5. Exit Ticket · 5 min

   Read each question aloud. Your child answers from the plan and storyboard, aloud or in the notebook.

Homework: Read your own book for 15–20 minutes. Then tell your fable plan to a family member. Ask them to guess the moral before you say it.

Objective: I can build a marble run and use friction to control how fast the marble rolls.

Standards: 3-PS2-1, 3-5-ETS1-3

Materials: 4 or more cardboard tubes, or file folders folded into troughs, Tape, 1 marble or small rubber ball, 2 strips of felt, paper towel or sandpaper, each about a hand long, A sturdy chair, Timer or a clock with a second hand, Scissors, Science notebook and pencil

1. Flex Day 3 — Challenge: Marble Run Engineers — Wonder Warm-Up · 5 min

   Spaced review from Week 3. Ask: "What is friction?" (A force that pushes against motion when two surfaces rub.) Then ask: "On a bike, when does friction help? When does it get in the way?" (Sample: brakes and tires need it; a rusty chain is hard to turn.) Show the marble and tubes. Say: "Today you are an engineer."

2. Mini-Lesson · 10–15 min

   Safety: marbles are a choking risk for young children, so pick them up afterward. Say: "Engineers design things to solve problems. Then they test and improve them." Say: "Your problem is to build a marble run from the chair seat to the floor. The marble should take as long as possible, but it must not stop." Give the rules: tape only, and the run touches only the chair and the floor. Tape one tube to the chair as a gentle ramp and roll the marble down. Cut a felt strip to fit with the scissors, tape it inside and roll again. Ask: "What did the felt do to the marble?" (It probably slowed it, because felt rubs more.) Say: "A spot where the marble stops or flies off is a failure point. Finding one tells you what to fix." Ask: "If you change three things at once, what is the problem?" (You cannot tell which change helped.) If stuck, say: "Change one thing. Test. Then decide."

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

   1) Build Version 1 with at least two turns. Keep the slopes gentle so the run lasts several seconds. 2) Draw a chart: Version, One change made, Time 1, Time 2, Time 3 (seconds), Failure point. 3) Let the marble go from the same spot without pushing. Time it to the floor in whole seconds, three times. Circle the middle time. 4) Version 2: add one friction strip to one section. Time three runs again. 5) Version 3: fix one failure point, or change one other part. Time three runs. Change one thing for each version. Keep the same marble, start spot and person timing. Expect the strip to add time, or even to stop the marble. If the marble stops, shorten the strip. If two versions tie, say: "Real results vary. A tie is a result too." Ask: "Which change added the most time? How do you know?" (Your child points to the chart.)

4. Science Notebook Entry · 10 min

   Under the chart, your child sketches the best version and labels the friction strip. Then finish two frames. "Adding friction made the marble ___ because ___." "A failure point was ___, and I fixed it by ___." Sample: "Adding friction made the marble slower because felt rubs more. The marble flew off the first turn, and I fixed it by adding a wall."

5. Wrap-Up & Exit Ticket · 5 min

   Ask the three exit questions aloud. Celebrate the slowest run that still finished, and praise testing one change at a time.

Homework: Draw a marble-run design for a staircase. Label two places to add friction and tell why. Look for labels just before turns or steep parts.