April 29 to May 3

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

The mid-term progress reports will go home on Friday, May 3.  Please review the report with your child and sign the bottom portion and return it to us. The reports are a reminder of how your child is doing up to date. Grades will be affected by missing assignments. However, if assignments are submitted later, the grades will reflect the completed assignments.

The students will take the Math Topic 11 Assessment on Tuesday, May 7. Students must be able to:

– Subtract 10 or 100 mentally using place-value strategies.

– Use an open number line to subtract 3-digit numbers.

– Use models to subtract 3-digit numbers.

– Use models and place value to subtract.

– Explain why subtraction strategies work using models, place value, and mental math.

– Solve problems that take more than one step.

Thank you for your support.

Keniesha Charleston and Anh Tuan Hoang

Balanced Literacy

Day 1

Reading  

Comparing and Contrasting Stories 

Introduction 

Objectives:

– Read two versions of a story to help see how writers can tell the same stories in different ways. 

Read the Learning Target: 

Reading two versions of a story will help you see how writers can tell the same story in different ways. 

Think: Students complete the activity chart with partners.

Talk: Share your diagram with your classmates. Tell how the two pictures are alike and different? 

Independent reading and centers

Phonemic Awareness: The Skills That They Need To Help Them Succeed! By Michael Heggerty, Ed.D.

Week 31

Rhyming (Words change daily)

– Teacher gives the rime. Students make rhyming words ending with the given rime.

Ex. T: ack S: black, knack, etc.

Onset Fluency (Words change daily)

– Teacher says the word pair. Students open their eyes if the word pair begins with the same vowel sound. Students close their eyes if the word pair do not begin with the same vowel sound.

Blending (Words change daily)

– Teacher says individual phonemes. Students listen and they say the whole word. 

Ex. T: /b-a-k-e-r/ S: baker

Identify Final and Medial Sounds (Words change daily)

– Teacher says the word in regular voice. Students repeat the word and “punch out the sound!”

Ex. T:/yawn/ S: yawn

Segmenting (Words change daily)

– Teacher says the whole word. Students repeat the word and chop it into phonemes. Example, T: winner S: winner /w-i-n-er/

Substituting (Words change daily)

– Teacher says the word. Students repeat the word. Teacher says change the /*/ to /*/ and the word is? *Use sounds

Adding Phonemes (Words change daily)

– Teacher says word or word part. Students repeat the word or word part. Teacher says add /*/ at the beginning and the word is?  *Use sounds

Deleting Phonemes

– Teacher says the word. Students repeat the word. Teacher says without the /*/ and what is left? *Use sounds

Writing  

Interactive Read Aloud:What Do Insects Eat?  by Megan Kope

Questions to Guide Discussion:

– What kinds of foods do insects eat?

– How do insects communicate with each other when they find food?

 – Teachers review the rubric to explain expectations for writing about the diet of the insects for their All-About Books.

– Students collaborate in pairs to read and discuss the diet of their insects, and to generate ideas for their writing (Chapter two: The Insect’s Diet).

Students work independently to take notes and write about the diet of their insects.

Day 2

Reading    

Comparing and Contrasting Stories 

Modeled and Guided Instruction 

Read:The Turtle and the Rabbit and The Fox and the Snail by Aesop. 

Objectives:

– Read two versions of a story to help see how writers can tell the same stories in different ways. 

Read: First read (Students read; teacher asks questions.)

Explore: Second read (independent, small group and guided group)

Think: Look back at what you underlined and circled. Then complete the Venn Diagram to show how the two stories are alike and different. 

Talk: How is Rabbit like a Fox? How are they different?

Independent reading and centers

Phonics Lesson:

Spelling Pattern 7 p. 197-200

Recognize and Use Phonograms That End with a Double Consonant

Teach: Teacher teaches the concept

Apply: Students apply the concept learned by making words.

Share: Students share words they made.

Writing  

Video: Deep Look: Australian Walking Stick Insects Are Three Times …

– What is so unique about the Australian walking stick insect?

– Why do Australian walking stick insect nymph camouflage as a red red-headed spider ant?

Students continue to write their Insect All About Books.

Day 3

Reading

Comparing and Contrasting Stories 

Modeled and Guided Instruction

Read: The Three Little Pigs and The Three Geese a Folktale from England and Italy

Objectives:

– Read two versions of a story to help see how writers can tell the same stories in different ways.

Read: First read (Students read; teacher asks questions.)

Explore: Second read (independent, small group and guided group)

Think:  Fill in the chart to show how the stories are the same and different. 

Students work in partners to complete questions 1 and 5. 

Independent reading and centers

Writing  

Interactive Read Aloud:The Life Cycle of a Bee by Coleen Sexton

Questions to Guide Discussion:

– What are the life cycle stages of an insect?

– What are the types of metamorphosis? Explain.

– Using the read aloud, teacher reviews with students how to take notes for chapter five, which is the insect’s life cycle.

– Using the notes teachers model to students how to elaborate on the notes we have taken to write a paragraph about their insect’s life cycle.

– Students discuss/practice with a partner how they would continue to take notes and to elaborate their notes.

– Using their notes, students begin composing a chapter about their insect’s life cycle.

Day 4

Comparing and Contrasting Stories 

Independent Practice 

Read: The Ugly Trucking by David Gordon and The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen

Objectives:

– Read two versions of a story to help see how writers can tell the same stories in different ways. 

Read: Students read the story independently and answer comprehension questions 1-3. 

Independent reading and centers

Writing  

Interactive Read Aloud: Becoming a Grasshopper by Grace Hansen

Questions to Guide Discussion:

– What are the life cycle stages of a grasshopper?

– What is this type of metamorphosis called?

– Why do you think a grasshopper undergoes only three stages for the life cycle? How does this differ from the life cycle of a bee?

– Students continue to write the chapter about their insect’s life cycle.

– Students illustrate the life cycle of their insects.

– Students share their work-in-progress with their partners.

Day 5

Reading

Comparing and Contrasting Stories 

Independent Practice 

Read: The Ugly Trucking by David Gordon and The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen

Objectives:

– Read two versions of a story to help see how writers can tell the same stories in different ways. 

Read: Students read the story independently and answer comprehension questions 4-5. 

Independent reading and centers

Word Study

Spelling Words: (The following words will be tested on Friday, May10.)

painter, washer, dryer, flyer, picture, workers, singer, teacher, speaker, thinker, dreamer, tall, lead, problem, age, apple

Teacher displays the 16 Fry words, pointing out patterns and strategies from Fountas and Pinnell such as read, copy, cover, write, and check.

Writing 

Video: Incredible Insect Pollination!

– What is pollination?

– Why is pollination important to flowers? How does this benefit humans?

Students continue to write their Insect All About Books.

Several students present their writing to the class.  

Math

Lesson 11-3 Subtract Using Models 

Lesson Overview

Students subtract 3-digit numbers with regrouping. Students use place-value blocks or draw blocks to model numbers in the problems. They regroup 1 ten as 10 ones, or 1 hundred as 10 tens.

Mathematics Objective

Use models to subtract 3-digit numbers.

Essential Understanding

When subtracting 3-digit numbers, hundreds are subtracted from hundreds, tens from tens, and ones from ones. You can subtract starting in any place value. Sometimes you can decompose 1 hundred into 10 tens or 1 ten into 10 ones.

Conceptual Understanding

Students deepen their understanding of regrouping place-value blocks as they subtract 3-digit numbers using models.

Lesson 11-4 Subtract Using Models and Place Value

Lesson Overview

Students use place-value blocks and record partial differences to subtract 3-digit numbers. They break apart numbers by place value into hundreds, tens, and ones.

Mathematics Objective

Use models and place value to subtract.

Essential Understanding

When subtracting 3-digit numbers, hundreds are subtracted from hundreds, tens from tens, and ones from ones. You can subtract starting in any place value. Subtracting to find partial differences can be recorded to get the final difference.

Conceptual Understanding

Using place-value blocks and recording partial differences for subtraction support students’ understanding of place value and properties of operations.

Lesson 14-5 Explain Subtraction Strategies

Lesson Overview

Students will choose a subtraction strategy to solve 3-digit subtraction problem and explain how and why that strategy works.

Mathematics Objective

Explain why subtraction strategies work using models, place value, and mental math.

Essential Understanding

When subtracting 3-digit numbers, different strategies can be used to find the difference. Sometimes you can decompose 1 hundred into 10 tens or 1 ten into 10 ones. Place value and properties of operations can be used to explain why most strategies work.

Conceptual Understanding

Students deepen their understanding of the properties of operations and develop their problem-solving skills.

11- 6 Problem Solving Preserve 

Lesson Overview

Students use this lesson to stop and focus on the Thinking

Habits good problem solvers use when solving challenging math problems. Students make sense of the words in problems. They identify the given and missing information, as well as hidden questions that they need to answer in order to make a plan to solve each problem. Instruction during this lesson should focus

on making sense of the words in problems rather than on computational skills.

Mathematics Objective

Solve problems that take more than one step.

Essential Understanding

Good math thinkers know what the problem is about. They have a plan to solve it. They keep trying if they get stuck.

Application

This lesson emphasizes application. Rigorous mathematics instruction calls for the selection, use, and management of multiple problem-solving methods. Use the Thinking Habits shown

in the Solve & Share task to help focus thinking in this lesson.

Topic 11 Fluency Practice Activity and  Reteaching Subtract Within 1,000 Using Models and Strategies

ANSWERING THE TOPIC ESSENTIAL QUESTION

What are strategies for subtracting numbers to 1,000?

Restate the Topic Essential Question from the Topic Opener or project it from the Interactive Student Edition. Ask students to answer the Essential Question (verbally or in writing) and give examples that support their answers. The following are key elements of the answer to the Essential Question. Be sure these are made explicit when discussing students’ answers.

Mathematics Objectives:

– Subtract 10 or 100 mentally using place-value strategies.

– Use an open number line to subtract 3-digit numbers.

– Use models to subtract 3-digit numbers.

– Use models and place value to subtract.

– Explain why subtraction strategies work using models, place value, and mental math.

– Solve problems that take more than one step.

Science

Lesson 1 What is Technology?

Students will: 

– Examine everyday examples of technology.

– Discuss how these objects were designed to solve problems

– Discuss the materials that objects are made of.

Objectives:

Students will be able to:

– Identify everyday objects made by people as technology

– Identify the problems that a particular object solves

– Identify that objects are designed as a solution to a problem

– Identify engineers as the people who design objects

Interactive Read Aloud: A Gift from Fadil

Students will:

– Read the story A Gift from Fadil

– Discuss the field of package engineering

– Identify several possible functions of a package

Trace Fadil’s use of the Engineering Design Process

Objectives:

Students will be able to:

– Identify and explain the role of packaging engineers in designing packages

– Identify and explain some functions of packages

– Identify packages as technology, and explain why they are technology

– Identify and explain the steps of the engineering Design Process as described in the story.

Social Studies  

Chapter 5

Lesson 3 Heroes Who Inspire Change

Objectives:

– Know some historic examples of civil rights activists and rights for which they fought.

– Identify civil rights activists who worked against racial inequality.

– Identify women’s rights activists and their individual contributions.

– Recognize the need for worker’s rights and activists who fought for them.

Heroes Who Inspire Change (pages 148, 149)

Heroes of Women’s Rights

– Summarize

– Draw Conclusions 

– Check Understanding

– Compare and Contrast

Heroes Who Inspire Change (pages 150, 151)

Heroes of Workers’ Rights

– Summarize

– Check Understanding

– Draw Inferences 

– Vocabulary

– Lesson 3 Check

Primary Source (pages 152, 153)

Rosa Parks: My Story

Objectives:

– Identify Rosa Parks and her act of protest.

– Explain how Rosa Parks’s action makes her a Civil Rights hero.

Introduce the Source

– What are the laws for the bus seats at the time?

– What did people do to change the law?

– In what way was Rosa Parks tired?

Using a Primary Source

Wrap It Up

Lesson 4 Heroes in Science (pages 154, 155)

Objectives:

– Explain what an invention is and how inventions benefit the world.

– Identify Thomas Edison, Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Louis Pasteur, and other important inventors and scientists.

– Recognize some life-saving advances in medical science.

– Discuss how heroes inspire others to achieve similar things.

– Discuss how scientific inventions, discoveries, and experiments extend our understanding of the world.

Introduce the Vocabulary: invention, element, vaccine, experiment, discovery

Thomas Edison’s Ideas and Inventions

– Check Understanding

– Draw Conclusion

– Compare and Contrast

– Analyze Images

– Cause and Effect

– Make Connections

– Draw Inferences

Scholastics News

Read and discuss “Seaweed to the Rescue” 

As we read, ask students to think about why Julia’s bags are better than plastic. 

– Video: Earth Day Everyday 

– Dance Break: Earth

– Slideshow: Vocabulary words 

– Game: Throw the Trash Out 

– Activity: Engineering

April 22 to April 26

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

The students will take the Math Topic 10 Assessment and Math Performance Task on Tuesday, April 23 and Wednesday, April 24 respectively. Students must be able to:

– Add 10 and 100 mentally using place value strategies.

– Use an open number line to add 3-digit numbers.

– Add 3-digit numbers using models.

– Use models and place value to add 3-digit numbers.

– Add 3-digit numbers using place value and partial sums.

– Use different addition strategies and explain why they work.

– Identify calculations or steps that repeat when solving problems.

Please refer to the graded homework and the online Family Engagement (topic 10, scroll down for lesson 10-1 to 10-6)to help your child review. 

https://media.pk12ls.com/curriculum/math/family_engage_cc/g02_t10_overview_en.html

Please submit the permission slip and payment for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra field trip by Wednesday, April 24.

We have assigned IXL work for home. The skill for this week is 3-D shapes.

Thank you for your support.

Keniesha Charleston and Anh Tuan Hoang

Balanced Literacy

Day 1

Reading 

Connecting Words and Pictures – Introduction 

Objectives:

– Use information from pictures and words in a story to help understand the characters, setting, and plot. 

Read the Learning Target: 

Use information from the pictures and words in a story to help you better understand the characters, setting, and plot. 

Think: Students complete the activity chart with partners.

Talk: Think about the pictures again. How do the words and pictures work together to help you understand what happened? 

Independent reading and centers

Phonemic Awareness: The Skills That They Need To Help Them Succeed! By Michael Heggerty, Ed.D.

Week 30

Rhyming (Words change daily)

– Teacher gives the rime. Students make rhyming words ending with the given rime.

Ex. T: ack S: black, knack, etc.

Onset Fluency (Words change daily)

– Teacher says the word pair. Students open their eyes if the word pair begins with the same vowel sound. Students close their eyes if the word pair do not begin with the same vowel sound.

Blending (Words change daily)

– Teacher says individual phonemes. Students listen and they say the whole word. 

Ex. T: /b-a-k-e-r/ S: baker

Identify Final and Medial Sounds (Words change daily)

– Teacher says the word in regular voice. Students repeat the word and “punCH ouT the sOUnd!”

Ex. T:/yawn/ S: yAWn

Segmenting (Words change daily)

– Teacher says the whole word. Students repeat the word and chop it into phonemes. Example, T: winner S: winner /w-i-n-er/

Substituting (Words change daily)

– Teacher says the word. Students repeat the word. Teacher says change the /*/ to /*/ and the word is? *Use sounds

Adding Phonemes (Words change daily)

– Teacher says word or word part. Students repeat the word or word part. Teacher says add /*/ at the beginning and the word is?  *Use sounds

Deleting Phonemes

– Teacher says the word. Students repeat the word. Teacher says without the /*/ and what is left? *Use sounds

Writing  

Interactive Read Aloud: Where Do Insects Live?  by Molly Aloian

Questions to Guide Discussion:

What are the characteristics of the habitats of insects that live among plants?

What elements of the habitat are essential to the insects’ survival?

Using a graphic organizer, teachers model how to take notes for chapter two, which is the insect’s habitat.

Day 2

Reading    

Modeled and Guided Instruction 

Read Mr. March and the Moose by Wendell Riley. 

Objectives:

– Use information from pictures and words in a story to help understand the characters, setting, and plot. 

First read (Students read; teacher asks questions.)

Second read (independent, small group and guided group)

Think: Teacher explicitly models how to fill the graphic organizer.

Talk: Mr. March says he’s hoping to see a moose. How does Picture 1 help make this line from the story family? 

Independent reading and centers

Phonics Lesson:

Spelling Pattern 6 p. 193-196

Recognize and Use Phonograms with a VCe Pattern 

– Teach: Teacher teaches the concept

– Apply: Students apply the concept learned by making words.

– Share: Students share words they made.

Writing  

Interactive Read Aloud:What Do Insects Eat?  by Megan Kope

Questions to Guide Discussion:

How do insects living among plants avoid being eaten?

What is camouflage?

How else does an insect take advantage of its habitat in order to survive?

– Teachers review the rubric to explain expectations for writing about the habitat of insects for their All-About Books.

– Students collaborate in pairs to read and discuss the habitats of their insects, and to generate ideas for their writing (Chapter two:  Habitat(s) of the Insect).

-Students continue to work independently to take notes on the habitat(s) of their insects.

Day 3

Reading 

Modeled and Guided Instruction

Read: Fast Learner by Julie Barnes 

Objectives:

– Use information from pictures and words in a story to help understand the characters, setting, and plot. 

Read: First read (Students read; teacher asks questions.)

Explore: Second read (independent, small group and guided group)

Think: Students work in partners to complete questions 1 and 6. 

Talk: Look closely at the pictures again. What details in the picture help make the story funny? Talk with a partner. 

Independent reading and centers

Writing 

Teachers model to students how to elaborate on the notes we have taken to write a paragraph about their insect’s habitat(s).

– Students discuss/practice with a partner how they would elaborate their notes.

– Using their notes, students begin composing a paragraph about their insect’s habitat(s).

Day 4

Reading   

Independent Practice 

Read: Gu Dong by Xu Li 

Objectives:

– Use information from pictures and words in a story to help understand the characters, setting, and plot. 

Read: Students read the story independently and answer comprehension questions 5-6 

Students read independently and/or with a partner using strategies they’ve learned.

Writing  

Interactive Read Aloud:What Do Insects Eat?  by Megan Kope (EPIC)

Questions to Guide Discussion:

What kinds of foods do insects eat?

How do insects communicate with each other when they find food?

 – Teachers review the rubric to explain expectations for writing about the diet of the insects for their All-About Books.

– Students collaborate in pairs to read and discuss the diet of their insects, and to generate ideas for their writing (Chapter two: The Insect’s Diet).

Students work independently to take notes on the diet of their insects.

Day 5

Reading  

Independent Practice 

Read: Gu Dong by Xu Li 

Objectives:

– Use information from pictures and words in a story to help understand the characters, setting, and plot. 

Read: Students reread the story independently and answer comprehension questions 1-10

Independent reading and centers

Word Study

Spelling Words: (The following words will be tested on Friday, May 3.)

badly, madly, quickly, weekly, daily, sadly, gladly, proudly, softly, loudly, bravely, care, hill, case, simple, echo

Teacher displays the 16 Fry words, pointing out patterns and strategies from Fountas and Pinnell such as read, copy, cover, write, and check.

Writing 

Expert Projects–Informational Writing

– Students continue to write their “All-About Books”, keeping in mind that they should write with precision and specificity by providing step-by-step instruction and giving examples so the readers can really envision what it is the writer is trying to convey or teach.

– Several students present their writing to the class.

Math

Topic 10 Practice Test – Numbers to 1,000

Topic 10 Assessment – Numbers to 1,000

Topic 10 Performance Task –  Numbers to 1,000

ANSWERING THE TOPIC ESSENTIAL QUESTION

What are strategies for adding numbers to 1,000?

Restate the Topic Essential Question from the Topic Opener or project it from the Interactive Student Edition. Ask students to answer the Essential Question (verbally or in writing) and give examples that support their answers. The following are key elements of the answer to the Essential Question. Be sure these are made explicit when discussing students’ answers.

Mathematics Objectives:

– Add 10 and 100 mentally using place value strategies.

– Use an open number line to add 3-digit numbers.

– Add 3-digit numbers using models.

– Use models and place value to add 3-digit numbers.

– Add 3-digit numbers using place value and partial sums.

– Use different addition strategies and explain why they work.

– Identify calculations or steps that repeat when solving problems.

Topic Opener

Subtract Within 1,000 Using Models and Strategies

TOPIC ESSENTIAL QUESTION

What are strategies for subtracting numbers to 1,000? Revisit the Topic Essential Question throughout the topic. Teaching strategies for answering the Topic Essential Question are provided in the Topic Assessment pages.

Interactive Math Story

Subtract Within 1,000 Using Models and Strategies

Lesson 11-1 Add 10 and 100

Lesson Overview

Students will use mental math and basic facts to subtract 10 or 100 from 3-digit numbers.

Mathematics Objective

Subtract 10 or 100 mentally using place-value strategies.

Essential Understanding

Place-value patterns and basic facts can be used to help you mentally subtract 10 or 100 from any given 3-digit number.

Conceptual Understanding

Students use place-value blocks to reinforce conceptual understanding that subtracting 10 makes the tens digit decrease by 1, and subtracting 100 makes the hundreds digit decrease by 1. Students recall basic facts and use them to help mentally subtract 10 and 100 from 3-digit

Lesson 11-2 Subtract on an Open Number Line

Lesson Overview

Students will learn to use an open number line to add up or count back hundreds, tens, and ones to subtract 3-digit numbers. Open number lines help students keep track of their thinking and develop number sense and computational fluency.

Mathematics Objective

Use an open number line to subtract 3-digit numbers.

Essential Understanding

Three-digit numbers can be broken apart using hundreds, tens, and ones to subtract in different ways. You can represent how you break apart and subtract numbers with hops or jumps on an open number line. You can count back or add up to subtract.

Conceptual Understanding

The use of an open number line supports conceptual understanding and develops mental math skills in adding and subtracting within 1,000.

Procedural Skill 

Students understand and use place-value strategies and properties of operations to add and subtract.

Science

4-4 Making Sense of How Landforms Erode Quickly

Overview

In this lesson, students reflect on how landforms erode quickly. Students discuss evidence that they have gathered in previous lessons to support the idea that wind and water can erode a landform quickly if the landform is made of loose materials. Pairs discuss and record evidence from multiple sources in an evidence chart located in their notebooks. Students then model their understanding of how some landforms erode slowly and some erode quickly in the Changing Landforms Modeling Tool. Using the Building on Ideas discourse routine, students discuss similarities and differences between landforms that erode quickly and landforms that erode slowly. They then return to the book Landform Postcards and use the photos of landforms to discuss whether each landform could erode quickly or slowly. The purpose of this lesson is to solidify students’ understanding of how some landforms can erode quickly, before applying this understanding to answer the Chapter 4 Question in the next lesson.

Students learn:

• There are similarities and differences between landforms that erode quickly and landforms that erode slowly.

Lesson at a Glance

1: Making Sense of How Landforms Erode Quickly
Students review evidence they have gathered throughout the chapter about how landforms erode quickly as a way to reflect on the chapter’s core ideas.

2: Modeling Loose Material and Rock
Students use the Changing Landforms Modeling Tool to show how much one big storm could erode landforms made of different materials. This activity provides an On-the-Fly Assessment to assess students’ understanding of why different landforms can erode at different rates.

3: Building on Ideas
Students use Building on Ideas to discuss landforms that erode quickly and landforms that erode slowly. Students also return to the book Landform Postcards and use the photos to discuss landforms eroding quickly and slowly.

4-5 End-of- Unit Assessment Part 2

Overview

Students’ Explanations

In this final lesson of the unit, students reflect on the importance of using evidence to revise initial ideas and practice this as they revise diagrams and write their final explanations. They begin the lesson by evaluating how well two fictional students use evidence to revise diagrams of turtle defenses. Students are then presented with several new pieces of information about the nearby cliff; they consider which pieces of information to use as evidence in their new diagrams of the nearby cliff. Students use their new diagrams to help them write a scientific explanation to Director Higgins about why the nearby cliff eroded overnight. Using what they know about the nearby cliff, students discuss the Chapter 4 Question: Could the recreation center’s cliff erode quickly? The unit concludes with an opportunity for students to connect erosion to their everyday lives. Students are introduced to different solutions to slow or prevent erosion, and they discuss the pros and cons of each solution. In addition to providing an opportunity for students to demonstrate their knowledge, this lesson provides students with opportunities to reflect on and gain practice with using evidence to revise and add to initial ideas in science.

Students learn:

• Scientists are designing different solutions to slow or prevent erosion from changing the shape of the land.

Lesson at a Glance

3: Writing Scientific Explanations 
Students have the opportunity to apply their understanding of ideas presented in this chapter when they write scientific explanations about why the nearby cliff eroded overnight. This activity serves as Part 2 of students’ End-of-Unit Assessment.

4: Preventing Erosion 

Students use their understanding of how wind and water erode landforms to think about how erosion affects their everyday lives and to consider two possible ways to slow or prevent the erosion of loose materials.

Generation Genius 

What is Engineering? 

Objectives 

Students learn:

Engineers use science and math to solve problems.

Engineers also build and test things.

Each time they re-design it, the solution can get better.

Social Studies  

Chapter 5 

Lesson 1 What Makes a Hero? (pages 140, 141)

Objectives:

-Recognize the character traits of a hero.

-Know what a hero does.

-Understand a hero’s motivations.

-Explain why heroes of the past are important.

Why Does a Hero Act?

Check Understanding

Draw Conclusions

Why Are Heroes Important?

Make Prediction

Evaluate

Lesson 1 Check

Lesson 2 Heroic Leaders (pages 142, 143)

Objectives:

-Explain what leaders do to encourage their people to follow them.

-Discuss how leaders become heroes to their people.

-Identify Abraham Lincoln and what he did that makes him an American hero.

-Explain why Sitting Bull and Golda Meir are heroes to their people.

Introduce the Vocabulary: inspire, justice, Civil War, reservation

Read the Lesson

Heroes Know How to Lead

-Analyze Images

-Main Idea and Details

Abraham Lincoln

-Summarize

-Check Understanding

 Lesson 2 Heroic Leaders (pages 144, 145)

Objectives:

-Explain what leaders do to encourage their people to follow them.

-Discuss how leaders become heroes to their people.

-Identify Abraham Lincoln and what he did that makes him an American hero.

-Explain why Sitting Bull and Golda Meir are heroes to their people.

Sitting Bull

-Summarize

-Draw Conclusions

– Check Understanding

Golda Meir 

-Check Understand

-Make Connections

Lesson 3 Heroes Who Inspire Change (pages 146, 147)

Objectives:

– Know some historic examples of civil rights activists and rights for which they fought.

– Identify civil rights activists who worked against racial inequality.

– Identify women’s rights activists and their individual contributions.

– Recognize the need for worker’s rights and activists who fought for them.

Introduce the Vocabulary: civil rights, protest, race, boycott, considerable

Read the Lesson

Heroes Work for Justice

– Draw Conclusions 

– Draw Inferences

– Compare and Contrast

– Check Understanding

Scholastics News

Read and discuss “Liam the Butterfly Helper.”

As we read, ask students to think about why Liam sends people seeds?

Video: The Life of a Butterfly 

Slideshow: Vocabulary Words 

Game: Fly Butterfly 

Activity: Editor’s Pick: Social Awareness

April 25 to April 19

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

This is a reminder that Spring Picture Day is Monday, April 15. For this round of school photos, only students who have paid online with a credit card or bring in money and the order form on Monday will take pictures. 

We have assigned IXL work for home. The skills for this week include parallel lines, perpendicular lines, and polygons up to twelve sides.

Thank you for your support.

Keniesha Charleston and Anh Tuan Hoang

Balanced Literacy

Day 1

Reading  

Objectives:

– Explain how images and diagrams contribute and clarify the text. 

– Understand how visual features and words work together to show and describe information.

– Describe how reasons support an author’s specific points in a text. 

– Compare and contrast the most important points in two texts on the same topic. 

– Distinguish between important and unimportant points in a text.

First Read: Students underline key points in the texts.

Students read independently and/or with a partner using strategies they’ve learned. 

Independent Reading and Centers

Phonemic Awareness:  The Skills That They Need To Help Them Succeed! by Michael Heggerty, Ed.D.

Week 29 (Different words will be given each day.)

Rhyming: Teacher says a real word. Students make nonsense rhyming words from it.

Onset Fluency: Teacher says the word. Students repeat the word, and then isolate the beginning onset.

Ex: T: kite S: /k/

Blending: Basic sight word review

Teacher says individual phonemes. Students listen and then say the whole word.

Identifying Final and Medial Sounds: Teacher reads the word series. Students say the requested sound (varies by day).

Tues & Wed: Final Sound, Thurs & Fri: Medial Sound

Segmenting: Basic sight word review

Teacher says the word. Students repeat the word and chop it into phonemes. Ex. T: too, S: too; t-oo

Substituting: Teachers says the word. Students repeat the word. Teacher says change the /*/ (underlined word) to /*/ and the word is? 

Ex. T: waterfall, S: waterfall, T: change the/fall/ to /melon/ and the word is? S: watermelon

* Use sounds

Adding Phonemes: Teacher says the rime. Students repeat the rime. Teacher says add /*/ at the beginning and the word is? 

* Use sounds

Deleting Phonemes: Teacher says the word. Students repeat the word. Teacher says without the /*/ and what is left?

* Use sounds

Writing  

Interactive Read-Aloud: Animal Classes: Insects by Kari Schuetz

Questions to guide the read-aloud.

What are the characteristics of an insect? 

What is unique about an insect?

How do insects travel?

Are insects important to our environment?  Why?

Teachers present the rubric to explain expectations for the insect All-About Books.

 (Discussion points used the following day to model note taking for insect research projects.)

Students work in pairs to view books on insects.

Day 2

Reading    

Interim Assessment

Read Spacesuits and Spaceships by Ron Fridell and Space Center Houston by Emily Paul 

Objectives:

– Explain how images and diagrams contribute and clarify the text. 

– Understand how visual features and words work together to show and describe information.

– Describe how reasons support an author’s specific points in a text. 

– Compare and contrast the most important points in two texts on the same topic. 

– Distinguish between important and unimportant points in a text.

Second Read: Students take notes on the Venn diagram organizer.

Phonics Lesson:

Spelling Pattern 5 p.187-189

Recognize and Use Phonograms with a VCe Pattern 

– Teach: Teacher teaches the concept

– Apply: Students apply the concept learned by making words.

– Share: Students share words they made.

Writing  

Insects Research (All About Book)

Interactive Read-Aloud: Insect by Allan Morey (chapter 1, 2)

Using a graphic organizer, teachers model how to take notes for chapter one, which is “What Is an Insect and Its Characteristics.”

Teachers review the rubric to explain expectations for writing the characteristics of insects for their All-About Books.

Students collaborate in pairs to read and discuss the characteristics of insects, and to generate ideas for their writing (Chapter One:  Characteristics of Insects).

Students work independently to take notes on the characteristics of insects.

Day 3

Reading  

Interim Assessment

Read Spacesuits and Spaceships by Ron Fridell and Space Center Houston by Emily Paul 

Objectives:

– Explain how images and diagrams contribute and clarify the text. 

– Understand how visual features and words work together to show and describe information.

– Describe how reasons support an author’s specific points in a text. 

– Compare and contrast the most important points in two texts on the same topic. 

– Distinguish between important and unimportant points in a text.

Students answer questions 1-4.

Independent Reading and Centers

Writing   

Insects Research (All About Book)

Interactive Read-Aloud: Insect by Allan Morey (chapter 3, 4, 5)

Using a graphic organizer, teachers model how to take notes for chapter one; what are the specific characteristics of each student’s chosen insect.

Teachers review the rubric to explain expectations for writing the characteristics of insects for their All-About Books.

Students collaborate in pairs to read and discuss the characteristics of each student’s chosen insect, and to generate ideas for their writing (Chapter One:  Characteristics of each student’s chosen insect).

Students work independently to take notes on the characteristics of their chosen insects.

Day 4

Reading  

Interim Assessment

Read Spacesuits and Spaceships by Ron Fridell and Space Center Houston by Emily Paul 

Objectives:

– Explain how images and diagrams contribute and clarify the text. 

– Understand how visual features and words work together to show and describe information.

– Describe how reasons support an author’s specific points in a text. 

– Compare and contrast the most important points in two texts on the same topic. 

– Distinguish between important and unimportant points in a text.

Students answer questions  5-10.

Independent Reading and Centers

Writing  

Teachers model to students how to elaborate on the notes we have taken to write a paragraph about their insect’s characteristics.

Students discuss/practice with a partner how they would elaborate their notes.

Using their notes, students begin composing a paragraph about their insect’s characteristics.

Day 5

Read Spacesuits and Spaceships by Ron Fridell and Space Center Houston by Emily Paul 

Objectives:

– Explain how images and diagrams contribute and clarify the text. 

– Understand how visual features and words work together to show and describe information.

– Describe how reasons support an author’s specific points in a text. 

– Compare and contrast the most important points in two texts on the same topic. 

– Distinguish between important and unimportant points in a text.

Students answer questions 11-12.

Word Study

Spelling Words: (The following words will be tested on Friday, April 26.)

whale, when, where, what, why, which, whistle, whip, white, while, whirl, sun, woman, seasons, knew, himself

Teacher displays the 16 Fry words, pointing out patterns and strategies from Fountas and Pinnell such as read, copy, cover, write, and check. 

 Writing

Using their notes, students continue composing a paragraph about their insect’s characteristics.

Math

Lesson 10-4 Continue to Add Using Models and Place Value

Lesson Overview

Students use models to work from the concrete to the symbolic stage of using partial sums to add 3-digit numbers.

Mathematics Objective

Use models and place value to add 3-digit numbers.

Essential Understanding

When adding three-digit numbers, hundreds are added to hundreds, tens to tens, and ones to ones. You can add starting in any place value. These partial sums can be recorded and added to get the final sum.

Conceptual Understanding

Students use place-value blocks and drawings of blocks to reinforce conceptual understanding of place value and the use of partial sums.

Lesson 10-5 Add Using Place Value and Partial Sums

Lesson Overview

Students use place value and partial sums to add two 3-digit numbers.

Mathematics Objective

Add 3-digit numbers using place value and partial sums.

Essential Understanding

When adding three-digit numbers, hundreds are added to hundreds, tens to tens, and ones to ones. You can add starting in any place value. These partial sums can be recorded and added to get the final sum.

Conceptual Understanding

Students use drawings of place-value blocks to reinforce understanding of how to use place value and partial sums to add two 3-digit numbers.

Lesson 10-6 Explain Addition Strategies

Lesson Overview

Students practice choosing and using strategies to add 3-digit numbers. Students explain their work and why their strategies work.

Mathematics Objective

Use different addition strategies and explain why they work.

Essential Understanding

When adding three-digit numbers, different strategies can be used to find the correct sum. Place value and properties of operations can be used to explain why most strategies work.

Conceptual Understanding

Students apply their understanding of place value and properties of operations as they add two 3-digit numbers and explain strategies.

Lesson 10-7 Problem Solving: Repeated Reasoning

Lesson Overview

Students look for and identify repeated reasoning as they solve problems adding 3-digit numbers. As they add 3-digit numbers, they look for things that repeat from 2-digit addition problems they have solved. Focus on the thinking habits good problem solvers use when they notice that calculations are repeated and when they look for shortcuts. Emphasize looking for and expressing regularity in repeated reasoning rather than on computational skills.

Mathematics Objective

Identify calculations or steps that repeat when solving problems.

Essential Understanding

Good math thinkers look for things that repeat in a problem. They use what they learn from one problem to help them solve other problems.

Science

4-2 Modeling How Landforms Erode Quickly

Overview

In this lesson, students use two models made of different materials to investigate how water can cause some landforms to erode quickly. Students observe what happens to chalk when it is sprayed with water and what happens to sand when it is sprayed with water. Students conclude that landforms made of loose materials erode faster than landforms made of solid rock. The teacher then refers to Handbook of Land and Water and demonstrates a Wind Erosion Model to show how, in addition to water, wind can also erode landforms made of loose materials. At the end of the lesson, students add new ideas based on evidence from models and text to the How Landforms Erode Quickly Anticipatory Chart (from Lesson 4.1). The purpose of this lesson is for students to construct an understanding that wind and water can erode a landform quickly if the landform is made of loose materials.

Students learn:

• Wind and water can erode a landform quickly if the landform is made of loose materials.

Lesson at a Glance

3: Modeling How Wind Erodes Landforms
A review of the beach entry in Handbook of Land and Water and a teacher-demonstrated model show how wind can erode landforms made of loose materials.

4-3 Making Models of Streams

Overview

Students read and discuss the book Making Models of Streams in order to consider how scientists use models to answer questions. Through reading and discussing the book, students explore how scientists create models that are similar to and different from the real world. Finally, students reflect on many of the models they have used throughout the unit and review how the models were similar to the real world. The purpose of the lesson is for students to build on their understanding that scientists make models to answer questions about the real world.

Students learn:

·       When scientists use models to help them answer their questions, they consider how their models are similar to and different from the real world.

Lesson at a Glance

1: Introducing Making Models of Streams
 Students are introduced to Making Models of Streams and continue to consider the idea that scientists use models to learn about how things work in the real world.

2: Partner Reading
 Partners read Making Models of Streams to learn about how scientists determine how to make stream models that will help them investigate real streams.

3: Reflecting on Models
 Students reflect on the models they have used throughout the unit, focusing on how the models were similar to or different from the real process they wanted to investigate as geologists. This activity includes two opportunities to assess students’ understanding of models and how models are similar to and different from the real world.

4-4 Making Sense of How Landforms Erode Quickly

Overview

In this lesson, students reflect on how landforms erode quickly. Students discuss evidence that they have gathered in previous lessons to support the idea that wind and water can erode a landform quickly if the landform is made of loose materials. Pairs discuss and record evidence from multiple sources in an evidence chart located in their notebooks. Students then model their understanding of how some landforms erode slowly and some erode quickly in the Changing Landforms Modeling Tool. Using the Building on Ideas discourse routine, students discuss similarities and differences between landforms that erode quickly and landforms that erode slowly. They then return to the book Landform Postcards and use the photos of landforms to discuss whether each landform could erode quickly or slowly. The purpose of this lesson is to solidify students’ understanding of how some landforms can erode quickly, before applying this understanding to answer the Chapter 4 Question in the next lesson.

Students learn:

• There are similarities and differences between landforms that erode quickly and landforms that erode slowly.

Lesson at a Glance

1: Making Sense of How Landforms Erode Quickly
Students review evidence they have gathered throughout the chapter about how landforms erode quickly as a way to reflect on the chapter’s core ideas.

Social Studies  

Review for Chapter 4 Test

Chapter 4 Test

Chapter 5 Making a Difference (pages 134, 137)

Objectives:

– Use Prior knowledge to gain understanding.

– Making meaningful connections to personal experience.

– Establish meaning.

Introduce the Big Question:

What makes someone a hero?

Jumpstart Activity

Introduce the Vocabulary

Sing About It!

Literacy Skill: Compare and Contrast

Chapter 5 Quest

Objectives:

– Apply the concepts learned in this chapter to create a book cover.

– Discuss the compelling question “How should we honor heroes?” after completing the Quest.

Help Honor Our Heroes

Pose Questions

Make Connections

Start with a Brainstorm

Collect Clues for. 

Draw your Book Cover

Chapter 5 

Lesson 1 What Makes a Hero? (pages 138, 139)

Objectives:

– Recognize the character traits of a hero.

– Know what a hero does.

– Understand a hero’s motivations.

– Explain why heroes of the past are important. 

Introduce the Vocabulary

Read the Lesson

Who Is a Hero?

Summarize

Draw Conclusions

Compare and Contrast

How Does a Hero Act?

Analyze Images

Make Connections

Vocabulary

Scholastics News

Read and discuss “April Fools Insects” 

As we read, ask students to think about how insects use their tricks to help. 

Video: Insects, Insects, Everywhere 

Slideshow: Vocabulary Words 

Game: Build an Insect

Activity: Text Evidence 

April 8 to April 12

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

We are looking forward to seeing you on report card pickup day, which is Wednesday, April 10, 2024. For parents who signed up to meet virtually, a link will be sent to your email Monday, April 8.

In order to be considerate to all, please keep your appointment time. Each conference is allotted for ten minutes. However, should you feel the need to discuss your child’s progress further, you can always request another appointment and we will be happy to accommodate.

Thank you for your support.

Keniesha Charleston and Anh Tuan Hoang

Balanced Literacy

Day 1

Reading

Introduction 

Comparing and Contrasting Two Texts

Objectives:

– Compare and contrast the most important points in two texts on the same topic. 

– Distinguish between important and unimportant points in a text.

Read the Learning Target:  Comparing and contrasting the most important points in two texts on the same topic will help you learn more about the topic. 

Think: Students complete the activity chart with partners.

Talk: What do you learn about the topic of taking care of a planet Earth from comparing and contrasting the posters. 

Independent reading and centers

Phonemic Awareness:  The Skills That They Need To Help Them Succeed! by Michael Heggerty, Ed.D.

Week 28 (Different words will be given each day.)

Rhyming: Teacher says a real word. Students make nonsense rhyming words from it.

Onset Fluency: Teacher says the word. Students repeat the word, and then isolate the beginning onset.

Ex: T: kite S: /k/

Blending: Basic sight word review

Teacher says individual phonemes. Students listen and then say the whole word.

Identifying Final and Medial Sounds: Teacherreads the word series. Students say the requested sound (varies by day).

Tues & Wed: Final Sound, Thurs & Fri: Medial Sound

Segmenting: Basic sight word review

Teachersays the word. Students repeat the word and chop it into phonemes. Ex. T: too, S: too; t-oo

Substituting: Teacherssays the word. Students repeat the word. Teacher says change the /*/ (underlined word) to /*/ and the word is? 

Ex. T: waterfall, S: waterfall, T: change the/fall/ to /melon/ and the word is? S: watermelon

* Use sounds

Adding Phonemes: Teacher says the rime. Students repeat the rime. Teacher says add /*/ at the beginning and the word is? 

* Use sounds

Deleting Phonemes: Teacher says the word. Students repeat the word. Teacher says without the /*/ and what is left?

* Use sounds

Writing:

Expert Projects–Informational Writing

All About Books

Students continue to write their “All-About Books”, keeping in mind that they should write with precision and specificity by providing step-by-step instruction and giving examples so the readers can really envision what it is the writer is trying to convey or teach.

Several students present their writing to the class.  

Day 2

Reading

Modeled and Guided Instruction 

Don’t Feed the Animals and Our Animal Friends by Marvin Reinhart and Jerry Lemeto

Objectives:

– Compare and contrast the most important points in two texts on the same topic. 

– Distinguish between important and unimportant points in a text.

First read (Students read; teacher asks questions.)

Second read (independent, small group and guided group)

Think: Teacher explicitly models how to fill the graphic organizer.

Talk: What are the most important points in each passage? Use the information in the Venn diagram to talk about which points are the same in both passages and which are different. 

Independent reading and centers

Writing  

Expert Projects–Informational Writing

Interactive Read-Aloud using the Smart Board: World Cup Soccer by Dave Ord (Conclusion)

Explain to students that one effective way to conclude their “expert project” is to write some facts to encourage the readers to take action.

– Teachers highlight the ending of the read aloud and use it to explain to students the author’s intention of encouraging the readers to take action.

– Shared Writing: Selecting a topic from previous read-alouds, teachers guide the whole class to write an effective ending.  

Day 3

Report Card Pick-Up Parent/Teacher Conferences

Day 4

Reading

Guided Instruction

Read: Turn on the Tap and Fresh Water by Marisa Wolcott and Seamus Langworthy

Objectives:

– Compare and contrast the most important points in two texts on the same topic. 

– Distinguish between important and unimportant points in a text.

First read (Students read; teacher asks questions.)

Second read (independent, small group and guided group)

Think: Students work in partners to complete questions 1 and 6. 

Talk: What are both articles mostly about? How are they different? How are they the same? Work with your partner to fill in the Venn diagram on page 333. 

Independent reading and centers

Writing  

Peer Conferencing

– Peer Conferencing (revising) – What it is and steps for conferencing:

“TAG” method: Tell 1 thing you like about the story, Ask 1 question, Give 1 suggestion

1. Read and listen

2. Compliment author

3. Question and suggestion   (Students make their writing better by answering those questions and adding more details to the writing in red revising pencil.) 

– Students confer with peers.

– Students edit their “All-About Books”.

– Students share their work-in-progress to the whole-class.

Day 5

Reading

Independent Practice 

Read: Recycle That! and Turning Trash into Treasure by Fay Robinson and Ron Fridell 

Objectives:

– Compare and contrast the most important points in two texts on the same topic. 

– Distinguish between important and unimportant points in a text.

Students read the story independently and answer comprehension questions 1-4. 

Students will play 4 corners to justify the answers that they chose. 

Independent reading and center

Spelling Test

Word Study

Spelling Words: (The following words will be tested on Friday, April 19.)

bolt, jolt, colt, felt, belt, welt, built, stilt, wilt, melt, salt, face, edge, lay, arms, sound

Teacher displays the 16 Fry words, pointing out patterns and strategies from Fountas and Pinnell such as read, copy, cover, write, and check.

Writing  

Students continue to edit their “all-about Books”.

Several students present their writing to the class.

Math

Topic 9 Performance Task  Numbers to 1,000

ANSWERING THE TOPIC ESSENTIAL QUESTION

How can you count, read, and show numbers to 1,000? Restate the Topic Essential Question from the Topic Opener or project it from the Interactive Student Edition.

Ask students to answer the Essential Question (verbally or in writing) and give examples that support their answers. The following are key elements of the answer to the Essential Question. Be sure these are made explicit when discussing students’ answers. 

– Use place value to understand hundreds, tens, and ones.

– Read and write 3-digit numbers in standard form, expanded form, and word form.

– Skip count by 5s, 10s, and 100s within 1,000. Use a number line to help.

– Compare numbers using place value.

Topic Opener

Add Within 1,000 Using Models and Strategies

TOPIC ESSENTIAL QUESTION

What are strategies for adding numbers to 1,000?

Revisit the Topic Essential Question throughout the topic. Teaching strategies for answering the Topic Essential Question are provided in the Topic Assessment pages.

Interactive Math Story

Add Within 1,000 Using Models and Strategies

Lesson 10-1 Add 10 and 100

Lesson Overview

Students will use mental math and basic facts to add 10 or 100 to 3-digit numbers.

Mathematics Objective

Add 10 and 100 mentally using place value strategies.

Essential Understanding

Place-value patterns and basic facts can be used to help you mentally add 10 or 100 to any given 3-digit number.

Conceptual Understanding

Students use place-value blocks to reinforce conceptual understanding that adding 10 makes the tens digit go up by 1, and adding 100 makes the hundreds digit go up by 1. They recall basic facts to mentally add 10 and 100 to 3-digit numbers.

Lesson 10-2 Add on an Open Number Line

Lesson Overview

In this lesson, students use an open number line to add 3-digit numbers. As students use an open number line to add, they may count on by groups of hundreds, tens, or ones.

Mathematics Objective

Use an open number line to add 3-digit numbers.

Essential Understanding

Three-digit numbers can be broken apart using hundreds, tens, and ones and added in different ways. You can represent how you break apart and add numbers with hops or jumps on an open number line.

Conceptual Understanding

Adding hundreds, tens, and ones on an open number line involves decomposing and composing numbers and supports an understanding of place value.

Lesson 10-3 Add Using Models

Lesson Overview

In this lesson, students build upon that earlier work, as they use models to add 3-digit numbers.

Mathematics Objective

Add 3-digit numbers using models.

Essential Understanding

When adding three-digit numbers, hundreds are added to hundreds, tens to tens, and ones to ones. You can add starting in any place value. Sometimes you can compose 10 ones for 1 ten or 10 tens for 1 hundred.

Conceptual Understanding

The focus is on using models and place value to add 3-digit numbers. Students break apart numbers into hundreds, tens, and ones in order to add hundreds to hundreds, tens to tens, and ones to ones.

Science

4-1 Exploring How Landforms Erode Quickly

Overview: Students are introduced to the final chapter of the unit. They will now consider the cliff near Oceanside Recreation Center that eroded significantly overnight. This fast change to the nearby cliff prompts students to begin investigating how landforms can erode quickly. Students share initial ideas and record them on a new Anticipatory Chart. Then students diagram what they think may have happened to the nearby cliff to cause it to erode so quickly. Students read Handbook of Land and Water to discover that landforms with cracks and landforms made of loose materials can erode quickly. The purpose of this lesson is for students to generate ideas about how landforms erode quickly.

Students learn:

• Some landforms are made of loose materials.
• Landforms with cracks and landforms made of loose materials are less stable than landforms made of solid rock.

Lesson at a Glance

1: How Landforms Erode Quickly Anticipatory Chart 
Students discuss ideas about what could cause a landform to erode quickly. Through discussing their initial ideas, students access prior knowledge and generate ideas before investigating models and reading about landforms eroding quickly.

2: Diagramming the Nearby Cliff 
Students create diagrams to show how they think the nearby cliff eroded so quickly.

3: Reading About How Landforms Erode Quickly 
Students read about examples of landforms that could erode quickly, in order to come to the understanding that landforms with cracks and landforms made of loose materials are less stable than landforms made of solid rock. This activity includes an On-the-Fly Assessment to assess students’ use of visualizing to comprehend how landforms can erode quickly.

4: Discussing Landforms That Erode Quickly
Pairs use ideas from Handbook of Land and Water to discuss how landforms with cracks and landforms made of loose materials can erode quickly.

4-2 Modeling How Landforms Erode Quickly

Overview

In this lesson, students use two models made of different materials to investigate how water can cause some landforms to erode quickly. Students observe what happens to chalk when it is sprayed with water and what happens to sand when it is sprayed with water. Students conclude that landforms made of loose materials erode faster than landforms made of solid rock. The teacher then refers to Handbook of Land and Water and demonstrates a Wind Erosion Model to show how, in addition to water, wind can also erode landforms made of loose materials. At the end of the lesson, students add new ideas based on evidence from models and text to the How Landforms Erode Quickly Anticipatory Chart (from Lesson 4.1). The purpose of this lesson is for students to construct an understanding that wind and water can erode a landform quickly if the landform is made of loose materials.

Students learn:

• Wind and water can erode a landform quickly if the landform is made of loose materials.

Lesson at a Glance

1: Comparing Models
Students learn that they will be using models to compare two types of materials.

2: Modeling Erosion
Students investigate two models, and this supports students in visualizing how a landform made of loose materials erodes quickly.

Social Studies  

Designing an ad for Farmer Fran to tell about her farm.

Now that we’ve read the lessons in this chapter, we have clues to help us create our ad. 

Write Your Ad

It is time to put it all together and write your ad!

1. Prepare to Write 

2. Write a Draft

3. Share with a Partner

4. Revise Your Draft

5. Present Your Ad! 

Scholastics News

Read and discuss “Something Big is Coming!”  

As we read, ask students to think about why the eclipse is a big deal?

Video: Moon and Stars 

Slideshow: Vocabulary Words 

Game: Space Concentration 

Activity: Persuasive Writing

April 1 to April 5

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

We hope everyone had a nice and restful spring break. We are looking forward to seeing you on Tuesday, April 2.

The students will take the Math Topic 9 Assessment and Math Performance Task on Friday, April 5 and Monday, April 8 respectively. Students must be able to:

– Understand place value and count by hundreds to 1,000.

– Use place-value blocks and drawings to model and write 3-digit numbers.

– Tell the value of a digit by where it is placed in a number.

– Read and write 3-digit numbers in expanded form, standard form, and word form.

– Make and name a number in different ways to show the same value.

– Use place-value patterns to mentally count by 1s and 10s from a given number.

– Skip count by 5s, 10s, and 100s using a number line.

– Compare numbers using place value.

– Compare and write a 3-digit number that is greater than

or less than another 3-digit number.

– Look for patterns to help when solving problems.

Please refer to the graded homework and the online Family Engagement (topic 9, scroll down for lesson 9-1 to 9-9)to help your child review. 

https://media.pk12ls.com/curriculum/math/family_engage_cc/g02_t09_overview_en.html

This is a reminder that if you haven’t signed up for a parent/teacher conference for the third quarter report card pick-up, please do so ASAP. The invitation was sent to your email on Thursday March 21.

Below is the schedule for our essential classes for the rest of the fourth quarter. The schedule begins Tuesday, April 2.

Mr. Hoang’s Class

Grade: 2nd 1:45-2:45	Mon.	Tues.	Wed.	Thurs.	Fri.
Room: 103	WL	Music	WL	Gym	WL

Ms. Charleston’s Class

Grade: 2nd 1:45-2:45	Mon.	Tues.	Wed.	Thurs.	Fri.
Room: 106	WL	Gym	WL	Music	WL

Thank you for your support.

Keniesha Charleston and Anh Tuan Hoang

Balanced Literacy

Reading  

Day 1

Describing How Authors Use Reasons to Support Their Ideas. 

Introduction 

Objectives:

– Describe how reasons support an author’s specific points in a text. 

Read the Learning Target: 

Telling about the reasons authors use to explain the points they make helps you better understand ideas in texts. 

Think: Students complete the activity chart with partners.

Talk: Look again at each reason in your chart. Talk with a partner about the way the reasons support the key point. 

Independent reading and centers

Phonemic Awareness:  The Skills That They Need To Help Them Succeed! By Michael Heggerty, Ed.D.

Week 27 (Different words will be given each day.)

Rhyming: Teacher says a real word. Students make nonsense rhyming words from it.

Onset Fluency: Teacher says the word. Students repeat the word, and then isolate the beginning onset.

Ex: T: kite S: /k/

Blending: Basic sight word review

Teacher says individual phonemes. Students listen and then say the whole word.

Identifying Final and Medial Sounds: Teacherreads the word series. Students say the requested sound (varies by day).

Tues & Wed: Final Sound, Thurs & Fri: Medial Sound

Segmenting: Basic sight word review

Teachersays the word. Students repeat the word and chop it into phonemes. Ex. T: too, S: too; t-oo

Substituting: Teacherssays the word. Students repeat the word. Teacher says change the /*/ (underlined word) to /*/ and the word is? 

Ex. T: waterfall, S: waterfall, T: change the/fall/ to /melon/ and the word is? S: watermelon

* Use sounds

Adding Phonemes: Teacher says the rime. Students repeat the rime. Teacher says add /*/ at the beginning and the word is? 

* Use sounds

Deleting Phonemes: Teacher says the word. Students repeat the word. Teacher says without the /*/ and what is left?

* Use sounds

Writing  

Expert Projects–Informational Writing

All About Books

Interactive Read Aloud: Stephen Curry by Laura K. Murray

Use the read aloud to teach students how to use different text features of non-fiction writing (captions, diagrams, labels, and labels)

The importance of these text features is that it helps the reader learn more about the topic or subtopic.

Describe how you have used a diagram or caption in your all about books?

A diagram is visual aids to help the reader better understand the content.  It is brief.  Some of these diagrams have words and pictures and others do not.  As a writer you must include titles on your diagrams.  This will help the reader know what the diagram is about.

Also, be sure to have the steps/order of the diagram in a correct order.  If the steps are out of order the reader will be confused.

A caption is under a picture.  It is information that describes what the picture is.

Sometimes a reader may see a picture and not be sure what the picture is.  However, they are able to read the caption to better understand.

Have the students think-pair-share about why it is important as writers to use diagrams, captions, and pictures in their all about books. 

Day 2

Reading  

Modeled and Guided Instruction 

Read: Earwigs by Jane Kinzer 

Objectives:

– Describe how reasons support an author’s specific points in a text. 

Read: First read (Students read; teacher asks questions.)

Explore: Second read (independent, small group and guided group)

Think: Teacher explicitly models how to fill the graphic organizer.

Talk: After reading the article, do you agree that earwigs are not as bad as they seem? Talk with a partner and tell why. 

Independent reading and centers

Phonics Lesson:

Spelling Pattern 4 p. 184- 186

Recognize and Use Phonograms with a VCe Pattern 

– Teach: Teacher teaches the concept

– Apply: Students apply the concept learned by making words.

– Share: Students share words they made.

Writing 

Expert Projects–Informational Writing

All About Books

Interactive Read Aloud: Lebron James by Aaron Frisch

How to write an appropriate, well planned, step-by-step/instructions all about book

Explain when a step-by-step is beneficial.

Often a non-fiction text has an abundance of information.  A reader may be confused if all of the information is written in a random order and is not in a step by step.

When planning a step –by-step the author must know the order of their step-by-step.

Predict what would happen if the author wrote a step-by-step in the incorrect order.

Can someone tell me where they have seen a step-by-step when reading?

How have you been using step-by-steps and instructions in your writing?

Day 3

Reading   

Modeled and Guided Instruction

Read: Soldier Bees by Melissa Maron

Objectives:

– Describe how reasons support an author’s specific points in a text. 

Read: First read (Students read; teacher asks questions.)

Explore: Second read (independent, small group and guided group)

Think: Students work in partners to complete questions 1 and 4. 

Talk: The author makes the key point that soldier bees are different from worker bees. What are two reasons from the passage that support the point?

Independent reading and centers

Writing

Expert Projects–Informational Writing

All About Books

Students will learn how to complete research.

It is important to find a research place that is reliable.  We can often use GOOGLE to research.   You type in a question followed by for kids and then read the material that the computer provides.

We will research our topic to see what kind of information we can find.

When you research it is important to read the writing under the main title before you click.

We know that authors write introductions to briefly describe what the rest of their article is about. 

If the introduction sounds like it is about the topic we want then we can click that article and read the entire article.

When we read the introductions before clicking on the article we can save time researching.   

Day 4

Reading  

Independent Practice 

Read: Bugs Natures Time Machine by Nicole Linden 

Objectives:

– Describe how reasons support an author’s specific points in a text. 

Read: Students read the story independently and answer comprehension questions 1-7. 

Independent reading and centers

Spelling Test

Word Study

Spelling Words: (The following words will be tested on Friday, April12.)

soft, lift shift, drift, gift, left, raft, craft, loft, swift, sift, apart, form, ride, greater, equal

Teacher displays the 16 Fry words, pointing out patterns and strategies from Fountas and Pinnell such as read, copy, cover, write, and check.  

Writing 

Expert Projects–Informational Writing

All About Books

Students continue to write their “All-About Books”, keeping in mind that they should write with precision and specificity by providing step-by-step instruction and giving examples so the readers can really envision what it is the writer is trying to convey or teach.

Several students present their writing to the class.  

Math

Lesson 9-10 Problem Solving: Look For and Use Structure

Lesson Overview:

Students use their familiarity with 3-digit numbers to identify and extend a number pattern. Students look for a relationship among the numbers, called a pattern rule. Then students apply the rule to extend the pattern.

Mathematics Objective

Look for patterns to help when solving problems.

Essential Understanding

Good math thinkers look for patterns in math to help solve problems.

Vocabulary

decrease, increase

Topic 9 Fluency Practice Activity – Numbers to 1,000

Lesson Overview:

Students practice fluently adding and subtracting within 100 during a partner activity that reinforces mathematical practices. 

Essential Understanding:

How can you solve problems that use adding and subtracting?

Topic 9 Reteaching

Numbers to 1,000

Topic 9 Practice Test

Numbers to 1,000

Topic 9 Assessment

Numbers to 1,000

Mathematics Objectives:

– Understand place value and count by hundreds to 1,000.

– Use place-value blocks and drawings to model and write 3-digit numbers.

– Tell the value of a digit by where it is placed in a number.

– Read and write 3-digit numbers in expanded form, standard form, and word form.

– Make and name a number in different ways to show the same value.

– Use place-value patterns to mentally count by 1s and 10s from a given number.

– Skip count by 5s, 10s, and 100s using a number line.

– Compare numbers using place value.

– Compare and write a 3-digit number that is greater than

or less than another 3-digit number.

– Look for patterns to help when solving problems.

Science

3-4 Landform Change over Time

Overview

This lesson provides additional opportunities for students to make sense of the concept of scale as it relates to how landforms change over time. At the beginning of this lesson, groups of students discuss four maps that show what the same landform looked like at different times in the past and what it looks like now. Students sort the maps of the landform—a fictional island—placing them in chronological order from oldest to most recent. The teacher then leads a class discussion about the relative age of the landform in each map. Then, students use the Changing Landforms Modeling Tool to show how much a landform changes over a short period of time versus how much a landform changes over a very long period of time. This lesson includes the third and final Critical Juncture Assessment of the unit, which allows the teacher to assess students’ understanding that many small changes to a landform can add up over a long period of time, causing the whole landform to change. The lesson concludes with pairs using the Building on Ideas discourse routine to reflect on their understanding that scale has to do with both time and size. The purpose of this lesson is for students to have more time to construct and apply the idea that when many small changes happen to a landform over a long time, the whole landform changes.

Students learn:

• When many small changes happen over a long time, the whole landform changes.
• Scale refers to how big or small something is, or how fast or slow events happen.

Lesson at a Glance

1: Observing Landform Changes on Maps 
Students analyze a series of maps to construct an understanding of the time it takes for erosion to cause a noticeable change to a landform.

2: Critical Juncture: Modeling Changes Over Time 
Students use the Changing Landforms Modeling Tool to show that small changes to a landform occur over a short period of time, and big changes occur over a long period of time. This Critical Juncture Assessment is an opportunity to assess students’ understanding that small changes add up to a big change over a long period of time.

3: Reflecting on Scale
Partners use the Building on Ideas routine to reflect on how scale relates to the way Oceanside Recreation Center’s cliff changed.

3-5 End-Of-Unit Assessment Part 1

Overview: Students’ Explanations and Diagrams

Students write scientific explanations and create diagrams, which together serve as the End-of-Unit Assessment Part 1. The End-of-Unit Assessment is designed to reveal students’ understanding of unit-specific science concepts, the crosscutting concept of Scale, Proportion, and Quantity, and the practice of constructing explanations. At the beginning of the lesson, students review evidence they have collected about how long it takes for small changes to landforms to add up to bigger changes that are easy to notice. Students work in pairs to complete an evidence chart to reflect on evidence they have collected from different activities throughout the chapter. The class discusses how the evidence from text, models, and maps has changed their ideas about erosion. Students write scientific explanations that detail their ideas about how a big change happened to Oceanside Recreation Center’s cliff without the director noticing it. Students also complete a diagram to show what they think the cliff will look like 1 year from now and 1 million years from now. The purpose of this lesson is for students to demonstrate in writing and in a diagram how small changes to a landform add up to a big change over a long period of time.

Students learn:

• Scientists use drawings, sketches, and models as a way to communicate ideas.
• Scientists revise their ideas based on evidence from investigations, models, and books in order to write scientific explanations.

Lesson at a Glance

1: Making Sense of Landform Change Over Time 
Pairs discuss and record evidence to complete an evidence chart in their notebooks. This reflection provides an opportunity for sensemaking and mirrors an important practice in science—revising ideas based on evidence.

2: Writing Scientific Explanations 
Students write scientific explanations to answer the Chapter 3 Question. Students’ explanations serve as an opportunity to assess students’ understanding of the unit content.

3: Diagramming Cliff Erosion 
Students complete a diagram to demonstrate their understanding of erosion. Students’ diagrams also serve as an opportunity to assess students’ understanding of the unit content.

Social Studies  

Lesson 4

Challenges Producers Face

Objectives:

– Understand how weather can challenge crop production.

– Identify how farmers learned to grow productive crops in new climates.

– Describe how farmers solve weather problems to grow productive crops.

(pages 126, 127)

Solving Problems

– Main Idea and Details

– Draw Conclusions

– Analyze Images

Lesson 4 Check

Primary Source (pages 128, 129)

Photograph: Daily Farm

Objectives:

– Understand that a photograph is a primary source that can give information about a person, place, or event.

– Understand how to analyze a photograph.

Introduce the Source

Using a Primary Source

Wrap It Up

Primary Source (pages 130, 131, 132)

Citizenship

Dolores Huerta

Champion for Farm Workers

Why is it important to respect the rights of others and stand up for the people?

How did Huerta try to improve her community?

Vocabulary and Key Ideas

Critical Thinking and Writing

Scholastics News

Read and discuss “Hey There Baby Bear” 

As we read, ask students to think about whether the animals are alike and different. 

-Video: Spring Babies .

– Dance Break: Spring Babies.

– Slideshow: Vocabulary Words 

– Game: Who’s Hatching .

– Activity: Editor’s Pick: Writing

March 18 to March 22

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

This is a reminder that the third quarter ends on Friday, March 22. Please visit Aspen Parent Portal to be informed of grades and missing assignments. In order for us to submit grades promptly, students must submit missing assignments no later than Monday, March 18, 2024.

Spring break takes place March 25 through March 31. April 1 is a School Improvement Day for CPS staff. Students will not attend school on that day.

Have a safe and enjoyable break!

Thank you for your support.

Keniesha Charleston and Anh Tuan Hoang

Balanced Literacy

Day 1

Reading  

Explaining How Images Support Text 

Introduction 

Objectives:

– Explain how images and diagrams contribute and clarify the text. 

– Understand how visual features and words work together to show and describe information.

Read the Learning Target: Purpose of a Text.  

– Looking at the pictures that go with a text will help you better understand what you read.

Think: Students complete the activity chart with partners.

Talk: The sentences and the diagram of the truck help you understand the parts of a fire truck. Talk with a partner about how the diagram makes the sentences easier to understand. 

Independent reading and centers

Phonemic Awareness:  The Skills That They Need To Help Them Succeed! By Michael Heggerty, Ed.D.

Week 26 (Different words will be given each day.)

Rhyming: Teacher says a real word. Students make nonsense rhyming words from it.

Onset Fluency: Teacher says the word. Students repeat the word, and then isolate the beginning onset.

Ex: T: kite S: /k/

Blending: Basic sight word review

Teacher says individual phonemes. Students listen and then say the whole word.

Identifying Final and Medial Sounds: Teacherreads the word series. Students say the requested sound (varies by day).

Tues & Wed: Final Sound, Thurs & Fri: Medial Sound

Segmenting: Basic sight word review

Teachersays the word. Students repeat the word and chop it into phonemes. Ex. T: too, S: too; t-oo

Substituting: Teacherssays the word. Students repeat the word. Teacher says change the /*/ (underlined word) to /*/ and the word is? 

Ex. T: waterfall, S: waterfall, T: change the/fall/ to /melon/ and the word is? S: watermelon

* Use sounds

Adding Phonemes: Teacher says the rime. Students repeat the rime. Teacher says add /*/ at the beginning and the word is? 

* Use sounds

Deleting Phonemes: Teacher says the word. Students repeat the word. Teacher says without the /*/ and what is left?

* Use sounds

Writing 

Expert Projects–Informational Writing

Interactive Read-Aloud using the Smart Board: Hockey by Jill Sherman   

Share Writing:

Review with students how to write a “How To” chapter by discussing the “how to play hockey” chapter from the read aloud.

Students discuss in pairs how they would write their “how to” chapter for their “All-About books.”

Students continue to write their “All-About Books”

Day 2

Reading

Modeled and Guided Instruction 

Read: The Inclined Plane by Sandra Brody

Objectives:

– Explain how images and diagrams contribute and clarify the text. 

– Understand how visual features and words work together to show and describe information.

First read (Students read; teacher asks questions.)

Second read (independent, small group and guided group)

Think: Teacher explicitly models how to fill the graphic organizer.

Talk:Reread paragraph 3. What are inclined planes? What other reasons can you think of for using an inclined plane? 

Independent reading and centers

Phonics Lesson:

Spelling Pattern 3 p. 181- 183

Recognize and Use Phonograms with a VCe Pattern 

– Teach: Teacher teaches the concept

– Apply: Students apply the concept learned by making words.

– Share: Students share words they made.

Writing 

Expert Projects–Informational Writing

Interactive Read-Aloud using the Smart Board: Baseball by Thomas K.  

As students draft their books, help them to make sure they aren’t simply writing lists for each chapter, but are, instead, writing with precision and specificity. Teach students to show, not just tell, about their topics. Teach them to give specific examples, providing several instead of only one. As they write, students should be encouraged to write in a step-by-step way so the reader can really envision what it is the writer is trying to convey or teach.

Students continue to write their “All-About Books” 

Day 3

Reading

Modeled and Guided Instruction

Read: Wheels and Axles by Ed Green 

Objectives:

– Explain how images and diagrams contribute and clarify the text. 

– Understand how visual features and words work together to show and describe information.

First read (Students read; teacher asks questions.)

Second read (independent, small group and guided group)

Think: Students work in partners to complete questions 1 and 4. 

Talk: The article says that wheels and axles can help move people or objects from place to place. What does this mean?

Independent reading and centers

Writing

Expert Projects–Informational Writing

– Students continue to write their “All-About Books”, keeping in mind that they should write with precision and specificity by providing step-by-step instruction and giving examples so the readers can really envision what it is the writer is trying to convey or teach.

– Several students present their writing to the class.   

Day 4

Reading

Independent Practice 

Read: Levers and Pulleys by Julian Green 

Objectives:

– Explain how images and diagrams contribute and clarify the text. 

– Understand how visual features and words work together to show and describe information.

-Read: Students read the story independently and answer comprehension questions 1-3. 

Independent reading and centers

Writing

Expert Projects–Informational Writing

– Students continue to write their “All-About Books”, keeping in mind that they should write with precision and specificity by providing step-by-step instruction and giving examples so the readers can really envision what it is the writer is trying to convey or teach.

– Several students present their writing to the class.   

Day 5

Reading

 Day 5: Independent Practice

Read: Levers and Pulleys by Julian Green 

Objectives:

– Explain how images and diagrams contribute and clarify the text. 

– Understand how visual features and words work together to show and describe information.

Read: Students reread the article independently and answer comprehension questions 4-5. 

Students justify the answers that they chose. 

Independent reading and centers

Writing

Spelling Words: (The following words will be tested on Friday, April 5.)

drink, think, sink, stink, wink, thank, bank, drank, honk, blank, shrink, gone, lava, volcano, root, meet

Teacher displays the 16 Fry words, pointing out patterns and strategies from Fountas and Pinnell such as read, copy, cover, write, and check.

Writing 

Expert Projects–Informational Writing

– Students continue to write their “All-About Books”, keeping in mind that they should write with precision and specificity by providing step-by-step instruction and giving examples so the readers can really envision what it is the writer is trying to convey or teach.

– Several students present their writing to the class.

Math

Lesson 9-6 Place-Value Patterns with Numbers

Lesson Overview:

Students apply what they learned as they use place-value patterns to find missing numbers that are 1 or 10 more than, or 1 or 10 less than, a given 2- or 3-digit number. Working with hundred(s) charts offers students a mental picture of number patterns.

Mathematics Objective

Use place-value patterns to mentally count by 1s and 10s from a given number.

Essential Understanding

Place-value patterns can help you mentally count by 1s and 10s from a given number.v

Conceptual Understanding

Students use place value and patterns in a hundred(s) chart to mentally count to find 1 or 10 more than, or 1 or 10 less than, a given 2- or 3-digit number.

Procedural Skill

Students count forward and backward by 1s and they skip count by 10s, using patterns on hundred(s) charts to count within 1,000.

Lesson 9-7 Skip Count by 5s, 10s, and 100s to 1,000

Lesson Overview:

Students use a number line to skip count by 5s, 10s, and 100s from 2- and 3-digit numbers.

Mathematics Objective

Skip count by 5s, 10s, and 100s using a number line.

Essential Understanding

Place-value patterns and number lines can be used to help you skip count by 5s, 10s, and 100s.

Conceptual Understanding

Students extend their understanding of place value as they identify and use patterns when skip counting by different numbers.

Procedural Skill

In this lesson, students use their understanding of place-value concepts and counting procedures as they skip count by 5s, 10s, and 100s within 1,000 on a number line.

Lesson 9-8 Compare Numbers Using Place Value

Lesson Overview:

Students have worked extensively with 3-digit numbers in the previous lessons in Topic 9. In this lesson, students learn how to use place value to compare two 3-digit numbers.

Mathematics Objective

Compare numbers using place value.

Essential Understanding

Place-value strategies can be used to compare numbers. The symbols > , = and < can be used to show how the numbers are related.

Conceptual Understanding

Students use place value to determine the value of the digits in 3-digit numbers in order to compare two 3-digit numbers.

Procedural Skill

They use comparison symbols (< , > , and = ) to show how the numbers are related.

Lesson 9-9 Compare Numbers on the Number Line

Lesson Overview:

Students apply their understanding of place value as they use a number line to find numbers that are less than and greater than a given number.

Mathematics Objective

Compare and write a 3-digit number that is greater than or less than another 3-digit number.

Essential Understanding

Number lines go on forever in both directions. For every number, there is another number that is greater than it, and another number that is less than it. A number line can be used to help you find numbers that are greater than or less than a given number.

Conceptual Understanding

Students use their understanding of the number line and of place value to compare and order 3-digit numbers.

Procedural Skill

Students use comparison procedures and symbols (< , > , and = ) to analyze and describe number relationships.

Science

3-2 Investigating Differences in Scales

Overview: Students begin thinking about scale in relation to maps; some landform changes are big enough to show on a map, while others are too small to show on a map. The teacher introduces a Mountain Model—the model includes a mountain made of many small pom-poms. This model helps students understand the idea that small changes that are hard to notice eventually add up to a bigger change that is easy to notice. Using what they learned about map features in the previous lesson, students create elevation maps of the mountain before pom-poms are removed to model erosion. The class erodes the mountain by removing pom-poms until there is a noticeable change in the shape of the mountain. Students redraw their elevation maps to show how the accumulation of small changes can, over a long period of time, lead to major landform changes. The purpose of this lesson is for students to discover that many small changes to a landform can eventually add up to a big change, to practice making maps, and to consider scale as an important crosscutting concept.

Students learn:

• Some processes can be observed over a long timescale but are hard to observe over a shorter timescale.
• Geologists and other scientists think about changes at a variety of scales—big changes and small changes.

Lesson at a Glance

1: Mapping the Mountain 
Students apply what they have learned about map features to create maps of a mountain made of pom-poms.

2: Eroding the Mountain 
Students remove pom-poms from the mountain one at a time and realize that a lot of very small changes can result in a big change. Students redraw their maps to show a noticeable change.

3: Considering Scale in the Mountain Maps 
The teacher draws students’ attention to the importance of scale in maps by leading students in a discussion about why some small changes did not show up on their new maps. This activity includes an On-the-Fly Assessment to assess students’ initial understanding of scale.

3-3 Accumulation of Small Changes

Overview: This lesson helps students to incorporate time into their understanding of scale. Students use Handbook of Land and Water to gather evidence to support the idea that big changes happen to landforms and bodies of water as small changes accumulate. Pairs research and record how different landforms and bodies of water change. Then, each pair shares what they have learned with another pair that read about different landforms and bodies of water. Students reflect on what they have learned by writing about how erosion can cause a big change to happen. Next, students begin to explore the idea that scale can refer to how slow or fast events happen. Students work in groups to sort descriptions of changes caused by erosion—in order from the change that occurs over the shortest amount of time to the change that occurs over the longest amount of time. The purpose of this lesson is for students to learn that many small changes that are hard to notice can add up to a bigger change that is easy to notice.

Students learn:

• Many small changes that are hard to notice can add up to a bigger change that is easy to notice.
• Geologists can think about the scale of erosion in terms of size and time.

Lesson at a Glance

2: Writing About Changes 
Students write about what they have learned about how small changes to a landform add up to a big change. This activity includes an On-the-Fly Assessment to assess students’ understanding of how erosion can cause a big change to a landform.

3: Sorting Erosion Cards 
Students continue to construct their understanding of erosion and scale by sorting descriptions of changes caused by erosion—in order from the change that occurs over the shortest amount of time to the change that occurs over the longest amount of time. This provides an opportunity for students to discuss the scale of time it takes for a landform to erode.

Generation Genius

Timescale of Earth’s Events

Objectives: 

Students learn:

– The Earth’s surface is constantly changing.

– Sometimes it changes fast like a volcano erupting.

– Sometimes it changes slowly like erosion

Social Studies

Literacy Skills (pages 118, 119)

Identifying Main Idea and Details

Objectives: 

– Identify a main idea in a print and oral paragraph.

– Identify supporting details in a paragraph.

Teach the Skill

Practice the Skill

Apply the Skill

Lesson 3

Producing and Consuming Goods (pages 120, 121)

Objectives:

– Identify producers in communities.

– Understand the role of farmer

– Compare farmers today with farmers in the past.

– Understand how farmers use resources.

Introduce the Vocabulary

Read the Lesson 

Who Are the Consumers?

– Main Idea and Details

– Analyze Images

– Draw Conclusions

From Farm to Market

– Summarize

– Identify

– Examine information

Lesson 3

Producing and Consuming Goods

(pages122, 123)

Objectives:

– Identify producers in communities.

– Understand the role of farmer

– Compare farmers today with farmers in the past.

– Understand how farmers use resources.

Strawberries on the Move

– Main Idea and Details

– Analyze Images

– Draw Conclusions

From Farm to Market

– Identify Interdependence

– Draw Inferences 

– Make Connections

Lesson 3 Check

Challenges Producers Face

(pages 124, 125)

Objectives:

– Understand how weather can challenge crop production.

– Identify how farmers learned to grow productive crops in new climates.

– Describe how farmers solve weather problems to grow productive crops.

Introduce the Vocabulary

Read the Lesson 

Watching the Weather

– Analyze Images

– Summarize

The Land and the Climate

– Draw Conclusions

– Main Idea and Details

– Draw Inferences

Scholastics News

Read and discuss “Where Poison Grows.”

As we read, ask students to think about why some plants are poisonous?

Video: Dance Break Plants 

Slideshow: Vocabulary Words  

Game: Build a Plant 

Activity: Editor’s Pick: Classifying

March 11 to March 15

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Thank you for chaperoning the field trip to the Field Museum last Tuesday, March 5, 2024. Your support made it safe and fun for all of us.

The third quarter will end on Friday, March 22. Please continue to visit Aspen Parent Portal on a regular basis to be informed of grades and missing assignments. In order for us to submit grades promptly, students must submit missing assignments no later than Monday, March 18, 2024.

Thank you for your support.

Keniesha Charleston and Anh Tuan Hoang

Balanced Literacy

Day 1

Reading

Ready Common Core Interim Assessment

Students read the poem Boots and the Troll by Len Larsen and answer questions 1-5. 

Phonemic Awareness:  The Skills That They Need To Help Them Succeed! By Michael Heggerty, Ed.D.

Week 24 (Different words will be given each day.)

Rhyming: Teacher says a real word. Students make nonsense rhyming words from it.

Onset Fluency: Teacher says the word. Students repeat the word, and then isolate the beginning onset.

Ex: T: kite S: /k/

Blending: Basic sight word review

Teacher says individual phonemes. Students listen and then say the whole word.

Identifying Final and Medial Sounds: Teacherreads the word series. Students say the requested sound (varies by day).

Tues & Wed: Final Sound, Thurs & Fri: Medial Sound

Segmenting: Basic sight word review

Teachersays the word. Students repeat the word and chop it into phonemes. Ex. T: too, S: too; t-oo

Substituting: Teacherssays the word. Students repeat the word. Teacher says change the /*/ (underlined word) to /*/ and the word is? 

Ex. T: waterfall, S: waterfall, T: change the/fall/ to /melon/ and the word is? S: watermelon

* Use sounds

Adding Phonemes: Teacher says the rime. Students repeat the rime. Teacher says add /*/ at the beginning and the word is? 

* Use sounds

Deleting Phonemes: Teacher says the word. Students repeat the word. Teacher says without the /*/ and what is left?

* Use sounds

Writing

Expert Projects–Informational Writing

Interactive Read-Aloud using the Smart Board: Soccer by John Lockyer (EPIC Level M)

Through a shared writing, model to students how to write the chapter entitled “What Is…” 

Students discuss with a partner how they might write their “What Is…” chapter about their sports.

Students begin writing their “What Is…” chapter for their All About Books.

Day 2

Reading  

Ready Common Core Interim Assessment

Students read the story Kate Skates by Rhonda Leverett. 

Writing 

Expert Projects–Informational Writing

Interactive Read-Aloud using the Smart Board: Let’s Play Sport – Tennis by Kieran Downs (EPIC Level M)

Students continue to write the “What Is…” chapter for their All About Books.

Day 3

Reading  

Ready Common Core Interim Assessment

Students read the story Kate Skates by Rhonda Leverett and answer questions 6-8.  

Phonics Lesson:

LSR21 Recognize and Use Letter Combinations That Represent Two Different Vowel Sounds

– Teach: Teacher teaches the concept

– Apply: Students apply the concept learned by making words.

– Share: Students share words they made.

Writing 

Expert Projects–Informational Writing

Interactive Read-Aloud using the Smart Board: Let’s Play Sport – Gymnastics  by Jill Sherman (EPIC Level M)

Introducing a How-To Chapter: In this session teachers will guide the students to understand that they will be teachers as well as writers. In their “All About Books” they need to write at least one chapter about how to do something. 

Teachers will lead a discussion with the students about directions for completing a task/game by using directions from board games that students are familiar with. 

Scribes will chart scenarios for following directions or rules for games.

Through a shared writing, model to students how to write the chapter entitled “How To…” 

Students discuss with a partner how they might write their “How To…” chapter about their sports.

Students begin writing their “How To…” chapter for their All About Books.

Day 4

Reading  

Ready Common Core Interim Assessment

Students read the story Kate Skates by Rhonda Leverett and answer question 9 and fill in the beginning, middle, and end diagram.  

Writing 

Checking for Clarity:

Teachers help students understand the purpose and requirements of this genre by showing them that How-To writing must enable a reader to do what is being taught.

Students continue to write their “All-About Books”, keeping in mind that they must write a “How To “chapter relating to their “All About Books”.

Several students present their writing to the class.

Day 5

Word Study

Spelling Words: (The following words will be tested on Friday, March 22.)

row, stack, pack, dock, lock, quack, rope, snack, quick, neck, check, circle, square, rectangle, scale, plane 

Teacher displays the 16 Fry words, pointing out patterns and strategies from Fountas and Pinnell such as read, copy, cover, write, and check. 

Reading

Students use details from the story Kate Skates by Rhonda Leverett to write an extended response to the following question:

How does Carlene help to change Kate’s point of view about skating? 

Writing

Fitting Information into Writing 

Teachers revisit the fundamental idea that nonfiction writers categorize their information by subtopic. Encourage students to reread what they have written, checking to make sure that the information in each chapter fits under the chapter heading. Help the students learn that extraneous information needs to be either deleted or moved to a more appropriate place.

Students continue to write their “All-About Books”, keeping in mind that information must be organized in the correct chapter.

Several students present their writing to the class.

Math

Lesson 9-1 Understand Hundreds

Lesson Overview:

Students build on their

Grade 1 work as they explore relationships among ones, tens, and hundreds, up to one thousand.

TOPIC ESSENTIAL QUESTION

How can you count, read, and show numbers to 1,000? Revisit the Topic Essential Question throughout the topic. Teaching strategies for answering the Topic Essential Question are provided in the Topic Assessment pages.

Conceptual Understanding

Students understand that 100 can be thought of as a group of 10 tens. They learn that a number such as 300 can be expressed as 3 hundreds, 0 tens, and 0 ones.

Procedural Skill

Students use drawings of place-value blocks to demonstrate understanding of composing and decomposing hundreds.

Procedural Skill

Students use drawings of place-value blocks to demonstrate understanding of composing and decomposing hundreds.

Vocabulary

Hundred, thousand

Lesson 9-2 Models and 3-Digit Numbers

Lesson Overview:

Students continue to work with 3-digit numbers. Modeling numbers with place-value blocks gives students a concrete representation of place-value concepts and relationships.

Mathematics Objective

Use place-value blocks and drawings to model and write 3-digit numbers.

Essential Understanding

The number system is based on groups of ten. Whenever there are 10 in one place value, you move to the next greater place value. Place-value blocks and drawings can be used to model and write three-digit numbers.

Conceptual Understanding

Students use place-value blocks to reinforce understanding of place-value concepts and 3-digit numbers.

Procedural Skill

Students read and write 3-digit numbers as hundreds, tens, and ones.

Vocabulary

Digit, place-value chart

Lesson 9-3 Name Place Values

Lesson Overview:

Students use their knowledge of place value to identify the value of the digits in 3-digit numbers and to solve problems involving 3-digit numbers. 

Mathematics Objective

Tell the value of a digit by where it is placed in a number.

Essential Understanding

The position of a digit in a number tells its value. It takes 10 of a number in one place value to make a number in the next greater place value.

Conceptual Understanding

Students use their understanding of place value to name the value of the digits in 3-digit numbers. They understand that it takes 10 of a number in one place value to make a number in the next greater place value, and they apply that understanding to solve problems.

Lesson 9-4 Read and Write 3-Digit Numbers

Lesson Overview:

Students learn different ways to write 3-digit numbers. They extend their understanding of the structure of the place- value system.

Mathematics Objective

Read and write 3-digit numbers in expanded form, standard form, and word form.

Essential Understanding

There are three common ways to write numbers—standard form, word form, and expanded form. Each way involves using place value to tell the value of each digit.

Conceptual Understanding

Students use their understanding of place value to write 3-digit numbers in different ways.

Procedural Skill

Given number models, students interpret the models and follow procedure to practice writing numbers in

the three different ways.

Vocabulary

Standard form, expanded form, word form

Lesson 9-5 Different Ways to Name the Same Number

Lesson Overview:

Students lay the foundation for regrouping when adding and subtracting multi-digit numbers. Stress that the total number of each type of place-value model remains unchanged when it is broken apart.

Mathematics Objective

Make and name a number in different ways to show the same value.

Essential Understanding

Numbers can be named in many ways. Recalling and using facts about equal amounts (such as 100 is equal to 10 tens, and 10 is equal to 10 ones) can help you name numbers in different ways.

Conceptual Understanding

Students understand that it takes 10 of a number in one place value to make a number in the next greater place value.

Science

2-6 Explaining How the Cliff Changes

Overview: Students are introduced to the Building on Ideas discourse routine. Building on Ideas helps students speak and listen to one another constructively. In this lesson, students use this routine to discuss their ideas about how the recreation center’s cliff changed. Students then diagram how the cliff changed. The class returns to the guidelines for writing scientific explanations that were introduced in Chapter 1, and the teacher introduces the final guideline: It uses science words. Students then write scientific explanations about how the cliff changed. This is the second Critical Juncture in the unit. Students’ diagrams and written explanations are used as a two-part Critical Juncture Assessment of students’ understanding about how water erodes a landform. The purpose of this lesson is for students to use ideas they have learned from investigations and books to construct diagrams and scientific explanations.

Students learn:

• Scientists make diagrams to show their ideas about how the world works, based on evidence from investigations, models, and books.
• Sharing ideas with others helps solidify an understanding of concepts before writing an explanation.
• A scientific explanation includes scientific vocabulary.
• Scientists support their explanations with ideas learned from investigations and books.

Lesson at a Glance

1: Building on Ideas 

Students learn a routine in order to speak and listen to one another’s ideas and apply their understanding of erosion to the Chapter 2 Question: How did the recreation center’s cliff change?

2: Critical Juncture: Diagramming the Cliff 
Students create diagrams to show how the recreation center’s cliff changed. This activity serves as the first part of the second Critical Juncture Assessment in the unit. It is an opportunity to assess students’ understanding of key content and to prepare to tailor instruction, if necessary, before proceeding to Chapter 3.

3: Critical Juncture: Writing a Scientific Explanation 
Students write scientific explanations about how the cliff changed. This activity serves as the second part of the second Critical Juncture Assessment in the unit. It is an opportunity to assess students’ understanding of key content and to prepare to tailor instruction, if necessary, before proceeding to Chapter 3.

3-1 Introduction to Maps

Overview: Students begin Chapter 3, which focuses on the crosscutting concept of Scale. The Chapter 3 Question is introduced: How did the recreation center’s cliff erode without the director noticing? Students learn that maps can serve as useful records of big changes to landforms. They use the reference book, Handbook of Land and Water, to explore landforms from different perspectives. Students discuss how to read and understand map keys that indicate where water, low land, and high land are found on a map. Then students practice shifting their perspective from a side view to a bird’s-eye view in order to match photos of landforms to the maps that represent them. Finally, students use the Changing Landforms Modeling Tool to create maps of a few landforms. The purpose of this lesson is to give students a foundation in reading maps, which will be useful as students use and create maps to show landform changes.

Students learn:

• Maps show where water and land are and where different landforms are.
• A map key identifies what the items on a map mean.
• Geologists can use maps to study landform changes over time.

Lesson at a Glance

3: Visualizing Landforms from Above 

Students match photos of landforms to maps that represent them, in order to practice visualizing a shift in perspective and make sense of how maps show features of Earth’s surface.

4: Creating Digital Maps 
Students use the Changing Landforms Modeling Tool to create simple maps to represent the landforms shown in side-view photos. This gives students another opportunity to practice visualizing and shifting their perspective from a side view to a bird’s-eye view. Creating these maps develops students’ understanding of how maps represent land and water and will help them interpret maps in future lessons.

Social Studies  

Lesson 1

Needs, Wants, and Choices (pages 110, 111)

Introduce the Vocabulary

Read the Lesson 

– Compare and Contrast

– Make Connections

– Vocabulary 

– Express Ideas Orally 

Lesson 1

Needs, Wants, and Choices (pages 112, 113)

Analyze Costs and Benefits

Objectives:

– Understand cost and benefits.

– Analyze cost and benefits to make good choices.

Teach the Skill

Practice the Skill

Apply the Skill

Lesson 2

Food Producers (pages 114, 115)

Objectives:

– Identify producers in communities.

– Understand the role of farmer

– Compare farmers today with farmers in the past.

– Understand how farmers use resources.

Introduce the Vocabulary

Read the Lesson 

Who Are the Producers?

– Categorize

– Draw Conclusion

– Analyze Images 

The Role of Farmers

– Check Understanding

– Compare and Contrast

Food Producers (pages 116, 117)

Objectives:

– Identify producers in communities.

– Understand the role of farmer

– Compare farmers today with farmers in the past.

– Understand how farmers use resources.

Planting and Harvesting

– Categorize

– Draw inferences

Understanding the Quest Connection

Scholastic News

Read and discuss “The Sweet Story of Candy Land”

As we read, ask students to think about why candy land was important to kids in the hospital. 

Video: “Inventors”

Game: The Sweet Story of Candy Land 

Activity: Writing 

March 4 to March 8

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

The second-grade classrooms will participate in a field trip to the Field Museum on Tuesday, March 5, 2024. Students will need to bring a bag lunch from home on that day. Please label the lunch bag with your child’s name.

The students will take the Math Topic 8 Assessment and Math Performance Task on Thursday, March 7 and Friday, March 8 respectively. Students must be able to:

– Solve problems with coins.

– Solve problems with dollar bills and coins that model 100 cents.

– Solve problems with dollar bills.

– Reason about values of coins and find different ways to make the same total value.

– Tell and write time to the nearest five minutes.

– Say the time in different ways.

– Tell time and use reasoning to state if the event is happening in the a.m. or p.m.

Please refer to the graded homework and the online Family Engagement (topic 8, scroll down for lesson 8-1 to 8-8)to help your child review. 

https://media.pk12ls.com/curriculum/math/family_engage_cc/g02_t08_overview_en.html

Thank you for your support.

Keniesha Charleston and Anh Tuan Hoang

Balanced Literacy

Day 1

Reading – Introduction

Point of View 

Objectives:

– Recognize the difference in point of view held by characters in a story. 

– Speak in different voices for each character when you read.

Read the Learning Target: Purpose of a Text.  

Knowing that characters in a story can have different points of view will help you understand how they think and feel about what happens.

Think: Students complete the activity chart with partners.

Talk: Read the cartoon aloud. Change your voice to show the characters’ different points of view. 

Independent reading and centers

Phonemic Awareness:  The Skills That They Need To Help Them Succeed! by Michael Heggerty, Ed.D.

Week 24 (Different words will be given each day.)

Rhyming: Teacher says a real word. Students make nonsense rhyming words from it.

Onset Fluency: Teacher says the word. Students repeat the word, and then isolate the beginning onset.

Ex: T: kite S: /k/

Blending: Basic sight word review

Teacher says individual phonemes. Students listen and then say the whole word.

Identifying Final and Medial Sounds: Teacherreads the word series. Students say the requested sound (varies by day).

Tues & Wed: Final Sound, Thurs & Fri: Medial Sound

Segmenting: Basic sight word review

Teachersays the word. Students repeat the word and chop it into phonemes. Ex. T: too, S: too; t-oo

Substituting: Teacherssays the word. Students repeat the word. Teacher says change the /*/ (underlined word) to /*/ and the word is? 

Ex. T: waterfall, S: waterfall, T: change the/fall/ to /melon/ and the word is? S: watermelon

* Use sounds

Adding Phonemes: Teacher says the rime. Students repeat the rime. Teacher says add /*/ at the beginning and the word is? 

* Use sounds

Deleting Phonemes: Teacher says the word. Students repeat the word. Teacher says without the /*/ and what is left?

* Use sounds

Writing:

Interactive Read Aloud: Let’s Play Sport – Swimming by Kieran Downs

Expert Projects – Informational Writing

Introducing Informational Writing:

During the read aloud, explain to students that we are beginning a unit of informational writing, identified as “all-about books”. Point out that the author is trying not only to put facts onto the page but also trying to make readers feel, think, and act in certain ways. Ask students to look at the screen to locate the characteristics of the “all-about book”.

Guide students to select topics that they particularly care about and that they want to study further. Explain to children that if writers are going to be working for a long time on one piece of writing, we sometimes generate lists of possible topics and then choose from among them. Tell children to think about subjects they could teach others. They can make a giant list of everything they know about one topic, just to see if they have a lot to say.  They could also discuss with a partner all the information they know about one topic, deciding on which one sounds like an especially good topic. Encourage writers to consider whether there is also more to learn about their topic and whether they can imagine sources they could go to in order to research it. Tell children that even if they already know a lot about a topic, there is always more to learn.

Teachers and students think aloud a few topics of interest to consider for the “all-about books.”

Students may work with a partner to brainstorm and write down topics for their books.

Day 2

Field Trip to the Field Museum

Day 3

Reading – Modeled and Guided Instruction 

Read: Stage Fright by Wendy Blake 

Objectives:

– Recognize the difference in point of view held by characters in a story. 

– Speak in different voices for each character when you read.

First read (Students read; teacher asks questions.)

Second read (independent, small group and guided group)

Think: Teacher explicitly models how to fill the graphic organizer.

Talk: Take turns reading the play out loud with your partner. How does your voice change to show each character’s point of view? Show what you mean. 

Phonics Lesson:

Spelling Pattern 1 pp. 173 – 175 Recognize and Use Phonogram Patterns with a VC Pattern

– Teach: Teacher teaches the concept

– Apply: Students apply the concept learned by making words.

– Share: Students share words they made.

Independent reading and centers

Writing  

Interactive Read Aloud: Let’s Play Sport – Basketball by Thomas K. Adamson   

During the read aloud, point out to students the structure of all-about Books. Focus on the Table of Contents and ask students to anticipate the chapters they will be writing for their all-about book.

Using charts and texts, teachers model examples of Table Contents for All-About Books.

Students will begin a rough draft of a Table of Contents for their selected topics.

Students share their writing at their table groupings.

Day 4

Reading – Modeled and Guided Instruction

Read: Skip and Fliss by Lila Bailey 

Objectives:

– Recognize the difference in point of view held by characters in a story. 

– Speak in different voices for each character when you read.

First read (Students read; teacher asks questions.)

Second read (independent, small group and guided group)

Think: Students work in partners to complete questions 1 and 4. 

Talk: What is Skip’s point of view about exploring strange things? How do you know?

Independent reading and centers

Writing  

Interactive Read Aloud: Let’s Play Sport – Football by Thomas K. Adamson   

Planning Each Chapter:  Choosing Papers and Structures

Explain to students that in some of their chapters they might teach readers how to do something and, if so, they will need how-to paper. In other chapters, they might teach readers that there are different kinds of something and, if so, they will need paper that matches that genre.

Teachers chart examples of the two types of writing (information and How-To) to activate the students thinking about their topic.

Using the students’ Table of Contents, teachers guide a brainstorming discussion of the content of the chapters of their books.

As students plan for their writing, talk often about the fact that they are planning for how they will teach others at the “Expert Fair”. Because informational writing is all about writing in ways that reach (and teach) an audience, it is important to talk to students about the “Expert Fair” often, and emphasize the audience who will attend the fair.

Students begin a rough draft of their all-about book.

Day 5

Reading – Independent Practice 

Read: The Squirrel and the Crow an Indian Folktale 

Objectives:

– Recognize the difference in point of view held by characters in a story. 

– Speak in different voices for each character when you read.

Read: Students read the story independently and answer comprehension questions 1-6. 

Independent reading and centers

Spelling Test

Word Study

Spelling Words: (The following words will be tested on Friday, March 15.)

bath, math, moth, sloth, breath, mouth, path, cloth, tooth, death, month, hour, minute, second, year, mile

Independent reading and centers

Writing  

Teachers review the importance of labeling diagrams to teach readers about the different parts of a thing.

Students continue to write their “all-about Books”, keeping in mind where to place the labeled diagrams.

Several students present their writing to the class.

Math

Topic 8 Fluency Practice Activity – Fluency Practice Activity Work with Time and Money

Lesson Overview:

Students practice fluently adding and subtracting within 20 during a partner activity that reinforces mathematical practices.

Essential Understanding:

How can you solve problems that use adding and subtracting?

Topic 8 Practice Test – Fluency Practice Activity Work with Time and Money

– Organize a group of coins from greatest to least value, then count on to find the total value of the coins.

– Organize a group of bills from greatest to least value, then count on to find the total value of the bills.

– Count by 5s to tell the time to the nearest 5 minutes.

– Use a.m. or p.m. to describe the time of day.

Topic 8 Assessment – Work with Time and Money

ANSWERING THE TOPIC ESSENTIAL QUESTION

How can you solve problems about counting money or telling time to the nearest 5 minutes?

– Solve problems with coins.

– Solve problems with dollar bills and coins that model 100 cents.

– Solve problems with dollar bills.

– Reason about values of coins and find different ways to make the same total value.

– Tell and write time to the nearest five minutes.

– Say the time in different ways.

– Tell time and use reasoning to state if the event is happening in the a.m. or p.m.

Topic 8 Assessment Performance Task – Work with Time and Money

ANSWERING THE TOPIC ESSENTIAL QUESTION

How can you solve problems about counting money or telling time to the nearest 5 minutes?

Science

2-4 Diagramming How a Landform Erodes

Overview: Students return to the book What’s Stronger? to discuss the process of erosion. The teacher formally introduces the word erosion and asks students to visualize the process of pieces of rock breaking off a landform and moving to different places. Students reread a section of What’s Stronger? and visualize a landform eroding before diagramming the process. Students share their diagrams with partners, and then the teacher asks several students to share their diagrams with the class. The teacher points out the importance of including captions to explain ideas clearly. The lesson concludes with students returning to the Water Changes Landforms Anticipatory Chart from Lesson 2.2 to revise their ideas, based on evidence from What’s Stronger?and the Chalk Model. The purpose of this lesson is for students to consolidate their understanding that the shape of a landform changes when water hits it and causes pieces of rock to break off.

Students learn:

• Erosion is when rock, soil, or sand is worn down and moved from one place to another.
• Visualizing before creating a diagram helps you include parts of a process in your diagram that may not be easily observed.
• Including captions in a diagram helps explain a process more clearly.
• The shape of a landform changes when water hits it and causes pieces of rock to break off.

Lesson at a Glance

1: Rereading What’s Stronger? 
Students choose a specific landform to read about in What’s Stronger? They visualize the erosion process and then create diagrams that show how water changes the landforms they selected.

2: Sharing Diagrams 
Students share their diagrams with the class, and the teacher points out specific features of diagrams. This activity includes an On-the-Fly Assessment to assess students’ understanding of the crosscutting concept of Cause and Effect. 

3: Reflecting on Water Changing Landforms 
Students return to the Water Changes Landforms Anticipatory Chart to add new ideas about how water can change the shape of a landform.

2-5 Scale of Erosion

Overview: Students return to the Chalk Model they investigated in Lesson 2.2 to add details to their understanding of how water changes landforms. They spray chalk with water as they did in Lesson 2.2, but this time, they pay close attention to the size of the pieces that break off the chalk. This leads students to discover that water causes tiny pieces to break off landforms. Then, students rub two pumice rocks together and observe how the pumice breaks down into very fine powder, or, very tiny pieces. This experience gives students a sense of the scale of the pieces that break off real landforms during erosion. At the end of the lesson, students reflect on some of the activities they’ve done in Chapter 2 and the evidence each of the activities has provided to support the idea that water erodes landforms. The teacher uses students’ ideas to populate the Evidence for How Water Erodes Landforms Chart. The purpose of this lesson is for students to learn that water hitting a landform causes tiny pieces of the landform to break off.

Students learn:

• Water hitting a landform causes tiny pieces of the landform to break off.
• Scientists often have to think about things at very different scales.

Lesson at a Glance

1: Scale of Erosion in the Chalk Model 
Students revisit the Chalk Model to pay close attention to the size of the pieces of chalk that break off when water hits the models. Students return to the Chalk Model to observe some details of the process they may not have noticed in Lesson 2.2, and ultimately, to make better sense of how water erodes landforms.

2: Investigating Pumice Rock 
Students rub two pumice rocks together and observe what happens. This activity helps students visualize the small scale of the pieces that erode from landforms.

3: Making Sense of How Landforms Erode 
The teacher leads students in reviewing what they have done in this unit to learn about how landforms erode. This reflection provides an opportunity for sense making and for revising ideas based on evidence, an important practice in science. The activity includes two opportunities to assess students’ understanding of how water erodes landforms.

Social Studies  

Chapter 4 People Who Supply Our Goods and Services

Objectives:

– Use prior knowledge to gain understanding

– Make meaningful connections to personal experience.

– Establish meaning.

Introduce the Big Question: 

How do people get what they need?

Introduce the Vocabulary

Introduce the Literacy Skill

– Vocabulary

– Check understanding

– Summarize

– Compare and Contrast

Quest Kick Off

Objectives:

– Apply the concepts learned in this chapter to write an ad. 

– Discuss the compelling question “How do ads influence you?” after completing the Quest.

Designing an ad for Farmer Fran to tell about her farm

– As we read the lessons in this chapter, we will be looking for clues to help us create our ad.

Lesson 1

Needs, Wants, and Choices (pages 108, 109)

Objectives:

– Identify needs and wants.

– Explain the difference between a need and a want. 

– Understand basic economic concepts, such as money and trade.

– Recognize that scarcity requires people to make choices.

Introduce the Vocabulary

Read the Lesson 

– Compare and Contrast

– Make Connections

– Vocabulary 

– Express Ideas Orally

Scholastic News 

Read and discuss “Making Book Magic” 

As we read, ask students to think aboutwhat steps Tracy takes to write a book. 

Video: Dance Break – Books 

Game: Library Search and Find 

Activity: Analyzing

February 26 to March 1

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Please join Murray Language Academy for the Black History Fair on the evening of Thursday, February 29 from 5 to 8 p.m. Please refer to the school flyers for information about the fair.

During the fair, our second graders will recite their poems written to honor our African American trailblazers in room 106. We will send a flyer home this Monday with indication of a specific time.

Thank you for your support.

Keniesha Charleston and Anh Tuan Hoang

Balanced Literacy

Day 1

Reading Parts of a Story

Introduction 

Objectives:

– Learn that a story has three different parts, including a beginning, middle, and end. 

– Describe how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action. 

Read the Learning Target:  Purpose of a Text – Knowing how the beginning, middle, and end of a story work together will help you understand what you read. 

Think: Students complete the activity chart with partners.

Talk: Think about what you see in the cartoon. What will the boy next?

Independent reading and centers

Writing

Interactive Read Aloud: One Step Further by Katherine Johnson (pages 1-10)

Why did Katherine like math?

How did the stars spark Katherine’s imagination? Give an example. 

What did Katherine’s father mean when he said, “Count on me”?

How was Katherine treated differently and why?

What was her contribution to NASA? Why was it important?

Students discuss and share information they learned about Katherine Johnson. 

Teachers circulate, guide, and/or pose questions to support students, noting which students are ready for independent writing and those who may need additional support.

Students discuss with a partner how they might write their poems about Katherine Johnson. 

Students compose their poems.

Day 2

Reading Modeled and Guided Instruction 

Read: Jasper the Farm Cat by Henry Adamson

Objectives:

– Learn that a story has three different parts, including a beginning, middle , and end. 

– Describe how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action.

First read (Students read; teacher asks questions.)

Second read (independent, small group and guided group)

Think: Teacher explicitly models how to fill the graphic organizer.

Talk: Take turns with your partner describing what happened in the beginning, middle, and end. 

Independent reading and centers

Phonics Lesson:

LSR22 p 166 – 168 Recognize and Use Vowel Sounds with r

Teach: Teacher teaches the concept

Apply: Students apply the concept learned by making words.

Share: Students share words they made.

Writing 

Interactive Read Aloud: One Step Further by Katherine Johnson (pages 11 -20)

How was Katherine a star student? What is your evidence?

How did her professor, Clayton, influence her?

Students discuss and share information they learned about Katherine Johnson. 

Teachers circulate, guide, and/or pose questions to support students, noting which students are ready for independent writing and those who may need additional support.

Students discuss with a partner how they might write their poems about Katherine Johnson. 

Students compose their poems.

Day 3

Reading Modeled and Guided Instruction

Read: The Case of the Missing Mutt by John Hansen

Objectives:

– Learn that a story has three different parts, including a beginning, middle , and end. 

– Describe how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action.

First read (Students read; teacher asks questions.)

Second read (independent, small group and guided group)

Think: Students work in partners to complete questions 1 and 4. 

Talk: Talk with a partner about why Mrs. Brown thinks Snippets was stolen. Be sure to use details from the story. 

Writing 

Interactive Read Aloud: One Step Further by Katherine Johnson (pages 20 – 32)

Why did Katherine quit teaching to join the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics? (NACA)

Katherine asked a lot of questions when she worked. Why was this important?

Students discuss and share information they learned about Katherine Johnson. 

Teachers circulate, guide, and/or pose questions to support students, noting which students are ready for independent writing and those who may need additional support.

Students discuss with a partner how they might write their poems about Katherine Johnson. 

Students compose their poems.

Day 4

Reading Independent Practice 

Read: The Shade Seller by Marilyn Helmer 

Objectives:

– Learn that a story has three different parts, including a beginning, middle, and end. 

– Describe how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action.

Read: Students read the story independently and answer questions 5-6. 

Independent reading and centers

Writing 

Interactive Read Aloud: One Step Further by Katherine Johnson (pages 32 -36)

How was Katherine honored? 

According to Katherine, what is one important skill that made her successful?

Students compose and edit their poems.

Day 5

Independent Practice 

Read: The Shade Seller by Marilyn Helmer 

Objectives:

– Learn that a story has three different parts, including a beginning, middle , and end. 

– Describe how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action.

Read: Students read the story independently and answer comprehension questions on the quiz.

Independent reading and centers

Word Study

Spelling Words: (The following words will be tested on Friday, March 8.)

graph, laugh, paragraph, tough, rough, enough, triumph, dough, though, cough, force, feather, wide, store, gravity, model

Teacher displays the 16 Fry words, pointing out patterns and strategies from Fountas and Pinnell such as read, copy, cover, write, and check. 

Writing 

Students compose and edit their poems.

Math

Lesson 8-5 Problem Solving: Reasoning

Lesson Overview:

Students focus on the thinking habits good problem solvers use when they reason about quantities. Students show such reasoning by being able to contextualize a situation involving money within a story. They decontextualize the story by using tally marks and making an organized list in order to find different ways to show the same amount of money.

Mathematics Objective

Reason about values of coins, and find different ways to make the same total value.

Essential Understanding

Good math thinkers know how to think about words and numbers to solve problems.

Application

Rigorous mathematics instruction calls for the selection, use, and management of multiple problem-solving methods. Use the Thinking Habits shown in the Solve & Share task to help focus thinking in the lesson.

Lesson 8-6 Tell and Write Time to Five Minutes

Lesson Overview:

Students learn how to tell and write time to the nearest five minutes on analog and digital clocks. Review the basics of telling and writing time, as needed.

Mathematics Objective

Tell and write time to the nearest five minutes.

Essential Understanding

Time can be told and written to the nearest 5 minutes. Time can be expressed using different units that are related to each other.

Conceptual Understanding

Students learn how to read, tell, and write time on analog and digital clocks.

Procedural Skill

Students develop skills in skip counting to show, tell, and write the time to the nearest five minutes.

Lesson 8-7 Tell Time Before and After the Hour

Lesson Overview:

Students draw on their understanding of parts of a whole (halves and fourths) to tell time using half hours and quarter hours. Students visualize parts of the whole using analog clock faces.

Mathematics Objective

Say the time in different ways.

Essential Understanding

Time can be described before and after the hour in different ways.

Conceptual Understanding

Students learn how to describe the time of day in different ways, using phrases such as quarter to , quarter past , and half past .

Procedural Skill

Students continue to recognize how to tell time by the position of the hands on an analog clock, or the numbers on a digital clock.

Vocabulary

Quarter past, half past, quarter to

Lesson 8-8 A.M. and P.M. (2 days)

Lesson Overview:

Students learn the meaning of the abbreviations a.m. and p.m. They use those abbreviations when writing and describing different times of the day.

Mathematics Objective

Tell time and use reasoning to state if the event is happening in the a.m. or p.m.

Essential Understanding

Certain time periods can be described using the abbreviations a.m. or p.m.

Conceptual Understanding

Students learn the meaning of the abbreviations a.m. and p.m.

Procedural Skill

Students learn how to use the abbreviations a.m. and p.m. to describe the time of day.

Vocabulary

a.m., p.m.

Science

2-2 Modeling Landform Changes

Overview: In this lesson, students explore whether water can change landforms. Using an Anticipatory Chart, the class brainstorms ideas about what water can do to a landform. Students then investigate a model; they observe what happens to chalk (which represents a landform) when it is sprayed with water. They record observations in their Investigation Notebooks before and after they spray the chalk. Students’ observations provide evidence that supports the idea that water can change landforms. The hands-on activity serves as a starting point for thinking about how erosion works. The purpose of this lesson is for students to learn that water can change landforms.

Students learn:

• Observations of models can provide evidence of processes that occur in the real world.
• Water can change landforms.
• Lesson at a Glance

1: Considering How Water Changes Landforms 
Students discuss ideas about what water can do to a landform—in order to access prior knowledge and generate ideas—before constructing new knowledge through using models.

2: Modeling Landform Changes 
Students spray water at chalk in order to explore whether water can change a landform. Students record observations of the Chalk Model in their notebooks. They are not expected to reach solid conclusions about the process of erosion, but they should begin to generate ideas about how water can change landforms.

3: Discussing Evidence 
Students share evidence from the Chalk Model to support the idea that water can change landforms. This activity includes an On-the-Fly Assessment to assess students’ understanding that water can change landforms.

2-3 What’s Stronger?

Overview: Students build upon their understanding that water can change landforms, by reading about how this process occurs. Students are introduced to a new Investigation Question: How could water change a landform even though landforms are made of hard rock?, and they read the book What’s Stronger? How Water Causes Erosion to gather evidence about this question. At the beginning of the lesson, students preview the book and visualize how water might change the land in each of the examples in the book. Partners read the book and consider the ways in which liquid and solid water can erode landforms. At the end of the lesson, the class discusses different examples of landforms and how water can change them. The purpose of this lesson is for students to get explicit exposure to the idea that water breaks tiny pieces of rock off landforms.

Students learn:

• Visualizing is a useful strategy for making sense of things you cannot observe firsthand.
• Water can be solid or liquid in form.
• Liquid water and solid water can cause landforms to change shape.

Lesson at a Glance

1: Previewing What’s Stronger? 
Previewing What’s Stronger? prepares students to read and gives them an opportunity to visualize how water can change landforms.

2: Partner Reading 
Students gather evidence about how water can change the shape of a landform, and they get more practice visualizing. This activity includes an On-the-Fly Assessment to assess students’ developing facility with the sense-making strategy of visualizing.

Generation Genius

Maps of Landforms

Students learn: 

– Maps show us where things are located on Earth.

– Physical maps can show us landforms.

Social Studies

African American History Month Unit of study (Integrated with Language Arts)

Scholastic News 

Read and discuss “Lollipop, Lollipop.”  As we read, think about how the lollipop is made. 

Video: How Dum Dums are Made and What Happens in a Factory. 

Game: Carnival Hearts 

Activity: Sequencing

February 19 to February 23

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

There will be no school on Monday, February 19 in observance of Presidents’ Day.

The Field Museum field trip permission slip and payment were due last Friday, February 16, 2024. If you haven’t already done so, please submit slip and payment on Tuesday, February 20. If you signed up to volunteer on the field trip, you must also apply and be approved by CPS. Please click the link below to apply as soon as possible to ensure approval before March 5, which is the day of the field trip. 

https://www.cps.edu/services-and-supports/parent-engagement/volunteer-programs

Thank you for your support.

Keniesha Charleston and Anh Tuan Hoang

Balanced Literacy

Day 1 Presidents’ Day (No School)

Day 2

Reading Introduction 

Rhythm and Meaning in Poems and Songs 

Objectives:

– Describe how poets use rhyme and rhythm to add meaning to a poem. 

– Identify words and phrases in poems and songs that use rhyme and regular beats to describe how the language builds meaning and rhythm.

Read the Learning Target: 

purpose of a text.  

Describing how poets use rhythm and rhyme will help you understand how both can add meaning to a poem. 

Think: Students complete the activity chart with partners.

Talk: Look at what you marked in number 1. What do you notice about the words or syllables with check marks? Look at what you circled in number 2. Where do you find the rhyming words?

Independent reading and centers

Phonemic Awareness:  The Skills That They Need To Help Them Succeed! by Michael Heggerty, Ed.D.

Week 22 (Different words will be given each day.)

Letter Naming: “The letter is___”; “Sound is___”

Rhyming: Teacher says the word. Students repeat the word and open their eyes if the words rhyme, or close their eyes if the words do not.

Onset Fluency: Thumbs up if the words begin with the same blend; thumbs down if the words do not begin with the same blend.

Blending: Teacher says the individual phonemes. Students listen and then say the whole world. Ex. T: /p-o-n-d/, S: pond

Identifying Final and Medial Sounds: Teachersays the word. Students say the final sound found in the series. Ex. T: get, got, bet, S: /t/

Segmenting: Teacherssays the word whole. Students repeat the word and chop it into phonemes. Ex. T: band, S: band; /b-a-n-d/

Use hand motion for chopping.

Substituting: Teacherssays the word. Students repeat the word. Teacher says change the /*/ to /*/ and the word is? Ex. T: limit, S: limit, T: change the/lim/ to /hab/ and the word is? S: habit

* Use sounds

Adding Phonemes: Teacher says the word. Students repeat the word. Teacher says add /*/ at the beginning and the word is? 

* Use sounds

Deleting Phonemes: Teacher says the word. Students repeat the word. Teacher says without the /*/ and what is left?

* Use sounds

Writing

Interactive Read Aloud: Benjamin Banneker: Pioneer Scientist by Ginger Wadsworth

(Pages 1 -13)

Who was Benjamin Banneker?

How was Benjamin’s grandmother an important figure in his life? Give an example.

What did Benjamin like to do? What is your evidence from the story?

How was Benjamin curious about nature? What did he do?

– Students discuss and share information they learned about Benjamin Banneker. 

– Teachers circulate, guide, and/or pose questions to support students, noting which students are ready for independent writing and those who may need additional support.

– Students discuss with a partner how they might write their poems about Benjamin Banneker. 

– Students compose their poems.

Day 3

Reading Modeled and Guided Instruction 

Read: There Was an Old Donkey Named Joe. by Andrea Sanders

Objectives:

– Describe how poets use rhyme and rhythm to add meaning to a poem. 

– Identify words and phrases in poems and songs that use rhyme and regular beats to describe how the language builds meaning and rhythm.

Read: First read (Students read; teacher asks questions.)

Explore: Second read (independent, small group and guided group)

Think: Teacher explicitly models how to fill the graphic organizer.

Talk: How do the rhymes help connect lines in the poem? Tap out the rhythm and talk about how it changes in each line. 

Independent reading and centers

Phonics Lesson:

LSR22 p163 – 165 Recognize and Use Letter Combinations That Represent Two Different Vowel Sounds

– Teach: Teacher teaches the concept

– Apply: Students apply the concept learned by making words.

– Share: Students share words they made.

Writing 

Interactive Read Aloud: Benjamin Banneker: Pioneer Scientist by Ginger Wadsworth

(Pages 14 -23)

How many years did Benjamin attend school? Why did he quit?

What was he determined to do? How did he manage to do so?

What did he learn to make on his own? Why was it important?

How did Benjamin help other farmers?

– Students discuss and share information they learned about Benjamin Banneker. 

– Teachers circulate, guide, and/or pose questions to support students, noting which students are ready for independent writing and those who may need additional support.

– Students discuss with a partner how they might write their poems about Benjamin Banneker. 

– Students compose their poems.

Day 4

Reading Modeled and Guided Instruction

Read: My Lizard by Elizabeth Tidy

Objectives:

– Describe how poets use rhyme and rhythm to add meaning to a poem. 

– Identify words and phrases in poems and songs that use rhyme and regular beats to describe how the language builds meaning and rhythm.

Read: First read (Students read; teacher asks questions.)

Explore: Second read (independent, small group and guided group)

Think: Students work in partners to complete questions 1 and 4. 

Talk: Read the poem aloud. Clap on the strong beats in each line. How would you describe where the strong beats fall? How does the rhyme make you feel when you read the poem?

Independent reading and centers

Writing

Interactive Read Aloud: Benjamin Banneker: Pioneer Scientist by Ginger Wadsworth

(Pages 25 -37)

What did Benjamin do during the Revolutionary War?

How did studying the planets prompted Benjamin to write his almanac?

How did Benjamin help with the planning of the U.S. capital?

– Students discuss and share information they learned about Benjamin Banneker. 

– Teachers circulate, guide, and/or pose questions to support students, noting which students are ready for independent writing and those who may need additional support.

– Students discuss with a partner how they might write their poems about Benjamin Banneker. 

– Students compose their poems.

Day 5

Reading Independent Practice

Read: I Love the World by Eileen Spinelli 

Objectives:

– Describe how poets use rhyme and rhythm to add meaning to a poem. 

– Identify words and phrases in poems and songs that use rhyme and regular beats to describe how the language builds meaning and rhythm.

Read: Students reread the article independently and answer comprehension questions 1-5. 

Students will play 4 corners to justify the answers that they chose. 

Independent reading and centers

Spelling Test

Word Study

Spelling Words: (The following words will be tested on Friday, March 1.)

thing, string, sing, bring, spring, ring, king, sting, wings, cling, sling, chart, wall, holiday, freedom, road

Writing

Interactive Read Aloud: Benjamin Banneker: Pioneer Scientist by Ginger Wadsworth

(Pages 38 – 47)

Why did Benjamin send a letter along with his almanac to Thomas Jefferson? 

How should we remember Benjamin Banneker?

– Students discuss and share information they learned about Benjamin Banneker. 

– Teachers circulate, guide, and/or pose questions to support students, noting which students are ready for independent writing and those who may need additional support.

– Students discuss with a partner how they might write their poems about Benjamin Banneker. 

– Students compose their poems

Math

Lesson 8-2 Continue to Solve Problems with Coins (Day 2)

Lesson Overview:

Students solve problems with coins when the coins are not given in order. They also solve problems which include determining the amount of change.

Mathematics Objective

Solve problems with coins.

Essential Understanding

Money is measurable, and the value of coins can be quantified using cent amounts.

Procedural Skill

A key goal of this topic is for students to be able to solve word problems about money. Procedural skill involves finding the total value of a set of coins by organizing the coins and then counting on.

Lesson 8-3 Solve Problems with Dollar Bills

Lesson Overview:

Students find the value of a group of bills.

Mathematics Objective

Solve problems with dollar bills and coins that model 100 cents.

Essential Understanding

Money is measurable and can be quantified using dollar and cent amounts. Each kind of bill has a specific value. You can count to find the total value of a group of dollar bills.

Conceptual Understanding

A key goal of this topic is for students to be able to count money and solve word problems about money. Conceptual work focuses on understanding what the value of each bill is and how to identify each bill.

Procedural Skill

Students find the value of a set of bills by counting on.

Lesson 8-4 Continue to Solve Problems with Dollar Bills (2 Days)

Lesson Overview:

Students solve word problems that involve adding and subtracting dollar amounts.

Mathematics Objective

Solve problems with dollar bills.

Essential Understanding

Each kind of bill has a specific value, and the value of the bills can be used to solve problems about money. Word problems about money can often be solved by adding and subtracting.

Procedural Skill

Students find the total value of a set of bills by organizing the bills and then counting on, and writing equations to solve one- and two-step word problems.

Application

Students apply the skills of counting dollar bills and adding and subtracting dollar amounts to solve word problems about money.

Science

1-6 Explaining Landform Changes

Overview: In this lesson, students are introduced to models as another way to gather evidence of processes that cannot easily be observed. The class uses a Hard Candy Model to further investigate how grains of sand can change shape. The model provides evidence to support the idea that rock can change shape. Then, the teacher introduces students to scientific explanations and their importance in science. As a class, students help the teacher write a scientific explanation to answer the Chapter 1 Question: How did the edge of the cliff get to be so close to the flagpole? This activity serves as a Critical Juncture through which students demonstrate their understanding of chapter content thus far. This Critical Juncture will reveal students’ readiness to move on to the next chapter by determining whether they have gained a foundational understanding that landforms are made of rock and that rock can change. This serves as the first of three Critical Juncture Assessments in the unit. The purpose of this lesson is to introduce students to models and the central elements of writing a scientific explanation.

Students learn:

• A model can help scientists answer questions about the real world.
• Even if geologists can’t see a change happening, they can use models to visualize how it may have happened.
• Even though rock is hard, it can change shape.
• Scientists write scientific explanations to explain how things work or why something happens.
• A scientific explanation answers a question, is based on science ideas, and is shared with someone.

Lesson at a Glance

1: Gathering Evidence from a Hard Candy Model 
Students learn that models are another way geologists visualize how something changed when they can’t observe it changing. Then, students gather more evidence that rock can change.

2: Considering the Cliff 
The class revisits the Hard Candy Model to conclude that rock can change shape.

3: Critical Juncture: Writing a Scientific Explanation 
The teacher introduces guidelines for writing a scientific explanation and guides students in composing an explanation to answer the Chapter 1 Question. The teacher listens to students’ discussions to gauge students’ understanding that landforms are made of rock and that rock can change. This Critical Juncture also serves as a formative assessment: it provides teachers the opportunity to assess students’ learning of key unit content before proceeding with the unit.

2-1 Diagramming Landform Changes

Overview: Building on their conclusion that it is possible for landforms to change, students begin to investigate how this change happens. Students are introduced to diagrams as a way to communicate their ideas about how something happens. Then they discuss, visualize, and create their own diagrams to show their ideas about how the recreation center’s cliff changed. Students observe pictures of landforms before and after big changes to discuss what may have caused the change in each landform. Students realize that water is a common factor in each pair of landform pictures. The purpose of this lesson is to introduce students to the idea that water plays a role in causing landforms to change. This launches students into a chapter focused on how water changes landforms.

Students learn:

• Scientists use diagrams to communicate and share their ideas about how the world works.
• Diagrams often include captions to help explain ideas more clearly.
• Comparing landforms helps geologists determine what could cause landforms to change.

Lesson at a Glance

1: Returning to the Cliff 
Visualizing and discussing their initial ideas of what may have caused the recreation center’s cliff to change prepares students to begin investigating causes of the change.

2: Diagramming Landform Changes 
Students record their initial ideas about how landforms change, which they will later revise—allowing them to reflect on how their thinking has changed.

3: Observing Landform Changes 
Students observe and discuss pictures of landforms that changed, leading them to identify water as a possible agent of landform change.

Social Studies

Integrated with Language Arts

Students write poems to honor our African American trailblazers.

Scholastic News 

Read and discuss “Isn’t He Wonderful?” As we read, think about why Stevie Wonder’s music is important to people.  

Video: Five things to know about Stevie Wonder 

Game:  Musical Concentration 

Activity: Writing