Week 17 — Printable Lesson Packet

Mathematics

Objective: Students will determine whether a group of up to 20 objects is odd or even by pairing objects (2.OA.C.3).

1. 10 min — Warm-Up: Spiral from Week 16: solve 'Kai had 24 beans, gave 9 away, then found 7. How many now?' (22). Then hand your child those 22 beans and say, 'Can you split these into two equal teams with none left over?' Let them try before naming odd or even.
2. 15 min — Mini-Lesson: Take 8 beans and pair them up in two rows of 4: 'Every bean has a partner, so 8 is even.' Take 9 beans and pair them: one is left alone, so 9 is odd. Repeat with 12 (even) and 15 (odd). Write each number with 'E' or 'O' on a chart from 1 to 20 as you go, filling in only the ones you test today.
3. 15 min — Practice: Your child grabs a handful of beans (up to 20), counts, pairs them, and records the number and odd or even on the chart. Do this 8 times. Then check the socks in a drawer, the shoes by the door, and the chairs at the table, pairing each set and recording.
4. 5 min — Wrap-Up: Ask, 'What does an odd number always have when you pair up?' Listen for 'one left over.' Add odd and even to the word wall.

Materials: dried beans, paper chart numbered 1 to 20, pencil, socks and shoes for counting

English Language Arts

Objective: Students will identify the most important points in a nonfiction text and use prefixes to determine word meaning (RI.2.2, RI.2.9, L.2.4b).

1. 15 min — Read-Aloud: Read 'Owls' by Gail Gibbons. Say that last week they judged reasons; this week they will find the most important points two authors make about the same animal. Stop after each spread and ask: 'If you could keep one fact from this page, which one?'
2. 10 min — Mini-Lesson: Explain that an important point is something the whole book keeps coming back to, not a small detail. Start an Important Points chart with two columns, Gail Gibbons and National Geographic, and write three points from Gibbons (owls hunt at night; they have special feathers for silent flight; they swallow prey whole and cough up pellets).
3. 15 min — Guided Reading: Reread the pages on owl eyes and ears with your child reading the labels. Ask them to say which sentence on each page is the main idea and which are details. Add one more important point to the chart.
4. 15 min — Writing Workshop: Introduce this week's project: an audio recording of a short piece your child writes. Today they write a four-sentence Owl Fact Report from the Gibbons book with a topic sentence, two facts, and a closing. Keep it in the Writing Folder.
5. 10 min — Phonics: Prefixes: Teach un- (not) and re- (again). Write and read: unhappy, unlock, untie, unfair, unsafe, redo, refill, replay, rewrite, reheat. Your child covers the prefix, reads the base word, then uncovers it and says the new meaning ('lock, unlock, not locked').

Materials: Owls by Gail Gibbons, paper, pencil, writing paper, folder, index cards, marker

Science

Objective: Students will build a second, different solution to the same problem so that two designs can be compared fairly (K-2-ETS1-3).

1. 5 min — Science Question of the Week: Ask: 'How can we tell which of two designs is better?' Look at the two runner-up sketches from Week 15 and pick the one most different from the finished holder (if the winner was a box, choose a tube or a tray).
2. 20 min — Investigation: Build Design B from the runner-up sketch in 15 minutes using the same kinds of materials. Keep a star tally of changes on the plan just as before. Set Design A and Design B side by side and write on an index card under each: its name, its main material, and one way it is different from the other.
3. 5 min — Wrap-Up: Ask: 'To compare fairly, what has to be the same in both tests?' (same crayons, same tilt, same table). Write 'Fair test: same crayons, same book, same table' at the top of Wednesday's page.

Materials: recycling-bin materials, scissors, tape, rubber bands, 2 index cards, Engineering Notebook, pencil

Mathematics

Objective: Students will explore the pattern of odd and even numbers on a number chart and identify even numbers by their ones digit (2.OA.C.3).

1. 10 min — Warm-Up: Fill in the rest of the 1 to 20 chart by pairing beans for any numbers left blank yesterday. Then read the chart aloud together: '1 odd, 2 even, 3 odd, 4 even...' and clap on every even number.
2. 15 min — Mini-Lesson: On a hundred chart, color every even number from 2 to 30 with a yellow crayon. Ask, 'What do you notice?' Guide your child to see stripes: every even number ends in 0, 2, 4, 6, or 8, and every odd number ends in 1, 3, 5, 7, or 9. Test it: 'Is 46 even? It ends in 6, so yes. Is 73 even? It ends in 3, so no.' Say, 'The ones digit is the boss.'
3. 15 min — Practice: Say 15 numbers between 20 and 100 (for example 34, 57, 80, 91, 66, 23, 48, 75, 12, 99, 40, 61, 88, 37, 54) and have your child hold up a yellow card for even and a blue card for odd, then say the ones digit as proof. Then have them skip-count by 2s from 0 to 40 and from 1 to 41 and say which list is odd and which is even. Support: keep the colored hundred chart in view and point to each number. Stretch: decide whether 236 and 451 are odd or even and explain why the hundreds and tens do not matter.
4. 5 min — Wrap-Up: Ask, 'Why does the ones digit decide?' Listen for 'tens always pair up, so only the ones can have a leftover.'

Materials: hundred chart, yellow and blue crayons, two index cards (one yellow, one blue), dried beans, paper chart from Monday

English Language Arts

Objective: Students will find the important points in a second text on the same topic and use suffixes to determine word meaning (RI.2.9, L.2.4c).

1. 15 min — Shared Reading: Read 'National Geographic Readers: Owls' by Laura Marsh, your child reading the photo captions. Each time you meet a point that was also in Gail Gibbons, have your child hoot once. Ask: 'What does this book show with photos that Gibbons showed with drawings?'
2. 10 min — Mini-Lesson: Fill in the National Geographic column of the Important Points chart with three points. Draw a line between any point that appears in both books and circle any point that appears in only one. Say: 'When two authors agree, that point is probably very important.'
3. 15 min — Independent Reading: Your child rereads their favorite four pages of the Laura Marsh book and marks with sticky notes one point both books share and one point only this book makes. They explain both to you.
4. 15 min — Writing Workshop: Your child adds one fact from Laura Marsh's book to the Owl Fact Report and revises the topic sentence to say they read two books. Then they read the report aloud once, listening for any sentence that runs on.
5. 10 min — Phonics: Suffixes: Teach -ful (full of) and -less (without). Write and read: careful, helpful, hopeful, playful, colorful, fearless, careless, hopeless, useless, harmless. Your child sorts the cards by suffix and says a sentence for two of them about an owl ('An owl is a careful hunter').

Materials: Owls by Gail Gibbons, National Geographic Readers: Owls by Laura Marsh, paper, pencil, sticky notes, writing folder, index cards, marker

Social Studies

Objective: Students will explain why the nation sets aside holidays to remember people and events, using Martin Luther King Jr. Day as an example (D2.Civ.14.K-2, D2.His.2.K-2).

1. 10 min — Read-Aloud and Discussion: Read 'Martin's Big Words' by Doreen Rappaport. Pause at 'Everyone can be great' and at the bus boycott and ask: 'What was unfair? What did Dr. King ask people to do about it?' Explain that the country made a holiday in January so that everyone stops to remember his work.
2. 15 min — Hands-On Activity: Make a 'Holidays We Remember' calendar strip: on a long strip of paper mark the 12 months and place a picture card for Martin Luther King Jr. Day (January), Presidents Day (February), Memorial Day (May), Independence Day (July), Veterans Day (November), and Thanksgiving (November). For each, say in one phrase who or what is remembered, and draw a small symbol (a candle, a flag, a poppy, fireworks).
3. 5 min — Quick Write: Your child writes: 'We remember Dr. King because ___.' and then one 'big word' of their own they would want people to remember.

Materials: Martin's Big Words by Doreen Rappaport (library), long strip of paper or taped sheets, 6 index cards, markers, tape, pencil, writing paper

Mathematics

Objective: Students will write an even number as the sum of two equal addends (for example 14 = 7 + 7) and explain why odd numbers cannot be written that way (2.OA.C.3).

1. 10 min — Warm-Up: Chant the doubles ladder from Week 15 (1+1 up to 10+10). Ask, 'Are all the answers even or odd?' Let your child check three of them on the chart. Point out: 'Doubles always make even numbers.'
2. 15 min — Mini-Lesson: Take 14 beans and split them into two equal rows of 7: write 14 = 7 + 7. Do 18 = 9 + 9 and 20 = 10 + 10. Then try 11: two rows of 5 with one left over, so 11 cannot be a double. Write 11 = 5 + 5 + 1. Say, 'Even numbers are doubles. Odd numbers are a double plus one.'
3. 15 min — Practice: For each of 6, 10, 12, 16, 8, and 4, your child builds two equal rows of beans and writes the equal-addend equation. Then for 7, 13, 9, and 17 they write 'double plus one' equations (7 = 3 + 3 + 1). Finish with a quick sort: cut 10 number cards from 1 to 20 and place each under 'double' or 'double plus one.'
4. 5 min — Wrap-Up: Ask, 'If I tell you a number is 8 + 8, do you need to count to know it is even?' Listen for 'no, two equal groups always means even.'

Materials: dried beans, index cards, paper, pencil

English Language Arts

Objective: Students will compare and contrast the most important points two texts make on the same topic and read a poem for a recording (RI.2.9, RL.2.4, SL.2.5).

1. 15 min — Read-Aloud: Read 'Owl Moon' by Jane Yolen as the second text of the week: a story, not a fact book, about the same animal. Ask: 'What does this story tell us about owls that the fact books also said? What does it tell us that the fact books left out (how it feels to go owling)?'
2. 10 min — Mini-Lesson: Compare the two nonfiction books directly: both say owls hunt at night and have silent wings; Gibbons spends more pages on the kinds of owls, Marsh spends more on baby owls. Write two Both sentences and one Different sentence on the chart. Support: you say the point, your child says which column. Stretch: they add a point from Owl Moon that matches.
3. 15 min — Guided Reading: Your child chooses a page of 'Owl Moon' to record on Friday and reads it aloud three times with you, marking pauses and quiet words the way they did with poems in Week 13. Point out how the author's short lines slow the reader down.
4. 15 min — Writing Workshop: Your child finishes the Owl Fact Report with a closing sentence and then writes one sentence to introduce their recording: 'This is ____ reading facts about owls and a page from Owl Moon.' They practice reading the report and the intro together.
5. 10 min — Phonics: Suffixes: Teach -er (more) and -est (most). Write and read: taller, tallest, faster, fastest, softer, softest, louder, loudest, quieter, quietest. Your child lines up three family members by height and says the sentence with the right suffix ('Dad is the tallest').

Materials: Owls by Gail Gibbons, National Geographic Readers: Owls by Laura Marsh, Owl Moon by Jane Yolen, paper, pencil, writing folder, index cards, marker

Science

Objective: Students will test two designs under the same conditions and compare their strengths and weaknesses using data (K-2-ETS1-3).

1. 5 min — Review: Reread the fair-test line. Make a Comparison Table with two columns (A and B) and rows for each criterion plus 'held up after a drop from 6 inches' as a new toughness test.
2. 20 min — Deeper Investigation: Run every test on A, then the same test on B, three trials each, writing numbers in the table: crayons that fit, crayons that escaped on the tilt, fits in the pencil box, and pieces that came loose after a 6-inch drop. Keep the same book, the same 8 crayons, and the same table for both. Circle the better number in each row.
3. 5 min — Data Discussion: Count the circles in each column. Ask: 'Which design won more rows? Is there a row where the loser was clearly better? Could we take the best part of each?' Write the answer as 'A is better at ___, B is better at ___.'

Materials: Design A, Design B, 8 crayons, hardcover book, pencil box, ruler, Engineering Notebook, pencil

Mathematics

Objective: Students will apply odd and even reasoning to real situations, such as sharing fairly between two people and predicting whether a sum will be odd or even (2.OA.C.3).

1. 10 min — Warm-Up: Fair-share puzzles: 'Two friends want to split 16 crackers evenly. Can they?' (yes, 8 each). '17 crackers?' (no, one left over). '20 grapes?' (yes, 10 each). Use real crackers or beans.
2. 15 min — Mini-Lesson: Investigate sums. Add two even numbers with beans (6 + 4 = 10, pairs stay paired, even). Add two odds (5 + 3 = 8, the two leftovers pair up, even). Add an even and an odd (6 + 3 = 9, one leftover stays, odd). Make a three-row chart: even + even = even, odd + odd = even, even + odd = odd. Test each rule with one more example your child picks.
3. 15 min — Practice: Before solving, your child predicts odd or even for each sum, then solves and checks: 12 + 8, 7 + 9, 15 + 4, 11 + 11, 6 + 13, 18 + 2. Then a story: 'Tara and Jo found 23 shells. Can they each get the same number with none left over? Draw or explain.' (no, 23 is odd, one left).
4. 5 min — Wrap-Up: Ask, 'Why does odd plus odd make even?' Have your child show it with two leftover beans joining into a pair.

Materials: crackers or dried beans, paper, pencil, whiteboard or large paper

English Language Arts

Objective: Students will rehearse an audio recording of their writing and a story page and use root words to figure out word families (SL.2.5, L.2.4c, RF.2.4b).

1. 15 min — Shared Reading: Reread the pellet page in 'Owls' by Gail Gibbons and the matching page in Laura Marsh's book. Ask your child to say the same important point in their own words once for each book and decide which author explained it more clearly.
2. 10 min — Mini-Lesson: Teach recording basics on a phone or tablet: hold it still, wait two seconds before speaking, read a little slower than feels normal, and stop if you stumble and start the sentence again. Record a ten-second test and play it back to hear how it sounds.
3. 15 min — Independent Reading: Your child rehearses their 'Owl Moon' page and Owl Fact Report aloud three times alone, then once for you. Ask them to make the fact report sound like a news reporter and the story page sound like a whisper in the snow.
4. 15 min — Writing Workshop: Final edit of the Owl Fact Report: check capitals, periods, and the spelling of owl, feathers, pellet, and prey against the books. Your child then makes a title card for the recording: 'All About Owls by ____'.
5. 10 min — Phonics: Roots: Teach that a root word is the base that prefixes and suffixes stick to. Build word families on paper: hunt (hunter, hunted, hunting), help (helper, helpful, helpless, unhelpful), play (player, playful, replay, playing), care (careful, careless, caring). Your child reads each family and circles the root.

Materials: Owls by Gail Gibbons, National Geographic Readers: Owls by Laura Marsh, Owl Moon by Jane Yolen, phone or tablet with a voice recorder, writing folder, pencil, index cards, paper

Social Studies

Objective: Students will describe how Memorial Day and Veterans Day honor people who served and compare how families and communities observe holidays (D2.Civ.14.K-2, D2.His.2.K-2).

1. 10 min — Review and Extend: Point to each card on the calendar strip and have your child say who is remembered. Then read 'The Wall' by Eve Bunting and ask gently: 'Why did the boy and his father travel to the wall? Why do people leave flags and letters there?' Explain the difference: Memorial Day remembers those who died serving, Veterans Day thanks everyone who served.
2. 15 min — Project Work: Add a 'Days We Remember' section to the poster with three holidays your child chooses, each with a date, a picture, and the sentence 'On this day we remember ___.' Then interview a family member by phone or in person: 'How did your family celebrate a national holiday when you were a kid?' and write two details next to the matching holiday. Support: provide the sentence frame and pre-written date cards. Stretch: ask your child to add a holiday from another country a friend or relative celebrates and explain who it remembers.
3. 5 min — Share Progress: Your child presents the three holidays and one thing learned from the interview. Ask: 'Why does a whole country need to remember together instead of each family on its own?'

Materials: calendar strip, The Wall by Eve Bunting (library), poster, markers, phone or family member, index cards

Mathematics

Objective: Students will demonstrate that they can determine whether a number is odd or even using pairing, the ones digit, and equal addends (2.OA.C.3).

1. 10 min — Warm-Up: Three-way review. Show 14 beans: 'Prove it is even by pairing.' Show the number 58 written: 'Prove it is even by the ones digit.' Say 18: 'Prove it is even with a doubles equation.' Repeat with 9, 41, and 13 as odd examples.
2. 15 min — Mini-Lesson: Hunt for odd and even around the house together: count the windows in one room, the spoons in the drawer, the stairs, the buttons on a shirt. For each, your child records the count, writes E or O, and gives one proof (pairs, ones digit, or double). Aim for six items.
3. 15 min — Weekly Assessment: Part 1: with beans, pair up 13 and 16 and label each odd or even. Part 2: circle the even numbers in this list and explain the rule: 27, 34, 50, 61, 78, 85, 92, 19. Part 3: write equal-addend equations for 12, 18, and 20, and write 15 as a double plus one. Part 4: 'Two friends share 19 stickers. Will there be one left over? Explain.' Score each part for the method used and the answer.
4. 5 min — Wrap-Up: Reflect: 'Last week we solved two-step stories; this week we found a pattern that never breaks. Which proof for odd or even is your favorite?' Preview next week: rows and columns and repeated addition.

Materials: assessment page, dried beans, paper, pencil

Assessment: Determine if numbers are odd or even using pairing, models, and decomposition

English Language Arts

Objective: Students will create an audio recording of their writing and a story page and show they can compare important points in two texts (SL.2.5, RI.2.9, L.2.4b).

1. 10 min — Reading Celebration: Owl Prowl: turn off the lights, hand your child a flashlight, and have them read the last page of 'Owl Moon' to the family in their whisper voice. Then everyone shares the one owl fact they will remember longest.
2. 15 min — Reading Assessment: With the Important Points chart put away, your child writes two important points that both owl books make and one point that only one book makes, naming which book. This is the week's assessment.
3. 15 min — Publishing and Author's Chair: Record the final audio: the intro sentence, the Owl Fact Report, and the 'Owl Moon' page. Play it back for the family as the Author's Chair, and save it with the date so you can compare it with a recording later in the year.
4. 10 min — Phonics Check: Give ten words (unlock, replay, careful, hopeless, fastest, unhappy, refill, playful, louder, harmless). Your child reads each, circles the prefix or suffix, and says what the whole word means.
5. 15 min — Independent Reading: Free choice from the library. Ask your child to find two words with a prefix or suffix while reading and to name the root of each at the end.

Materials: Owl Moon by Jane Yolen, flashlight, paper, pencil, phone or tablet with a voice recorder, writing folder, index cards, library books

Assessment: Written comparison of important points across two owl texts (two shared, one unique with source named), a completed audio recording of an original fact report and a story page, and a 10-word prefix and suffix check.

Science

Objective: Students will use comparison data to recommend a design and combine the best features of two solutions into a final version (K-2-ETS1-3).

1. 10 min — Drawing Conclusions: Read the Comparison Table together and write a recommendation in the notebook: 'We recommend Design ___ because it won ___ rows, especially ___.' Then sketch a Design C that borrows the best part of the loser (for example A's tall lip on B's heavy base).
2. 15 min — Extension or Art Connection: Turn the Comparison Table into a picture graph: one crayon drawing for each crayon that escaped in the tilt test, for A and for B, side by side, so the difference is easy to see. Add a title and a key, and glue it into the notebook. Ask: 'Does the graph tell the same story as the table?'
3. 5 min — Week Reflection: Ask: 'What did you learn from the design that lost?' and 'What would you tell a friend who wants to build one?' Next week is the showcase, so decide together who will be invited.

Materials: Engineering Notebook, pencil, colored pencils, graph paper or plain paper, crayons, glue stick