Week 23 — Printable Lesson Packet

Mathematics

Objective: Students will build a paper clock and tell time to the hour and half hour, identifying the hour and minute hands (2.MD.C.7).

1. 10 min — Warm-Up: Draw a number line from 0 to 60 marked by fives and have your child skip count along it by 5s aloud. Then bend a string in a circle and say: 'Imagine this number line curled around. That is what a clock is.'
2. 15 min — Mini-Lesson: Build a Clock: Trace a dinner plate on cardstock, write 12 at the top, 6 at the bottom, 3 and 9 on the sides, then fill in the other numbers evenly. Cut a short wide hour hand and a long thin minute hand from cardstock and attach both at the center with a brad. Show 3:00 (minute hand on 12, hour hand on 3) and 3:30 (minute hand on 6, hour hand halfway between 3 and 4), saying each time aloud.
3. 15 min — Practice: Show Me the Time: Call out times and your child sets the paper clock: 7:00, 11:00, 2:30, 8:30, 12:00, 5:30. Then switch: they set a time and you read it. Finally, they draw two clocks in their journal showing 4:00 and 9:30 with the hour hand drawn correctly (pointing straight at the hour, or halfway past it).
4. 5 min — Wrap-Up: Ask: 'Which hand is short? What does it tell us?' (the hour). 'Which hand is long?' (the minute hand). Your child writes 'short hand = hour, long hand = minutes.'

Materials: paper, pencil, string, cardstock or paper plate, dinner plate to trace, brad (paper fastener), scissors, marker, math journal

English Language Arts

Objective: Students will identify the main topic of a multi-paragraph informational text and the focus of each paragraph (RI.2.2).

1. 15 min — Read-Aloud: Introduce 'Weather Words and What They Mean' by Gail Gibbons and read the first half (temperature, air pressure, moisture, wind). Remind your child that last week you retold stories; this week you go back to nonfiction and find the main topic, the one big thing a text is about. After each spread, ask, 'What is this page mostly about, in three words or fewer?'
2. 10 min — Mini-Lesson: Main Topic Is the Umbrella: Draw an umbrella and write 'weather' on top. Under it, draw raindrops labeled 'temperature,' 'wind,' 'clouds,' 'storms.' Say: 'The main topic is the umbrella. Each paragraph or page is one raindrop under it.'
3. 15 min — Guided Reading: Your child reads a nonfiction book at their level for 12 minutes and draws their own umbrella for it: the main topic on top and three raindrops for three pages. Check that each raindrop belongs under the umbrella.
4. 15 min — Writing Workshop: Choosing an Opinion: Pose the question 'Which is the best kind of weather?' Your child talks through two or three choices, picks one, and writes the opinion sentence: 'I think ___ is the best weather.' Then they list three reasons in a quick web; explain that this week each reason will get a linking word.
5. 10 min — Word Study: Open and Closed Syllables: Write 'blizzard, thunder, humid, cloudy, frozen, pilot, cabin, tornado.' Show that a closed syllable ends in a consonant and has a short vowel (bliz-zard, cab-in) and an open syllable ends in a vowel and says its name (fro-zen, pi-lot). Your child splits each word with a pencil line and reads it.

Materials: Weather Words and What They Mean by Gail Gibbons (library), leveled nonfiction book, paper, marker, pencil

Science

Objective: Students will observe and record daily weather, build a simple wind tool, and describe wind as moving air that can change the land (2-ESS2-1, 2-ESS1-1).

1. 5 min — Science Question of the Week: Ask: 'Last week we saw ice and water move sand. Can you see wind? How do you know it is there?' Set up a weather log with five rows (Mon to Fri) and columns for sky, temperature (warm, cool, cold), wind (none, light, strong), and rain.
2. 20 min — Investigation: Wind Sock: Tape crepe paper or plastic-bag strips around the rim of a paper cup with the bottom cut out, punch two holes, and tie on a string handle. Take it outside, hold it up in an open spot, and watch which way the strips blow; use a compass app or the position of the sun to name the direction the wind is coming from. Fill in today's row of the weather log together.
3. 5 min — Wrap-Up: Say: 'Wind is air that is moving.' Ask your child to name one fast wind event (a storm knocking down a tree) and one slow one (wind wearing away a rock over many years).

Materials: notebook, pencil, ruler, paper cup, scissors, crepe paper or plastic bag strips, tape, string, hole punch or pencil tip

Mathematics

Objective: Students will read and set times to the nearest 5 minutes on an analog clock by skip counting by fives (2.MD.C.7).

1. 10 min — Warm-Up: Your child sets the paper clock to 6:00 and 6:30 from yesterday. Then point to each number on the clock face in order while they skip count by 5s: '5, 10, 15... 55, 60.' Ask: 'How many minutes is a whole trip around?'
2. 15 min — Mini-Lesson: Counting the Minutes: Write the minute count next to each number on the paper clock in small pencil (1 is 5, 2 is 10, and so on to 11 is 55). Set the minute hand on 4 and hour hand just past 2 and count together: '5, 10, 15, 20. It is 2:20.' Repeat for 9:45 (minute hand on 9, hour hand almost at 10) and 7:05 (minute hand on 1). Point out that the hour hand keeps creeping toward the next number as minutes pass.
3. 15 min — Practice: Set and Read: Call out ten times for your child to set: 1:15, 4:40, 10:25, 6:55, 8:10, 12:35, 3:50, 9:05, 11:20, 5:45. For each, they count by 5s aloud before moving the hands. Support: leave the minute-count labels on the clock. Stretch: erase the labels and set 2:35 and 7:50 without them.
4. 5 min — Wrap-Up: Ask: 'If the minute hand is on the 8, how many minutes is that?' (40). Your child draws a clock showing 4:40 in their journal and writes the time under it.

Materials: paper clock, pencil, eraser, math journal

English Language Arts

Objective: Students will find key details that support the main topic and write an opinion with reasons connected by linking words (RI.2.2, W.2.1).

1. 15 min — Shared Reading: Read the second half of 'Weather Words and What They Mean' (fronts, storms, forecasting). Your child reads the bold weather words and their definitions. Pick the thunderstorm page and ask, 'What is the main topic, and what are two key details that tell more about it?'
2. 10 min — Mini-Lesson: Key Details Hold Up the Topic: Draw a table with a top and three legs. Write the main topic of one page on the top and a key detail on each leg. Kick away a leg by covering it and ask, 'Does the table still stand? Which details matter most?'
3. 15 min — Independent Reading: Your child reads their nonfiction book for 12 minutes and draws a table for one page: the main topic on top and three key details on the legs. They read the table to you.
4. 15 min — Writing Workshop: Linking Words: Write 'because, also, and, so, for example' on a card. Your child turns yesterday's three reasons into sentences, each starting with or containing a linking word: 'I think snow is the best weather because you can build a fort. Also, school might be canceled. For example, last winter we...' Read it aloud and circle each linking word.
5. 10 min — Word Study: Prefixes and Suffixes: Write 'unclear, rewrite, prewash, careful, helpless, quickly, kindness, sadly, colder, coldest.' Your child boxes the base word and underlines the prefix or suffix, then tells what each part adds ('un' means not, 'est' means the most). Dictate 'The coldest day was unclear and windy.'

Materials: Weather Words and What They Mean by Gail Gibbons, leveled nonfiction book, linking word card, yesterday's opinion web, paper, marker, pencil

Social Studies

Objective: Students will explain how an invention solved a problem and changed daily life, using Benjamin Franklin's inventions as examples (D2.His.1.K-2, D2.His.9.K-2).

1. 10 min — Read-Aloud and Discussion: Read 'Now & Ben: The Modern Inventions of Benjamin Franklin' by Gene Barretta, which shows each invention then and now on facing pages. Ask: 'What problem did the lightning rod solve? Which of Ben's ideas do we still use today? How does the book show past and present at the same time?'
2. 15 min — Hands-On Activity: Problem and Invention Match: Write six problems on cards (rooms are dark at night, food spoils, it is hard to talk to someone far away, walking is slow, clothes are dirty, we cannot see tiny things) and six inventions on other cards (light bulb, refrigerator, telephone, bicycle, washing machine, microscope). Your child matches each problem to its invention and then picks one to draw 'before the invention' and 'after.'
3. 5 min — Quick Write: Your child writes: 'Before the ___, people had to ___. Now we can ___.'

Materials: Now & Ben by Gene Barretta (library), 12 index cards, marker, paper, crayons, notebook, pencil

Mathematics

Objective: Students will match analog and digital times to 5 minutes and use a.m. and p.m. correctly (2.MD.C.7).

1. 10 min — Warm-Up: Set the paper clock to 3:25 and ask your child to read it; then show them the same time written digitally on an index card, '3:25.' Ask: 'Where do the hours go in a digital time? Where do the minutes go?' Repeat for 10:50.
2. 15 min — Mini-Lesson: Digital, Analog, a.m. and p.m.: Explain that a.m. is midnight to noon (waking up, breakfast, morning) and p.m. is noon to midnight (lunch, dinner, bedtime). Write 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. on cards and have your child say what they are usually doing at each. Then write 6 digital times on cards (8:15, 2:45, 11:30, 4:05, 9:50, 1:10) and match each to a paper clock setting.
3. 15 min — Practice: My Day in Times: Your child makes a chart of their day with 6 events (wake up, breakfast, math, lunch, play outside, bedtime), writing each time digitally with a.m. or p.m. and drawing a small analog clock for each. Times should be to the nearest 5 minutes, for example 'Wake up 7:15 a.m.' and 'Bedtime 8:30 p.m.'
4. 5 min — Wrap-Up: Ask: 'Is 12:30 in the middle of the day a.m. or p.m.?' (p.m., because it is after noon). Your child reads their day chart aloud.

Materials: paper clock, index cards, marker, paper, pencil, crayons, math journal

English Language Arts

Objective: Students will identify the main idea of a story chapter and support an opinion about a character with reasons and linking words (RL.2.10, W.2.1).

1. 15 min — Read-Aloud: Second Text: Read Chapter 3 of 'Charlotte's Web,' 'Escape.' Stop when Wilbur is back in his pen with the slops and ask, 'Was escaping worth it for Wilbur?' Explain that stories do not have a main topic like nonfiction, but each chapter still has a big idea; here it is Wilbur's escape and what he learned.
2. 10 min — Mini-Lesson: Big Idea of a Chapter: Draw the umbrella again and write 'Wilbur escapes' on top. Add raindrops for three details from the chapter (the loose board, the goose's advice, Lurvy and the slops). Say: 'The umbrella works for stories too: the big idea is what the chapter is mostly about.'
3. 15 min — Guided Reading: Your child reads their leveled book for 12 minutes and tells you the big idea of what they read in one sentence, plus two details. If they read fiction, they use the chapter umbrella; if nonfiction, the main topic umbrella.
4. 15 min — Writing Workshop: Opinion About Wilbur: Your child writes a short opinion piece: 'I think Wilbur should have (or should not have) escaped.' Require two reasons from the chapter, each joined with a linking word from the card, and a closing sentence. Support: use the frame 'I think ___ because ___. Also, ___. That is why ___.' Stretch: add a third reason that begins with 'For example' and quotes a detail from the text.
5. 10 min — Word Study: Compound Words and Contractions: Write 'barnyard, farmhouse, doorway, cornfield, everybody' and 'can't, didn't, I'm, wasn't, he'd.' Your child draws a line between the two words in each compound and writes the two words each contraction comes from. Hunt for two of them in Chapter 3.

Materials: Charlotte's Web by E. B. White, leveled book, linking word card, paper, marker, pencil

Science

Objective: Students will measure wind strength with a homemade tool, compare readings across the day, and connect strong wind to fast changes on Earth (2-ESS1-1, 2-ESS2-1).

1. 5 min — Review: Read the weather log so far and ask: 'Has the wind been the same each day? What direction did it come from Monday?' Fill in today's row.
2. 20 min — Deeper Investigation: Pinwheel Wind Meter: Cut a square of paper, snip from each corner toward the center, fold every other point in, and pin through the center into a pencil eraser to make a pinwheel. Outside, count how many times it spins in 10 seconds in three spots: an open place, beside a wall, and behind a bush; record the counts. Then set a small pile of flour on a plate outdoors and watch what the wind does to it, connecting to Week 20's straw test. Support: count spins together aloud in one spot only. Stretch: predict which spot will be windiest before testing and explain why walls and bushes block wind.
3. 5 min — Data Discussion: Your child makes a quick bar for each spot (one square per spin) and circles the windiest. Ask: 'If a windstorm blew for an hour, what could it do to a beach? To a tree?'

Materials: weather log, square of paper, scissors, push pin, pencil with eraser, timer, plate, spoonful of flour, graph paper or notebook, pencil

Mathematics

Objective: Students will apply time-telling to simple elapsed-time problems by counting hops of 5 minutes and hours on the paper clock (2.MD.C.7).

1. 10 min — Warm-Up: Set the paper clock to 2:00 and ask: 'What time will it be in 1 hour? In 2 hours?' Move only the hour hand to show 3:00 and 4:00. Then set 2:00 and ask what time it will be in 5 minutes, in 10 minutes, in 15 minutes, moving the minute hand one number each time.
2. 15 min — Mini-Lesson: How Much Later?: Read: 'Soccer practice starts at 4:00 p.m. and lasts 30 minutes. What time does it end?' Start the clock at 4:00 and count six 5-minute hops with the minute hand while the hour hand creeps to halfway: 4:30. Then read: 'The movie starts at 6:15 and ends at 7:15. How long is it?' Show that the minute hand made one full trip, so 1 hour.
3. 15 min — Practice: Time Stories: Your child uses the paper clock to solve four problems and writes the answer time. 1: 'Reading starts at 9:10 a.m. and lasts 20 minutes. When does it end?' (9:30 a.m.). 2: 'Dinner is at 6:00 p.m. It is 5:45 p.m. How many minutes until dinner?' (15). 3: 'A bike ride starts at 1:00 and ends at 3:00. How long was it?' (2 hours). 4: 'The bus comes at 8:05 a.m. Leo leaves the house at 7:50 a.m. How many minutes does he have?' (15).
4. 5 min — Wrap-Up: Look at a real clock and ask: 'What time is it now? What time will it be in 15 minutes?' Your child writes both times in their journal with a.m. or p.m.

Materials: paper clock, real clock, paper, math journal, pencil

English Language Arts

Objective: Students will state the main topic and key details of a text in writing and revise an opinion piece to strengthen linking words (RI.2.2, W.2.1, W.2.5).

1. 15 min — Shared Reading: Reread the pages about clouds in 'Weather Words and What They Mean.' Your child reads the cloud names (cirrus, cumulus, stratus) and one fact for each. Together, write the main topic of the spread and three key details in a table drawing.
2. 10 min — Mini-Lesson: Say It in One Sentence: Model the frame 'This text is mostly about ___. One key detail is ___. Another key detail is ___.' Use it for the cloud pages. Say: 'If you can say the main topic and two details in three sentences, you understood the text.'
3. 15 min — Independent Reading: Your child reads their nonfiction book for 12 minutes and writes the three-sentence frame for one page. Check that the two details actually appear on the page.
4. 15 min — Writing Workshop: Revising the Weather Opinion: Your child rereads the weather opinion from Tuesday and revises it: every reason gets a linking word, the piece gets a closing sentence ('That is why I think...'), and one reason gets a 'for example' detail. Then edit with CUPS from Week 19.
5. 10 min — Word Study: Vowel Team Review with Weather Words: Write 'rain, sleet, snow, cloud, storm, bright, freeze, breeze, hail, gray.' Your child underlines the vowel team in each and sorts the words by sound (long a, long e, long o, /ow/, long i). Dictate 'The gray cloud brought rain and hail.'

Materials: Weather Words and What They Mean by Gail Gibbons, leveled nonfiction book, weather opinion draft, linking word card, CUPS card, colored pencil, paper, marker, pencil

Social Studies

Objective: Students will describe how an inventor used wind to solve a problem and design their own invention to solve a problem at home (D2.His.1.K-2, D2.His.9.K-2).

1. 10 min — Review and Extend: Read the picture book edition of 'The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind' by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer, about a boy in Malawi who built a windmill from scrap to pump water for his village. Ask: 'What problem did William's village have? Where did he get his ideas? How does this connect to the wind we measured yesterday?'
2. 15 min — Project Work: My Invention Blueprint: Your child chooses one small problem at home (the dog's water bowl runs dry, shoes get lost, the light switch is too high) and draws an invention to fix it with labeled parts, a name, and a sentence about how it works. Encourage them to use something from this unit if they can: wind, flowing water, or a map. Add it to the Important Americans trading cards from Week 20 as an 'Inventor: Me' card.
3. 5 min — Share Progress: Your child pitches the invention in one minute like William explaining his windmill. Ask: 'How would life at home be different after your invention?'

Materials: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (picture book edition) by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer (library), large paper, pencil, crayons, index card

Mathematics

Objective: Students will read analog and digital clocks to the nearest 5 minutes, write times with a.m. and p.m., and solve simple elapsed-time problems (2.MD.C.7).

1. 10 min — Warm-Up: Rapid round: you set the paper clock to 5 times (7:35, 12:10, 3:55, 10:20, 6:45) and your child reads each within a few seconds. Then they set 2 times you name digitally: 8:25 and 11:40.
2. 15 min — Weekly Assessment: Part 1: draw six blank clock faces and set the paper clock to 1:05, 4:30, 8:50, 11:15, 6:40, and 9:25; your child writes each time digitally below a face and draws the hands on it. Part 2: they label 'breakfast at 7:30' and 'bedtime at 8:00' with a.m. or p.m. Part 3: 'Art starts at 2:15 p.m. and lasts 30 minutes. What time does it end?' (2:45 p.m.).
3. 15 min — Practice: Clock Match Game: Make 8 pairs of index cards, one with a drawn analog clock and one with the matching digital time (use 2:20, 5:45, 9:10, 12:35, 3:50, 7:05, 10:25, 6:15). Shuffle face down and play Memory, reading each card aloud when flipped.
4. 5 min — Wrap-Up: Ask: 'What trick helps you find the minutes fastest?' (count by 5s). Preview next week: 'We will count coins from a jar and figure out how much money we have.'

Materials: paper clock, paper with six blank clock faces, 16 index cards, marker, math journal, pencil

Assessment: Read analog and digital clocks; write times; solve elapsed time problems

English Language Arts

Objective: Students will show they can identify the main topic and key details of a text and write an opinion with reasons and linking words (RI.2.2, W.2.1).

1. 10 min — Reading Celebration: Look out the window and have your child describe today's weather using at least three words from Gail Gibbons's book. Then ask what they think will happen to Wilbur next and why.
2. 15 min — Reading Assessment: Read the tornado page from 'Weather Words and What They Mean' aloud once. Your child writes the three-sentence frame (main topic, two key details) and then draws the umbrella with the topic and details. Score: is the topic the umbrella, and do both details belong under it?
3. 15 min — Publishing and Author's Chair: Your child copies the revised weather opinion neatly, adds a drawing of their favorite weather, and reads it from the author's chair. Listeners count the linking words on their fingers and say whether they were convinced.
4. 10 min — Phonics Check: Dictate 'thunder, frozen, cabin, careful, quickly, coldest, barnyard, didn't, freeze, cloud.' Then have your child read 'The pilot was helpless in the blizzard' and explain how they split 'pilot' and 'blizzard.'
5. 15 min — Independent Reading: Your child reads a book of their choice for 15 minutes and tells you its main topic or big idea in one sentence when they finish.

Materials: Weather Words and What They Mean by Gail Gibbons, revised weather opinion, clean paper, crayons, self-selected book, paper, pencil

Assessment: Written main topic and two key details for a nonfiction page with umbrella diagram; published opinion piece with three reasons, linking words, and a closing; 10-word dictation covering syllable types, affixes, compounds, contractions, and vowel teams.

Science

Objective: Students will use a week of weather data to describe patterns and explain that wind and weather cause both fast and slow changes to Earth's surface (2-ESS1-1, 2-ESS2-1).

1. 10 min — Drawing Conclusions: Fill in Friday's row of the weather log and read all five rows aloud. Your child writes two sentences: one pattern they notice (for example, 'It was windiest in the open spot every time') and one fast or slow change that wind can cause.
2. 15 min — Art Connection: Wind Painting: Drop small blobs of watery paint on paper and have your child blow them across the sheet through a straw, changing how hard they blow to make thin streaks and wide splashes. Title it 'Light Wind' on one half and 'Strong Wind' on the other. Talk about how the paint moved just like sand and flour did.
3. 5 min — Week Reflection: Ask: 'What are the three things we have seen move or change land this unit?' (water, ice, wind). Preview next week: 'We will put everything together in one big Earth model and a history museum.'

Materials: weather log, pencil, watery tempera or watercolor paint, paper, drinking straw, newspaper to protect the table