Week 26 — Printable Lesson Packet

Mathematics

Objective: Students will conduct a household survey with up to four categories and organize the results in a tally table (2.MD.D.10).

1. 10 min — Warm-Up: Spiral from Week 25: show last week's crayon line plot and ask, 'How many crayons were 5 inches?' Then ask, 'Could we make a line plot of favorite colors?' and let your child explain why not (colors are not numbers).
2. 15 min — Mini-Lesson: Explain that a survey is a question we ask many people. Write the question 'What is your favorite fruit?' with four choices: apple, banana, grape, orange. Model making a tally table, with one mark per vote and a slash across every fifth mark.
3. 15 min — Practice: Your child surveys everyone in the house and then calls or texts grandparents, cousins, or neighbors with adult help until they have at least 10 answers. They record each answer as a tally mark and write the total for each fruit.
4. 5 min — Wrap-Up: Ask, 'Which fruit got the most votes? How many people did you ask in all?' Have your child add the four totals to check that the sum matches the number of people surveyed.

Materials: paper, pencil, phone for calling relatives with adult help

English Language Arts

Objective: Students will use sentence stems to build on a partner's ideas while discussing why the family in 'A Chair for My Mother' saves every coin (SL.2.1b, RL.2.3).

1. 15 min — Read-Aloud: A Chair for My Mother: Point to last week's Talking Together chart and say: 'This week we add a new skill, building on someone else's idea.' Read 'A Chair for My Mother' by Vera B. Williams, stopping at the big jar of coins, at the memory of the fire, and when the family finally sits in the new chair. Ask: 'Why does this family save every coin instead of spending them?'
2. 10 min — Mini-Lesson: Sentence Stems for Adding On: Add four stems to the chart: 'I agree with you because ...', 'I want to add on ...', 'That reminds me of ...', and 'I disagree a little because ...'. Model: you say 'I think the jar is important because it holds their hope,' and then show your child how to answer with 'I want to add on, the jar is also where Rosa puts her own coins.'
3. 15 min — Guided Reading: Need or Want?: Ask the question 'Was the chair a need or a want?' and hold a conversation where every turn must begin with a stem from the chart; keep a tally of stems used. Reread the pages about the burned apartment and the hard kitchen chairs so your child can point to evidence for either side.
4. 15 min — Writing Workshop: Words at Work: Start a 'Words at Work' page for words from the book: tips, coins, save, bargain. For each word your child writes what it means and one real-life place they have seen it (a tip left on a diner table, coins in a jar at home) and draws a tiny picture. Explain that this week's writing is about connecting words to real life.
5. 10 min — Phonics: Prefixes un- and re-: Word cards: unhappy, unlock, untie, unfair, unpack, unsafe, redo, reread, replay, refill, rebuild, return. Your child covers the prefix with a finger, reads the base word, then uncovers and reads the whole word, saying 'un means not' or 're means again.' Sort into two piles and write three of each.

Materials: A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams, chart paper, marker, sticky notes, writing notebook, pencil, crayons, index cards

Science

Objective: Students will sort pictures of animals into groups by observable body features (fur, feathers, scales, shells, six legs) and explain their sorting rule (2-LS4-1).

1. 5 min — Science Question of the Week: Hold up last week's field guide page. Ask: 'If we found 100 living things instead of 10, how would we keep track of them all?' Explain that scientists sort living things into groups by features they can see, and that this is called classification.
2. 20 min — Investigation: Animal Card Sort: Make 16 animal cards from magazine cutouts, printouts, or quick sketches: dog, cat, horse, robin, penguin, owl, snake, lizard, turtle, frog, salamander, goldfish, shark, ant, butterfly, spider. First let your child sort them any way at all and explain the rule. Then give the scientist rules: fur or hair (mammals), feathers (birds), dry scales (reptiles), smooth wet skin (amphibians), fins and gills (fish), six legs (insects). Re-sort and glue each group onto its own labeled sheet.
3. 5 min — Wrap-Up: Ask the trick questions: 'A penguin cannot fly. Is it still a bird?' (Yes, feathers.) 'A spider has eight legs. Is it an insect?' (No, insects have six.) Post the six group sheets on the wall for the week.

Materials: 16 animal pictures, 6 sheets of paper, glue stick, marker, field guide page from last week

Mathematics

Objective: Students will represent survey data in a picture graph where each picture stands for one vote and read it to answer questions (2.MD.D.10).

1. 10 min — Warm-Up: Read yesterday's tally table aloud. Ask, 'How many more votes did the winner get than the fruit in last place?' and write the subtraction equation together.
2. 15 min — Mini-Lesson: Draw a picture graph frame: four rows labeled with the fruits and a key at the bottom that says 'Each circle = 1 vote.' Model drawing one circle per vote in the apple row, lined up neatly from the left so rows can be compared by length.
3. 15 min — Practice: Your child completes the picture graph for all four fruits, adds the title 'Our Favorite Fruits,' and answers three questions in writing: 'Which fruit has the most pictures? Which two fruits together equal the winner? How many votes are shown in all?'
4. 5 min — Wrap-Up: Cover the numbers and ask your child to tell which fruit won just by looking at row length. Ask, 'Why does the key matter?'

Materials: yesterday's tally table, paper, pencil, crayons

English Language Arts

Objective: Students will link their comments to a partner's comment in an add-on chain while discussing how neighbors helped after the fire (SL.2.1b, RL.2.1).

1. 15 min — Shared Reading: What the Neighbors Brought: Reread the pages after the fire where neighbors and family bring a table, chairs, a rug, pizza, and help carrying things. Tie to social studies: 'Yesterday you learned about goods and services.' Sort each thing the neighbors gave into Goods (things) or Services (help) on a two-column chart.
2. 10 min — Mini-Lesson: The Add-On Chain: Explain the add-on chain: one person says an idea, the next person must begin with a stem and add one new detail, and the chain must be three links long before anyone changes the subject. Practice with 'Pizza is a good dinner' and count the links on your fingers.
3. 15 min — Guided Reading: Chains About the Book: Run two add-on chains: 'How did the neighbors help the family?' and 'Where did the coins in the jar come from?' (Mama's tips, Grandma's bargains, Rosa's help at the diner). Each link must point to a page; stop and reread if a link has no evidence.
4. 15 min — Writing Workshop: Juicy, Spicy, Crunchy: At the Blue Tile Diner, Mama serves food all day. Your child chooses three foods from your own kitchen and writes one sentence each using a describing word (juicy, spicy, crunchy, sweet, sour) and where the food is eaten: 'Crunchy carrots are in my lunchbox.' Add the three describing words to the Words at Work page.
5. 10 min — Phonics: Prefix pre- and Mixed Review: New cards: preheat, preview, pretest, preschool, prepay, precook. Teach 'pre means before,' then mix in four review cards (unlock, reread, unfair, refill) and have your child sort all ten by prefix and tell the meaning of each prefix. Write two 'pre' words in the notebook.

Materials: A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams, paper, pencil, stem chart, writing notebook, index cards, marker

Social Studies

Objective: Students will distinguish goods (things people make or grow) from services (work people do for others) and give examples of each from their community (D2.Eco.3.K-2, D2.Eco.4.K-2).

1. 10 min — Read-Aloud and Discussion: Read 'Market Street' pages of 'Last Stop on Market Street' by Matt de la Pena, or if you have it, 'On Market Street' by Arnold Lobel. As CJ and Nana ride, stop at the bus driver, the guitar player, and the soup kitchen and ask: 'Is this person giving a thing or doing a job for someone?' Define goods as things you can hold that people make or grow (bread, shoes, apples) and services as work someone does for you (haircut, bus ride, doctor visit).
2. 15 min — Hands-On Activity: Goods and Services Hunt: Walk through your home with a clipboard. In the kitchen, your child lists 5 goods (cereal, milk, spoon, pot, apple). Then brainstorm 5 services your family has used this month (trash pickup, mail delivery, dentist, library, a bus or car repair). Make a T-chart with a drawing for each. Ask the connecting question: 'Who made the cereal? Who drove it to the store?' Every good needs services to reach us.
3. 5 min — Quick Write: Your child writes: 'A good I used today was ___. A service I used today was ___.' Add this page to the Needs and Wants booklet.

Materials: Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Pena (library), clipboard or notebook, pencil, crayons, Needs and Wants booklet

Mathematics

Objective: Students will run a second survey and build a bar graph with a scale of one, labeling axes and title (2.MD.D.10).

1. 10 min — Warm-Up: Hand your child a mixed handful of 12 to 16 coins. They sort by type, count each pile, and make a quick tally table: pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters. Ask, 'Which coin do we have the most of?'
2. 15 min — Mini-Lesson: Show how the coin tallies become a bar graph on grid paper: categories along the bottom, numbers 0 to 10 up the side, and a bar that rises one square per coin. Model drawing the penny bar, then say 'A bar graph is like a picture graph but the bar is one solid shape.'
3. 15 min — Practice: Your child finishes the coin bar graph with all four bars, labels the side 'Number of Coins,' the bottom 'Type of Coin,' and adds a title. Then they write two sentences that compare bars using the words more and fewer. Support: pre-label the axes and have them draw and color only the bars. Stretch: have them draw the same data as a picture graph where each picture stands for 2 coins and explain how to show an odd number.
4. 5 min — Wrap-Up: Ask, 'If we spent all the dimes, what would the graph look like?' Have your child describe the change without redrawing.

Materials: 12 to 16 mixed coins, grid paper, pencil, crayons, ruler

English Language Arts

Objective: Students will build on others' ideas with evidence from 'What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?' while sorting animals into groups (SL.2.1b, SL.2.2, RI.2.1).

1. 15 min — Read-Aloud: What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?: Read 'What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?' by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page, pausing on each guessing page so your child predicts the animal before the reveal. Tie to science: 'This week you are sorting animals into groups.' Keep a list of every animal named and mark each as mammal, bird, fish, reptile, amphibian, or insect.
2. 10 min — Mini-Lesson: Adding On With Evidence: Add one more stem to the chart: 'I want to add on, and the book says ...'. Model: 'I think the skunk's tail is a warning. I want to add on, and the book says it lifts its tail before it sprays.' Your child tries the stem with the lizard or the elephant page.
3. 15 min — Guided Reading: Which Body Part Is Best?: Hold a conversation on 'Which animal has the most useful nose, ear, tail, eye, mouth, or foot?' where every add-on must quote the book. Support: you read the page again before your child adds on. Stretch: your child must add on with evidence from two different animals in one turn.
4. 15 min — Writing Workshop: Animal Words in Real Life: Choose four action words from the book: dig, spray, grip, hover. For each, your child writes where they have seen it in real life ('My dog digs in the yard.' 'The sprinkler sprays the grass.') and adds the words to the Words at Work page with a sketch.
5. 10 min — Phonics: Suffixes -ful and -less: Word cards: helpful, careful, hopeful, playful, joyful, thankful, careless, fearless, homeless, useless, endless, spotless. Your child reads the base word, then the whole word, and says 'ful means full of' or 'less means without.' Pick one animal from the book and describe it with two of the words (a fearless skunk, a careful chameleon).

Materials: What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page, paper, pencil, stem chart, marker, writing notebook, crayons, index cards

Science

Objective: Students will classify living things beyond animals (plants, fungi) and use a simple yes-or-no key to identify which group an organism belongs to (2-LS4-1).

1. 5 min — Review: Point to each of the six group sheets and have your child say the rule from memory. Ask: 'Is a mushroom an animal? Is a tree?' Explain that animals are only one big group; plants and fungi are others.
2. 20 min — Deeper Investigation: Build a Sorting Key: Gather 8 real items: a leaf, a flower, a mushroom from the grocery store, a piece of bark, a feather (or a picture), a seashell, a pinecone, and a gummy worm as a joke non-living item. Draw a yes-or-no flowchart on a big sheet: 'Is it alive or was it once alive?' then 'Does it make its own food from sunlight (green)?' then 'Does it have feathers, fur, scales, or a shell?' Your child walks each item down the chart to its final box: plant, fungus, animal part, not living. Support: you ask each question aloud. Stretch: your child adds a new question to split plants into 'has flowers' and 'has cones'.
3. 5 min — Data Discussion: Ask: 'Which item was hardest to place? What question would help?' Note that mushrooms are not plants because they do not make food from sunlight; they break down old leaves and wood instead.

Materials: leaf, flower, grocery mushroom, bark, feather or picture, seashell, pinecone, gummy candy, large paper, marker, six group sheets from Monday

Mathematics

Objective: Students will use picture graphs and bar graphs to solve put-together, take-apart, and compare problems (2.MD.D.10, 2.OA.A.1).

1. 10 min — Warm-Up: Survey the house on 'How do you like to get around: walk, bike, car, or bus?' Include relatives by text if needed for at least 8 answers. Your child records the tallies quickly.
2. 15 min — Mini-Lesson: Draw a bar graph of the transportation data together. Model a compare problem: 'Car has 5 votes and bike has 2. How many more people chose car?' Write 5 - 2 = 3 and show how to read the top of each bar to find both numbers.
3. 15 min — Practice: Your child solves four problems from the fruit picture graph and coin bar graph, writing an equation for each: 'How many votes for apple and banana together? How many fewer grapes than oranges? How many coins are pennies or nickels? If 3 more people chose grape, how many would grape have?'
4. 5 min — Wrap-Up: Have your child pick one graph from this week and tell someone else at home two facts from it, pointing to the bars or pictures as they explain.

Materials: this week's graphs, grid paper, pencil, phone for texting relatives with adult help

English Language Arts

Objective: Students will ask for clarification when a comment is unclear and connect describing words to objects at home (SL.2.1c, L.2.5a).

1. 15 min — Shared Reading: Trying Out Chairs: Reread the chair-shopping pages of 'A Chair for My Mother' where the family tries chairs in store after store. Your child reads Rosa's lines and you read Mama and Grandma; stop to ask, 'How do you know this chair is the one?' and find the words that describe it (soft, rosy, with roses on it).
2. 10 min — Mini-Lesson: Asking for Clarification: Add two stems: 'What do you mean by ...?' and 'Can you say that another way?' Give vague statements ('It was good.' 'That part was weird.') and have your child ask you to be clearer until you give a detail. Switch roles once.
3. 15 min — Independent Reading and Book Talk: Your child reads a self-chosen book for ten minutes, then gives a book talk while you respond using only stems from the chart, including one clarification question. Count how many different stems the two of you used and try to beat five.
4. 15 min — Writing Workshop: Cozy, Wobbly, Smooth: Walk the house together and pick three objects. For each, your child writes a sentence with a describing word and a reason: 'Our couch is cozy because it has soft cushions.' Use words like cozy, wobbly, smooth, squeaky, heavy, and add them to the Words at Work page.
5. 10 min — Phonics: Suffixes -ly and -ness: Word cards: slowly, quickly, sadly, kindly, softly, safely, kindness, sadness, darkness, softness, illness, fitness. Your child draws a line between base word and suffix, reads both parts, and acts out three of the -ly words. Stretch: show that 'happy' becomes 'happily' and 'happiness' by changing y to i.

Materials: A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams, stem chart, marker, library book, writing notebook, pencil, index cards

Social Studies

Objective: Students will identify goods and services in their own neighborhood and create a map or chart showing where each is found (D2.Eco.3.K-2, D2.Eco.4.K-2).

1. 10 min — Review and Extend: Play 'Good or Service?' with 10 quick calls: a pizza, a pizza delivery, a haircut, a hairbrush, a library book, a librarian helping you find it, a bicycle, a bike repair, a birthday cake, a birthday party clown. Then ask the extension question: 'Can one business give both?' A restaurant gives food (a good) and cooking and serving (services).
2. 15 min — Project Work: Neighborhood Goods and Services Map: On a large sheet, your child draws your street or the route to the grocery store as a simple map with 5 to 6 places: grocery store, gas station, school, post office, a restaurant, a park. At each place, your child draws a small box (goods) or a hand (services) or both, and writes one example. Use a real walk, a window view, or an online map for accuracy.
3. 5 min — Share Progress: Your child presents the map and picks the one place your family could not do without. Ask: 'Is that place giving us a need or a want?' to connect back to Week 25.

Materials: large paper, crayons, pencil

Mathematics

Objective: Students will demonstrate that they can draw and interpret picture graphs and bar graphs and solve comparison problems from them (2.MD.D.10).

1. 10 min — Warm-Up: Show the coin bar graph and ask five rapid questions: 'How tall is the dime bar? Which bar is shortest? How many coins in all? How many more pennies than quarters? Which two bars are closest in height?'
2. 15 min — Review Mini-Lesson: List the parts of a good graph together: title, category labels, number labels or a key, and bars or pictures that start at the same line. Have your child check each graph from the week and star every part they included.
3. 15 min — Weekly Assessment: Give your child this data from a pretend survey: dogs 6, cats 4, fish 2, birds 3. They draw a picture graph with a key of one picture per vote and a bar graph on grid paper, both with titles and labels. Then they answer: 'How many more dogs than fish? How many pets in all? Which two animals together equal 6?'
4. 5 min — Wrap-Up: Reflect: 'When would you pick a bar graph instead of a line plot?' Preview next week: 'We are leaving numbers for a bit and hunting for shapes around the house.'

Materials: coin bar graph from Wednesday, grid paper, paper, pencil, crayons

Assessment: Draw and interpret picture graphs and bar graphs; solve comparison problems

English Language Arts

Objective: Students will hold an assessed conversation about saving and spending using stems, add-ons, and clarification questions, and publish a Words at Work mini-dictionary (SL.2.1a, SL.2.1b, SL.2.1c, L.2.5a).

1. 10 min — Reading Celebration: Reread the last page of 'A Chair for My Mother' where Rosa falls asleep in the chair. Ask: 'Last week CJ noticed what was beautiful. What does Rosa's family notice that matters?' and compare the two endings with a stem.
2. 15 min — Conversation Assessment: Hold a five-minute conversation on 'Is it better to save or to spend?' and, if you can, record it on a phone. Score with a four-item checklist: used a stem, added on with a new detail, asked a clarification question, stayed on topic. Listen back together and let your child find one example of each.
3. 15 min — Publishing and Author's Chair: Words at Work: Your child chooses six words from the Words at Work page, copies each onto its own page with the real-life sentence and picture, and staples the pages into a mini-dictionary. Your child reads it from the author's chair and you respond with 'That reminds me of ...'.
4. 10 min — Phonics Check: Prefixes and Suffixes: Dictate eight words: unhappy, reread, preheat, careful, useless, quickly, kindness, unlock. Then dictate 'She was thankful and helpful.' Your child marks each prefix and suffix after writing.
5. 15 min — Independent Reading: Fifteen minutes of independent reading in a library book, ending with one new word your child found and where it might be used in real life.

Materials: A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams, phone or recorder, checklist on index card, pencil, plain paper, stapler, crayons, writing notebook, library book

Assessment: Recorded five-minute conversation scored on four items (stem used, add-on with detail, clarification question, stayed on topic); Words at Work mini-dictionary with six words connected to real life; dictation of eight prefix and suffix words.

Science

Objective: Students will explain that scientists group living things by shared features and create a poster showing the major animal groups with one example each (2-LS4-1).

1. 10 min — Drawing Conclusions: Ask: 'Why do scientists put living things in groups?' Guide toward 'to keep track, to compare, and to know what a new animal might need.' Your child writes the big idea: 'Living things are grouped by features we can see, like feathers, fur, scales, or six legs.' Then ask which group had the most members in last week's yard survey (usually insects).
2. 15 min — Art Connection: Animal Groups Poster: On a poster sheet, divide the space into six boxes labeled Mammals, Birds, Reptiles, Amphibians, Fish, Insects. In each box, your child draws one favorite animal and writes the group's key feature. Add a decorative border of the plants and fungi from Wednesday. Hang it in the science corner for the rest of the unit.
3. 5 min — Week Reflection: Ask: 'Which animal was the hardest to classify this week, and how did you decide?' Preview next week: 'Now that we know the groups, we will find out how they need each other.'

Materials: notebook, pencil, poster paper, markers, colored pencils