September · Week 1 · Day 3 · School day 3

Day 3: Elements, Compounds and Clues

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The day, step by step

1. 10–15 min Morning meeting SL.7.1

   1. Calendar and agenda: a student reads today's blocks aloud and names the game for device time.
   2. Question of the day: Is air matter? How could you prove it? Think for 30 seconds, talk with a partner, then two volunteers share out.
   3. Fluency warm-up: choral read the read-aloud paragraph from yesterday, then students read it in pairs with a partner swap every sentence.

2. 15–20 min Word study L.7.4b

   1. Teach two endings that attach to roots: -ology (study of) and -er or -ist (one who). Build: geo + ology = geology; geolog + ist = geologist; photograph + er = photographer.
   2. Students build and define five new words from parts on cards: bio + ology, bio + graph + er, graph + ic, geo + graph + er, auto + graph.
   3. Spelling pattern: words ending in -graph add -er directly (photographer) but -ology words drop the y before -ist (geologist). Students write both patterns with two examples each.
   4. Sentence dictation: The geographer and the biologist compared their graphics of the river.

3. 25–30 min Reading workshop L.7.4a

   Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne (Wonderscape Library)

   1. Independent reading 10 minutes.
   2. Mini-lesson on context clues: list five types (definition, example, synonym, antonym, general sense). Read a passage from the day's chapter with a hard word (for example a word about travel or money) and model using the sentence around it.
   3. Students hunt for three unfamiliar words in their independent book, write each in a three-column chart: word, clue in the text, my guess. Check one guess with a dictionary.
   4. Read-aloud: continue the journey. Track the route on the map with a pin as Fogg leaves Europe.

4. 35–45 min Math 7.RP.1

   1. Warm-up: which is the unit rate, $0.25 per ounce or $3 for 12 ounces? Students explain that both describe the same rate and that the unit rate is the first one.
   2. Unit price lesson: unit price = total cost ÷ number of units. Work: 16 ounces of cereal for $4.80 ($0.30 per ounce); 6 cans for $4.50 ($0.75 per can); 2.5 pounds of grapes for $5.00 ($2.00 per pound).
   3. Students work in pairs on a grocery flyer or price list to find the unit price of five items and record them in a table.
   4. Discussion: when a store lists a price per ounce on the shelf tag, why is that useful? Preview tomorrow: using unit prices to decide the better buy.

   Math center: unit price table (use a store flyer to find the unit price of five items; round to the nearest cent)

5. 25–30 min Science MS-PS1-1

   1. Review yesterday's models. Introduce three categories: element (one kind of atom, like oxygen or gold), compound (two or more kinds of atoms bonded, like water or salt), mixture (substances together but not bonded, like trail mix or salt water).
   2. Sort station: give small bags of items (sugar, aluminum foil, a penny, salt water in a jar, sand mixed with pebbles). Students decide element, compound or mixture and justify.
   3. Demonstrate that a mixture can be separated physically: pour the sand and pebbles through a strainer. Ask: could you separate the hydrogen and oxygen in water with a strainer? Why not?
   4. Students write a three-sentence summary: an element is..., a compound is..., a mixture is..., each with one example.

6. 25–30 min Writing L.7.1b

   1. Mini-lesson on sentence variety: read a paragraph of all short sentences, then the same paragraph with one compound and one complex sentence added. Discuss the rhythm.
   2. Teach the three types with examples from the class story: simple (The door slammed.), compound (The door slammed, and the dog barked.), complex (When the door slammed, the dog barked.).
   3. Students reread their draft and mark each sentence S, CD or CX. Goal: at least one of each on the page. Combine two short sentences into one complex sentence.
   4. Partner read: read your draft aloud while your partner listens for any sentence that sounds the same as the one before.

7. 20–30 min Centers and independent practice

   1. Map corner: using the classroom atlas, record the latitude and longitude of three cities and one landmark
   2. Particle sketch: draw particles of a solid, a liquid and a gas in three boxes and label how each moves
   3. Root word sort: cut apart 12 geo/graph words and sort them by root, then write the meaning of each root on the sort mat

   Device time (15 min): play the game named in this day's play field

   Today’s game: Rate Race

8. 5–10 min Closing circle SL.7.1

   1. Exit ticket on an index card: name one element, one compound and one mixture, then write the unit price of 8 ounces for $2.00.
   2. Whip-around: each student finishes the sentence "One thing that stuck with me today was..."
   3. Preview tomorrow in one sentence and collect reading logs.

Short day? Keep the context clue mini-lesson, the unit price practice and the element/compound/mixture sort.