September · Week 1 · Day 4 · School day 4

Day 4: Better Buys and Grid Lines

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🌐 Play with your child: Grid the Globe

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: When has knowing the price of one item helped you or a grown-up make a decision? Think for 30 seconds, talk with a partner, then two volunteers share out.
   3. Fluency warm-up: students read their favorite sentence from their own draft aloud in a circle, one after another without pausing.

2. 15–20 min Word study L.7.5b

   1. Spelling practice: partners quiz each other on the 10 list words plus geographer and geologist. Mark any misses to study tonight.
   2. Analogy drill with roots: photograph is to light as autograph is to ____ (self); geology is to earth as biology is to ____ (life); paragraph is to writing as ____ is to drawing (graphic).
   3. Students write two analogies of their own and trade with a partner to solve.
   4. Speed round: teacher says a definition (the study of the earth), students write the word.

3. 25–30 min Reading workshop RL.7.2

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

   1. Independent reading 10 minutes.
   2. Read-aloud: continue. Pause when Fogg makes a choice that costs time or money to help someone. Ask: what does this show about what he values?
   3. Return to the theme wall. Mini-lesson: a theme emerges from what characters do and what happens as a result. Model a theme statement: Keeping your word can matter more than winning. Ask for the evidence so far.
   4. Students write one theme statement for the read-aloud or for their independent book, with one piece of evidence, in the reading log.

4. 35–45 min Math 7.RP.3

   1. Warm-up: Brand A is 12 ounces for $3.00; Brand B is 20 ounces for $4.00. Which is the better buy? Students find both unit prices ($0.25 vs $0.20 per ounce) and decide.
   2. Teach the better-buy routine: find each unit rate, compare, state the answer with units. Practice: 3 notebooks for $4.50 or 5 for $8.00 ($1.50 vs $1.60); 24 bottles for $6.00 or 36 for $8.10 ($0.25 vs $0.225).
   3. Speed comparisons: a cyclist covers 42 miles in 3 hours and a runner covers 26 miles in 4 hours. Who is faster and by how much per hour? (14 mph vs 6.5 mph; 7.5 mph faster)
   4. Students write one better-buy problem using items from yesterday's flyer, with an answer key, to trade tomorrow.

   Math center: better buy showdown (two deals on each card; pick the cheaper per unit and record both unit prices)

5. 25–30 min Social studies C3 D2.Geo.1.6-8

   1. On a globe or world map, trace the equator (0° latitude) and the prime meridian (0° longitude). Explain that latitude lines run east-west and measure north or south; longitude lines run pole to pole and measure east or west.
   2. Hemisphere check: name a country, students call out its two hemispheres (Brazil: Southern and Western; Japan: Northern and Eastern).
   3. Coordinate practice: locate the city near 40° N, 74° W (New York area), 35° N, 139° E (Tokyo area), 34° S, 151° E (Sydney area). Then students give coordinates for two cities of their choice to a partner to find.
   4. Tie-in: track the read-aloud route and estimate the latitude and longitude of Fogg's current stop.

6. 25–30 min Writing W.7.9a

   1. Mini-lesson: a reading response states a claim about the text and backs it with evidence. Show the frame: I think a theme of ___ is ___. One piece of evidence is when ___. This shows ___ because ___.
   2. Model a paragraph using the read-aloud and one event from this week.
   3. Students write a reading response paragraph about their independent book or the read-aloud, at least five sentences, with one quoted or described event as evidence.
   4. Partners check: is there a claim, evidence and an explanation? Add a sentence if one is missing.

7. 20–30 min Centers and independent practice

   1. Particle sketch: draw particles of a solid, a liquid and a gas in three boxes and label how each moves
   2. 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
   3. Ratio cards: draw two cards (for example 4 red, 6 blue) and write the ratio three ways plus two equivalent ratios

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

   Today’s game: Grid the Globe

8. 5–10 min Closing circle SL.7.1

   1. Exit ticket on an index card: which is the better buy, 4 pens for $3.00 or 6 pens for $4.20, and why? Then give the hemispheres of Australia.
   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 better-buy lesson, the hemisphere check and the reading response paragraph.