• Find time for your reading life! Find a cozy spot and read, read, read! Record your thoughts in a reading journal and track the books you are reading. List the title, author, illustrator, and some thoughts about the book. Try to increase your reading stamina each day. How many minutes can you sit and read? What is your ultimate goal?

• Write to explain (expository/informational text) how technology has impacted your life (this activity ties to social studies). Make sure you have a central idea and supporting reasons.

• Choose a Texan (past or present) to research. Choose someone who has contributed to their community (this activity ties to social studies). After reading and gathering information about this person, write to explain (expository/informational text) why this person is important. Make sure you have a central idea and supporting reasons.

• Choose an animal to research (this activity ties to science). Read about this animal and think: What does this animal need to survive? What is its habitat like? Be sure to find information about the food web this animal is part of and the consumers and producers it needs to survive. After you have learned about this animal, write an expository text (informational) explaining what you have learned about the animal. Be sure to include how it meets its basic needs, including information about its food web. Make sure you have a central idea and supporting reasons. If you cannot research an animal, then think and write about an animal you already know a lot about.

• Consider which type of community you would want to live in (rural, urban, or suburban). Research the different types of communities, considering which one you would prefer to live in (this activity ties to social studies). Write an expository piece that explains which type of community you want to live in and why. Be sure to include a central idea and reasons to support that idea.

• Solve for area and perimeter using the following problems based on this food chain (see below Social Studies section). (These should go well with the Science lessons below)

  • Use Diagram 1 on the link above to help you solve these problems.

    • The diagram shows an area of forest that supports deer. What is the land’s area? Determine the length and width of the land in acres, then multiply them to find the area.

    • What is the land’s perimeter?

    • If it takes 8 acres of land to support 1 deer, how many deer does this habitat support? (Write an equation and solve).

    • Suppose a forest fire affects ¼ of the area, and all of its vegetation is burned. Shade in ¼ of the squares. How many squares did you shade?

    • How many deer would no longer be supported as a result of the fire?

    • If three coyotes can feed on one deer, how many coyotes would be affected by the fire?

• The King family has 36 feet of fencing for their garden. What are all the whole number lengths and widths for that garden? Create a model to show each one.

• Each side of a sun porch is 9 yards long. It will cost $12.00 per square yard for carpeting. What is the total cost of the carpet? Explain how you solved it.

• The perimeter of a square rug is 64 feet. Find the area. Explain how you solved it.

Photosynthesis is the process that green plants use to make their own food. Plants take in water and carbon dioxide exhaled by animals. These are chemically changed by the Sun in the plants’ green leaves and become a sugar and oxygen that the plants release for animals to breathe. The process might look like this in an equation. What do you think ↯ represents?

Water + Carbon dioxide ↯ Sugar + Oxygen

Plants are called producers because they can make their own food with sunlight, water and carbon dioxide in a process called photosynthesis. Animals that eat plants or other animals or both are called consumers.

• Copy this food web on a piece of paper and label the producers and consumers.

rabbit > coyote < frog > raccoon

^ ^

grass > grasshopper > fish > duckling > snake > eagle

^ v v

Sun > corn > chicken > fox

• Using the food web above, predict what would happen if the number of frogs in the ecosystem decreased. Predict what would happen if the number of grasshoppers increased.

A food web is all the food chains in one ecosystem or habitat.

• Create your own food web with pictures of words. It must include 3 producers and at least five consumers. Remember: The direction of the arrows indicates the flow of energy from the Sun through the producers then to the consumers.

Texas was a changing state in the 1800s. The cattle drives took Texas longhorns to railheads all over the country. The railroads criss-crossed Texas bringing an end to the cattle drives but opening up opportunities for communities all over the state, The discovery of oil at Spindletop made millionaires of many brought millions of newcomers to Texas.

• Draw a map of Texas from memory. Label as many cities, landforms and bodies of water as you can remember.

• Make a three-column chart with the titles URBAN, SUBURBAN and RURAL. List in the correct column the types of things you would expect to see in each community. Which type of community do you live in?

• Explain how and why the population of Texas went from a rural to urban during the 1800s.

• What new technology was developed as Texas became more industrial during the 1800s.

• Make an illustrated timeline or flowchart of the time you have been at home. Do you see a pattern?

• Go on a Scavenger Hunt in your neighborhood then talk about the items with a family member. See if you can find:

  • a flag. What different types of flags do you see? Why do people fly flags at their houses?Name the six flags that have flown over Texas.

  • a mockingbird, the state bird of Texas.

  • Texas license plates. How many different designs of the Texas plate did you see?

  • a license plate not from Texas. What state would you like to travel to? Find the other states on a map when you get back home.

  • a statue. Why is the statue there? What is the statue made of? Draw a statue that would look great in your yard.

  • a service worker, like a postman, delivery person, telephone company, plumbing company or electrical company worker. How do service workers help our community?

  • 3 different types of transportation. What is your favorite way to travel?

  • a street sign. What does the sign tell people? What might happen if there were no street signs?

  • a change in the neighborhood, like a new building or a closed store. Why did the change happen? Do you think it is a good or bad change for the neighborhood? What change would you like to see in your neighborhood?

Have fun and shoot some hoops this week! https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fyRQw1O5I3uEGje2dxBUWhkxebVRBHrm/view?usp=sharing