Unit 5Family edition: Week 29

Not a lesson in your Grade 1 Social Studies bookGrade 1 · Science · Lesson 14Not a lesson in your Grade 2 Social Studies bookGrade 2 · Science · Lesson 19Family edition · Week 29

Borrow a useful shape

Big question: Look at an animal’s outside parts. Can they give us a tool idea?

Start with Listen

Story time optional

Picture books you can read together on this site.

Pranav the Pattern DetectivePranav finds a beehive and wonders why its holes are all the same shape.ReadAmmachi's Amazing MachinesSupporting matchSooraj and his grandma use simple machines to make coconut barfi.ReadEmily’s BluebirdSupporting matchEmily finds a baby bluebird and learns what wild birds really need.Read

From the library

Free with a library card. Availability varies.

Whoosh!: Lonnie Johnson's Super-Soaking Stream of Inventionsby Chris BartonBorrow in LibbyWiggling Worms at Workby Wendy PfefferBorrow in Libby

Standards this week

The same codes and I Can statements as the printed books.

Books by grade

Grade 1

Social Studies

Not in the Grade 1 Social Studies book this week.

Science

Your bookLesson 14 in the Grade 1 Science book
  • 1-LS1-1I can create a human-use design inspired by a plant or animal external part.
  • K-2-ETS1-1I can define a simple real problem, gather information and explain a proposed solution.
  • K-2-ETS1-2I can draw a design and explain how its shape helps it work.

Grade 2

Social Studies

Not in the Grade 2 Social Studies book this week.

Science

Your bookLesson 19 in the Grade 2 Science book
  • K-2-ETS1-1I can define a simple real problem, gather information and explain a proposed solution.
  • K-2-ETS1-2I can draw a design and explain how its shape helps it work.
  • K-2-ETS1-3I can test two solutions to the same problem and compare strengths and weaknesses.
In your book

Session 1, Read and notice: The tool that did not fit

Week 29 big question: Look at an animal’s outside parts. Can they give us a tool idea?

Start with a story (optional) Pranav the Pattern Detective — Read it herePranav finds a beehive and wonders why its holes are all the same shape.

The children study their tool, not just the mess.

Paper scraps cover the table, and two children reach for cardboard. They are making museum labels in this workshop story. As they push a thin strip across the table, it moves one scrap. But other scraps slip past the sides and leave a mess. What should they change so the scraps stay together? The children study their tool and look for a better way.

Only a test can show which new tool works.

One child thinks of an old photo of a blacksmith shop. People made and fixed tools then, just as people do now. But can an old photo tell which new tool will work? To find out, the children need to put their tools to a test. First, they ask what the user needs from a cleanup tool. It must feel easy to hold and gather scraps without scattering them.

Notice, try an idea, test it, and then change it.

The children draw a design, a plan for how their tool will work. One drawing shows a wide end and folded sides. Another has a thin end and a long handle. Both are ideas to test, so neither is called “best” yet. Inventors work this way, noticing a problem, borrowing ideas, testing them, and making changes. A tool may give a benefit, like saving time, but use up materials. The newest tool may not be the best fit for your hands.

Look and think

Show what you notice

  1. What did the children need to learn before they chose a tool?
  2. What could the old photo tell us? What needs a new test?

Answer your waypointact it outtell or dictatewrite

Grade 1 Science book, p. 86–88Grade 2 Science book, p. 107–109
In your book

Session 2, Investigate: A mole moves soil

A mole’s wide feet can help us think of a scoop.

Imagine a coast mole digging through soil in search of food. Its wide front feet and claws help it shove soil aside. These external parts are outside its body, where their wide shape helps it dig. Seeing that useful shape gives people an idea for a tool. Could a wide edge help us gather scraps from a table? A wide card scoop may catch scraps that slip past a thin edge. Borrowing ideas from how living things work is called biomimicry. But a mole picture on a pencil would not help with cleanup! Our test compares a wide edge with a thin one. Look for the shape that helps each one do its job.

Grade 1 · Source card

An engineer uses tests

Ellison Onizuka was a Japanese American engineer and astronaut. Before going into space, he helped test aircraft in California. An aircraft is a machine that can fly. A test helps us learn about a design.

Two designs and what my tests showed. Show your tool’s job. Draw or tell one result from each design.

Sources for this card

Grade 2 · Source card

An engineer uses tests

Ellison Onizuka was a Japanese American engineer and astronaut. Before going into space, he worked on flight tests for aircraft in California. Testing helps people learn about a design.

My design and test record. Compare the two designs using repeated test records; explain one controlled condition and one evidence-based improvement.

Sources for this card
Set up the test

Gather cereal-box card · tape · adult-precut card strips · ten large crumpled paper scraps · tray or tabletop collection circle

Safety An adult cuts stiff card and rounds sharp corners. Use large paper scraps rather than small beads or seeds. Do not touch or disturb wild moles.

  1. Ask a helper what makes cleanup hard. Goal: ten scraps into a circle in five pushes, no fingers.
  2. Draw two tools. Give one a wide edge, like a mole’s foot. Give one a thin edge.
  3. Build both. Use the same ten scraps in the same spots. Count scraps after five pushes.Adult: Make both handles equally easy to hold.
  4. Test both again. Change one part of the better tool and test once more.

Try the model

A model to try after your real test.

Getting the model ready…

Grade 1 Science book, p. 89Grade 2 Science book, p. 110

Session 3: Record and make — A shape with a reason

A shape with a reason

Make a museum label for your own invention. It is a real thing you made, not from long ago.

  1. Draw the mole’s foot and your tool. Draw an arrow between the parts that do the same job.
  2. Add your two sketches, test counts, better design, and the date. You are the designer.Adult: You may hold materials while the child directs. The child may point, draw, tell, or write.
  3. Name one benefit and one cost of your tool. Pick one, using your tests and what the helper needs.

Connect the ideas. A helper tells you what they need. An animal part shows you a good shape. How are these two kinds of help different?

Look closely

Tap a picture to make it big. Zoom in and find the clues.

PhotographAn eastern moleL. K. Holt · CC BY 4.0

Field trip

Visit with a grown-up. These open other websites in a new tab.

Grade 2 Science book, p. 111

My evidence page: From living part to useful tool

Show the animal part. Show the part of your tool that does the same job. Show what your test found.

  • 1Part and function
  • 2My tool and test

3Choose and explain · Checkpoint game

Listen, then choose. Finish the game to earn this week’s stamp.

The game needs JavaScript turned on.

For the adult · what each grade shows

Grade 1

Show a tool you built from a mole’s foot idea, and point to the part that does the same job.

Grade 2

Explain what your repeated counts show about each tool, and one change you tested.

Showing the Grade 1 line for your book.

Showing the Grade 2 line for your book.

Take a photo of the evidence page or the test. Add your child’s own words. It stays on this device.

Add to my portfolio

Parent corner

How to run this week, in a few minutes.

At a glance

Time

From the workbook: Read and notice about 20 min · Investigate 20–30 min, plus short checks · Record and make 20–30 min.

Core

Build and test a scoop that borrows a mole’s foot shape.

Materials
  • cereal-box card
  • tape
  • adult-precut card strips
  • ten large crumpled paper scraps
  • tray or tabletop collection circle
Safety

An adult cuts stiff card and rounds sharp corners. Use large paper scraps rather than small beads or seeds. Do not touch or disturb wild moles.

Short week

Read together, then do Investigate steps 1–4 and the evidence page.

Next week

Complete week 28 plant records if still underway, and restore normal care.

Library books

  • Whoosh!: Lonnie Johnson's Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions by Chris Barton. An engineer's inventing story that starts with a tool test.
  • Wiggling Worms at Work by Wendy Pfeffer. Shows how earthworms move through and loosen soil.
Answer key (for grown-ups)

Talk together

  1. What did the children need to learn before they chose a tool?
    They needed a clear cleanup problem, the user’s preferences, and evidence of how candidate tools worked. The account is explicitly invented and must not be cited as past testimony.
  2. What could the old photo tell us? What needs a new test?
    The archival photograph records an earlier metalworking shop. It cannot predict a cardboard scoop’s performance; that claim requires the learner’s tests.

What to expect in the investigation

A broad edge often gathers more scraps, while folded sides may reduce losses. Results vary with card stiffness, arrangement, and technique. Equal starting arrangements and repeated trials improve comparison. The key is external part to function to a created human solution. The mole digs to find food as well as tunnels; its shape fits the job, and it has no tool attached. A wide card scoop might help where a picture would not. Build it, test it against another shape, and improve it.

Checkpoint question

Choice C. Ask what useful job the copied shape performs; a name or decoration alone is insufficient.

Kindergarten this weekSocial Studies: Ask about long agoScience: Shape helps it work