Mac & Cheese, Pleeeeze!

Mac & Cheese, Pleeeeze! book cover

Grade 2
5 skill lessons · 3 math-through-reading

Math

Skill lessons

The mathematics the book carries, taught directly. Each lesson has printable workbook pages and a separate teacher key.

  • 1Tens First, Then Ones
  • 2Count the Votes as They Come In
  • 3Use a Fact You Already Know
  • 4Two Ways to Show One Sum
  • 5Which Think-Step Fits These Numbers?

Math + reading

Math through the reading

The same book, entered through a sentence it prints. Change one word in the reading and the numbers change with it.

  • 6One Word, Two Totals
  • 7The Number the Book Never Says
  • 8Say It the Other Way Round

Reading

Reading and language lessons

The same book read as a text. What a word means in its sentence, how a character is shown, how the writing is put together - no mathematics.

  • 9Pleeeeze: when spelling tells your voice what to do
  • 10Tuna, it will melt your heart: how a slogan plays with a word
  • 11The two Caitlins: what she says and what she thinks
  • 12The rules on the wall: reading a notice and saying it back
  • 13But you're my neighbor: the reasons that move people
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Skill lessons

5 lessons on the mathematics the book carries. Each lesson has printable workbook pages and a separate teacher key.

1. Tens First, Then Ones Fluency · Adding a two-digit number by adding its tens, then its ones

The book hands a teacher two clean worked think-steps: thirty and twenty is fifty and nine more makes fifty-nine, and seventy-two plus thirty is one hundred two and one more makes one hundred three. Students rebuild both with rods and cubes, then run the same two-stage move without blocks on four sums the story states.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

  1. 1. Build thirty and add twenty-nine (4 min)

    Build 30 with three ten-rods. Add two more ten-rods and say fifty, then lay down nine cubes and say fifty-nine. Say the whole think-step out loud with your partner: thirty and twenty is fifty, and nine more makes fifty-nine.

    30 plus 29 equals 59. Think. 30 and 20 is 50. And 9 more makes 59.
  2. 2. Split the second number into tens and ones (6 min)

    Build 72 on the mat, three ten-rods and one cube waiting beside it. Slide the three rods on first and say one hundred two, then slide the single cube on and say one hundred three. Do it again with 10 plus 20 and say the two stages aloud each time. Your partner checks that you always move the tens before the ones.

    Word preview: split

    That's another 31 votes. Awesome. 72 plus 31 equals 103. Think. I know that 72 plus 30 equals 102 and one more makes 103.
  3. 3. Drop the blocks and keep the steps (6 min)

    Push the blocks away. Turn over one sum card at a time and give the answer in two spoken stages, tens first and then ones. Take turns so each of you answers two cards. If a partner cannot get there in two stages, hand back one ten-rod and let them rebuild that one sum only.

    Word preview: strategy

    When you start to add greater numbers, you can use special thinking strategies.
  4. 4. Write the count as one line (4 min)

    Write each of the four sums as one equation on your strip, then write the two think-stages underneath the hardest one. Read that line to your partner without looking at the blocks.

    Word preview: equals

    I wish I could add everything up on paper like Luna, but if anyone saw me, they'd know how much I want the votes.

Short version — 9 minutes

  1. 1. Split the second number into tens and ones (6 min)

    Build 72 on the mat with three ten-rods and one cube waiting. Slide the three rods on and say one hundred two, then the cube and say one hundred three. Do 10 plus 20 the same way.

    Word preview: split, hundred

    72 plus 31 equals 103.
  2. 2. Write the count as one line (3 min)

    Write 72 plus 31 equals 103 on your strip and write the two think-stages underneath it. Read the line to your partner with the blocks out of reach.

    Word preview: equals

Three levels

Support
Keep the rods and cubes on the mat for every sum instead of putting them away, and work only 10 plus 20 and 30 plus 29, where no ten has to be built. The two-stage move stays the same and the words stay the same; only the blocks stay in reach.
At Grade
Work all four sums, blocks for the first two and none for the last two, saying both stages aloud each time.
Extension
Take 59 plus 13 and show why the tens-first order is safe: add the ones first instead, get twelve, and explain to your partner what you now owe the tens column and where that ten goes.

English learners

The answer takes an English-specific shape: one hundred three rather than one hundred and three, and the fact that the tens word comes before the ones word with nothing between them. Walk through one frame until it is automatic: Thirty and twenty is fifty, and nine more makes fifty-nine. Work the sum in your everyday language first if that is faster, then give the two stages to your partner in English.

Materials

  • Base ten rods and ones cubes, twenty rods and twenty cubes per pair
  • Tens-and-ones mat, one per pair
  • Sum cards showing 10 plus 20, 30 plus 29, 59 plus 13, 72 plus 31
  • Recording strip, one per student
  • Pencil
  • Word cards: equals, split, strategy

Workbook

Print these for the class. They carry your edits, and they print in black and white.

Tens and Ones Mat full page

Mac & Cheese, Pleeeeze! — Tens First, Then Ones

Put ten-rods on the Tens side. Put cubes on the Ones side.

Move the tens first, then the ones.

Tens Ones
Sum Cards and Word Cards card set

Mac & Cheese, Pleeeeze! — Tens First, Then Ones

Cut on the lines. Keep the sum cards in one pile, face down.

Sum cards

10 + 20 30 + 29 59 + 13 72 + 31

Word cards

equals split strategy
Recording Strip strip set

Mac & Cheese, Pleeeeze! — Tens First, Then Ones

Recording Strip

Name: ________________________

Write each sum as one equation.

  1. ______________________________

  2. ______________________________

  3. ______________________________

  4. ______________________________

Pick the hardest sum. Write its two think-steps.

The sum I picked: ________________

Think-step 1: ______________________________

Think-step 2: ______________________________

Teacher key (1 page) — not for the class
Teacher Key: Tens First, Then Ones full page

Teacher Key — Mac & Cheese, Pleeeeze!: Tens First, Then Ones

Sum cards: answer and the two spoken stages

  • 10 + 20 = 30. Tens: 10 and 20 is 30. There are no ones to add, so this card has one stage, not two. A student who says so is right.
  • 30 + 29 = 59. 30 and 20 is 50, and 9 more makes 59.
  • 59 + 13 = 72. 59 and 10 is 69, and 3 more makes 72.
  • 72 + 31 = 103. 72 and 30 is 102, and 1 more makes 103.

Recording strip

Four equations, in any order: 10 + 20 = 30, 30 + 29 = 59, 59 + 13 = 72, 72 + 31 = 103. Under the sum the student chose, two lines: the first names the tens landing, the second the ones landing. 59 + 13 and 72 + 31 are the two most students pick as hardest.

Read for

A close response moves the whole ten or tens first and names the number it landed on before the ones are added. A loose response gives only the total, counts on by ones, or names the ones stage first and then repairs it.

Tiers

Support keeps the rods and cubes in reach and works only 10 plus 20 and 30 plus 29; it needs no separate page, only fewer cards. Extension is spoken work on 59 plus 13 and produces no separate written product.

Standards & curriculum

Choose your curriculum above to see the standards for this lesson.

2. Count the Votes as They Come In Application · Keeping a running total across a sequence of stated additions

Eight groups of voters join across the story and the book names the size of every one of them, from two to thirty-one. Students hold one pile of counters that is never reset, add each group as its card comes up, and say the new total before the next card is allowed to turn. The application is the discipline of the running total: the count is only correct if every step is added onto the last one, and the lesson closes on the single vote the book collects but never adds.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

  1. 1. Start the count at two (5 min)

    Put two counters in the middle of your desk. That is the whole count so far, and neither of you may move it until a vote card says to. Say the total out loud together: two.

    Word preview: count, total

    Now I can count on two votes, Rachel's and mine.
  2. 2. Add each new group and say the total (6 min)

    Turn the vote cards face up one at a time in order. Add that many counters, then say the sentence before you touch the next card: the chess club joined, that is twenty-nine more, now it is fifty-nine. Your partner holds the next card back until the sentence is finished.

    Word preview: more, total

    Well, in that case, there are 28 kids in the chess club, and Luna makes 29. 29 more votes.
  3. 3. Record the running total on the strip (5 min)

    Write each group and its number in one row of the strip, and write the new total beside it. Go back and check row by row that every total is bigger than the one above it and by exactly the number in that row.

    Word preview: row, total

    Yes! 13 more votes! 59 plus 13 equals 72.
  4. 4. Finish the count the book stops (4 min)

    The last total the book says out loud is one hundred three. Nick changes his mind at the very end and the story never adds him. Trade your hundred counters for the flat, add Nick's one, and tell your partner the number the book never says.

    I'm hungry, he says. I want Mac and cheese.

Short version — 9 minutes

  1. 1. Add each new group and say the total (6 min)

    Turn the vote cards face up in order. Add that many counters and say the sentence before the next card is turned: the choir joined, that is thirteen more, now it is seventy-two.

    Word preview: more, total

    Yes! 13 more votes!
  2. 2. Finish the count the book stops (3 min)

    One hundred three is the last total the book says. Add Nick's single vote on the hundred flat and tell your partner the number the story never says.

    Word preview: one more

    Now if I can just get one more vote.

Three levels

Support
Use only the first five vote cards, which carry the count to thirty, and keep the counters loose rather than trading for rods. Every other move stays: one pile, one card at a time, the total spoken before the next card turns.
At Grade
Run all eight cards, trading ten loose counters for a rod whenever a ten is complete, and speak the total after every card.
Extension
Cover the strip after the fourth card and carry the rest of the count without writing anything, the way the narrator does, then uncover and check where your total and the strip first disagree.

English learners

English packs three facts into one sentence: the group, the amount, and the new total. Give one frame and run it until it is automatic: The choir joined. That is thirteen more. Now it is seventy-two. Say the numbers in your family language first if that gets you to the total faster, then give the three-part sentence in English.

Materials

  • Two-color counters, one hundred ten per pair
  • Vote cards naming each group and its number, eight per pair
  • Running total strip with a row for each group, one per pair
  • Pencil
  • Hundred flat, one per pair
  • Word cards: count, more, row, total

Workbook

Print these for the class. They carry your edits, and they print in black and white.

Running Total Strip strip set

Mac & Cheese, Pleeeeze! — Count the Votes as They Come In

Running Total Strip

Name: ________________________

Write one vote card in each row. Write the new total beside it.

  1. Group ________________________
    How many more ______   New total ______

  2. Group ________________________
    How many more ______   New total ______

  3. Group ________________________
    How many more ______   New total ______

  4. Group ________________________
    How many more ______   New total ______

  5. Group ________________________
    How many more ______   New total ______

  6. Group ________________________
    How many more ______   New total ______

  7. Group ________________________
    How many more ______   New total ______

  8. Group ________________________
    How many more ______   New total ______

Check each row. Is every new total bigger than the one above it by the number in that row?

Say the Total Frame half page

Mac & Cheese, Pleeeeze! — Count the Votes as They Come In

Say the Total

Say the whole frame after every card. Then the next card may turn.

The ________________________ joined.

That is __________ more.

Now it is __________.


Say the Total

Say the whole frame after every card. Then the next card may turn.

The ________________________ joined.

That is __________ more.

Now it is __________.

Word Cards card set

Mac & Cheese, Pleeeeze! — Count the Votes as They Come In

Cut on the lines.

count more row total
Teacher key (1 page) — not for the class
Teacher Key: Count the Votes as They Come In full page

Teacher Key — Mac & Cheese, Pleeeeze!: Count the Votes as They Come In

The strip

The vote cards are yours to make: the lesson names them but does not print the group names or their numbers, so no card set is supplied here. Fill the rows against your own cards, in the order the story gives them.

  • Row 1 is the two votes the count starts at, so the first new total is 2.
  • The chess club row is 29 more and brings the total to 59.
  • The choir row is 13 more and brings the total to 72.
  • The last row must end at 103, the last total the book says out loud.
  • Support uses the first five cards only, which carry the count to 30.

Step 4, spoken

103 and Nick's one more is 104. That is the number the story never says. It is said to a partner, not written, so there is no page for it.

Read for

A close response shows every total built on the one above it, rising by exactly the number in that row, and a student who can point to the row where a mistake first entered. A loose response starts the count again from the new group, or writes the group's number in the total column.

Frame

All three parts spoken: the group, the amount, the new total. Accept the numbers in the student's home language on a first pass, then the frame in English.

One or more pages for this lesson were held back. The lesson names a set larger than it spells out — a deck of cards, a row of strips — and the missing items were not invented to fill it.

Standards & curriculum

Choose your curriculum above to see the standards for this lesson.

3. Use a Fact You Already Know Concept · Deriving an unknown sum from a fact already known

Twice the book stops the story to show the same move: reach for a fact you own, then change it a little to reach the one you want. Six and six is twelve, and eight is two more than six, so twelve and two more is fourteen. One and two is three, so ten and twenty is thirty. Students perform both kinds of change with counters and rods, and the concept they are building is that a new sum can be reasoned from an old one instead of counted from one.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

  1. 1. Build the doubles fact you know (4 min)

    Fill one ten-frame with six counters and put six more in the second frame. Say the doubles fact out loud, six and six is twelve, and point at each six as you say it.

    Word preview: doubles

    Think 6 plus 6 is a doubles fact. 6 plus 6 is 12.
  2. 2. Stretch the double by two (6 min)

    Leave the twelve counters where they are and drop two more into the second frame so it holds eight. You have not started over, so you do not count from one. Say what you did: twelve, and two more is fourteen. Do the same stretch for five and seven, and for seven and nine.

    Word preview: more than, stretch

    I know 8 is 2 more than 6. So 12 plus 2 more is 14.
  3. 3. Trade the ones for tens (6 min)

    Lay out one cube and two cubes and say one and two is three. Now swap each cube for a ten-rod and say the new fact: ten and twenty is thirty. Do the same trade for two and three, and for four and four, saying the small fact before the big one every time.

    Word preview: trade

    I know 1 plus 2 equals 3, so 10 plus 20 equals 30.
  4. 4. Say the fact and the new fact (4 min)

    Pick the trade that felt easiest and the stretch that felt hardest. Say each one to your partner using the frame card, naming the fact you already knew before you name the one you worked out.

    When you start to add greater numbers, you can use special thinking strategies.

Short version — 9 minutes

  1. 1. Build the doubles fact you know (4 min)

    Fill one ten-frame with six counters and the second with six more. Say the doubles fact aloud, six and six is twelve, pointing at each six.

    Word preview: doubles

    6 plus 6 is 12.
  2. 2. Stretch the double by two (5 min)

    Keep the twelve and drop two more into the second frame. Do not count from one. Say it: twelve, and two more is fourteen.

    Word preview: more than

    So 12 plus 2 more is 14.

Three levels

Support
Work only the stretch, not the trade, and stay with six and six as the fact you start from every time. Keeping one starting fact means the only new thing to hold is how far you stretched it.
At Grade
Do both the stretch and the trade, saying the fact you knew before the fact you worked out.
Extension
Stretch a double downward: start from six and six is twelve and find six and four without counting back one at a time. Say why the two you took away leaves ten and not fourteen.

English learners

The idea of leaning on a known fact is language-independent and often already strong in children schooled elsewhere, where doubles are drilled early. The frame two more than puts the difference first and the reference number last, the reverse of several languages. Practise one frame: I know six and six is twelve, so six and eight is fourteen. Think the fact in your first language, then say the frame in English.

Materials

  • Ten-frames, two per pair
  • Two-color counters, twenty per pair
  • Base ten rods, ten per pair
  • Sentence frame card: I know ___, so ___.
  • Word cards: doubles, more than, stretch, trade

Workbook

Print these for the class. They carry your edits, and they print in black and white.

Two Ten-Frames full page

Mac & Cheese, Pleeeeze! — Use a Fact You Already Know

Put your counters in the frames. Leave them there when you stretch.

First frame

Second frame

Sentence Frame Card: I know ___, so ___ card set

Mac & Cheese, Pleeeeze! — Use a Fact You Already Know

Cut on the lines. One card for each partner.

I know ________________________,

so ________________________.


I know ________________________,

so ________________________.

Word Cards card set

Mac & Cheese, Pleeeeze! — Use a Fact You Already Know

Cut on the lines.

doubles more than stretch trade
Teacher key (1 page) — not for the class
Teacher Key: Use a Fact You Already Know full page

Teacher Key — Mac & Cheese, Pleeeeze!: Use a Fact You Already Know

The stretch, on the ten-frames

  • 6 and 6 is 12. That is the fact they start from.
  • 6 and 8: 8 is 2 more than 6, so 12 and 2 more is 14.
  • 5 and 7: 5 and 5 is 10, and 7 is 2 more than 5, so 10 and 2 more is 12.
  • 7 and 9: 7 and 7 is 14, and 9 is 2 more than 7, so 14 and 2 more is 16.

The trade, with cubes and rods

  • 1 and 2 is 3, so 10 and 20 is 30.
  • 2 and 3 is 5, so 20 and 30 is 50.
  • 4 and 4 is 8, so 40 and 40 is 80.

Frame card, step 4

There is no single right pair. A strong response names a fact the student genuinely owns in the first blank and the fact it was changed into in the second, and the two are one small change apart: two more counters, or ones swapped for tens. Anything the student had to count out from one does not belong in the first blank.

Read for

A close response leaves the twelve where it is and adds two. A loose response sweeps the counters up and counts the whole thing again from one, or gives the right total with no fact named.

Tiers

Support works only the stretch and always starts from 6 and 6; the same two frames and the same frame card serve it, so no separate page. Extension stretches the double downward to 6 and 4 and explains it aloud, which names no written product.

Standards & curriculum

Choose your curriculum above to see the standards for this lesson.

4. Two Ways to Show One Sum Representation · Showing one two-digit sum as tens and ones and as jumps on a number line

Thirty plus twenty-nine is fifty-nine, and the working is shown as two moves, twenty first and nine after. Students build that sum in rods and cubes and draw it as exactly two jumps on an open line, then put a finger on each part of the blocks and find the same part on the line. The representation work is the matching: the two rods and the long jump are the same twenty, and the fifty that is a landing point on the line is not a separate object in the blocks at all.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

  1. 1. Build thirty and twenty-nine with rods and cubes (5 min)

    Build 30 with three rods on the left of your desk and 29 with two rods and nine cubes on the right. Push them together and trade nothing yet. Count the rods, then the cubes, and say what you have: five tens and nine ones, fifty-nine.

    30 plus 29 equals 59.
  2. 2. Jump the same sum on the number line (6 min)

    Mark 30 on the strip. Draw one long jump of twenty and label where you land, then one short jump of nine and label where you land. Two jumps only, no small hops. Say each landing number as you write it.

    Word preview: jump, number line

    Think. 30 and 20 is 50. And 9 more makes 59.
  3. 3. Match the rods to the jumps (5 min)

    Put a finger on the two rods you pushed over and the other finger on the long jump. Do the same for the nine cubes and the short jump. Tell your partner which part of the blocks is the fifty on your line and which part is not on the line at all.

    Word preview: match, same

  4. 4. Show fifty-nine plus thirteen both ways (4 min)

    Do 59 plus 13 with blocks and on a fresh line. You will have to build a ten out of loose cubes partway through, so watch for where that happens on the line too.

    59 plus 13 equals 72.

Short version — 9 minutes

  1. 1. Jump the same sum on the number line (6 min)

    Mark 30 on the strip. Draw one jump of twenty, label the landing, then one jump of nine and label the landing. Two jumps only. Say each landing number aloud.

    Word preview: jump, number line

    Think. 30 and 20 is 50. And 9 more makes 59.
  2. 2. Match the rods to the jumps (3 min)

    Point at the two rods and at the long jump, then at the nine cubes and the short jump. Tell your partner where fifty is on your line.

    Word preview: match

Three levels

Support
Work only 30 plus 29 on a line that already has 30 marked and the tens ticked, so the jump of twenty lands on a mark you can see. The blocks, the two jumps and the matching all stay.
At Grade
Work both sums on an unmarked line, drawing and labelling both landings yourself.
Extension
Draw 59 plus 13 as two jumps and then again as three, breaking the thirteen into ten, one and two so the line passes through sixty. Say which drawing shows the new ten being built and where.

English learners

Blocks and jumps carry meaning without words and are often the fastest way in for a child new to English. Two things need saying: the phrase land on, and the habit of reading a number line left to right, which is not universal. Rehearse one frame while pointing: I jump twenty and land on fifty. Describe your two jumps in your strongest language to your partner first, then use the frame in English for the class.

Materials

  • Base ten rods and ones cubes, twenty rods and twenty cubes per pair
  • Open number line strip marked 0 to 110 by tens, one per pair
  • Pencil
  • Word cards: jump, match, number line, same

Workbook

Print these for the class. They carry your edits, and they print in black and white.

Open Number Line Strips At Grade strip set

Mac & Cheese, Pleeeeze! — Two Ways to Show One Sum

Number Line Strips

Name: ________________________

Mark your first number. Draw the long jump, then the short jump.

Label every number you land on.

0 110
0 110
0 110
Number Line Strips with the Tens Marked Support strip set

Mac & Cheese, Pleeeeze! — Two Ways to Show One Sum

Number Line Strips

Name: ________________________

Start at the arrow. Draw the long jump, then the short jump.

Label every number you land on.

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110
Word Cards card set

Mac & Cheese, Pleeeeze! — Two Ways to Show One Sum

Cut on the lines.

jump match number line same
Teacher key (1 page) — not for the class
Teacher Key: Two Ways to Show One Sum full page

Teacher Key — Mac & Cheese, Pleeeeze!: Two Ways to Show One Sum

First strip: 30 plus 29

Mark at 30. One long jump of 20 landing on 50, one short jump of 9 landing on 59. Two jumps, both labelled. 30 and 20 is 50, and 9 more makes 59.

Second strip: 59 plus 13

Mark at 59. A jump of 10 landing on 69, then a jump of 3 landing on 72. The new ten is built as the second jump crosses 70; students who broke the 13 into 10, 1 and 2 will pass through 60 and 70 instead, and that is sound if all the labels are there.

Matching, step 3

The two rods pushed across are the long jump of 20. The nine cubes are the short jump of 9. The 50 is a landing point on the line; in the blocks it is the five rods together, not a separate object, and that is the answer to what is on the line but not in the blocks.

Read for

A close response draws exactly two jumps and labels both landings, and the long jump is visibly longer than the short one. A loose response draws a string of small hops, leaves a landing unlabelled, or draws the nine before the twenty.

Tiers

Support uses the second strip page, where the tens are numbered and 30 is arrowed. Extension draws 59 plus 13 a second time as three jumps; the third blank strip on the at-grade page is there for that, so no extra page is needed.

Standards & curriculum

Choose your curriculum above to see the standards for this lesson.

5. Which Think-Step Fits These Numbers? Reasoning · Choosing a mental addition strategy that fits the numbers and defending the choice

Not one method gets used twice in a row. Six and eight is worked from a doubles fact, ten and twenty from a smaller fact, thirty and twenty-nine and seventy-two and thirty-one by splitting the second number into tens and ones. Students sort four of those sums by the route they would take, then work one of them both ways, count the think-steps each route costs, and argue for one using the step count as their reason. The reasoning is the argument from step count, not the arithmetic, which the class has already done.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

  1. 1. Sort the four sums (4 min)

    Read the four sum cards with your partner and put each one on the mat you would use for it. Do not work any of them out yet. You must both agree before a card goes down.

    Word preview: sort, strategy

    1. Find 6 plus 8.
    72 plus 31 equals 103.
  2. 2. Work one sum two ways (5 min)

    Take 30 plus 29 and do it twice: once by splitting the twenty-nine into twenty and nine, once by starting from a fact you already know. Write both routes on your strip and check that both land on fifty-nine.

    Word preview: route, check

    Think. I know that 72 plus 30 equals 102 and one more makes 103.
  3. 3. Count the steps and argue (7 min)

    Count how many think-steps each route took you and write the number on your strip. Tell your partner which route you would give someone doing this in their head, using the frame card and naming the number of steps. Then listen while your partner argues the other route and say whether the step count changes your mind.

    You can do math in your head. That's called mental math.
  4. 4. Post the rule for Caitlin (4 min)

    As a class, agree on one sentence that says when to reach for a fact you know and when to split into tens and ones. It has to name a sum from the chart as its example. Write it on the chart paper.

    Put your pencil down, get ready to add in your head.

Short version — 9 minutes

  1. 1. Work one sum two ways (5 min)

    Do 30 plus 29 twice: once by splitting twenty-nine into twenty and nine, once from a fact you already know. Write both routes and check both land on fifty-nine.

    Word preview: route

    30 plus 29 equals 59.
  2. 2. Count the steps and argue (4 min)

    Count the think-steps each route took and write the number down. Use the frame card to tell your partner which route you would give someone adding in their head.

    Word preview: steps

Three levels

Support
Work 10 plus 20 as the sum you do both ways instead of 30 plus 29, so the arithmetic is done before the argument starts. The sorting, the step count and the frame card all stay exactly as they are.
At Grade
Work 30 plus 29 both ways, count the steps for each, and argue one route to your partner using the frame.
Extension
Argue the route you did not choose. Take the losing method and find a sum on the chart where it is genuinely the better one, then say what about that sum makes it better.

English learners

Counting steps and comparing two routes is language-independent, and a student can often do this reasoning long before they can narrate it. The English because clause is the load here: the reason follows the claim and the numbers land inside the clause, which is the reverse of several languages. Rehearse the frame exactly as printed: I would use splitting because it takes two steps. Argue it in your strongest language with your partner first, then give the frame sentence in English.

Materials

  • Sum cards showing 6 plus 8, 10 plus 20, 30 plus 29, 72 plus 31
  • Two sorting mats labeled A fact I know and Split into tens and ones
  • Base ten rods and ones cubes, twenty rods and twenty cubes per pair
  • Recording strip, one per student
  • Pencil
  • Sentence frame card: I would use ___ because it takes ___ steps.
  • Chart paper, one sheet per class
  • Marker
  • Word cards: check, route, sort, strategy

Workbook

Print these for the class. They carry your edits, and they print in black and white.

Two Sorting Mats full page

Mac & Cheese, Pleeeeze! — Which Think-Step Fits These Numbers?

Put each sum card on the mat you would use for it.

Do not work them out. You must both agree first.

A fact I know
Split into tens and ones
Sum Cards, Frame Card and Word Cards card set

Mac & Cheese, Pleeeeze! — Which Think-Step Fits These Numbers?

Cut on the lines. Keep the four sum cards together.

Sum cards

6 + 8 10 + 20 30 + 29 72 + 31

Frame card

I would use ________________________

because it takes ______ steps.


I would use ________________________

because it takes ______ steps.


Word cards

check route sort strategy
Two Routes Recording Strip strip set

Mac & Cheese, Pleeeeze! — Which Think-Step Fits These Numbers?

Two Routes

Name: ________________________

Write the sum. Do it both ways. Count your think-steps.

Sum: ________________

Route 1: Split into tens and ones

______________________________

______________________________

Think-steps: ______


Route 2: A fact I know

______________________________

______________________________

Think-steps: ______

Both routes land on: ________________

Teacher key (1 page) — not for the class
Teacher Key: Which Think-Step Fits These Numbers? full page

Teacher Key — Mac & Cheese, Pleeeeze!: Which Think-Step Fits These Numbers?

The sort, step 1

  • 6 + 8 goes on A fact I know: it is worked from the doubles fact 6 and 6.
  • 10 + 20 goes on A fact I know: it is worked from the smaller fact 1 and 2.
  • 30 + 29 goes on Split into tens and ones.
  • 72 + 31 goes on Split into tens and ones.

A pair that argues 30 + 29 onto the other mat because they know 30 and 30 has not made an error; the sort is a prediction, and step 3 is where they have to pay for it in steps.

The two routes for 30 plus 29, step 2

Splitting: 30 and 20 is 50, and 9 more makes 59. Two think-steps.

From a fact already known: 30 and 30 is 60, and one less is 59. Two think-steps. A pair that first says 3 and 3 is 6, so 30 and 30 is 60, and then takes one away has spent three. Both routes land on 59, and that is the check the lesson asks for.

Read for, step 3

There is no winning route here. A strong argument names a number of steps and points at the strip where those steps are written; the student who changes their mind after hearing the other side should be able to say which step count moved them. A loose response says one route is easier or faster with no count behind it, or counts the writing rather than the thinking.

Tiers

Support writes 10 plus 20 in the Sum blank instead of 30 plus 29; the strip is the same page. Extension argues the losing route against a sum from the book's chart and produces no separate written product.

Standards & curriculum

Choose your curriculum above to see the standards for this lesson.

Math through the reading

The mathematics is reached through a sentence the book prints: change one word in the reading and the numbers change with it. These carry their own standards, matched against these lessons rather than inherited from the skill ones.

6. One Word, Two Totals Integrated · Students build the total a book sentence names, swap one word in that sentence, build the new total beside it, and say which word made the piles different.

Students build the total a book sentence names, swap one word in that sentence, build the new total beside it, and say which word made the piles different.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

  1. 1. Build the total the sentence names (5 min)

    Pairs read the sentence strip for seventy-two votes with thirty-one more coming, build seventy-two in rods and cubes, add the thirty-one, and say the total aloud.

  2. 2. Swap the word and build again (6 min)

    Pairs are given the same strip with another crossed out and in all written over it. They read it aloud, build what the new sentence says on the other half of the mat, and say that total.

  3. 3. Sort four sentences by what they tell you to do (5 min)

    Pairs read four sentence strips from the story and place each one under join it on, that is the total, or take it away, saying the word that decided it.

  4. 4. Say a sentence about your own pile (4 min)

    Each student says one sentence about their own two piles using the swapped word correctly, and the partner says whether the sentence matches the desk.

Short version — 9 minutes

  1. 1. Swap the word and build again (6 min)

    Pairs are given the same strip with another crossed out and in all written over it. They read it aloud, build what the new sentence says on the other half of the mat, and say that total.

  2. 2. Say a sentence about your own pile (4 min)

    Each student says one sentence about their own two piles using the swapped word correctly, and the partner says whether the sentence matches the desk.

Three levels

Support
Do the swap with ten and twenty instead of seventy-two and thirty-one, so the pile is three rods rather than a hundred and can be re-counted at a glance. The reading, the swap, the two piles and the spoken sentence are all unchanged; only the size of the number comes down.
At grade
Pairs work the swap at seventy-two and thirty-one, build both piles, and sort all four sentence strips.
Extension
Write a sentence about the same thirty-one votes that makes the total come out at forty-one, and say which word you had to change to get there and why no other word in the sentence would do it.

English learners

The number is the same in every language and the arithmetic will usually be the easy part. The load is the English quantifier: another means one more lot of, not a different one, and up to marks an endpoint rather than a direction. Both are common false friends. Rehearse two frames side by side so the contrast is heard: Another thirty-one means add thirty-one. Up to ten means I have ten. Invite students to say what the sentence tells them to do in their strongest language before giving the frame in English, and never ask a child to guess a word's meaning from the story alone when the piles can show it.

Materials

  • Base ten rods and ones cubes, twenty rods and twenty cubes per pair
  • Split desk mat with two labelled halves, one per pair
  • Sentence strips, one book sentence per strip, five per pair
  • Sentence strip with another crossed out and in all written above it
  • Three sorting labels: join it on, that is the total, take it away
  • The five book sentences displayed one at a time

Standards & curriculum

Choose your curriculum above to see the standards for this lesson.

IB PYP developmental alignment

Phases are not grades. The Primary Years Programme is a developmental continuum and your school places each student in a phase, so this names the strand the lesson works in and the phases it could sit across. Confirm against your own school's placement.

Number · Phases 1–4

Phase 1
Develop meaning for counting, quantity, number relationships, simple operations, and early fractions in meaningful contexts.
Phase 2
Develop place value and whole-number operations, mental strategies, fractions, and mathematical language for practical problem solving.
Phase 3
Extend number understanding to larger numbers, fractions, decimals, percentages, and efficient strategies for the four operations.
Phase 4
Apply whole-number, fraction, decimal, percentage, ratio, and proportion concepts with increasingly efficient and flexible computation.
7. The Number the Book Never Says Integrated · Students find the last total the story states, read the two lines that say what happens next, add the vote the book collects but never counts, and give the number together with the line that funds it.

Students find the last total the story states, read the two lines that say what happens next, add the vote the book collects but never counts, and give the number together with the line that funds it.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

  1. 1. Find the last number the book says (4 min)

    Pairs hunt back through the closing pages for the last total the story states out loud, and write it at the top of the card.

  2. 2. Read the two lines that say what comes next (6 min)

    Pairs read aloud the sentence that says how many more votes are wanted and the sentence in which Nick says what he wants, then say in their own words what each one tells them.

  3. 3. Add Nick and show the hundred (6 min)

    Pairs build one hundred three on the flat with rods and cubes, add Nick's one, and say what happens to the ones, the tens and the hundred as they do it.

  4. 4. Give the number with its line (4 min)

    Each pair writes the total on the card, copies the sentence they used beside it, and reads both to another pair, who says whether the sentence really settles the number.

Short version — 9 minutes

  1. 1. Read the two lines that say what comes next (6 min)

    Pairs read aloud the sentence that says how many more votes are wanted and the sentence in which Nick says what he wants, then say in their own words what each one tells them.

  2. 2. Give the number with its line (4 min)

    Each pair writes the total on the card, copies the sentence they used beside it, and reads both to another pair, who says whether the sentence really settles the number.

Three levels

Support
Hand the pair three candidate sentences on strips, only one of which fixes the amount, and have them choose and read rather than search the closing pages. The addition, the blocks and the pairing of number with line are all unchanged; only the search is lifted.
At grade
Pairs find the total themselves, read both closing lines, add across the hundred and record the number beside its evidence line.
Extension
Find a second quantity the book withholds, the count for peppy pizza, and say exactly why that one cannot be worked out from the text no matter how carefully it is read. Name the sentence you would need the book to contain.

English learners

The arithmetic is one more than one hundred three and will not be the obstacle. The reading is. Both constraining sentences are indirect: one more vote names an amount without naming who gives it, and I want Mac and cheese names a person without naming an amount, so the child has to hold two half-sentences together. Rehearse a frame that joins them: The book needs one more vote. Nick is one. So it is one hundred four. Let students say why the sentences fit together in their strongest language before giving the frame in English, and read both sentences aloud twice so the evidence is audible rather than only printed.

Materials

  • Hundred flat, one per pair
  • Base ten rods and ones cubes, ten rods and twenty cubes per pair
  • Evidence recording card, one per pair
  • Pencil
  • The two closing sentences displayed side by side
  • The stated total 103 written where all can see it

Standards & curriculum

Choose your curriculum above to see the standards for this lesson.

IB PYP developmental alignment

Phases are not grades. The Primary Years Programme is a developmental continuum and your school places each student in a phase, so this names the strand the lesson works in and the phases it could sit across. Confirm against your own school's placement.

Number · Phases 1–4

Phase 1
Develop meaning for counting, quantity, number relationships, simple operations, and early fractions in meaningful contexts.
Phase 2
Develop place value and whole-number operations, mental strategies, fractions, and mathematical language for practical problem solving.
Phase 3
Extend number understanding to larger numbers, fractions, decimals, percentages, and efficient strategies for the four operations.
Phase 4
Apply whole-number, fraction, decimal, percentage, ratio, and proportion concepts with increasingly efficient and flexible computation.
8. Say It the Other Way Round Integrated · Students build two rows from the book's own numbers, say the comparison the book gives, then say the same fact the other way round and show that one arrangement makes both sentences true.

Students build two rows from the book's own numbers, say the comparison the book gives, then say the same fact the other way round and show that one arrangement makes both sentences true.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

  1. 1. Build both rows (5 min)

    Pairs put six counters in the top ten-frame and eight in the bottom, lined up square by square, and count the empty squares at the end of the short row.

  2. 2. Say the book's sentence and point (4 min)

    Pairs say the book's comparison aloud and point at the gap it names, then say which row the sentence starts from.

  3. 3. Turn the sentence around (7 min)

    Pairs start the sentence from the other row and say it, changing only the comparison word, then write both sentences on the strip and check the gap they are pointing at has not moved.

  4. 4. Do it again with the vote counts (4 min)

    Pairs build seventy-two and one hundred three in rods, find the gap, and say and write both directions for that pair too.

Short version — 9 minutes

  1. 1. Turn the sentence around (7 min)

    Pairs start the sentence from the other row and say it, changing only the comparison word, then write both sentences on the strip and check the gap they are pointing at has not moved.

  2. 2. Do it again with the vote counts (4 min)

    Pairs build seventy-two and one hundred three in rods, find the gap, and say and write both directions for that pair too.

Three levels

Support
Stay with six and eight for all four segments and drop the vote pair, so the difference is one glance and never has to be recomputed. Both sentences, the writing and the pointing all stay exactly as they are; only the second, larger pair comes off.
At grade
Pairs reverse the six and eight relation, then build and reverse the seventy-two and one hundred three relation with rods.
Extension
Take the pair the book gives as twenty-eight kids in the chess club and twenty-nine votes with Luna, say both directions, and then explain why the gap of one is not the same kind of thing as the one Luna adds, even though both are one.

English learners

This note carries the most weight of any in these lessons, because comparative syntax is where children whose arithmetic is fine still go wrong. The difference itself transfers, and a child who can subtract can find it. Two things are new here: the English pattern that puts the amount before the comparison word and the reference number last, eight is two more than six, which several languages invert; and the pair more and fewer, where many languages use one word for both. Rehearse both frames aloud as a matched pair, never one alone: Eight is two more than six. Six is two fewer than eight. Have students say both directions in their strongest language first and notice whether the word changes there too, then give the English pair while pointing at the two empty squares.

Materials

  • Ten-frames, two per pair
  • Two-color counters, twenty per pair
  • Base ten rods, twenty per pair
  • Two-sentence recording strip, one per pair
  • Pencil
  • The book's comparison sentence displayed
  • A blank pair of stacked ten-frames drawn large

Standards & curriculum

Choose your curriculum above to see the standards for this lesson.

IB PYP developmental alignment

Phases are not grades. The Primary Years Programme is a developmental continuum and your school places each student in a phase, so this names the strand the lesson works in and the phases it could sit across. Confirm against your own school's placement.

Number · Phases 1–4

Phase 1
Develop meaning for counting, quantity, number relationships, simple operations, and early fractions in meaningful contexts.
Phase 2
Develop place value and whole-number operations, mental strategies, fractions, and mathematical language for practical problem solving.
Phase 3
Extend number understanding to larger numbers, fractions, decimals, percentages, and efficient strategies for the four operations.
Phase 4
Apply whole-number, fraction, decimal, percentage, ratio, and proportion concepts with increasingly efficient and flexible computation.

Shape and space · Phases 1–4

Phase 1
Describe and compare 2D and 3D shapes and use everyday spatial language for position, direction, paths, regions, and boundaries.
Phase 2
Classify 2D and 3D shapes by properties; explore symmetry and transformations; interpret and create simple directions.
Phase 3
Analyze regular and irregular polygons, congruence, similarity, symmetry, angles, and coordinates and apply geometry to real situations.
Phase 4
Analyze 2D and 3D forms including polyhedra and circles; use scale, bearings, nets, and geometric reasoning to solve problems.

Reading and language lessons

5 lessons on the reading and language the book carries - what a word means in its sentence, how a character is shown, how a text is built. No mathematics: these are matched against the English language arts curricula, which are a different and smaller set than the mathematics ones.

9. Pleeeeze: when spelling tells your voice what to do Concept · Reading a stretched spelling and an exclamation aloud the way it is written

The book's own title spells please with four e's, and the story prints three shouted one-word sentences and a line the narrator says she yells. Students read each aloud twice, once flat and once the way the letters ask, and name what the spelling and the punctuation did to their voices. They finish by stretching a word of their own the same way. No student counts, adds or compares anything; the whole task is sounding out a spelling choice.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

  1. 1. Say the title the way it is spelled (5 min)

    Read the title line aloud from the card twice: first say please the ordinary way, then say Pleeeeze the way the four e's ask you to. Stretch the middle sound as long as the letters run. Tell your partner what the extra letters made your voice do that the ordinary spelling did not.

    Word preview: Pleeeeze

    393_Mac & Cheese, Pleeeeze! I like my teacher, Mr. Moore.
  2. 2. Hunt the shouted one-word lines (5 min)

    Read the printed cheering scene aloud in a group of three, one sentence each around the circle. Every time you reach a word that ends in an exclamation mark, say it louder than the sentence before it. Underline Cute, Great and Woohoo on your copy and say which one is the loudest and why.

    Word preview: Woohoo

    The next day some fifth grade girls see me putting up posters. Cute! One of them says, You've got my vote. I love mac and cheese. Her friends say, Me too. Great! Three more votes! I'm up to ten. And I'm starting to like this election.
    One vote less for pizza. One vote less for stuffed potato. Woohoo! It's a three-way tie. Now if I can just get one more vote.
  3. 3. Yell the ending line (5 min)

    Read the printed ending line twice with a partner. The first time, read it flat, the way you would read a grocery list. The second time, yell it the way the word yell tells you to. Then say which reading matches the words Mac and cheese, the lunch you love, and point to the word in the sentence that told you.

    Word preview: yell

    Say cheese, I yell, Mac and cheese, the lunch you love. I jump up and down. Luna gives me a high five.
  4. 4. Stretch a word of your own (5 min)

    Look again at the printed title line and count the e's in Pleeeeze. Pick a word you would say long in a loud voice and write it twice on your slip: once spelled the ordinary way, once with letters stretched the way this title stretches its e's. Read both to your partner and let them tell you which one they heard as longer.

    Word preview: stretch

    393_Mac & Cheese, Pleeeeze! I like my teacher, Mr. Moore.

Short version — 9 minutes

  1. 1. Say the title the way it is spelled (4 min)

    Read the title line aloud twice: once saying please the ordinary way, once stretching Pleeeeze as long as its four e's run. Tell your partner what the extra letters made your voice do.

    Word preview: Pleeeeze

    393_Mac & Cheese, Pleeeeze! I like my teacher, Mr. Moore.
  2. 2. Yell the ending line (5 min)

    Read the printed ending line flat, then yell it. Say which reading matches the words and point to the word in the sentence that told you to shout.

    Word preview: yell

    Say cheese, I yell, Mac and cheese, the lunch you love. I jump up and down. Luna gives me a high five.

Three levels

Support
Stay with the title line only. Say please, then Pleeeeze, holding the middle sound while a partner taps once for each e on the card. Do not add the second scene; two readings of one word is the whole task.
At Grade
Read all four printed pieces aloud and name, for each, the thing on the page that changed your voice: the four e's, an exclamation mark, or the word yell.
Extension
After stretching a word of your own, write the same word a third time with too many letters to say in one breath, read it aloud, and tell your partner where a writer should stop adding letters and why.

English learners

Stretched vowels transfer readily: a learner who can hold a vowel in a first language can hold the vowel in Pleeeeze on the first try, and this step needs no vocabulary at all. English writes the stretch by repeating a letter rather than by a length mark, so show the card and count the e's before asking for sound. Rehearsable frame: The letters e-e-e-e tell me to say ______ long. Invite the retelling of what the spelling does in the learner's strongest language first, then in English.

Materials

  • Printed title line card
  • Marked-up copies of the two printed scenes
  • Pencils
  • Printed ending-line strip
  • Word-stretching slips
  • Word cards: Pleeeeze, Woohoo, yell, stretch

Standards & curriculum

Choose your curriculum above to see the standards for this lesson.

10. Tuna, it will melt your heart: how a slogan plays with a word Concept · Explaining how a slogan plays on a word's two meanings or its sound

This book prints five campaign slogans, and every one of them works by reusing a food's own word. Students say the two meanings of melt in Annie's slogan, sort Sam's posters into rhymes and made-up words, explain the narrator's verdict on the poster that misfires, and write a slogan of their own that uses one food word twice. Nothing is counted; the work is entirely about what words mean and how they sound.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

  1. 1. Read Annie's slogan and find the two meanings (5 min)

    Read the printed scene aloud with a partner and stop at the slogan. Say what melt means when it happens to cheese on a tuna melt, then say what melt your heart means about a person. Tell your partner which meaning Annie wanted a voter to think of, and why she picked a food that does both.

    Word preview: slogan, melt

    Check out my campaign posters for Tuna Melt. Annie says, I raise an eyebrow. You made posters? She unrolls one to show me her slogan. Tuna, it will melt your heart.
  2. 2. Sort Sam's posters by their sound trick (5 min)

    Read the printed poster wall aloud, one poster each around your group. For each one, circle the two words that sound alike: corn dogs and corny, cheese and cheesy, burger and booger. Then say aloud which pair is a rhyme and which pair is one word made out of another.

    Word preview: corny, cheesy

    Tuna melts your brain. Vote stuffed potato. Who wants burger? Booger casserole. Vote stuffed potato. Then I see another poster. Corn dogs are corny. Mac and cheese is cheesy. Vote stuffed potato. Hmm. That's not very funny.
  3. 3. Say why one poster stops being funny (5 min)

    Read the printed poster wall again to its last two sentences. Say aloud what is different about the corn dog poster: whose lunch does the joke insult, and whose lunch does it accidentally praise? Then explain to your partner what the narrator means by That's not very funny, using the poster's own words.

    Word preview: insult

    Tuna melts your brain. Vote stuffed potato. Who wants burger? Booger casserole. Vote stuffed potato. Then I see another poster. Corn dogs are corny. Mac and cheese is cheesy. Vote stuffed potato. Hmm. That's not very funny.
  4. 4. Build a slogan out of a food word (5 min)

    Look at the printed ending line, where the narrator turns Say cheese into her own slogan. On your strip, write a slogan for a lunch you like, using one word from the food's name twice, the way melt is used twice on Annie's poster. Read it to your group and let them name the word you used twice.

    Word preview: campaign

    Say cheese, I yell, Mac and cheese, the lunch you love. I jump up and down. Luna gives me a high five.
    Check out my campaign posters for Tuna Melt. Annie says, I raise an eyebrow. You made posters? She unrolls one to show me her slogan. Tuna, it will melt your heart.

Short version — 9 minutes

  1. 1. Read Annie's slogan and find the two meanings (5 min)

    Read the printed scene aloud and stop at the slogan. Say what melt means for cheese on a tuna melt, then what melt your heart means about a person, and tell your partner which one Annie wanted voters to hear.

    Word preview: slogan, melt

    Check out my campaign posters for Tuna Melt. Annie says, I raise an eyebrow. You made posters? She unrolls one to show me her slogan. Tuna, it will melt your heart.
  2. 2. Sort Sam's posters by their sound trick (4 min)

    Read the printed poster wall aloud. Circle the two words that sound alike on each poster, then say which pair rhymes and which pair is one word built out of another.

    Word preview: corny, cheesy

    Tuna melts your brain. Vote stuffed potato. Who wants burger? Booger casserole. Vote stuffed potato. Then I see another poster. Corn dogs are corny. Mac and cheese is cheesy. Vote stuffed potato. Hmm. That's not very funny.

Three levels

Support
Work only with Annie's printed slogan. Say melt for cheese, then melt for a person, and stop there. A partner holds up a hand for the food meaning and a heart shape for the feeling meaning as you say each one.
At Grade
Do both slogan sets. For each printed poster, name the repeated or echoed word aloud before you say what the joke is.
Extension
Take the corn dog poster and rewrite its last two lines so the joke lands on stuffed potato instead of praising mac and cheese. Read the original and yours aloud and say which word you had to move.

English learners

Puns are the hardest kind of humour to carry across languages, because they depend on one language's sounds. Say plainly that these jokes work in English only, and teach melt in its two English senses with a picture of cheese and a hand on the heart before the slogan is read. Booger will need a plain gloss. Rehearsable frame: The word ______ means ______ here, and ______ there. Invite learners to name a food joke from their strongest language first, even one that cannot be translated, so the idea of a joke that lives in sound arrives before the English examples.

Materials

  • Printed slogan scene
  • Printed poster wall
  • Coloured pencils
  • Slogan strips
  • Printed ending-line strip
  • Word cards: slogan, melt, corny, cheesy, insult, campaign

Standards & curriculum

Choose your curriculum above to see the standards for this lesson.

11. The two Caitlins: what she says and what she thinks Reasoning · Using a narrator's spoken lines and private thoughts to say what a character really wants

Caitlin tells her friends the election is goofy and tells the reader, alone, how badly she wants to win. Students read her public speech, then her two private moments, then the final scene where both come out of her mouth at once, and choose the one printed sentence that proves what she wanted. They quote sentences, not quantities; the reasoning is entirely about a character's motive.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

  1. 1. Read what Caitlin says out loud to her friends (5 min)

    Read the printed scene aloud in threes, taking the parts of Caitlin, Annie and the narrator's own thoughts. On your tracking sheet, copy the sentence where Caitlin tells the others what she thinks of the election. Say to your group what someone hearing only that sentence would believe about her.

    Word preview: goofy

    I can't believe you two even care who wins this goofy election. Don't you? Annie asks. Yeah, right, I say. Broccoli battles tuna. Big thrill.
  2. 2. Read what Caitlin thinks when nobody is listening (5 min)

    Read the two printed private moments aloud, in the quiet voice you use for a secret. On your tracking sheet, write what Caitlin is hiding in the first one and what she admits in the second. Tell your partner which of the two is closer to what she really wants.

    Word preview: admit

    I wish I could add everything up on paper like Luna, but if anyone saw me, they'd know how much I want the votes. I'd never live it down.
    I check to make sure no one else can hear me. Maybe I do care. A little, I admit.
  3. 3. Put the two Caitlins side by side at the end (5 min)

    Read the printed last scene aloud with a partner, one of you as Annie and one as Caitlin. On your tracking sheet, write the two things Caitlin says in the same breath. Then say aloud which one Annie hears and which one is the truth, and how you know.

    Word preview: stares

    Annie stares. I thought you said it was a goofy election. Totally goofy, I say. Totally weird. And I sure hope I win.
  4. 4. Say the sentence that gives her away (5 min)

    Look back at your tracking sheet and pick the one printed sentence you would show to prove Caitlin cared all along. Read it aloud to your group and finish the frame out loud: I know Caitlin cared because she says here that ______. Everyone in the group must read a different sentence from the printed strips.

    Word preview: evidence

    I wish I could add everything up on paper like Luna, but if anyone saw me, they'd know how much I want the votes. I'd never live it down.
    Annie stares. I thought you said it was a goofy election. Totally goofy, I say. Totally weird. And I sure hope I win.

Short version — 9 minutes

  1. 1. Read what Caitlin says out loud to her friends (4 min)

    Read the printed scene aloud in threes as Caitlin, Annie and the narrator. Copy the sentence where Caitlin says what she thinks of the election, and say what a listener would believe about her from it alone.

    Word preview: goofy

    I can't believe you two even care who wins this goofy election. Don't you? Annie asks. Yeah, right, I say. Broccoli battles tuna. Big thrill.
  2. 2. Read what Caitlin thinks when nobody is listening (5 min)

    Read the two printed private moments in a secret voice. Write what she hides in the first and what she admits in the second, then tell your partner which is closer to the truth.

    Word preview: admit

    I wish I could add everything up on paper like Luna, but if anyone saw me, they'd know how much I want the votes. I'd never live it down.
    I check to make sure no one else can hear me. Maybe I do care. A little, I admit.

Three levels

Support
Use two strips only, the first scene and the last one. Say Caitlin's out-loud words in a big voice and her hoping words in a small voice, and say which voice nobody else in the story hears.
At Grade
Work all four printed strips onto the tracking sheet and finish the frame aloud with a sentence you chose yourself.
Extension
Find the earlier printed line where Caitlin teases the others for caring, then say what she owes them by the end of the book and what she never actually says to them. Use the printed strips only.

English learners

First-person narration that carries private thought is a convention, not a vocabulary problem: some learners will read the thought lines as speech because nothing on the page marks them. Read one thought line and one spoken line aloud, in two clearly different voices, before any student sorts them. Rehearsable frame: She says ______ but she thinks ______. Invite learners to give the contrast in their strongest language first; the two-voice reading carries across even when the wording does not.

Materials

  • Printed says-and-does scene
  • Says-and-does tracking sheet
  • Pencils
  • Printed private-moment strips
  • Printed final-scene strip
  • Word cards: goofy, admit, stares, evidence

Standards & curriculum

Choose your curriculum above to see the standards for this lesson.

12. The rules on the wall: reading a notice and saying it back Application · Reading a posted set of rules and retelling its instructions in order

The book stops the story to print a notice the characters read on a wall, and prints the same information a second time as the teacher's spoken announcement. Students pull the instructions out of the notice, set the posted version against the spoken one, find the sentence where a character carries out the first instruction, and retell all three from memory in order. Every task is reading and retelling; no student computes anything.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

  1. 1. Read the posted rules and count what they ask of you (5 min)

    Read the printed rules notice aloud, one line each. On your rules chart, write the three things the notice tells a student to do, in the order the notice puts them. Then tell your partner which of the three is something the notice does for you rather than something you do.

    Word preview: rules

    Election rules for Mr. Moore's class. Choose one lunch from the cafeteria menu. Try to get other kids in the school to vote for your lunch. The winning lunch will be served at Springfest.
  2. 2. Compare the notice with the way the teacher said it (5 min)

    Read the printed spoken explanation aloud, taking Mr. Moore's part. Put it beside the printed notice on your rules chart and mark one thing the teacher's speech has that the notice does not, and one thing the notice has that his speech does not. Say aloud which version you would rather hand to a student from another class, and why.

    Word preview: explained

    Class, Mr. Moore said this morning, we are running the Spring Fest lunch election. Huh? We all asked. He explained, you'll each pick a lunch you'd like to eat at Spring Fest, then you try to get other students to vote for your choice. The whole school will be voting, so good luck and may the best lunch win.
    Election rules for Mr. Moore's class. Choose one lunch from the cafeteria menu. Try to get other kids in the school to vote for your lunch. The winning lunch will be served at Springfest.
  3. 3. Show where Caitlin obeys rule one (5 min)

    Read the printed sign-up scene aloud with a partner. Find the sentence that shows Caitlin doing the first thing the notice tells her to do, and read that sentence and the matching rule line back to back. Say aloud what she did before she wrote her name that the rule never asked for.

    Word preview: cafeteria

    At school I check out the sign-up sheet. I guess I have to pick something. Wait, nobody has signed up for mac and cheese. That's crazy. It's the best thing on the menu. I put down my name.
    Election rules for Mr. Moore's class. Choose one lunch from the cafeteria menu. Try to get other kids in the school to vote for your lunch. The winning lunch will be served at Springfest.
  4. 4. Say the rules back in your own words (5 min)

    Read the printed notice once more to yourself. Then close your eyes and tell your partner the three rules in your own words, in order, without looking. Your partner holds the printed notice and says stop if you skip a line or put one out of order; then you swap.

    Word preview: order

    Election rules for Mr. Moore's class. Choose one lunch from the cafeteria menu. Try to get other kids in the school to vote for your lunch. The winning lunch will be served at Springfest.

Short version — 9 minutes

  1. 1. Read the posted rules and count what they ask of you (5 min)

    Read the printed rules notice aloud, one line each. Write the three things it tells a student to do, in order, and say which of the three the notice does for you instead.

    Word preview: rules

    Election rules for Mr. Moore's class. Choose one lunch from the cafeteria menu. Try to get other kids in the school to vote for your lunch. The winning lunch will be served at Springfest.
  2. 2. Say the rules back in your own words (4 min)

    Read the printed notice once more, then tell your partner the three rules in your own words and in order without looking. Your partner holds the notice and says stop if a line is skipped or moved.

    Word preview: order

    Election rules for Mr. Moore's class. Choose one lunch from the cafeteria menu. Try to get other kids in the school to vote for your lunch. The winning lunch will be served at Springfest.

Three levels

Support
Take one instruction line at a time off the printed notice and act it out before writing anything. Retell only the first two lines in order, with the notice still in front of you.
At Grade
Fill the rules chart from the printed notice, then retell all three instructions in order without looking.
Extension
Using the printed notice and the printed spoken explanation only, write the one line the notice is missing that a student from another class would need, and say which of the two printed versions you took it from.

English learners

Posted notices use bare imperatives with no subject, Choose, Try, which learners whose first language marks the command differently may read as descriptions of what someone is doing. Point at the missing you before the first reading. Cafeteria and menu are school-specific and worth a picture. Rehearsable frame: The notice tells me to ______. Let learners retell the three instructions in their strongest language first, then in English with the printed notice in hand.

Materials

  • Printed rules notice
  • Rules chart
  • Pencils
  • Printed spoken-explanation strip
  • Printed sign-up scene
  • Word cards: rules, explained, cafeteria, order

Standards & curriculum

Choose your curriculum above to see the standards for this lesson.

13. But you're my neighbor: the reasons that move people Reasoning · Locating the reason a speaker gives and saying whether it changed the listener's mind

Every vote in this book is won or lost in a short spoken exchange, and each one turns on a stated reason. Students find the word but where Charlie reverses himself, follow two strangers arguing themselves onto a side for a reason that has nothing to do with lunch, read two refusals and name each one's reason, and match Nick's no against his later yes word for word. Students quote reasons and speech; no vote is ever counted.

Full lesson — 20 minutes

  1. 1. Find the sentence where Charlie changes his mind (5 min)

    Read the printed scene aloud with a partner, one as Caitlin and one as Charlie. Underline the word at the start of Charlie's second answer that tells you he is about to say the opposite of his first. Then say aloud the two reasons he gives, and which one is about a person and which is about a food.

    Word preview: neighbor

    I spot my neighbor Charlie on the slide. Will you vote for Mac and Cheese? I ask? Sam wants me to vote for Broccoli's stuffed potato, he tells me. I'm about to walk off. Then he says, but you're my neighbor, and Broccoli is gross.
  2. 2. Follow two strangers talking themselves into a choice (5 min)

    Read the printed soccer team scene aloud in threes, taking the girl, the boy and the narrator. On your persuasion chart, write what the first speaker wanted and what they chose instead. Say aloud the reason the girl gives, and whether it is a reason about the lunch at all.

    Word preview: agrees

    Two kids from the soccer team are looking at my poster. I edge closer. I like peppy pizza better. One of them is saying. The girl says, Yeah, but the Frisbee team is voting for pizza. We can't do what they do. No way, the boy agrees. The soccer team vote goes to Mac and cheese.
  3. 3. Read two people who will not be moved (5 min)

    Read the two printed refusal scenes aloud with a partner. On your persuasion chart, write the exact reason each one gives for saying no. Then tell your partner which refusal is about liking something else and which is about not wanting anything right now.

    Word preview: refuse

    I find my sister Sophie on the swings. What lunch are you voting for? I ask, pizza, she says. But I need votes for mac and cheese. Sophie smiles. Okay. Okay. You'll vote for mac and cheese? No. I like pizza.
    Nick, do you like mac and cheese? I ask. I just ate. He says, I'm not hungry. What about when you are hungry? But I'm not.
  4. 4. Find the words that finally win Nick over (5 min)

    Read the printed later scene aloud, then read Nick's earlier refusal on your chart beside it. Say aloud the one thing that changed between the two scenes, using Nick's own words from both. Finish the frame out loud for your group: Nick said no because ______, and Nick said yes because ______.

    Word preview: hungry

    The Nick looks at me. I'm hungry, he says. I want Mac and cheese.
    Nick, do you like mac and cheese? I ask. I just ate. He says, I'm not hungry. What about when you are hungry? But I'm not.

Short version — 9 minutes

  1. 1. Find the sentence where Charlie changes his mind (5 min)

    Read the printed scene aloud as Caitlin and Charlie. Underline the word that starts his second answer and tells you he is about to say the opposite, then name his two reasons aloud.

    Word preview: neighbor

    I spot my neighbor Charlie on the slide. Will you vote for Mac and Cheese? I ask? Sam wants me to vote for Broccoli's stuffed potato, he tells me. I'm about to walk off. Then he says, but you're my neighbor, and Broccoli is gross.
  2. 2. Read two people who will not be moved (4 min)

    Read the two printed refusal scenes aloud. Write the exact reason each gives for saying no, and say which refusal is about liking something else and which is about not wanting anything now.

    Word preview: refuse

    I find my sister Sophie on the swings. What lunch are you voting for? I ask, pizza, she says. But I need votes for mac and cheese. Sophie smiles. Okay. Okay. You'll vote for mac and cheese? No. I like pizza.
    Nick, do you like mac and cheese? I ask. I just ate. He says, I'm not hungry. What about when you are hungry? But I'm not.

Three levels

Support
Stay with the Charlie scene. Read his first answer and his second, and put your hand up on the word but. Say only what the second answer is about, and stop there.
At Grade
Fill the persuasion chart from all four printed scenes and say each speaker's reason aloud in a full sentence before writing it.
Extension
Take the soccer team scene and say what the girl's reason would have decided if the Frisbee team had chosen differently. Point to the printed sentence that makes your answer certain, and to the one word in it you had to change.

English learners

The pivot word but does the whole job in three of these scenes, and learners often hear it as merely joining two clauses rather than cancelling the first. Read Charlie's two answers with a clear pause on but before students look for it. Yeah, but, No way and Okay are agreement-shaped words that do not always mean agreement here, and Sophie's two Okays are the trap; teach them from the printed scene rather than from a list. Rehearsable frame: He said no because ______, then he said yes because ______. Invite the retelling of one scene in the learner's strongest language first.

Materials

  • Printed Charlie scene
  • Persuasion chart
  • Pencils
  • Printed soccer team scene
  • Printed refusal scenes
  • Printed later Nick scene
  • Word cards: neighbor, agrees, refuse, hungry

Standards & curriculum

Choose your curriculum above to see the standards for this lesson.

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