Optional five-minute… | Year 8 English · T1 W3–4 · Optional Practice…

For each day, choose one extra if there is time; the two columns are alternatives. Home is optional and can be done with scrap paper, a pencil or a spoken response. No paid account, device, journey, purchase, family interview, private access detail or parent marking is required. The mini-contexts below are invented. Checks on Days 15/20 use new lesson cases: run extras after collecting those responses. Use the teacher quick key if teaching from these mini-cards.

Day	Extra A · five minutes	Extra B · five minutes	No-purchase home/low-material route
11	Game-board border: `3 + 2n + 3 = 6 + 2n` centimetres in a paper model. Explain what combining the edges changes and does not change.	Bookcase sketch: two 4 cm margins and `n` 10 cm paper labels give `8 + 10n`. Write the uncombined expression and name the assumed unit.	Invent two border lengths and one repeating paper width; explain equivalent wordings for a fictional sketch. No actual furnishing measured.
12	Sports poster model: “Every team wins with our practice card!” versus a small line “four of six practice attempts improved.” Mark promise and source limit; no real team data.	Rewrite Caption 1 for a fictional visitor who has only ten seconds, keeping the 96 cm paper condition.	Read any invented sign you write yourself; ask what it invites and what it explains. No public sign or online search needed.
13	Write one sentence using Text A's `n=2` row and an embedded which clause that genuinely adds the margin condition.	Test an invented claim: “The paper strip will work on a real wall.” What source is missing? Add a separate limit sentence.	Draft claim → number → limit for a paper-box design; check which words come from the given model and which are predictions.
14	In Text C, underline the sentence where Theo first tests the plan from an unfamiliar reader's position. Explain why that event matters more than another equation.	Compare “a frame” as literal edge and “somewhere to arrive” as layered image. Give two defensible readings with words from the vignette.	Draw a fictional paper page margin and write a two-sentence scene in which one character changes their view. No personal experience needed.
15	After the check, return to Text B: replace “perfectly” with a phrase that keeps the paper model result and makes its limit audible.	Choose an earlier paragraph and add a source quotation you can actually find. Do not use today's held-out source.	Revisit a prior invented caption from this pack, marking SOURCE and STILL UNKNOWN; no new source search.
16	Fictional game session: instructions use 5 minutes and each paper round takes 10; the total model slot is 45. Write a bounded sentence for `5 + 10r ≤ 45`; do not promise every player a round.	In Text D, replace “Everyone gets a turn!” with a short headline that still invites a reader and is truthful under the model.	Draw a paper clock face or list a made-up timetable; write “at most” correctly for a fixed slot without planning a real event.
17	Repair “Completion of the display was announced.” Can the sentence tell who built it, who announced it, or whether the display is actually ready?	Compare Kit's reading with the coordinator's plan. Quote one exact phrase from each and keep their evidential reach separate.	Invent a noun such as selection or approval in a fictional note; ask who acts and whether your source actually names them.
18	Write two original lines in which a page is called a gate. Change one image so the tone shifts, then name the word doing the work.	Try Text F's last two lines with a full stop instead of a colon; explain whether the second line still defines “not nothing” as clearly.	Make a two-line paper poem with one deliberate dash or semicolon. Read privately or silently and alter one mark for effect.
19	Fictional art-table notice: “Three slots fit, so everyone will create.” Give a 20-second or written fair challenge that retains the slot count.	A partner's response omits the source. Ask one respectful question that could draw out evidence, then suggest where the source line should move.	Rehearse a quiet reply to an invented claim in this pack: acknowledge, evidence, limit, question. No sending or filming.
20	After the check, revisit Text D and explain why its 50-minute model does not include question time.	Look at Text F's semicolon and ask what two thoughts it holds together; revise one original line from Day 18.	Choose one older learner card and write an exact question for its author. Do not ask a family member to score the held-out check.