Religion: Today Jonathan practiced memorization of the Hail Mary. Language Arts: This morning we began our next novel, Polar Bears Past Bedtime (Magic Tree House #12). We read chapters 1 – 3. Today’s chapters lent the opportunity for a lot of predictions! We discussed what we thought about the riddle and what brings out courage, as well as what could be howling in the chapter entitled “The Howling”. In our oral reading, we worked to make sure we pause at periods and commas. After each chapter, we worked through comprehension questions and critical thinking activities. This included drawing a picture to visualize what he saw in chapter one, recalling facts he learned about the arctic in chapter two, and inferring meanings of words from their use in the text (puzzled, parka, and dashed) in chapter 3. We are working to recall specific facts and find evidence from the text vs. generalizing information. We also discussed the vocabulary terms of sled runners, stirred, and barren as used in the text. Jonathan had one question from the text in which he felt the author used the wrong subject-verb agreement. We discussed that the verb for “pack of wolves” would agree with “pack”, not “wolves”. To enrich our study, Jonathan practiced some higher-level spelling words including words such as surprise, sculptures, journey, and ceremony. For writing today, Jonathan drew two illustrations for his story about a boy’s pet that can talk. He continued writing the middle of his story. We discussed that he needs to identify in his story that the talking is only temporary as he has not yet informed the reader. He will need this piece of information to start wrapping up his story. Jonathan then just wrote another sentence or two and then “the end”. He again was focused on the length of the story, but when prompted, he could tell me that the goal is a good beginning, middle, and end. I inquired about his ending and he was able to determine that he doesn’t really have an ending to his story. We will continue to work on wrapping up his story. This creative writing is providing a nice opportunity for growth in Jonathan’s writing.