Nicholas began by briefly summarizing his summer vacation, expressing that he would rather have remained in the Cayman Islands than be back in Florida. However, he seems to have had an enjoyable first week in school and told me his teacher's name, Ms. Minor, and that he has made a good friend there already by the name of Noah. When asked if he had any workbook, agenda or homework, Nicholas took out a Go Math Florida workbook and an assignment that he was to complete pages 3 and 4. We began by reviewing basic addition concepts within the domain of algebraic thinking. This allowed for a preliminary assessment of Nicholas's understanding of one-to one-correspondence and understanding of basic addition. We reviewed the pages assigned and the work he had competed earlier. Nicholas used his fingers to obtain the sums of 2 single-digit numbers. We reviewed the word 'sum', its meaning and use in a sentence and Nicholas was periodically queried to determine his short term recall. He enjoyed a little joke conjured up to help him remember the word. He was reminded that although he couldn't remember the word now, when questioned earlier, he was able to remember it 'sum'times. Nicholas laughed hysterical once he got the joke and chided this tutor by elbowing her and saying "I get it, do you get it?" Nicholas appears to be a visual learner. He correctly counted different objects to calculate correct single digit sums using paper clips to add. He subsequently worked on a tally table; Nicholas learned how to count tally marks and then add them together to arrive at a sum. We finished up the session by working on a color by sum activity. He seemed to enjoy this hands-on activity and it was an effective method by which to practice and consolidate prior gains. Nicholas enjoyed adding the two numbers, and then coloring the sums to make a picture using a color key. We practiced reversing the numbers, looking for and expressing regularity in repeated reasoning in order to reinforce domain operations and algebraic thinking as it facilitates understanding and application of the properties of operations strategies ( Examples: If 5 + 3 = 8 is known, then 3 + 5 = 8 is also known; the Commutative property of addition). Nicholas was thrilled with the way the picture came out. He repeatedly exclaimed it was really beautiful and asked if he could take it home so that his mother could hang it on the refrigerator as she does with all his work.