We played Pictionary as a vehicle to discuss the names of different animals and people in English and Spanish. We read choice books in Spanish and discussed the words and their meaning.
Assignment
n/a
Session Minutes
30
Minutes Student Attended
30
Lesson Comments
8/5
Emilia is very engaged and quite proficient in Spanish. Her accent and understanding of Spanish shows she has had extensive practice with native speakers.
Emilia completed her calendar talk, calendar writing, sentence scramble activities, put together her daily sentence puzzle, finished several reading comprehension activities pertaining to the short (u) sound, learned about the difference between fiction and non-fiction books, and worked on her Kumon lessons regarding recognizing subjects and predicates.
Cats, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and ABC patterns in Color with Musical Choice
Lesson Outline
Project Initiating Activity:
Since today, 08/08/2025, is International Cat Day, I read The Cat in the Hat to Emilia. Emilia was able to anticipate the rhyming words to complete the sentences. Then Emilia completed a cat with whiskers worksheet. Emilia randomly selected six color markers by closing her eyes and reaching into the marker bag. Then she organized them into two groups of three to create an ABC color pattern for the two sets of three whiskers. She colored each whisker, cut them out, arranged them, and then glued them onto the cat’s face into an ABC pattern: A for one color, B for another, and C for the third.
While she worked, I played soft classical music. Then I read The Very Hungry Caterpillar book to her. Emilia completed a very hungry caterpillar artwork by selecting and coloring an ABC color pattern for the nine pieces of the caterpillar's body, arranging them in an ABC pattern, and gluing them on the paper behind the caterpillar’s head to create the caterpillar’s body. Then she counted the number of feet the caterpillar from the book had and drew those on the caterpillar's body. Next, Emilia looked at an activity of sequential images from the story and colored them using markers. She made color choices based on preference. Then Emilia completed a writing exercise tracing the letters of words from the story. She counted each of the letters of the longer words and determined that caterpillar was the longest word with 11 letters.
Emilia requested to Hear Frozen II and songs by kid’s music artist Blippi. Emilia said she did not like the Relaxing Classical music album I was playing. By expressing her personal preference for some songs over other songs aligns with the National Core Arts Standards.
It was an honor and privilege to teach Emilia this summer! She told me that she wants to come back next summer to have art and music class with me. I am confident that she will continue to excel!
National Core Arts Standards Pre K:
MU:Pr4.3.PK
With substantial guidance, explore music’s expressive qualities (such as voice quality, dynamics, and tempo).
MU:Re7.1.PK
With substantial guidance, state personal interests and demonstrate why they prefer some music selections over others.
VA:Cr1.2.PKa
Engage in self-directed, creative making.
VA:Cr2.1.PKa
Use a variety of artmaking tools.
VA:Cr2.3.PKa
Create and tell about art that communicates a story about a familiar place or object.
VA:Cr3.1.PKa
Share and talk about personal artwork.
Book Refence:
Dr. Seuss (1957). The cat in the hat. Random House.
Carle, E. (1969). The very hungry caterpillar. Penguin Random House.
We skip counted to 100. Emilia is able to skip count by 10's but needs to practice skip counting by 5's. We used an abacus to add a hands-on concrete element to our learning and help facilitate and consolidate gains acquired. We also worked on a lesson exploring wholes and parts of objects, and I guided Emilia via hands-on activities to deepen her understanding of wholes and parts and practice partitioning objects into parts. We reviewed key concepts and subject-specific terms including "Partitioning," Part sizes," and Recombining Parts." We used parts of a pizza to demonstrate how to divide objects (the pie) into smaller parts or sections; and that the parts obtained from partitioning are always smaller than the whole object and that partitioned parts can be combined back together to reconstruct the original whole object. This shows Emilia that the combined size of the parts is the same as the whole. We then worked on, and completed, her Kumon homework (A14a, - A20b), which consisted of 154 addition problems). This ended our time together. Emilia has been a delightful, bright, and vivacious student with whom I had the pleasure to teach. I hope she enjoys the rest of August, welcomes a productive school year ahead, and effectively applies the skills she's learned at Batt this summer with confidence.
Songs with Stories, Repeating Patterns, and Movement
Lesson Outline
Project Initiating Activity:
We listened to several kids’ songs that tell a story with repeating patterns and rhyming that we could sing along to, move along with, and act out the story along with the song. These songs have a rhythm, beat, and pattern that are easy for young learners to identify.
Emilia is a wonderful singer! She requested the soundtrack to Frozen 2 and sang along to every song while she completed the watercolor heart she started in Spanish the previous day. She was excited to share with me the storyline of the film. She also created a watercolor of a unicorn and sang along to some unicorn songs I played for her. She used good design skills by selecting the papers to glue the heart and the unicorn on, discerning how to center the images, and choosing the best format.
Then we did the following art activities to these songs:
1. The Lady With the Alligator Purse by David Landau. Emilia completed a story songbook to go along with the song that incorporated listening, observation, coloring, and cutting and pasting.
2. We’re Going on a Lion Hunt by The Kiboomers. Emilia made and decorated binoculars to act along with the song.
3. The Party Freeze Dance Song by The Kiboomers. Emilia used good listening skills to know when to move and when to freeze. While she was painting, she would stop when the music stopped.
4. Freeze Dance by CoComelon. She sang along by catching on to the lyrics.
5. Pig on Her Head by The Laurie Berkner Band. Emilia knew the song and sang along.
National Core Arts Standards Pre K:
MU:Pr4.3.PK
With substantial guidance, explore music’s expressive qualities (such as voice quality, dynamics, and tempo).
MU:Re7.1.PK
With substantial guidance, state personal interests and demonstrate why they prefer some music selections over others.
VA:Cr1.2.PKa
Engage in self-directed, creative making.
VA:Cr2.1.PKa
Use a variety of artmaking tools.
VA:Cr2.3.PKa
Create and tell about art that communicates a story about a familiar place or object.
VA:Cr3.1.PKa
Share and talk about personal artwork.
After Emilia practiced skip counting, she worked on measuring with a ruler. She was shown the proper way to hold a ruler so as to measure without losing a grip on it. She was shown the best way to secure the ruler on paper to draw and measure both vertical and horizontal lines. Practicing this activity allowed us the opportunity to also review subject-specific vocabulary. We also listened to Spanish songs for kindergarten students about food, including a fun song that taught the names of the different fruits and food-related themes like eating. One song was the Spanish version of "Old MacDonald," and included foods through farm animals and their produce. Emilia enjoyed singing along and was able to translate a few of the phrases.
We read stories by Arnold Lobel and discussed the way frogs and toads are alike and how they are different. She ate her lunch. We worked on s and r-blends. She read a story and identified all the s and r blends in the story. She completed several sentence scramble activities.
The Sun Rotation Northern Hemisphere Southern Hemisphere Equator
Lesson Outline
Emilia watched a brain pop video about earth and its rotation. We discussed the equator, the earth spinning on its axis, the northern and southern hemispheres, and made a model of the earth.
