Maya completed Ch. 2 Test: Where is the World is My Community? She answered questions about the states, landmarks, traditions, and cardinal directions. She earned 9/9. She needed prompting with how many states we have. I told her to think of a song we sang as a clue and she shouted, "Oh the 50 states that rhyme!" Without that prompting, she would've selected a different answer.

Maya and I painted her foot brown and she stamped it on paper to represent a cornucopia. This will be used as follow up project throughout the week. She was introduced to new vocabulary words; precious, celebrate, traditions, disappointment, pride, courage, remind, and symbols. We looked at photographs of each term, read it in a sentence, and made meaningful self connections. I was so impressed with Maya's dialogue today. She came up with strong, tightly connected ideas. We alternated reading The Dream Catcher. We discussed the cultural names and traditions which Maya loved pronouncing. We stopped and made predictions and inferences as we read. Her analytical reasoning about character feelings (cause/effect) and possible scenarios were accurate today, too!

reading and spelling words with 3 syllables. Maya stayed focused and worked hard today!

Started the new unit "Life Science". Compare the characteristics of living things and nonliving things. Discuss: what are the features of living things, living things reproduce, how do organisms react to change. Vocabulary: organism, reproduction, environment.

Maya did a great job today in math class. She was eager to learn and demonstrated how well she is learning her math facts. She beat her time from yesterday in her 6X table drill. Maya subtracted 3-digit numbers using paper and pencil in lesson 4-4. This was an extension of the previous lessons where Maya used place-value blocks. In this lesson, she was able to see the connection between the models and the written problems. She could see how the subtraction algorithm works. Maya understood the concept of regrouping the ones, tens, and hundreds. In LB, Maya worked on her visualization skills, recalling the images she had created for a short story about a llama. She was very interested and her efforts were well demonstrated. Lunch was delivered late today,so unfortunately Maya did not have the full time to complete her scheduled modules in FF. She completed part of it with Miss Connie, as I was in a conference with you. It was very nice meeting with you today and it was a pleasure to have met Maya's grandmother. Have a great weekend!

We started class with creative yoga, making combinations of different yoga poses. During the parent conference, Maya did yoga cards, showing Johanna different poses. We then used the apparatus to help in monkey pose (splits) and cartwheels.

Maya took a Reading Running Record on a Level J book: Animal Olympics. During reading, she stopped and shared that an olympian attended her swim class last night. What a coincidence! She made connections about the character's medal and winning. She read with an independent level of 95% accuracy and answered the comprehension questions beautifully, especially where she needed to make inferences. I tested her on Level K: Gorillas. Her accuracy rate was also an independent level of 95% but her comprehension score wasn't as strong. At times, it seemed like she knew the answer but had some difficulty explaining what she meant. Most text based answers were accurate, some requiring a little prompting, but the inferencing at this level needs some strengthening at times. How are gorillas like humans? "They can talk with sign language (communicate), they can have babies, they live in the woods. When asked if we live in the woods, she corrected to, "they live in homes and so do we." We watched a clip of gorillas online. She was a little nervous about seeing them come out of the woods because photographers were near and potentially in danger. She asked nervously, "What are those?" After a moment, she relaxed and enjoyed seeing them in action.

Worked on syllable division. Used syllable cards to create words. Maya worked hard and we got to play a syllable division game at the end.

Maya completed 2 modules in FF, and beat her high score in Tomb Trek. In math Maya practiced her 6X tables through use of the wrap up and a game on the dry erase board called fly swatter. She took a timed drill and completed 25 problems in just under 5 minutes. She should continue to practice her tables at home and at school. Next Friday she will have a quiz on the 6x tables. Maya practiced subtracting 3 digit numbers using regrouping. Maya explored this skill throughhe use of base-10 blocks. She is doing great with this skill. In LB, Maya completed a sentence by sentence activity. She answered higher order thinking questions in complete sentences and demonstrated her ability to recall the meanings of the vocabulary words from this story. She read the next story and will begin her summaries tomorrow. Maya had a good day today.

Geography of land: Identified different Regions of the United States, such as plains, deserts, mountains, islands and peninsulas, and describe the characteristics of each. Maya was able to recognize and describe the uniqueness of each. Very good lesson.