Maya learned author's purpose is to Persuade, Inform, or Entertain. As a way to remember her new vocabulary, I told her the saying and acronym; Author's Love to eat P.I.E. She went on quizlet and practiced these words on her electronic index cards. Then, she played an electronic game where she read three paragraphs and determined the author's purpose based on the context in which she earned 3/3. I read a persuasive article, The Truth about Wolves. The purpose of this article was to subtly persuade readers to lose the fear attached to wolves. She had a little more difficulty understanding that the author's purpose was to persuade his readers. The information wasn't as explicit as the 3 paragraphs she read perviously. We created a triple venn diagram as a graphic organizer to compare the three stories we read about wolves this week; Wolf!, The Little Red Riding Hood, and The Truth about Wolves. We started by comparing the genres, animals/character, setting, and then moved into details about each. She generated good ideas. Often, she gets overly specific where it doesn't really apply. But overall, did fantastic on this new concept.
Maya reviewed her continent, country, state, capital, and closest city in her community by identifying each of the above onto a map and recording it into her social studies journal. She used a globe to show the equator, prime meridian, and 4 hemispheres; Northwestern, Northeastern, Southwestern, Southeastern.
Maya read non fiction information about the equator and prime meridian dividing the earth into hemispheres. She used the globe to identify the hemispheres. Then, made her own model of the earth showing the hemispheres created by the equator and prime meridian by blowing up a balloon and label her vocabulary with a permanent marker. She had difficulty pronouncing the hemispheres as Southern changes the sound of the root word South. She and her friends bounced the balloon back and forth each having a chance to pronounce the name of the hemisphere their hand touched while catching it.
Maya worked alongside her peers to make a team shirt and socks out of tie die. She learned how to fold and pattern the rubber bands to achieve the tie die effect she wanted.
Maya watched a couple of short videos to hear the 9X tables. She took a practice drill and demonstrated improvement. We went over the hw, and I briefly introduced the next lesson. I did not spend too much time on the lesson because I had to spend more time on yesterday's, which is a necessary building block for Lesson-2-5. Maya continued her FF program.
I wrote questions on the board. Maya was responsible for choosing keywords (deciding why they're important words) and using them in her answer. What is your favorite flavor ice cream? My favorite flavor of ice cream is.....
We progressed to What and why questions? Where she had to give details to support her answer. She re-read Wolf! and took a comprehension quiz on it, answereing a series of compare and contrast questions, vocabulary, and a short written response question. Although, she knew the concept, she had difficulty with understanding what was being asked in the compare and contrast questions. Ex: How was the wolf in the story different from wolves in real life? The answers varied between what made the wolves the same and different. By the time she was done with reading the possible answers, she was mixed up between what they were asking. This happened a couple of times. Her written response was beautiful, but required prompting. "Start with the main idea. Now, add a detail that supports your main idea, etc."
Today Maya And I spent a lot of time on math. She did not do her homework, and I knew it would be difficult. The skill learned yesterday was a little tougher than usual. Maya and I did her hw from yesterday and practiced more problems. In today's lesson, 2-4, maya learned how to round numbers to the nearest 10 and 100. This was also a little tricky for her, but she did grasp the content and I'm confident that after more practice, she will completely understand. This is a concept that requires practice. Maya also watched a video on 9x tables to assist her in recalling her 9x facts. She took a drill, but we did not time it yet. In FF Maya did a GREAT job. She beat two of her highest scores on both Tomb Trek and Jumper Gym. Go Maya!
Maya worked on the assessment for end of step two. She is doing a good job but will have to finish tomorrow. She was having a hard time staying on task.
