Maya did an awesome job today in FF. She beat two of her high scores in Paint Match and Tomb Trek. She worked on auditory, memory and chunking skills. In math she beat her fastest time in the 3x tables with 50 problems! Then she worked on lesson 1-8- making organized lists to find possible combinations. Maya was a superstar today! I am so proud of her eagerness and diligence!

Today in Math, Maya completed a drill for the 3X tables. Her time is improving. Maya completed lesson 1-8, where she learned to count on to make change. This concept is tricky and may take some practice. We started by using manipulatives and making change from 1 dollar, and worked our way up. Maya was shown to use a bar diagram as another strategy (visual) to solve these problems. Through additional practice and modeling Maya will master this skill. Maya participated in a group activity that involved listening to a read aloud and discussion about emotions/feelings. This was a vocabulary building lesson, as well. Students were given the opportunity to cite examples of emotions they have experienced and learned synonyms for emotion words such as happy/content, sad/inconsolable, excited/thrilled, etc. This will be an ongoing activity. In Fast ForWord and L-B Maya continued her programs.

Discuss:What does heat make water do?
What is the effect of cooling on water vapor?
What causes water to evaporate?
Activity: review the solar system presentation and practice how to perform the movement of rotation.

Maya worked hard and did a wonderful job reading and spelling closed exception words.

Maya joined her friends for story time of 'A Silly Mood and other Emotions.' Throughout reading, we discussed cause and effect of the author's feelings, and the students made text to self connections of when they felt those ways/or hypothetical situations. Following reading, main emotion words were posted, and the students listened to a series of words and had to determine, together as a group, which emotion category they were a part of. (happy, sad, surprised, excited, angry) (angry=irate, annoyed, frustrated, etc.) Maya and her friends were each assigned a specific emotion category. She had a portrait done of her acting out her assigned category. (excited) She made an origami fortune teller with Yanuell that will be used as an emotion project. Throughout the week, she'll be practicing using her extended vocabulary in place of the basics.

Discuss where water is found as a solid, liquid and gas. Describe the physical features of oceans and other saltwater communities. Defined groundwater and explain how it forms.

Maya and I read "The Yoga Game" book and did poses along with the book. New poses: bumble bee and rainbow. We also created variations of poses. New balancing pose: eagle. We ended class with a brief dance session to Maya's selected song from Mary Youngblood (Native American Flute).

Today Maya watched a few different videos to help her learn the 3x tables. One of which, that was helpful was the old School House Rock, 3 is a Magic Number. She appeared to enjoy this. Then she practiced her 3x tables and did a drill. Next, she reviewed counting coins and embarked on a new lesson- making change. In order to segue into this step we discussed the common pattern of multiples of 5, and noted that they all end in 0 or 5. This helps Maya to figure out how to count on with coins. We started small- making change of a dollar today. Maya did not attend to FF or LB, as she participated in a Friday peer activity. Great job this week, Maya!

Maya and I spent a lot of time practicing her 3x times tables in order to build her confidence. When putting forth her best effort, she is quite capable of determining these products. She also spent time reviewing counting money and creating different ways to make the same amount of money (50 cents= 2 quarters, or five dimes, or 4 dimes and 2 nickels, etc. As an introduction to the next topic, we gave examples of purchasing items in a store and determining whether or not we had too much, or not enough money to buy the item. Maya had an extended snack time where everyone participated in a balloon toss discussing the different geography terms- southern, northern,eastern, and western hemispheres. The little extra time that we had was spent on math, instead of L-B. In Fast ForWord, she continued her program and worked on Polar Planet- words with /t/ sounds, and Cosmic Reader. Great day, Maya!

Maya and I read informational text and maps reviewing the 7 continents and 4 oceans. She recalled a couple of the continents and all of the oceans. After viewing them on a map for a few moments, I gave her a blank template to identify the continents and oceans, in which she did with 100% accuracy the second time around. She was introduced to new vocabulary: country and borders. We studied North America on a map and identified many countries. Maya was able to identify the name and location of 5 of them by the end of the lesson! I love her enthusiasm and excitement about school. We recorded a final video of Maya singing the 50 States that Rhyme which will be made into a video. Great job today, Maya!