Maya and I reviewed folktales and read level L "The First Strawberries" alternating reading pages. I was very impressed with her recall of our first lesson on folktales:) Maya made and confirmed predictions about her reading. She also worked hard to decode words independently during reading. This is a huge step for her! The story was about Cherokee Native Americans and Maya made the connection to her dress being Cherokee. She also discussed how Cherokee is a proper noun for people and clothes. Lastly, Maya took a quiz on nouns (common and proper). She scored 100%.

Today Maya spent her morning time with her peers. They gathered to complete the activity they worked on yesterday- making Valentine's for their friends. In the afternoon, Maya completed her math test and worked in her FF program. The computer froze up during one of her games, so the program may not have recorded it. Maya scored a 92% on her math test. Great work!

Maya created her big book of presidents. We compared, contrasted, and examined the most age appropriate details of the lives of Washington and Lincoln. We reviewed her children's books on the two presidents and she wrote and illustrated the book. The skills she practiced many language arts and writing skills: spelling, punctuation, note taking, finding details, and main idea. She presented the book to Ms. Judie and Ms. Dee, practicing her reading, speaking, listening, and comprehension skills as she presented her work and answered questions about it.

Valentine Project

Continued to work on transferring her Wilson skills to outside reading. Practiced fluency as well.

Today Maya began by a snack time mixed with creating Valentine's for her friends. She joined her peers in crafting (glueing, pasting, cutting, drawing) her own mailbox and cards for Friday's celebration. She wrote sweet notes to her friends. Maya was frequently distracted by her peers, as it was interesting for her to see what the others had created. She required many reminders to remain focused on her own work, but I was proud to see her desire to create a unique message for each friend. In math class, she came close to completing her test on Topic 9. She will need to finish this tomorrow. The crafting and snack took the time of LB and FF.

Maya and I reviewed our topics from last week, and she took an open book quiz about people who help their communities. We started a biography book project where Maya will compare and contrast the lives of Abraham Lincoln and George Washington. She watched the Brain Pop Junior videos on both presidents and took two mini quizzes about their lives. We discussed and took notes comparing and contrasting their lives, and we started compiling photos and reading about the following things/events: jobs, money, monuments, stamps, etc. Maya will create one page per topic as we compare and contrast their lives, and she will paste pictures, illustrate, and write about each president in a big book.

Maya and I had a great session today. We started a new writing project following the steps of the writing process. She completed prewriting independently and I assisted her with drafting. Maya was very focused on editing mispelled words. She wanted me to fix them, but I encouraged her to use what she knows about words, word parts and spelling and she was very successful! In reading I introduced folktales as stories told long ago to explain things in nature. We read level I How Glooskap Saved Summer. Maya was super interested and attentive. Before reading we completed a picture walk, made predictions and connections to other stories (Frozen). During the reading we confirmed predictions and summarized main events. Maya read most of the story independently, but we alternated some:) Maya was resistant to self-correting on her own. However, with encouragement and success she began correcting on her own:) Lastly Maya took a verb quiz scoring 100%!

Explore where food comes from, activity on page B15. Distinguish between producers and consumers(examples). Using the illustrations on page B16,17 point out the two food chains(in ocean and desert). Discuss how are materials recycled? What are decomposers? Why are decomposers needed? Explain producers, consumers, and decomposers in the cycle

Today Maya reviewed for her test on Topic 9. Some of the questions were a little challenging, and I am hoping she reviews this packet tonight in preparation of tomorrow's assessment. I think the review was good and hopefully it was because she was seeing some types of problems that she had early on in this Topic. In FF, she performed very well beating her high score in Leaping Lizards. She made me giggle today when she told me, "I am done...done speaking english at home. I am only going to speak french!" She has a wonderful sense of humor and brightens every one of my days!