We discussed the kind of books Ben likes to read. He told me about The Bluest Eyes. I told him about books by Sharon Draper. He showed me some videos of amazing technology.

Matthew was absent today.

absent

We reviewed literature about the Donner family as it was aligned with subject matter and work that Ben is doing in American History. Ben knew the details of this pioneer story, which lured this family group west to California in late 1846, with the promise of free land and better climate but they got stranded en route. It was the worst disaster of the overland migration to California. Ben was able to fill in many of the details of this fateful expedition.

We began reading "Gift of the Magi" today, a story set in the early 1900s. We discussed what makes a good gift as a prereading activity.

We watched a movie based on the book The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.

PJ expressed interest in The Lord of the Flies and had a pretty good idea of what it was about. We found a copy in the Batt School library and read chapter one. PJ read with excellent fluency. He was enthusiastic to determine the setting given context clues; looking at a map, he decided that the boys had crashed on an island in the South Pacific.

Today we worked with story cubes. Story cubes teach problem-solving and help students think 'outside of the box'. They are also a really creative tool that can be used to help encourage creative thinking as well as memory/recall. Matthew and I used these cubes to create several stories. He has a great imagination!

We played a couple of games together inside and then we went outside and played ping-pong.

Absent