Today I had Ethan read to me to establish his reading level.We discussed the types of books he likes to read and what we may read in the future. We then chose a book to read together and started reading it. I also read an article to him. I would like for him to read the next 20 pages in his book, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Old School. We will discuss the content of the next 20 pages. I also asked him to underline any words he does not understand so he can learn the meaning.

Today I subbed for Monica. Hunter read The Giver, chapters 20-21. I asked him comprehension questions. He understood the story and I think he is enjoying the story.

Yanuell was excited to begin his day reading more of our dinosaur library books. He chose to read, The Search for Antarctic Dinosaurs, by Sally Walker, because we had discussed how difficult it must be find them in the frozen tundra yesterday during our research. This amazing book describes how paleontologist Dr. William Hammer and his team of scientists uncovered the 180-million-year-old fossilized remains of Cryolophosaurus ellioti - the first dinosaur found on mainland Antarctica. Yanuell could not have been happier reading the text that explained what it is like to hunt for fossils on the coldest place on Earth. After completing the book, we did a geography study on the continents. Using a map in the book and the globe we examined the locations of the continents, the oceans, and the climates of the continents based on location. Yanuell drew his own map of the world and labeled the land masses appropriately. After our dinosaur and geography studies, we worked on sight words and found 7 that Yanuell would work on for this week. He was very excited about all of the sight words that he recognized and we celebrated his hard work and knowledge. Next, Yanuell read his first level E book and did an amazing job!!! We worked on strategies to determine unknown words and different phonics rules to help with decoding. After reading, Yanuell listened to the book and also took the comprehension quiz. He is looking forward to challenging himself and completing level E quickly.

Yanuell and I had a wonderful first day of school together! We spent some time catching up on summer excitement and then got right to work! Yanuell brought a book that he wrote last year to school with the intention of adding pages. The book is called Killer Dinosaurs and it's loaded with facts about various dinosaurs. Yanuell had four new dinosaurs already in mind to research and write about. We went to the computer lab and spent time reviewing Microsoft Word. He immediately began researching these new dinosaurs and writing about them. He found images of the dinosaurs on the web and exciting facts to include in the book. Three of the dinosaurs had lived in Asia, so we did a brief geography study. After completion, we reassembled the book and read it cover to cover - alternating pages between us. To continue with our dinosaur themed day, Yanuell and I read a new book that I purchased this summer called Dinosaur Roar, by Paul and Henrietta Strickland. The book has two page spreads that feature a simple comparison of 2 different dinosaurs. It's a simple book of opposites that feature vibrant water color illustrations that are wonderfully painted to illustrate the comparision concepts. "Dinosaur clean, dinosaur slimmy." "Dinosaur fit, dinosaur fat." "Dinosaur short or very very long." The book has a comfortable rhyme-scheme throughout. Yanuell loved that the fierce dinosaur in the book was smaller than the huge meek one. Although young, he had an interesting understanding of juxtaposition! Yanuell was thoroughly enjoying our reading and decided to pick out another dinosaur book from the library books that I had checked out for him. He decided to go with, A T. Rex Named Sue: Sue Hendrickson's Huge Discovery, by Natalie Lunis, because he had actually seen this exhibit at the Field Museum over the summer. Lunis describes Sue Hendrickson's discovery on the final day of her expedition to the badlands of South Dakota. This was not the first major discovery by Sue—she had previously found a piece of amber with a perfectly preserved insect more than 45 million years old. She became hooked on fossil hunting. What made her find exceptional was the discovery of the largest and most complete T. Rex. What happened next was also a bit of a surprise. There were law suits as different parties laid claim to the dinosaur bones. After five years the case was decided and the bones were put up for auction. Not only was Sue big but she garnered a really big price—$7.6 million was what the Field Museum paid. Yanuell was absolutely adorable when we read this part, he wished that he had been at the auction to buy Sue!! He kept saying, "Miss Kara, I NEED to buy Sue!" We ended our reading session on Raz Kids with a very exciting advancement!! Yanuell moved up to level E! He was so proud of his reading accomplishment!!!

Today in our reading time block, Yanuell read two stories on Raz Kids. He first read the stories, then listened to the automated reader, and ended by taking a quiz on the stories. For words he wasn't sure about, we discussed that he could use the pictures and/or read the next few words in the sentence to see if he could figure out the difficult word. We enjoyed reading a few pages of the "How to Be A Dinosaur Hunter" travel guide from the library. Yanuell and I had fun doing a scavenger hunt around the building comparing items that are "thick" and "thin". This activity gave him good practice with the tricky "th" sound while building the use of adjectives in language. For writing today, Yanuell chose to practice copying lowercase letter as I modeled, on the white board vs. writing his own story. We then wrote his name using a capital starting and the rest lowercase letters. We ended our time by doing some internet research on several of the dinosaurs he had written in his secret journal. We looked up the dinosaurs and added several facts about them in the journal.

Today Yanuell and I started with his new “Encyclopedia Prehistorica Dinosaurs” pop-up book that Miss Judie gave him. She also gave him a secret journal in which we spent time throughout the day writing dinosaur names that he found from his new book. We also found two different dinosaur pictures on the computer that he wanted to add to his journal and we printed and labeled those. We played several games reinforcing Yanuell’s reading of his sight words. These games focused on CVCe words (long vowels with silent –e) and r-controlled -ar words. We reviewed how –ar makes the pirate sound in words. Additionally we discussed the use of “l” and “th” in words. We discussed how the “l” sound is made with the tongue pressed on the roof of the mouth behind the front teeth. We found times when Yanuell said a “y” sound instead of the “l” and he easily made corrections and could later correct himself with only a minimal cue from me in conversation. We also talked about “th” and how that sound is accomplished by placing the tongue through the teeth. We laughed that “free” isn’t a number, but an easy correction then gave us “three”. I wrote words on the white board and we discussed how these tricky sounds happen in the beginning (initial), end (final), and middle (medial) positions of words. We used his name to help with this example and Yanuell showed good understanding of the concept (looking at how in Yanuell, the l comes at the end of the word and in Molina it comes in the middle of the word). Yanuell displayed a joyful personality all day. He was engaged and interested in our activities and verbally expressed throughout the day how happy he was about his first day of school. I was delighted to be a part of it!

Today, Liam and I worked on several reading passages in the SSAT practice book. He annotated as he read, and this proved helpful. We continue to review broad/narrow/correct main ideas. This is easier to identify when he's annotating each paragraph as he goes. We also worked on SSAT vocabulary words such as "neutral," "intuition," and "demoted."

Today, Liam and I read two rescue stories, using the annotation technique, and he answered several reading comprehension questions on main idea, supporting details, author's purpose, and inferences. The annotating greatly improved his retention for supporting details. In fact, he received perfect scores each time. However, he is still having difficulty identifying main ideas. At times, he chooses a broad thesis as the main idea when the more specific sentence is the correct answer. We will continue to review. On a side note, I also had him summarize the last few chapters of Animal Farm, and gave him a helpful handout to add to his comprehension of the novel.

Today, Liam completed the following activities:
1. Summarizing the first three chapters of Animal Farm (plot)
2. "Saving J.J. the Whale" reading and comprehension questions
3. Wordly Wise Lesson 2 word review and test

Strengths identified: recalling facts, making inferences, and author's approach
Weakness identified: identifying main idea statements that are too broad or too narrow, using words precisely (vocabulary)

Liam learned at least 7 new 8th grade level vocabulary words today--endeavored, gingerly, clad, succumb, etc. He reviewed the words with me, and when I tested him at the end of our session, he earned an A. Well done!

Today, Liam answered reading comprehension questions regarding chapters 6-10 of "Across Five Aprils." He knew most of the answers, only missing one plot turn that occurred in chapter 10 (between characters Shad and Jenny). We read chapters 11 and 12 together, finishing the novel and discussing the Civil War, as well as the themes of imperfect peace and coming of age.