Patrick learned how to use commas when writing the date, including the day of the week. I modeled the appropriate placement in commas for today's date, and wrote many other examples on the board for him to apply the concept. He did a great job. He also learned the placement of a comma when writing a letter, including a greeting and closing. We brainstormed different people someone could write a letter to, and we included their name in the greeting. Then, we brainstormed who wrote the letter to the specific people and what word would be most appropriate. For ex: writing to a friend, family member, boss, or someone who just lost a loved one. (Your Friend, Love, Respectfully, Sincerely, etc.) He got a little mixed up with the closing when the closing contained more than one special word, such as "Your Friend, Patrick." With repetition and reminders that it goes after the last word before the name, whether it is one or two words, he mastered the concept. He wrote a letter to his brother and included the date, a greeting, and a closing. He brought it home to give to his brother in hopes that he will write him back or at least answer his questions verbally. He was excited :)
Patrick had a fun day participating in holiday festivities. We left to go on a group field trip to pick out our very own Christmas Tree. The owner showed us around and pointed out the various kinds of trees, which came from his brother's property in Lake Placid, NY. We walked around and found just the right one for our school. Once we returned to the school all of the students participated in a read aloud about The Gingerbread Man. Afterwards they all shared in watching a short movie about cinnamon and where the tree came from and how the spice is made. Then we used followed a recipe to make different shaped ornaments made up of cinnamon and applesauce. The students had holiday spirt while making them. After lunch, they listened to another holiday story and made another type of ornament. We listened to holiday music and strung our tree with lights. It was a festive day where the students had a great opportunity to socialize and spend time with one another.
Patrick and his peers went to the North Pole Tree Stand to get a tree for their school. They learned about the various types; fraiser fir, scotch pine, etc. and many facts about the trees, where they are from, etc. The guide made a connection to Patrick's age and a tree that had grown to 5-6 feet taking the same amount of years to grow! Upon returning, we read The Gingerbread Man and discussed what was occurring, and made and confirmed predictions. Patrick helped mix in ingredients to make gingerbread ornaments to later decorate for the tree.
Patrick was introduced to new vocabulary: solid shapes, 3 dimensional, cube, pyramid, vertices, faces. He used gum drops and toothpicks to create a cube and square pyramid. This was an excellent activity to strengthen fine motor skills. Patrick identified how many faces and vertices were on each solid figure.
Patrick did very well in keyboarding today. He was able to maintain the proper posture for a longer period of time than usual. He completed two modules scoring an 85 and 88% accuracy rate. I was happy to see him slow down in order to touch the correct letters. I think Patrick is adjusting to this new program, as he gets more used to it. In LB Patrick worked on a new passage. He did well expressing his picture, but only after requesting to see the picture in the book. He was able to retain the correct definitions to the vocabulary words and answer questions pertaining to the picture and word summary. In FF, Patrick completed both modules, coming close to his record scores.
Patrick worked on recalling details of an event that happened during recess. Although, there were many things that happened, I encouraged him to choose one event and stay in the moment when telling me about it. He wrote 3 sentences on topic and needed some prompting here and there. Overall, great job!
