Planet Show Rehearsal; Patrick and his peers read Thanksgiving stories and worked alongside each other to create Thanksgiving crafts. Patrick used a template to trace the shape of a turkey body, legs, beak, snood and gobble. He cut them out and attached them to his watercolor coffee filter which represented the tail fan. He looked at large diagrams of photographs of turkeys. He learned new vocabulary; snood, shank, hock, gobble, major caruncle, spur, etc. He illustrated those parts onto his handprint turkeys, identified, and labeled them.
Patrick watched a clip on BrainPop Jr. on plane shapes and how they move. Following the clip, he illustrated shapes on a chart and spun an electronic spinner commanding him to slide, turn, or flip his shape. He recorded this information in his chart. We've been practicing using a ruler to aide in drawing steady lines as this is difficult for Patrick. He seems to enjoy using this tool to make his shapes accurate; he feels successful seeing the shapes come out the way he intends them to. Patrick and Clay made mini flip books that showed an arrow turn a series of degrees until it made a complete 360 degree turn. He was successful at organizing the 20 pages by putting them in sequential order, and fanning the pages to see the illusion of a plane shape turning. Patrick painted each letter in his name onto individual pieces of paper. He folded the paper and half to press the paint down. When he separated the papers (flipped one over) he saw the characteristics of some shapes change such as P, a, r, c, and k. (a portion of the letter was now on the other side) We made note of symmetrical shapes and noticed they did not change when flipped. We compared lower case letters with upper case (Aa), and made predictions about whether they would change or not. Patrick did great on this concept today by doing a hands on visual activity.
Patrick and I read Sakes Alive! Cattle Drive! We stopped and paraphrased what was occurring after each page. He really enjoyed this story, and would flip back through and look at the pages to show me things and add to discussion naturally. He completed a graphic organizer containing the title, author, setting, and main characters. He drew pictures and added labeled. We are working on him adding details to show illustrations clearly. Tomorrow, we'll re-read the story and complete the beginning, middle, and end portion of his graphic organizer.
Today Patrick and I accidentally did one module in FF before I realized he was supposed to have FF with Miss Heidi today. He broke his record in Hoop Nut, so maybe it was meant to be! Then he began a new lesson in VV. He read a story and visualized it. We discussed new vocabulary so that his picture would be complete. He answered questions in order to help reinforce his ability to visualize the passage. Nice work, Patrick.
Discuss what parts do most plants have (roots, stems, leaves, fruit, seeds, flowers).
Activity: label parts) all four plants on the drawing. Discuss where do most seeds come from.
Patrick completed two modules in keyboarding class. He is doing great, but was a little frustrated today using the shift key to capitalize. This is a skill that will improve with practice, because he is required to move more than one finger simultaneously. Patrick did very well in FF. In LB, Patrick completed the activities in the story about the electric eel. He successfully responded to comprehension questions which demonstrated him visualizing and verbalizing his own "movie in his mind". He answered main idea and word summary questions and a cloze-method passage accurately. Additionally, he provided responses in complete sentences to higher level thinking questions. Great work!
