Today Anna and Quinn began learning about the needs of animals. Before we read about what animals need, Anna and Quinn brained stormed about what they thought all animals need. We began chapter 2 by reading in the text about the needs of animals. Anna and Quinn learned how some animals can breathe with their lungs. We also discussed how some animals, such as fish, breathe through their gills. We completed a review worksheet on this lesson. It reviewed the concepts and important vocabulary such as oxygen, habitat, migrate and hibernate. Anna and Quinn will be completing a diorama of an animals' habitat. Anna and Quinn each choose an animal to research. Anna chose a horse and Quinn chose a gray wolf. They both used the computer to research these animals. On Friday they will use their information to make their animals habitat.

We worked on the pronunciation of vowels in spanish. The kids learned a chant. We played some games where they had to identify the sound that I said.

Anna and Quinn worked on lesson 5-6 today. This lesson focused on using different coins to find the same value. Anna and Quinn had to fill in a table with 3 different ways to find 1 amount. For example, 25 cents: 1 quarter or 1 dime & 3 nickels or 5 nickels. Anna and Quinn used real coins to complete this activity. Anna and Quinn completed the lesson 2-6's problem of the day, reteach, and half of the quick check. Tomorrow Anna and Quinn will begin working on the 2 money lesson from the 3rd grade chapter 1 text and will test on this material on Friday!

Build gears for front and rear differential, place ball bearings and create gear assembly.

Quinn was a big help in assembling the gears and greasing the metal parts.

Anna: Continue working on the song The Juggler, and introduce last song in her book, From a Wigwam.

Quinn: Continue practicing switching the E, A, and D chords and using them to play the Happy Birthday song.

Both Quinn and Anna did a good job playing their songs. Anna did much better on The Juggler, and was very excited to try the first 4 measures of the last song in her book.

Quinn does a great job making and remembering his chord shapes, but we need to work on consistently finding the correct fret positioning. Once we place them on the correct frets, his chords sound very nice and clear.

I recommend that they both spend about 15 minutes a day practicing at home.

Today Anna looked at traditional Russian patterns to inspire a mixed media project she will be making. She selected colors from the patterns to paint her flowers that she is creating out of an egg carton. Anna chose red and yellow and was able to paint most of her flowers today. Once the flowers are complete they will be arranged in a circular composition with painted ornamentation inspired by the Russian patterns.

Today Quinn finished his off road track by mounting it onto cardboard for additional durability. Afterwards, Quinn was introduced to one point perspective. He learned about the horizon line and vanishing point and was able to draw boxes in perspective from multiple viewpoints. For his next project we will continue working with perspective and incorporate drawings of trucks.

Tony and Lisa, the characters of the textbook, travel to a large stadium in Mexico city to watch a soccer match. They meet friends there and greet them and tell them their names.

Today Anna and Quinn expanded on their money counting, they added dollars and dollar coins. The both did very well with today's lesson. They practiced adding up their change as well as seeing how many dollars they had. We practiced how to read money. For example, $2.43 is two dollars and forty three cents. We also talked about how you do not need the cents sign when there is a dollar sign out front, even though we say cents. **Quinn got his highest score yet today on his Mad Minute, 12 problems!

Anna and Quinn took their spelling test. Worked on reading aloud using punctuation.

Today, Anna and Quinn walked through a mock of what it would take to pass a bill in Congress. Anna came up with a law that Quinn opposed. Together, they walked around the school trying to convince others to vote with them. Ultimately, Anna and Quinn learned that they could work together to pass a bill that they each felt comfortable with. They learned the importance of amendments and the need to re-draft or re-write a bill so that more people will agree to the law. At the end of class, we discussed the U.S. Constitution and why it is important to have a government and laws.