Ethan began his session with a game of Addition War. Addition War is a variation on the children's card game War. The great thing about Addition War is that it is educational, entertaining and a wonderful way to practice addition facts with speed. It is also a good way to reinforce addition vocabulary words like addend and sum. Ethan had a great time playing the game and while playing we worked on many different addition tricks and strategies. After Addition War, we played a game called Under the Sea Odd and Even Race to the Top. The game has players navigating a game board of odd and even numbers in a race to see who can get to the surface first. We reviewed odd and even numbers and also game strategy. Ethan loved playing this game and beat me three times in a row.

Ethan worked on the school's Sumdog math site to practice his math facts. After the computer practice, we played a game called find the missing number to develop algebra, addition, and subtraction skills.

Ethan had a wonderful Skype school session playing Math Jeopardy. The Jeopardy game board had 5 different categories: Doubles Facts, Doubles Plus 1, Doubles Minus 1, Missing Addend, Find that Fact. Ethan did a great job navigating the game board and practicing his math facts. We discussed different ways to solve problems and also doubles facts that need his attention (6+6, 7+7, 8+8, and 9+9.) Ethan performs very well in game type settings thus making academic games a great way for him to learn and reinforce skills.

When we began our Skype session, Ethan had been watching fishing videos. We discussed the Lionfish and how this invasive species is causing huge problems for our reefs. We watched a short video clip filmed in Bermuda that showed how scientist are trying to help reduce the growing number of Lionfish. We looked at several maps and studied that large area affected by the fish. After our research, Ethan logged onto Funbrain and played several different math games. The games all included addition and subtraction. Ethan played Slingshot Math, Baseball Addition, Swipe It, and Blast Off.

Today Marina and I were able to meet to play academic games. Marina wanted to continue practicing her typing skills on Dance Mat Typing. She completed lessons 4 and 5. She really enjoys that typing program. She finished the last few minutes of the session by playing on Sumdog.

Marina was very excited to continue working on her typing skills. Marina completed lesson 4 and 5 on the Dance Mat Typing program. In the last 15 minutes of class I introduced the website Sumdog.com to Marina. Sumdog is a website that allows me to set the specific math skills that I want Marina to work on. Sumdog, then let's Marina practice these skills while playing games. Marina earns coins for each correct answer she gives and she can use these coins to decorate her character.

Ethan began his session by playing Context Clues: Pirate Treasure. In this game, players make their way across a tropical island in search for gold by reading story cards and using context clues to answer questions. The object of the game is to be the first player to find the winning Treasure chip and solve a final story card. Story cards include leveled passages and questions that ask players to use context clues to answer it. Ethan did an amazing job navigating the game board by using context clues to answer the questions correctly. We followed up our reading game, with an introduction to the Palm Beach County Schools website. Ethan book marked the site on his computer and learned how to navigate to the Learning Tools for Kids section. On this site, Ethan went to Funbrain, a application filled with great reading and math activities. Ethan played two different math fact games and practiced his addition skills while having fun!

Marina was very focused during academic games today. Today Marina decided to play a game in which she had to use assorted geometric shapes to replicate a design. Some of the cards gave Marina a list of the shapes she would need to replicate the pictures. Other cards just gave Marina a picture and she had to figure out which pieces she need to use to replicate it. Marina really enjoyed this activity. We had soft music playing in the background. This seemed to help Marina stay focused.

Ethan had a great first day of Academic Games. Because we did our session via Skype School - things were structured a bit differently. We began our session with an informational Powerpoint lesson about Ants. Ethan learned many different facts about the amazing insects and was most impressed with the fact that if he were as strong as an ant he would be able to lift a car. After the Powerpoint lesson, Ethan watched a two different educational videos about fire ants and leaf-cutter ants. Seeing the ants in action was very exciting and helped bring the ant facts to life. Next, Ethan was introduced to an online academic game site called Funbrain. The site has many different reading and math games. Ethan learned how to navigate the site and sampled two different math games. He was very excited about the games and they will be a helpful tool for practicing his reading and math skills.

Today Stephen and I began our lesson by playing a new game "Diggin It Sight Words". In this game Stephen had to read a sentence with a missing word. Then he had to determine which word correctly completed the sentence. Then we moved into the dojo and completed a large memory game. The words in the game were all contractions. In the last ten minutes of class, Stephen completed TTRSonline typing lesson 1.10. Stephen really seemed to enjoy all the games today. I hope he has a great trip back to New York. He will be missed!