Gwendolyn had an amazing day at the Loggerhead Marinelife Center learning about sea turtles.

Baylie and I played academic games for this session. She had an exceptional attention span, and was eager to work. Our game was one of questioning, making inferences, process of elimination, and identifying and recalling details.

Today Stephen began learning typing. He began learning 4 of the home key letters today. he practiced and was able to write 12 words per minute using the letters f and J and 11 words per minute using the letter D an K. Stephen was able to type 7 words per minute when he combined all 4 letters. When Stephen took a typing break he played base ten bingo and math shoot out.

Today Gwendolyn and I started our session by writing about today’s writing prompt. Today’s prompt was “If I found a pot of gold I would…”. Gwendolyn then listened as I read 2 chapters of the book Holes to her. We discussed the meaning of the words that were new to Gwendolyn. This week Gwendolyn will be reading different fables. We discussed the meaning of fables, personifications, and moral. Today Gwendolyn read The Tortoise and the Hare. She filled out a graphic organizer as he read the fable. Since Gwendolyn typically has academic games during this time, we spent the last 15 minutes of class playing Math Dual and Mad Minutes on my tablet. Gwendolyn really enjoyed these games.

Baylie began her session with a math game called Missing Number. The game is an algebra based find the missing number game. One person closes their eyes while the other player puts counters under a cup. The player opens their eyes and can only see what is outside of the cup and needs to solve for the missing number. Baylie played this game with sums of 10, 12 and 14 and picked up the concept quickly. This game is a great way for Baylie to practice her addition and subtraction facts. I recommended her playing with Morgan at home. Next we moved on to a game called Headbands. Headbands is not only fun, but inherently educational as well. While playing, students use their deductive reasoning skills with the game's simple yes or no, question-and-answer premise. By making connections and coming up with questions that will lead to answers, students also practice creative critical thinking skills. Baylie did a wonderful job using both her deductive reasoning skills and critical thinking skills (and she laughed quite a bit as well!) After several rounds of Headbands, we transitioned to a literacy game called Context Clues: Pirate Treasure. In the game, players must make their way across a tropical island in a search for gold. Each player reads different story cards with short passages and must use context clues to answer the questions. Baylie did very well finding the clues within the text to help her answer the questions correctly.

It was so nice to meet Stephen today. Today we played games that reinforced the long I sounds as well as contractions. We began our session by write different igh, ite, and ide words on note cards. For example, light, bite, and ride. Then we used the cards we had made to play memory. When we finished playing our memory game, we played the game Math Dual on my tablet. We raced each other to see who could answer addition and subtraction facts first. Stephen really enjoyed this game. We then played another memory game. In this game Stephen wrote two words on one card and their conjucntion on another. For example, do not (card one), don't (card two). Stephen had to match the cards to one another. We finished by using these words to make a bingo board and play bingo. Stephen was very excited and involved during our lesson today.

Gwendolyn began her session by playing a game called Headbands. Headbands is not only fun, but inherently educational as well. While playing, students use their deductive reasoning skills with the game's simple yes or no, question-and-answer premise. By making connections and coming up with questions that will lead to answers, students also practice creative critical thinking skills. Gwendolyn did a wonderful job using both her deductive reasoning skills and critical thinking skills. She laughed throughout the game because she thoroughly enjoyed wearing the headband with the mystery card on her head and being able to see mine while I could not. After several rounds of Headbands, we transitioned to a literacy game called Reading Skills Review: Time Machine. In the game, the players stumble upon a time machine and use their reading skills to travel through time. They make their way around the board, reading and answering leveled story cards that propel them from prehistoric times to the distant future. A variety of story cards ask students to find the main idea, use context clues, read for detail, find cause and effect, form contractions, find synonyms and more. Gwendolyn was able to show off her excellent reading skills while playing this game. When she questioned her answers, we worked on strategies like looking back into the passage to search for clues.

Today I played "Apples to Apples Jr." with Anna and Quinn using reading and vocabulary skills. We also used the Snap Circuits set a bit to explore conduction of electricity. We created a system to power a propeller. We also powered a light, but were unsuccessful in our attempt to power the speaker. We'll have to try that one again some time!

Gwendolyn played a game called A to Z Junior during her academic games session. The game is a fast-paced, naming game, that involves many different categories. A to Z helps develop recall speed, decision-making skills and build vocabulary. Gwendolyn and I collaborated together to try to see how many spaces we could fill on the game board. She really enjoyed playing several rounds of the game and was determined to come up with words to fill the spaces for every letter of the alphabet. Gwendolyn was creative in her word choices and was able to think outside of the box which helps to be more successful in the game.

Baylie spent the majority of her session playing The Main Idea, Jungle Safari. The game is a reading comprehension game where the players navigate the board which is set up as a jungle safari. The players choose cards and must read the passages to figure out the main idea in order to advance. Baylie and I discussed the concept of main idea before playing the game so that it would be fresh in her mind. Baylie enjoyed playing the game and did well finding the main idea. When she was stuck between two we used different strategies to help figure out the correct answer. We also employee different decoding strategies when Baylie came across unfamiliar words. After playing Jungle Safari, we had about 10 minutes left of class and Baylie wanted to play Chess to show off her amazing chess skills.