March 12, 2015
Thursday 60 min
1:30 - 2:30
Reading enhanced play. I substituted for Miss Kara. We read a book about great white sharks and then played a game (Gumbo limbo) that was focused on reading and determining the subject of selected passages. I am very impressed with Ethan’s reading. He has greatly improved over the past few months
Yanuell and I began class by stretching our arms, legs, and back muscles. Then, we learned a fun dance song called "The Sid Shuffle" from the movie Ice Age. After, we made up our own dance moves to the song "I Like To Move It, Move It" from the movie Madagascar. At the end of class, Yanuell showed me a book he made all about fish and we read it together. Finally, we researched a few of the fish on youtube.com.
Baylie has worked so hard in language arts that she has earned a day of academic games. She chose to play Scrabble. Scrabble helps Baylie to practice her word building skills, spelling skills, and many other skills. It also requires critical thinking and planning. Baylie did an excellent job and even beat me!
Ethan began his academic games session by playing a reading skills game called Grammar Gumshoes. In this game, young detectives examine parts of speech, sentence structure, verb tense, and punctuation to solve grammar mysteries. Ethan did an outstanding job playing this game and was excited to discuss the rules behind each question. After completing our reading game, we switched subject areas and moved to a math game called Flip Six. At the start of each round each player is dealt six cards and places them in two rows of three cards without looking at the cards. On a player's first turn, he first flips two cards face-up - one on the top row, the other on the bottom - then takes his turn, drawing the top card of either the discard pile or the deck. The player then either: replaces one of the cards in his array with the newly drawn card, placing the new card face-up and placing the replaced card on the discard pile. Discards the card he drew or places the card on a matching face-up card in his array, then discards both of these cards, then the card either above or below this position. The goal of Flip Six is to have the lowest total when the round ends, and the round ends when a player has six face-up cards, a player has no cards (due to discarding) or a player calls for the end of the round because she thinks she has the lowest score; in all cases, each other player takes one final turn. Players then tally their scores, which can be negative due to the deck including negative numbers. This is an excellent game for mixed ages. It requires basic addition and subtraction skills that most students will be able to handle. However, it is also fun for an adult playing with children! It is quick, requires strategic thinking and can have many winners in a short period of time. Ethan absolutely loved playing this game - he quickly picked up on the skills and strategy to win. Jackson even came in to join us for the last game and we had some heated competition!
Today Analise and I began class by reading the story "Alexander The Acrobat". We discussed the how many "a" words this story contains. We then played a counting game in the Dojo with Morgan, involving hula hoops. We read the story "Skippy Skunk". This story focuses on the blend "sk". We finished class by playing with the parachute in the dojo with several of the other students! Great work today Analise!
Marina, Gwendolyn, Ms. Gina, and I played a game of headbands for 15 minutes. The object of the game is to try to guess what picture card you chose by asking the other players questions about your chosen card. The girls really enjoyed time together.
Yanwell and I improvised dance movements as we listened to the rhythm in the song "Everybody Dance Now." The purpose of this activity was for Yanwell to express emotion and release energy channeling it into creative direction. In addition, he followed the beat to the song and practiced coordination. He was a great sport during this activity! After, we played a game of Candy Land and read a dinosaur book from Dr. Suess.
Analise and I took turns reading several Clifford books. She read some books to me and I read some to her. When Analise was reading to me, she was making up stories based on the pictures. Her stories were very accurate and also hilarious. After this, we played two rounds of Candy Land. This game was great practice for her counting skills. She won both games!
Ethan wanted to play Blokus again today for his academic games session. He has really taken a liking to this game and has worked very hard on visualizing how to block opponents and expand his territory used appropriately shaped pieces. This games involves much strategy in addition to spatial thinking and Ethan is really developing these skills nicely! After playing am extremely competitive round, Ethan wanted to read and research dinosaur information using classroom books. He has been very excited about dinosaur information since he began co-authoring his book with Yanuell.
