During our session Becca and I completed assignments from last week that the substitutes did not get to finish. We began with a coloring activity for "Mary Had a little Lamb" and went over the nursery rhyme to go along with the activity. She did a great job re-calling the nursery rhyme. Then, Becca and I completed a pre-writing worksheet to practice tracing lines with her finger. Once she got the motion down of tracing with her finger we used a pencil to trace over the lines from top to bottom. After, we reviewed the letters L and M (that were introduced to her last week) using alphabet manipulatives to trace the letter formation with her pointer finger. In addition, we practiced writing the letters with a pencil. Becca needed hand over hand assistance while completing this task. Becca and I began a sight word reader called "The Sky" that emphasized the words the and see. We read through the reader a few times through and Becca was able to read the pages in the reader. For example, "See the helicopter, See the plane." Becca and I play a opposites matching game with pictures to represent opposite words such as cold and hot. During math, Becca and I practiced counting to ten and completed a worksheet on the number seven. She had a great day today!

Becca appeared pleased to see me. She settled in a few minutes and we began with a review of “The Hungry Caterpillar”. We found the audio book on the Ipad and listened to the audio and read the book. She repeated the word chrysalis again. After reading we made a hungry caterpillar out of construction paper. She helped cut and paste the caterpillar together. She needed extra fine motor assistance with glue. The scissors were not successful for her. We tore some of the parts and that worked better for her. She understood the gluing and placing of the parts. She liked the activity but was not very interested in her finished product. We moved on to a review of “M”. She was very excited to draw monsters on the white board again. We took out the play dough and made letters again. Then she requested the sand again (green). We made some lines for letter formation on a worksheet (difficult movement for her). I used guided assistance and a fat crayon for her. We talked about “sky, fence and underground” letters. We took out all of the tactile letters and put them in order to the ABC song. She liked this a lot. We found a great ABC song/video on the Ipad and used this to complete the activity. She listened to the song/video 5 times. She really enjoyed the repetition and the little character bear in the video. We took a break for the playground. She enjoyed the houses again and we took a jump rope with us. She knew it was for jumping. I wanted to make it smaller for her but she would not let me adjust it. We jumped back and forth over the rope as I tied it to the slide apparatus. We went back in to use the restroom. I had to convince her to use the toilet. She would not participate in the bathroom steps but used the facilities and then did enjoy washing her hands. We went back to the room for snack. We moved onto math puzzles. She enjoyed making patterns with the puzzle pieces but not using the puzzle for counting. We shifted to the Ipad and she enjoyed an activity with counting and colors. We ended our day with some dancing in the gym and singing our “M” words. Becca left at 12:20.

I met with Becca on Thursday 5/14 @ 8:30am. She was very open to meeting a new teacher for the day. She was eating her granola bar. We talked about names and we exchanged little questions. She asked me: “Are you staying all day?” When I said, “Yes” she climbed into my lap. She is very loving and sweet, however, we talked about knowing people and appropriate greetings. We started with the folder left by her regular teacher. It included letter for the day “M” and books and worksheets to coordinate. I found the tactile letters and we started tracing “M”. Then we made the letter with play dough. She knows the colors of the play dough and enjoys the smell. Then we moved onto making the letter with moldable sand. She also requested a specific color of sand. Then we wrote our letter on the white board. She wanted the pink marker. We made a word bank for words beginning with “M”. Monster was her favorite word so we drew monsters on the white board. She “screamed” in a theatrical way each time we said the word monster and associated it with the word “scary”. We took a break at 9:50 and went to the playground. We played in the houses and bounced the basketball. We went to the restroom at 10:10 and she was resistant but followed prompts for proper bathroom behavior and washing. We returned to our room and read: Morris the Moose (relative to letter “M”).
We used the counting puzzle for some math skills and counting. I pulled up the Ipad activity for numbers and she enjoyed that. She understands the function of the Ipad and enjoyed the activity. . We headed to the “gym” for some movement and more “M” words. We finished our day with reading “The Hungry Caterpillar” she loved the story. I brought a stuffed character (caterpillar) with me and she responded to the story while holding the caterpillar. When we got to the part about the caterpillar making a cocoon she told me it was a chrysalis. She came up with that advanced word on her own. Amazing! She left school at 11:45.

Today, Becca and I began our session by tracing the letter L using manipulatives. Then I helped Becca hold the pencil and we began tracing the letter L on a worksheet. I repeated the L sound as we traced. We took a break and went out and played on the playground. We played for about 15 minutes and returned inside for potty and snack time. After snack Becca and I assembled an emergent reader on the story Jack and the Beanstalk. I talked to Becca about the sight words in the book and then we read the book 2 times. Next Becca and I went on to math. We talked about the number 8 and did a worksheet. We ended the morning with reading the book Hansel and Gretel.

Becca began her day by eating her granola bar and coloring a blank piece of paper. Next, I wrote a capital letter L on a sheet of paper and told her that it is the letter L, and made the L sound. I asked her to repeat the letter to me and she did after talking about Mickey Mouse for a little bit. I said some words that start with L while annunciating the L sound. For example: lollipop, lion, lips, lemon, ladybug. Then, Becca and I found the letter L on her alphabet chart. At this point, she started looking through her bookshelf and decided that she wanted to read the book, Hickory Dickory Dock. I set the book aside and told her that we can read the book after we make a big letter L to hang up in her room. She said okay and started riding her Mickey around the room and saying "To the castle! Giddy-up!" I played along with her for about 5 minutes and then redirected her to the craft. I cut out a capital letter L and a lemon. Then I helped her to glue them onto the paper. She colored the paper after it was all glued together while I continued to repeat L and the L sound. After this, Becca and I read Hickory Dickory Dock, as promised. She asked if we could read it again so I read it one more time. Last, she completed a worksheet that required her to draw short straight lines. I held her hand in mine to guide her with drawing the lines.

Becca and I began the day coloring a page about the three little pigs. Then, we worked a little bit on the letter B. Learning how to write the letter by tracing on a page. Afterward, we took a break and read a few books. Next, we went outside and played. Becca liked to go into the house and I would knock on the door and pretend to be the big bad wolf. I would ask to come in and she would respond "Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin!" When we came back inside, we had snack time. Then, we worked on a sheet that matched up the different types of houses that the three pigs made. She was able to demonstrate the difference, saying "sticks" or "straw". We tried to work a little on tracing shapes around symbols and characters from the story, but it was difficult to keep Becca from what she really wanted to do- read! So, we read a few more books and then watched the video of the three little pigs by Richard Scarry. We finished the day by watching a video on brainpopjunior.com about the ocean and the creatures that live there.

Becca and I began our session by completing a coloring activity. Then, we read the nursery rhyme "Humpty Dumpty" and Becca was able to recall and recite the nursery rhyme. Becca and I completed a pre-writing activity practicing tracing lines first with her pointer finger then using a pencil. She traced lines down starting at the dot that's on the top. She would trace to the bottom and then stop. Then, she traced lines down to make a cage for zoo animals. Then, we practiced tracing the letter A (line down, line down, across). During math, Becca and I worked on an activity to finish the AB and AAB patterns. She did great identifying the AB patterns but the AAB patterns seemed to be more challenging for her. We will continue to practice this. We completed a cut and paste worksheet on the number six. She had a wonderful day!

Becca had a substitute for the first half hour while I had a meeting with Mr. Weiss. During that time Becca completed a coloring activity practicing coloring in the lines instead of the entire paper. Also, she completed a blend sorter on -sp and -st. For example, spot and star. She cut and pasted the correct picture under the correct blend sound. Becca completed a pre-writing worksheet tracing the curves between the lines. Them, she traced the scales on the fish with a colored pencil. We practiced tracing the letter D using a letter manipulative to trace the letter formation with her right pointer finger. After, Becca traced the letter D using a pencil with hand over hand assistance. Becca and I read the story "Goodnight Moon" a few times through. Then, we played a matching game with pictures from items in the book. In addition, Becca and I used recall cards to recall the events in the story. She did a great job remembering what happened in the story and was able to recite events back to me. Then, we played a rhyming game with pictures cards and Becca was able to identify the objects in the pictures that rhymed. At the end of our session Becca used play dough with a sand texture to build sand castles and make objects. She really enjoyed playing with this and it was a wonderful tactile activity for her!

Becca and I worked on a very special Mother's Day activity for her mom and Nana. She really enjoyed this and was very excited about it. We practiced saying "Happy Mother's Day" when she gave her mom the finished masterpiece. She listened to directions during the activity and stayed focused the whole time. Becca and I had a discussion about why Mother's Day is a special day and is celebrated as a holiday in the United States. Becca and I practiced tracing her name on lined paper a few times before she signed her name on the craft she made. She did this with hand over hand assistance. In addition, we used the letter A manipulative to practice tracing the letter with her right pointer finger then tracing the letter using a pencil. Becca completed a cut and paste sorter on the short u sound -ug and -ut. She identified each picture and glued the picture under the correct ending sound. During science, Becca watched an educational video on brainpopjr.com on the ocean. Then, she cut out pictures of items that belonged in the ocean and glued them onto a blue piece of paper, which represented the ocean. She had a very good day today!

Becca and I began our session by identifying the letter I and the sound it makes. Then, we discussed words that begin with I. From there we brainstormed what type of letter I craft to make today. Becca and I created an iguana to represent the letter I and a igloo. Once it was finished we hung this up on her wall. Then, we read a story called "Inside an Igloo." In addition, we watched an educational video from brainpopjr.com on arctic homes. Becca and I used the letter I manipulative to trace the formation of the letter using her pointer finger. Using her pencil with hand over hand assistance Becca traced the letter I. During math, Becca and I discussed AB patterns and she completed a cut and paste worksheet to practice AB patterns. Then, we listened to the song "10 Little Indians" to practice counting to ten as well as I for Indian.