Today we worked on some fine motor tasks such as opening and closing scissors in her hands and tearing paper. She was able to close the scissors but not open them. She needed help getting the tear started but could then finish tearing small sections of paper.

I encouraged her to tell her inflatable Spider-Man about some of the things she could see in her Starfall phonics videos, promoting language use.

We read her Reading Milestones book briefly today. She read the word "the" and pointed to the word "the" on our sight word wall! We added "see" to our wall and read over a "see" sight word poem. We reviewed the "Counting Butterflies" emergent reader she made yesterday. This also uses "I see" on each page. We counted the butterflies with limited participation from Becca in counting. We will continue to work on this skill.

Around 9:50, Becca interrupted an activity that she really enjoys to say she needed to use the potty. She did go and then chose some play-doh out of the treasure box. It was so exciting! Play-doh serves as a great fine motor activity, so we pressed and worked the doh and used templates to cut out turtles, sea horses, and sharks. Language activities were explored through discussion of what these animals eat, where they live, and also the hand movements needed to work the doh. We compared the items we made - long and short, big and small, etc. ( I asked her later in the morning if she needed to go to the bathroom and she said “no”. I did take her and she did urinate. She did not complain of any pain today.)

We joined the other children in the lunchroom for snack this morning. Becca did a good job sitting at the table to eat. She then interacted with the children on the playground. We took a few walks in the hallway today, focusing on hands by our side and not touching the walls or doors.

She did echo read "On" with RAZ Kids with encouragement and modeling.

We watched G on Starfall and then completed a letter tracing paper for G and named pictures that matched the short G video. We then did a familiar picture sort with three starting sounds today (E,F, and G). Becca got almost all of them correct with one self correction. We also made our G pocket picture holder and named the pictures. We reviewed the H pocket she made yesterday. She has improved in the performance of this task greatly. Initially, it took a great deal of encouragement to get her to take out one crayon at a time and color the animal shape on the page. Now when she sees a new sheet, she gets out her crayon and begins to color the paper with little to no cueing provided. We continue to work on using only one crayon in her hand at a time, holding crayon or pencil correctly, looking at the paper while coloring / writing, and coloring in a target area. She is requiring less cueing in these areas. Hand over hand assistance and guiding techniques are provided.

Finally, we read "The Three Bears" today. By using familiar stories with repetitive language, Becca is encouraged to help fill in the blanks and provide information for the story.

We listened to a new story on RAZ Kids called "Play Ball". Becca spontaneously echoed some of the stories. We then completed a worksheet to work on recall of details from stories. The story names 8 balls. Becca watched the story four times to be able to name 4 balls she saw in the story. This was the first time we have done this task, so I was very pleased with her participation and effort. We will continue to work on story recall skills.

Rebecca and I started the morning by playing the Duplo tower matching activity. She was able to match all 3 pictures. We then read a puzzle book and put the pieces back in the book. Becca and I then made a small reading book about butterflies. She colored all the pages and then we cut the book out and stapled it together. We read the book and talked about the pictures and did lots of counting.

Becca ate snack at 10:15 and then went out to play.

After the break we read the Milestones book. Becca was able to fill in the words that were repetitions. Next we read a few RAZ kids books. Becca loves the stories about Fido. We ended the day with making an animal pocket horse. Becca colored the horse and the pictures. We then cut everything out and staple it all together. We went over the H sound and placed the picture in the horse pocket.

Today Becca enjoyed receiving some Valentine's from fellow school mates. I introduced Becca to the “Days of the Week” song to the melody of the old “Adams Family” t.v. show song. We’ll do this each day.
We enjoyed the book Richard Scary's "Be Careful, Mr Frumble". We worked to find his hat that he kept losing on each busy picture page.
Today we colored and assembled a fish for our F pocket pictures. Becca did a great job coloring independently today. We then reviewed the pictures, with lots of modeling to use at the short sentence level. She traced the letter Ee and Ff with hand-over-hand assistance and labeled the 4 photos for each, to use in our starting sounds word sorts. She scored 7 / 8 in the E and F discrimination sort. She is performing this task more independently each time. Modeling is provided to increase her language from the word level to lengthier productions. We also counted eggs and traced the number to match how many.
We started a segmenting activity today in which we worked on segmenting sounds of short words. I presented Becca with a picture and the three letters to spell the word. She then used letter tiles to match the letters. We then sounded out the word each sound at a time, then said the complete word. Becca did well with the exposure to this task. We did “cat”, “pig”, and “fan”.
We read the first two stories in the Reading Milestones, Level 1 story book. The first story focused on "the boy" and "jumps". The second story added "the girl" and "runs". Becca has memorized some of the stories already and can provide the next word before I even turn the page. We added the third story today which adds “the dog”, “sits”, and “swings”; all while still using the previously introduced words. There is a great deal of photo support as well. On RAZ Kids she echo read about ½ of one of her favorite stories “My family”. I did take Becca to the restroom several times and kept her on the potty to try a bit with some “Old McDonald Had a Farm”. She never went. Around 11:30, she did tell me she had to go, so we raced down to the restroom. She may have felt the urge, but fought it back. After getting her clothes back up and washing her hands, she grabbed herself and said “yes” when I asked her if she needed to go. Again, she did not go. I had try to encourage with the treasure box, by letting her know she had told me she needed to go, so if she went, she’d get a treat. I then let her know that because she didn’t go, I couldn’t give her a treat. I was torn in the situation as I know she has some discomfort urinating right now. I wanted to acknowledge that she asked but then did not want to confuse the reward process since she didn’t actually “go”. We got back to the classroom and she said she had to go again. We unfortunately ended with the same result (no production).

Today we colored and assembled an elephant for our E pocket pictures. Modeling and verbal instructions were provided to help with target area coloring. After labeling the pictures to ensure Becca knew them, we worked on our various picture pocket packs towards using short sentences instead of just saying the picture names. For ex. "I see the elephant. I like corn" and so on. This required a great deal of modeling and will be a continued activity to encourage expanded language use.

Becca did echo read "Go, Go, Go" on RAZ kids with me today. She prefers to just listen to the audio provided, but we will continue to encourage the echo reading.

On starfall.com we explored various sounds. We also tried the word family activity again today. Becca needed a little encouragement but performed wonderfully! She completed 4 word families in which the picture is provided, the final two letters, and 4 letters as options to fill in the first letter to make the words. We did the word families –en, -et, -ig, and ip. In all cases, Becca was able to answer 3 of 4
independently (with me emphasizing the initial sound alone and at the beginning of the word), and for the one she could not name, she was able to name the letter when two-choices were offered. Frankly, I was blown away! We will continue to explore word families and the segmenting that accompanies this task (for sounding out each sound of the word to then read the word).

We used some preposition cards (directional words) and mimicked the actions with a small bird figure and a block. We practiced “on, under, and in front of”.

I gave Becca a picture of a “sun” with each letter blocked off and the correct letter tiles to spell the word herself. She was able to match the tiles with the letters provided with minimal assistance. We also did this with “leaf”.

We enjoyed several fun stories today including “Bounce” and “Who Can Swim”.

I know Becca’s urinary / toileting status is being addressed. Just to keep you aware of what we did today: I took her to the bathroom every 30-40 minutes. She did indicate she didn’t want to sit and indicated discomfort in her body movements. I sang children’s songs to her while she said which worked as a nice distraction to encourage her to sit longer and see if she would be able to go. She never did urinate at school today.

Becca had a good day today. There was much less of the “no, I don’t want to” and while she required some encouragement and motivators to participate, it was much less than what was needed yesterday.

Today we listened to some books about "Pete the Cat". Becca seemed to enjoy the books and said "funny book". She helped answer some questions while we read the stories. We then did an emergent reader (offering many repetitions) of "Pete the Cat, Wheels on the Bus". Becca helped color the book and we tried to accomplish several colors in various target areas of the page (vs. mixing all the colors together). She also enjoyed listening to the “The Three Bears”, but wouldn’t help me count the bears.

We explored the first two stories in the Reading Milestones, Level 1 story book. The first story focused on "the boy" and "jumps". The second story added "the girl" and "runs". Becca didn't help me finish repeated sentences, but was engaged in the pages and enjoyed looking through the book.

We completed a verb activity sheet. We had four written word choices: hug, jump, run, and dig. Becca had to look at the picture and determine which action completed "My dog can...". I presented the choices orally and in most cases she needed two choices to give the correct word. She did well staying engaged in this activity.

Becca enjoyed reviewing C and watching D videos on Starfall.com. I presented the –an word family activity we did yesterday and she would not participate. We made a deer pocket to hold D word pictures. Becca colored more independently today, showing familiarity with the task, and I provided some hand-over-hand assistance to help color in the target area only. Instead of just labeling the pictures, I am encouraging her to use a longer phrase (such as, I see a dog or D is for dog). We will continue to encourage this language growth. She did a picture sort, discriminating C vs. D starting sounds at 5/8 performance. She completed a worksheet tracing the letter D.

Unfortunately Becca had not gone to the bathroom for her Nana when she arrived. Within 5 minutes of arriving, she wet her pull-up. I had asked her if she needed to go and she replied "no", and I asked her if she went and she replied "no". I took her to the restroom two other times later in the morning and she did not want to sit on the potty. I encouraged her to at least let me count to five before she jumped off.
She did not urinate either time. I usually take her about 10 minutes before time to leave for the day, and unfortunately she had wet her pull-up again before I took her.

We reviewed the A, B, and C picture pocket cards we made last week. Becca still needed prompting today to provide the verbal responses, but she needed significantly less prompting, responded quickly and showed good knowledge of the task. She verbalized 100% of the words. We did an 8 picture sort discriminating pictures that start with A and C. She sorted 7 of 8 correctly and self-corrected for 2 items. We watched “C” on Starfall.com and Becca was more engaged and talking more throughout the video. We tried the next level where four letters were provided, along with a picture and a word family. Such as; ____ an, with a picture of a fan. The letters p, c, f, and r were also written on the screen. I emphasized the initial sound and did not say the letter. We did this for 8 letters and with this visual support, Becca was able to provide 7 of the 8 target letters to match the sound provided. I was so excited to see her present this skill – knowing the sound needed. Awesome!!
We completed a craft activity by decorating a large cut-out C with circles. I would ask her to pick a certain color circle out of a mix of various colored shapes and she glued it on the C using a glue stick.

Becca was more resistant to participate today. She said throughout the day "No, I don't want to", even over simple tasks such as waiting to turn off the bathroom light until after the door is opened. I continued to redirect and remind her of the expectations at school. We did accomplish many tasks for the day. We went to the lunchroom for snack with the other kids. Becca didn't really eat anything. We stayed with the group to make a Valentine craft. I gave her simple choices over materials to use. For many she said "no", but then did accept them as I handed things do her. She continued to say "no" throughout and she began getting louder. We chose to leave the activity at that time. We will continue to participate in social opportunities and work towards developing her social skills.
I also took her to the bathroom three times today. At each time, she said "no" and jumped down off of the toilet. She never did urinate. The first time we went, she did sit for a few seconds. I felt like she may have made a facial grimace (which would indicate pain) before getting off the seat, but I can't be certain. She never expressed pain verbally or in response to my questions as to if anything hurt.
I did speak with her former teacher Emily today and it seems I am operating on a similar path.

Today we reread the story "Bear's New Friend". This story contains more obscure animals such as a badger, gopher, mole, wren, raven, and a hare as the friends of the main character Bear. They meet a new friend in this story, Owl. Becca didn't verbalize any confirmation of remembering hearing the story last week or any details from the story. Throughout this colorful book, she was able to point to some of the characters named on the page. To further enrich literacy skills in looking at the characters in our stories, we followed the book with an emergent reader with the same characters entitled "The Sleeping Bear". Becca was able to recognize these black and white, line drawn characters and provide several of their names on command, before I read them. It was exciting to see this carryover. Additionally, I presented her with a mix of some identical character pictures from the reader and other similarly drawn animals that were not in the book. We then did a picture sort of "yes" that was a character in our book or "no" it was not. She did well with this, getting 50% of them correct.
We reviewed the A and B picture pocket cards we made last week. Becca does not typically volunteer the names of the pictures, but will respond when asked or repeat when needed. We did an 8 picture sort discriminating pictures that start with A and B. This is a repeated task. She showed improved understanding of the task.
We began looking at the C sound. She independently found the 14 letter c in a field of 72 letters. We watched the C video on starfall.com (as well as reviewed A and B videos as our hands-on work incentives). We colored and assembled a cat picture pouch for our C picture cards. She traced the letter Cc with hand-over-hand assistance and labeled the 4 photos we will use for our C word sort.
We counted items in several activities as well. Becca offered inconsistent counting from 1-4.
While I recognize that Becca knows some of this information already, the activity goals become oriented in features such as following directions, executing familiar tasks in new ways, and again, using the knowledge she has to increase more spontaneous language and sharing of information on Becca's part (vs. her always answering questions).
We also enjoyed the story “Bounce” by Doreen Cronin. Finally, I introduced the sight word “the”. We put the word on the wall and read a poem with “the” written in bold blue marker to encourage Becca to use “the” along with me. I will monitor the carryover with this task and add new words at a slow pace. We read a few books on RAZ kids, and I am encouraging Becca to start verbalizing words within the stories that she is very familiar with as well.

Today we went to the cafeteria to join the school at the Spanish store.I taught Becca how to ask certain questions about shopping and buying items in a grocery store. She asked the store employee how much they were charging for strawberries and used her money she had earned to purchase them. Becca worked on her communication skills and counting money with real world application. She was so excited to visit the store with all of the other students. Becca also earned twenty pesos and was able to buy a mini cupcake! After snack we worked on directional skills in reading and writing. We are working on reading from left to right on the whiteboard. Becca noticed a few of her kindergarten sight words today and was so excited when she could read the words on her own. For our final activity we listened to a few songs about letters and sounds. Becca loves singing along with the ABC song and the Wheels on the Bus. After listening to each song Becca had to point to each letter and identify the letter as well as the sound.

Using the sentences "The frog jumps." and "The girl runs." we are attempting to elicit understanding that the written sentences have meaning in the physical world. Using a frog manipulative and a girl doll we "act out" the sentences and then read them on the classroom white board,

Becca and I began with a story about Groundhog day and discussed the holiday that had just passed. We worked on patterns and sorted groundhogs by color and size. Becca is doing a great job at patterns. She can recognize when a pattern is out of order and knows how to fix it. She recognized that a black groundhog was in the middle of two brown groundhogs and replaced the black animal with the correct color. Becca ate all of her snack but didn't use the potty when I brought her into the restroom. For our final activity we worked on the short a sound. Becca showed me her alligator from the other day and told me about the words that began with the letter a. We learned a few new words and added them to her folder. Becca wanted to write a few of the words so we worked on tracing letters and building words on her whiteboard.