We played Hullabaloo and then went to the park and did a scavenger hunt with the orange cones.

Analise began the session by looking over the multitude of library books I had taken out. We read the story "The Magic Backpack" together, and Analise was interested in the story as it incorporated many elements which we had reviewed in prior sessions. It was about an African boy who had a magic backpack and in the story, the main character was able to use it to travel across continents in record time in order to obtain needed ingredients for a chocolate cake the boy's classmates were baking. As we read the story together, Analise participated in sounding out words and enjoyed it when she got the words correct. She was encouraged to identify the 3 continents in the book (North America, Europe, and Africa), and asked to take particular note of beginning sounds, rhyming words and repeated phrases - all of which she did correctly. Analise identified the book as fiction but said she wished she had a magic backpack that could fly. After she answered a number of comprehension questions correctly, Analise was asked to write about where she would like to ravel if she had a magic backpack. She answered as follows: If I had a magic backpack, I would want to go to Cleveland, Ohio because that's where I was born". Analise remembered to add the period end mark. It was pointed out that cities and states needed to be capitalized, and she went back to correct the two errors she had made. Analise seemed to enjoy the book, and we read about the author and illustrator. Analise knew what an illustrator does and laughed when informed that he enjoyed making his illustrations in the bathtub. She also enjoyed learning about the author’s inspiration for writing the book. Analise has clear penmanship, and she is conscientious about turning in carefully done work and highly responsive to the praise afforded her. Additionally, Analise was patient when told we would need to finish her body portrait tomorrow as we still needed to add silver glitter to her sneakers. Instead, we finished the session by completing computer exercises (in Starfall), and reviewing word sounds, time-telling, and directional skills – via completion of a maze. Analise loved working on these activities and completed all the exercises with excellent accuracy.

Today Analise baked an amazing batch of Hershey’s Secret Kisses Cookies. She measured and added all the ingredients to the mixer. Once the ingredients were well blended she was ready for the next step. Analise opened and got the Hershey Kisses ready. Next, she formed some dough around the chocolate kisses making sure no chocolate showed. We baked the cookies for 12 minutes. Analise’s cookies turned out wonderfully.

design fundamentals. Analise completed her "complementary" colors on her parrot. She then started a new painting of her choice, a "beta fish." This will have warm colors in the background and cool colors for the beta fish.

Analise began the session by asking if she could finish a science project she had begun working on in the last session with her sisters, and the teacher gave her approval, so she was allowed to finish up the project for a few minutes. She then was ready to work on Language Arts and completed two pages in her Mack workbook. Analise was required to name the pictures shown in the workbook and circle the correct vowel below each. She was then asked to read four (4) words in a row and circle the three (3) that belonged together - to facilitate her ability to categorize or group objects correctly according to their main characteristics. She also had to use clues given to identify words that best completed the sentence. Analise was required to write down the word in its entirety to practice her penmanship, visual discrimination skills and spelling. Analise was then asked to complete another assignment in her workbook focusing on consonant digraphs. She was asked to review the sound of the consonant digraph 'ch' and identify those pictures that began with that particular consonant digraph, and mark an X on any that did not belong in the set. Analise obtained 100% accuracy on this activity. Analise then asked for help with the instructions for the activity requiring her to circle and write base words given a series of three in three examples; however, once it was explained to her, Analise understood expectations and correctly circled the base words: ('play', 'walk', and 'rolls', given the words: plays/played/playing; walk/walked/walking); and rolls/rolled/rolling). Analise finished up her grammar and phonemic awareness exercise by circling phrases that made the most sense after reading 'closure'-type sentences from examples. She demonstrated good comprehension and reflected upon each example given before circling that which made the most sense - achieving 100% accuracy on this exercise. We concluded the session by finishing up some details on the body picture begun the other day. Analise was asked to assist me in preparing materials, such as pencil, paints, a ruler, glue, and some ornaments she selected with which to embellish the picture. Analise enjoyed gluing hearts onto her shirt and was careful to use just a dollop when cautioned to use the glue sparingly and carefully. She demonstrated a good ability to follow multi-step directives and good fine-motor skills in performing this activity that concluded right as lunch arrived.

Analise was eager to begin the session acting as a 'model' for the body tracing activity we had planned to do after lunch. She assisted this teacher in assembling the necessary materials (butcher block paper, scissors, a ruler) - and understood expectations that were outlined for her. She assumed the pose she wanted to be traced and allowed me to trace her outline with a pencil; however, she was very ticklish and needed to be reminded and cautioned to lay straight on the paper or her dimensions would be distorted. Analise will question a word if she does not understand it, and her vocabulary is enhanced as a result of her inquiries. When queried later if she remembers what the word means, Analise is able to recall it and demonstrates excellent listening skills and auditory memory. After the outline of her body was traced, Analise was asked to identify various body parts which she did with good accuracy. She was pointed out specific parts, such as elbows, ankles, and wrists to further broaden her vocabulary, and Analise readily soaked up the information. She did not want me to write the words that appeared on her T-shirt and asked if she could instead render her own illustration when it came time for that part of the exercise; she was extremely satisfied to learn that she would be allowed artistic liberty and could get creative when embellishing her attire. Analise followed directives and directions well and proved to be a good model when asked to remain motionless while the tracing was being done. She was very pleased with the final artist's rendering and helped embellish a few details. Analise gave a '2 thumbs up' to her picture before leaving my class for her next session.

Analise was waiting for me in the classroom with a book in hand. First, she asked if we could reread one of her favorite books and alternate parts, as we have done in prior sessions. She gets to choose the parts. With each reading, Analise increases her language sight word recognition, proficiency, fluency and articulation. She enjoys infusing the sentences with the appropriate emotions and found humor in the play of words when a character says "I am not a pony", I am a "phony!" - emphasizing the differences between the two beginning sounds. We sounded out words that were a bit more challenging, and when a word re-appeared, Analise demonstrated good visual recall and repeated the word correctly. We then moved onto a book I had taken out of the library - "Mariposa and the Fairy Princess - Fairy Dreams." This book had a lot of illustrations and more of a plot than prior books. It was a bit more difficult, with unusual names, and some of the words proved a bit more challenging, but Analise remained steadfast in sounding them out. At the conclusion of the story, I presented her with 15 oral questions to determine her comprehension of the literary material - and Analise achieved 14 out of 15 correct (93%), demonstrating that she understands the literary content of the material she reads very well. She was encouraged to identify the descriptive adjectives used to describe the characters, and their attire, and did so quite adeptly, using many of the adjectives used by the author but adding emphasis in her inflection and tone. When Analise knew that it was time for lunch, she politely asked if I could trace her body as I had done for her sisters last week I explained that a promise is a promise, and we would surely do so after lunch.

Math - complete handouts...counting money using quarters, dimes, nickles, and pennies. Then write different ways to show specific numbers, for example, 14 can be shown by 7+7, 5+5+4, 10+4, 18-4, etc.
Science - review The Life Cycle of a Butterfly and color the picture showing the cycle in the proper order.

Using shaving cream and food coloring, Analise made her own marbled paper. She filled a shallow sheet pan full of shaving cream. Then, she mixed food coloring and water together in small paper cups. Analise used an eye dropper to drip the food coloring onto the shaving cream and a toothpick to swirl the two together. Gently, she placed pieces of cardstock paper onto the mixture to transfer the swirled paint. We let the papers set a few minutes before scraping the excess shaving cream off to let the papers dry. Analise wants to use the stationery to make a birthday card for her friend's birthday coming up in April.

Analise and I began the session with practicing the alphabet, the months of the year, days of the week, today's date and weather.

We then engaged in practicing identifying the similarity & differences of the pieces presented which vary in sizes, colors and shapes.

The second part of the session we read a book from Raz-Kids named Tom goes to Spain written by Francis Morgan. We then started our spring activity, and with Analise's input we created a Bunny spring Mask.