Today Analise worked on remembering finger numbers and remembering left and right hands. Analise played on the black keys, which are more prominently distinguished from one another to make the fingers more comfortable for a beginner. We discovered that the fingers are numbered backwards on the left hand! (thumbs are "one"!) We also touched a little bit on playing simple white-key melodies: reading printed notes and numbers and also by listening and repeating by rote.

Today was sadly our last lesson together! Analise played through many pieces with left and right hands "conversing" with each other, left hand asks a question, right hand answers. We worked through songs that use only black keys and graduated to a song that uses only white keys (a little more of a challenge to maintain finger position) and she did wonderfully. We ended our lesson with Old MacDonald Had A Farm. Analise chose different farm animals and we sang and played through the song, making animal noises at the appropriate times in the song. Great fun! I will miss her!

Analise and I began by singing our numbers song. Then we colored a rainbow. Each ray is a different color. Afterward, we played a board game with colors (each block you land on, you say the color it is). This game is also nice because it reinforces counting every time you roll the dice and move that number of spaces. At the end of our session, we used alphabet letter cutouts and put them in order.

Today we learned about the different seasons and focused on all things Spring! We made spring flowers and talked about the changes in weather and read a few books about Spring!
We reinforced upper and lower case letters Aa thru Vv. She is able to identify all upper and lowercase and know the letter sounds to Vv. We used the magnetic white board and played a game putting the letters in alphabetical order. She did quite well. I gave her hints for the letters she had trouble placing and she was able to chose the proper letter with clues.
We also worked in her all about me book and completed a few fun pages! She loves doing this and puts a lot of effort into her work!
We also painted letters and pictures beginning with those letters and played a matching game!!
She also had computer time for reading and math on ABCYA.com
Analise had a good day!

Analise began her session by showing me an online reading website that she enjoys. She was able to show me several of her favorite stories and explain them in detail. Next, Analise learned a new game called Math Trash. The game focuses on practicing counting skills. Players are dealt cards in front of them and they try to get rid of them all by drawing cards and assembling them in numeric order, gradually reducing the cards they have with each round. She did a fantastic job with numeration, strategy, and counting. We ended the session reading a National Geographic Kids book called Safari. This book is excellent resource for teaching a child to read. It contains short repetitive, rhyming text which gave Analise an opportunity to read some of the text herself. She was extremely excited about her participation in our reading and even exclaimed, "I'm reading, too!"

Today I planned for Analise.

We practiced the 3 warrior poses, tree and down dog, and matched the cookie cutter shapes to the poses. We then rolled out Playdoh and made yogi people out of playdoh using the cookie cutters. Analise did an excellent job and really enjoyed our playdoh project.

Analise and I had a very busy day today! We worked on letter posters for the letters U and V. For U, there was an umbrella and for V, a volcano. After finishing the posters, we read a book What's Cooking in the Pot and found all the letters U and V that we could find. Later, we went to the abcya.com website and practiced math and reading. Analise is getting very good at counting! After lunch, we went to the art room and painted animal letters for S, U, and V. We also made Clifford puppets. While the puppets were drying, we read two more books: Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? and My "S" Book. When the puppets were dry, we used them to read a Clifford book: Clifford and the Tummy Trouble. We also came up with a list of words that start with the letters U and V. At the end of the day, we finished with a group activity for the first day of spring!

Today Analise and I began class by painting a tiger letter "T". She then painted a tiger face mask. We listed as many words as we could that begin with the letter "T". Then we read the story Bartholomew and the Oobleck. We then made our own oobleck. Oobleck is a non-Newtonian fluid; it has properties of both liquids and solids. You can slowly dip your hand into it like a liquid, but if you squeeze the oobleck or punch it, it will feel solid. Analise had so much fun playing with the Oobleck.

Analise and I completed her morning routine, which consisted of the calendar, months of the year, days of the week, weather, seasons, and alphabet pronunciation. Analise and I learned and sang together a few songs to remember the days of the week, months of the year, and the sounds the alphabet letters make. Then, I introduced the letter S to Analise and we discussed the sound the letter makes as well as words that begin with S. After, Analise practiced writing the letter S in capital and lowercase. Analise and I began to create an S picture of a slithering snake to hang on her wall with the rest of her alphabet pictures.