Analise completed exercises in the Map Skills book provided by her school. She completed the exercise "Jamie's Puppy", using her newly acquired map skills to correctly figure out in which directions the puppy needed to go in order to chase a rabbit. In a subsequent activity, Analise used map skills and directional prompts to look for a variety of animals situated in different locations at a zoo that was illustrated in the workbook. Analise seemed to enjoy these exercises and was responsive to verbal reinforcement, exclaiming loudly and excitedly, "Let's keep learning!"- so enthusiastically that it drew that attention of her siblings working next door. We next moved onto a mapping exercise in which Analise demonstrated her knowledge of the purpose of a map key when given just the definition and identifying it before even beginning the assignment. She then wrote the correct cardinal direction in blanks provided when given directions and used the symbols provided in the key correctly. She remembered to capitalize each correctly independent of prompts. Analise was proud of her accomplishment and clearly enjoyed working on map skills. We will be moving on to learning how to use a compass rose and legend next week. As if on cue, the exquisite aroma of a delicious lunch that Ms. Judie had ordered for everyone wafted through the air, piquing Analise's appetite and curiosity, and summoning her to investigate its source. It was time for lunch!

Analise began the session by asking to reread the story "Ballet Cat', as it was her favorite story out of all the books she's read - so we did just that. She seems to enjoy alternating roles with me, which has proven to be an excellent way to review words and fluency. Today, Analise chose to be the character Sparkles, the mule, and I was Ballet Cat. As the book introduced more challenging words and a few interesting themes, it provided a good opportunity to explore some of the feelings and emotions experienced by the characters and Analise demonstrated a sensitivity to the characters' feelings and was able to make a personal connection and relate it to some situations she's experienced or witnessed in her personal life with her friends at school. Each time the story has been read, Analise has become more appropriately expressive and fluent in her reading, and she has demonstrated greater depth of comprehensive knowledge and expressions of empathy.

Analise was then encouraged to continue reading and to make another selection from the library. She chose a book entitled, "Diary of a Worm, Teacher's Pet". Using this book, Analise was asked to identify rhyming words, long vowel sounds, consonant blends, and contractions. We discussed simple concepts and characters, comparing and contrasting the physical features of the different animals introduced in the book (ie; flies, bees, spiders, worms). This provided a good opportunity to reinforce and consolidate learning gains and transfer skills from the previous session through review of the Venn diagram we created the other day and which Analise had displayed on the classroom wall. We reviewed its purpose and applied prior learning to the novel set of information provided in the new story and verbally compared and contrasted the differences between the physical characteristic sets of the different insects based on our prior knowledge and upon information put forth in the story. Although the story contained actual insects, Analise correctly identified it as fiction and supported her answer. Analise finished the Language Arts session by correctly categorizing her library books into fiction and nonfiction (3 nonfiction and 7 fiction), and reviewing high frequency sight words (want/her/our/once/round/any/could/white/who/where), and a review of consonant blends (wh); Analise was asked to generate her own list of some new 'wh' consonant word blends.
We then moved on to working out of the Mack workbook and a review of contractions, the sounds of consonant digraphs ('sh"), and base words and endings. She completed a few exercises in which she was asked to complete the sentences and predict outcomes by circling the phrases that made the most sense. We concluded the session on page 40 in the Mack Workbook. Analise read the story "Mack Likes Flowers," which helped to review the beginning and long vowel sounds of 'e'. Analise's comprehensive knowledge was assessed by an exercise in which she was asked to circle sentences that described the picture best - and she did so with 100% accuracy. We took a 5 minute break before her Social Studies session was to commence.

Math - Complete handouts...time - fill in minutes on clock...5 thru 55 and answer questions - how many minutes in an hour, half, and quarter hour? Identify shapes - squares, circles, and triangles. Measure various items to the nearest centimeter. Then complete
Fact Family using various numbers and complete addition/subtraction word problems.
Science - watch video of The Life Cycle of a Butterfly.

In this lesson, Analise completed a worksheet on Making a Map. She followed instructions to label streets, two bodies of water, and a park, as well as design the city with homes and stores and schools. She also had to create the key for the map. She did an excellent job at following the directions and her spelling is quite good. She enjoyed the activity and concentrated well.

Complete handouts...telling time and drawing hands on clock to show hour, half hour, and quarter hour. Count coins including pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters - use fewest coins to show the amount, for example, 1 quarter, 2 dimes, a nickel, and 2 pennies, 52 cents - use fewer coins, 2 quarters and 2 pennies. Then use greater than/less than or equal when comparing money. Complete Fact Family using 1 digit, 2 digit, and 3 digit numbers.
Measure a variety of objects to the nearest centimeter.

Complete pp. 13-14 in Map Skills Workbook...find specific places on a map using legend, symbols, and scale. Then read aloud "Looking at Maps and Globes."

Math - complete Fact Family handout…sheet has 3 numbers in a triangle …20, 12, 8…12+8=20, 8+12=20, 20-12=8, 20-8=12... Then complete Place Value handout - sheet has 2 columns of double digit numbers labeled ten's place and one's place... Circle numbers in 10's place in that column and circle numbers in 1's place in that column.
Science - watch/discuss video of The Life Cycle of the Black Widow Spider.

Analise left at 11:30 AM today.

Analise began the session by telling me about her boat trip yesterday with her siblings and mother. She said she enjoyed herself and explained some of what she saw in the different colored blue/green waters. She then chose to read the book "Ballet Cat, The Totally Secret Secret," by Bob Shea. This was a more challenging book, but Analise did not become frustrated when she encountered more challenging words but persevered in her attempts to sound them out. The word "ballet", was a tough one, but Analise was explained it had an unusual ending and was French in origin so the ending 'et' sounded like an "a" end sound." Once told this, she repeated the word correctly whenever it appeared in the story. Analise identified sight words that she had previously found challenging, located the words in the story and then correctly used them in sentences. After she read the story, I read it and asked her to be observant and take note of question marks and exclamation marks. We discussed how each is used, their purpose, and then we role -played the two main characters in the story. Analise was the ballet cat, and I was Sparkle, the mule. Analise understood expectations in this new exercise and obtained 80% correct responses when reading questions and exclamations using the appropriate inflections. As this was a newly acquired skill, she performed very well and it appeared that she enjoyed acting out the various parts. When subsequently queried, to assess acquisition and transfer gains, Analise provided a good example of an interrogative (question) remark ("how are you?" and an exclamatory sentence "Look out, there's a bat!" Analise left the session in good spirits.

Today we planned a scavenger hunt at the park. We played follow the leader (galloping, skipping, climbing, hopping etc.) and then we played pretend being animals and making all the movements they make.