design fundamentals. Analise finished her "monochromatic" painting of a horse today. She then started a new painting of a parrot to show the use of "complementary" colors from the color wheel. This is part of our color theory classes.

Analise left early today.

Analise and I started up the session with going over the alphabet, months of the year and days of the week.

We started a project with arts and crafts involving the making of an owl (buho). It included painting, cutting different shapes & gluing. It helped us practice the soundless H in Spanish .
We then engaged in the second phase of the session which consisted of writing, spelling, and sounding out Spanish words that contain the letter H.

Math - complete handout by measuring to the nearest centimeter, for example, measure length of stapler, pencil, etc. Then, complete handout(s)…write fact families, such as, if you have an 8 and 3, you use addition and subtraction to complete the family...8+3=11, 3+8+11, 11-8=3, and 11-3=8, and lastly, draw triangles.
Science - watch video of The Life Cycle of a Frog, then complete diagram showing the correct order, example, color/cut out pictures of eggs, tadpole, froglet, and adult frog…glue them in proper order.

Analise arrived to the class in exceptionally good spirits. She enthusiastically explained that she would be leaving early to go on a trip to celebrate her mother's birthday, which was yesterday. We then began by reviewing some sight words and how long vowel spelling patterns can be challenging because more than one letter can be used to represent one sound, and there are various ways that the sound can be represented in print. We used some examples to illustrate the point, such as there are 4 common ways the sound /a/ can be spelled:"a" as in "acorn", "ae" as in "gate", "ai" as in rain" and "ay" as in "day". We also reviewed that when a vowel sounds like its name, it's called a long sound, but that a vowel letter can also have short sounds. We used a primer to illustrate this, and we observed that whether a vowel has a long sound, a short sound, or remains silent depends on its position in a word and the letters around it.

We then moved on to guided reading and Analise demonstrated that she was able to read the H primer independently and the I primer with some prompts to guide her reading ability and fluency. We read "Splat the Cat - Rain is a Pain," which provided us with an excellent way to review the 'ai' sound blends. We then made a Venn diagram comparing two characters in the book, the cat and the mouse. Analise was able to identify the story as fiction and compared it to the non-fiction book she had read in an earlier session about butterflies, pointing to 'real' facts about butterflies and the glossary of terms in the fact book. Analise was able to retell and summarize the story well in her own words, identified the problem, and suggested a way it could have been avoided. We also discussed the main idea and compared and contrasted character traits and physical traits. This led itself to the perfect way to introduce a Venn diagram and its purpose. Analise colored in the diagram and was proud to be able to correctly identify 14 vowel digraphs in the story. She enjoyed a mini cupcake given to her by another teacher who was celebrating a birthday, and made a personal connection between her and the main character who were both eating frosting. Analise was happy when Miss Elise came to inform her that she was leaving for the day, but not before she hung up her Venn diagram on the classroom wall before leaving with her sisters.

Today we started our class with "flower breathing" using stuffed flowers. This is a deep, calming type of breath. Analise asked about other types of yoga breathing, so I showed her "birthday" breathing for energy (like blowing out candles) and alternate nostril breathing (for calming). We then did new poses from the foam board sheets: ball, boat, crane and sunshine. We looked through the "You are a Lion" book and did cobra and down dog together. During the last part of class, we went outdoors, as it was such a beautiful day, and did hooping. Analise challenged herself and did nearly 100 hoops around her waist without stopping! I gave Analise the "cow pose" coloring sheet to take with her for fun.

We played hop scotch, follow the leader, kick with the ball and played on the playground. We ended our time with a dance party with other students which she loved!

Analise appeared in very good spirits today. She was excited to share that it was her mother's birthday, offering some "free popcorn" to her classmates and teachers in the kitchen prior to the beginning of class.
Analise said she was ready to work and began the session by reading from a story out of the Mack book entitled, "Big and White" and working on consonant digraphs. Analise correctly named pictures after listening to and repeating the beginning consonant sound and writing them in the blanks in the workbook. She then moved on to long vowel sounds and identified them by writing the letters that completed a series of pictures. Analise finished the session by completing sentences that best completed illustrations. She was able to explain why she chose each answer by backing up her choice with supporting facts. After a lunch break, Analise read "In the Flowers", and answered questions identifying beginning sound blends and categorizing in 2 exercises designed to assess her understanding of said topics. She did extremely well on this assignment. We then moved on to a new book called, "Dixie and the Class Treat" - about a dog who turned out to be a guinea pig for a recipe, tipping off the chefs that too much of one ingredient was inadvertently used when making it. Analise found this quite humorous, indicating that she understood the implications and correctly picked up on the implied contextual cues given in the story.
After returning from lunch, Analise chose to read a story called Pines and Horses" - saying that she favors brown horses and that her dad is going to buy her one in the Dominican. Some of the words were a bit challenging, but Analise did not give up easily and sounded out the words usually getting them correct and proud of herself when she was successful. We concluded the session with her coloring a card for her mother and wishing her a happy birthday! Analise was happy at the thought that her mom might pick her up at the end of the day as they would be celebrating her birthday later in the day.

Math - complete handouts - addition/subtraction and identify place value (one's and ten's place)...then, use centimeter ruler and measure items to nearest centimeter.
Science - watch video/discuss the life cycle of frogs.

We began the session with a discussion of the weather in Florida. This provided a natural segue to a review of cardinal directions. We used both a wall map and a globe to review the directions, and Analise learned to spell them and pointed on the maps. She enjoyed an activity where the globe was spun around and she was blindfolded and asked to stop the spinning globe with her finger. It ended up on Dallas, Texas, which Analise correctly identified as being in the southern part of North America. Analise was happy to point out that she was born in Ohio, and lived in Missouri but is now living in Florida. She correctly pointed to all the states on the map and we identified the capitals of the three states (Cleveland, Jefferson City, and Tallahassee, respectively); Analise noted that a star was used to identify the all capitals. She is observant of detail and retains knowledge well. The discussion allowed us to review the seven continents. We also reviewed the continents, land masses, and oceans and utilized the map skills book to focus on the similarities and differences between maps and landmarks, naming the oceans, continents, and reviewing vocabulary words along the way. Analise enjoyed it when I clued her in on a memory trick to recall the continents. I asked her to count how many of the continents started with the latter 'A’. If you count North and South America in the mix, 6 continents begin with the same letter (North America; South America, Africa, Asia, Antarctica, and Australia). Analise enthusiastically commented that this trick will help her remember them and when quizzed, hesitated only on Europe. Finally, we discussed map symbols and how they're used to point out places and things on maps. To better illustrate the point and bridge learning to the abstract concepts taught, Analise was asked to draw her own symbols for objects in her room. She concluded the session by completing a matching exercise connecting pictures symbols to photos (Ie; a fireman's cap with a firehouse). She then taught some make-believe students some of the many things she had learned in today's session, using a whiteboard to illustrate maps, symbols, and weather. This is a valuable strategy to note and for her teachers to employ if she grows fatigued or becomes disengaged in the lesson at hand. Analise was commended for her stellar performance, completion of assignments, attentiveness, and cooperation. This was a most productive session.