May 26, 2015
Tuesday 60 min
12:30 - 01:30
Science - making and testing a hypothesis.
Since the two-day schedule of Oliver’s experiment was interrupted by a school- wide activity, he had to again collect initial data. Oliver reiterated his hypothesis on what would happen to gummy candies, held in water for two days. He selected new gummies, and weighed each using a gram scale. He then measured the length of each, and placed one of each color into a graduated beaker. He added 50ml of water to each beaker. He kept notes in his science notebook. When this was done, we conducted a demonstration on the states of matter. Using the periodic table of elements, we explored the way different gasses behave. We discussed Air, Oxygen, Carbon dioxide and Helium. I showed Oliver how to extinguish a candle with carbon dioxide, proving in the process that CO2 is heavier than air. We used a balloon of helium to prove that helium weighs less than air.

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Today, Oliver and I began a new chapter dealing with measurements. Oliver was able to fairly easily convert between units for measurement including both English units to other English units and between metric units. Oliver and I worked through a number of basic problems from the text that required a good understanding of how to convert between units, and a homework assignment was given at the end of class.

We sang through our warm-ups that are now becoming second nature. He knows them well so now we can begin to focus on the effects of the warm-up instead of the pitches, rhythms, etc. Nice progress. It has become a sort of competition with himself to see how long he can "hiss" for - a practice that builds breath support on a smooth sustained exhalation. He made it today to 28 counts, something he is very proud of. Today we worked towards memorization of his two songs. We did a slow version of "Mail Myself To You" to get each and every syllable memorized. He's almost there! Nice work.

We warmed up today on the C scale and tetrachord as well as the G scale and tetrachord. We explored the sustain pedals on the piano and counted how long the keys would sustain with each pedal pressed, high keys vs. low keys, and many keys at once vs. single keys. There was lots of laughter today as Oliver expressed his immense interest in researching the behavior and history of the piano as an instrument.

Oliver and I continued our discussion today on understanding the difference between area and perimeter. I administered to Oliver a test on the subject of multiplication of whole numbers and decimals. This test was graded and returned to Oliver, and any corrections were discussed in class.

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Oliver began his session with 15 minutes of free reading from the library books in his classroom. The books all revolve around space and astronomy and Oliver was thrilled to spend time reading about a subject that interests him. After the reading, Oliver was thrilled to discuss what he had read. I then introduced Oliver to "How-To" writing. Oliver was able to read a how-to article that explained cooking to see what the ultimate finished products should look like. Oliver then chose to write the in-class essay about how-to brush your teeth. I wrote the essay on the white board, while Oliver brainstormed and dictated. We focused on sequence, transitional words, adjectives, and punctuation during the writing process. Oliver did an outstanding job with this activity and seems to have the ideas flow much more easily when the actual pencil to paper stress is removed.

Oliver began his session working on the reading comprehension skill of theme. We discussed it at length and how theme is different from main idea. Oliver read several short passages and was asked to find both the main idea and theme. While it was very easy for him to determine main idea, theme was a bit more challenging because it wasn't openly stated by the author. Oliver worked very hard on this task and this concept is one that we will continue to work on moving forward. In writing, we reviewed a piece that Oliver had written for homework. His mom sent a note explaining that Oliver had some difficulty with the work and that it maybe helpful for him to continue it in class. The assignment was to write a short story explaining what Earth would be like when the sun burned out. The writing was assigned in conjunction with a reading comprehension passage about the sun. Oliver had many great ideas but had difficulty staying on topic and supporting his ideas with details. We tried a strategy where I wrote the actual sentences for Oliver while he dictated. This proved to be extremely effective. Oliver was able to get his amazing ideas onto the paper because I wrote them down for him. The essay ended up being three paragraphs, all on-topic, with amazing supportive details.

Oliver began his session with a reading comprehension warm-up activity where he read a paragraph on the computer and answered questions. He then moved on to typing his hearing essay into the computer. Oliver practiced his keyboarding strategies while inputting the essay. We discussed the reasons why editing and revision are much easier processes when the piece is on the computer. It was a bit time consuming for Oliver to get his completed essay into Microsoft Word and this is something that may be easier for him with assistance. We will be working on alternative ways for Oliver to get his writing and ideas typed and written this week in the classroom.