After doing our keyboarding lesson on using the home row Oliver and I brainstormed some potential topics for research. We then reviewed the elements of a good paragraph and we wrote one together as I modeled for him.

After completing 3 short keyboarding lessons, Oliver poured himself into the creation of the PowerPoint presentation. He is very good with determining the order of the slides, wording the headings of each slide as well as deciding what relevant info to include. He learned how to add clip art to the slides as well. He needed periodic reminding to utilize proper keyboarding skills, as he wants to revert back to his old ways. Overall he is doing a great job with all concepts taught so far.

Today, Oliver and I worked on reading a number of short stories to find the theme of each one of the stories. Oliver was fairly able to identify the correct theme. I explained to Oliver that themed are generally broad statements or morals that are inferred by the story rather than explicitly stated. Next, we worked on writing a short story using a game called dice-topics whereby a dice is tossed several times to pick a topic for writing. Oliver picked the topic of writing about a princess in a cave who loses her memory. Oliver did a good job with writing a paragraph related to the above mentioned topic.

We did a lesson on looking through the sources and the information gathered to determine what information was important to our purposes for this project. I modeled thinking about one of the sub-topics and thinking of a few questions that were relevant to the audience. Then I showed Oliver how to skim and scan through the book the book to determine if there was relevant information that answered these questions. We marked things we found with sticky notes. He also worked on keyboarding, finishing the top row lesson and writing a paragraph.

Oliver began gathering evidence for two of the four sub-topics for his movie making presentation. He looked through the reference materials to focus in on the information he has determined should best answer the questions and cover the topics that he wants to present. He also is doing a great job with the keyboarding program moving on to the lessons on the bottom row keys. We created some movie posters to announce the upcoming program.

Today in our warm-ups, Oliver made it all the way to 20 counts in his slow "hiss" exhalation! This shows great control in his breath-support! Now we make the transfer and continue to use that awesome breath-support in his solo singing. I heard much more head voice in his "hip hip ho ho ho" warm-up which shows great progress. Oliver sang for Ms. Judy and Ms. Jackie "Brahms' Lullaby" and they adored his performance.

Oliver had a great day today. We warmed up with the C scale and he's making nice progress here. Hands apart is smooth and confident. We're still working towards both hands together! I'm finding that one hand wants to move quicker than the other so we're working on slowing our tempo so that they both move at the same pace. We also played through the G scale with hands apart as well at the new D tetrachord. We played "The Butterfly" from the Alfred's technique book which focused on 3/4 time, counting three beats per measure and observing rests. Oliver showed me his song from Ocarina of Time also which I loved!

Today Oliver finished identifying which research he would like to include in his movie presentation. We have been using the strategy of skimming and scanning to sift through all of the information, keeping in mind the main points he decided to address. This helps him stay focused and not go off in another direction. There is a lot of info to share so it is important to stay on the topics he chose to include. He is very excited about creating the PowerPoint. I introduced the application to him and the features and he began inputting some info into his first 2 slides. I also remind him to type using what he is learning in the keyboarding program to reinforce those new, correct typing habits. Then he completed 3 lessons in the "bottom row" section of the program.

Oliver and I played basketball.

Oliver worked on theme again today in language arts. After yesterday's introduction to theme, I prepared a presentation to help Oliver further his grasp on this reading skill. He began by reading through a Powerpoint presentation that introduces elementary aged readers to the story element of theme. Readers are asked to find the theme of two different texts, view a list of common themes, and look at how theme can be stated explicitly or left implicit. The Powerpoint gives a very thorough introduction to quite a difficult concept. Oliver did a wonderful job reading the different passages and finding the themes. He showed great improvement from the beginning of the lesson to the end. Oliver spent some time reading and analyzing the characters within his Legend of Zelda books. During the reading process, we also looked at other story elements and theme.