Today we learned the beginnings of a scale - the tetrachord! We played through the C version and the G versions of this, 5 notes ascending and then descending. This solidifies hand placement and finger independence in preparation for full 8-note scales. We played more of Ode To Joy - I played left hand while Oliver played right, then we switched. This allows him to hear how the hands "lock-in" together and also allows me to see if he can play in tempo without stopping (yes, he can!) Lovely progress today!

We sang through a few warm-ups from last time and learned a few new ones as well. We talked about "head voice" and "chest voice" - we speak in chest voice and we sing in head voice. Trying to break the habit of singing in chest voice, especially as the range moves higher. We sang through Brahms' Lullaby (the composer of which had a birthday yesterday!) and worked on singing legato - smooth and connected, supporting the tone with a prepared breath. We worked through "I'm Gonna Mail Myself To You" - speaking the text in rhythm so get all of those words out helped us then add the pitches back into the equation to make for a more successful time through.

Today, Oliver and I worked on understanding decimals and ways to multiply numbers with decimals. Oliver and I worked through several problems to multiply numbers with decimals to the hundredth place. Next, we worked through some problems containing fractions. One of the problems used fractions to find the number of people living on the Asian continent. For the last 15 minutes of class, Oliver and I practiced math skills including observing fractions using the online program Sumdog.

Oliver and I played basketball outside.

Today, Oliver and I began by talking about how variables are used in algebraic expressions. We worked through a number of problems to test Oliver's ability to understand patterns in math and ways to relate these patterns to algebraic expressions. Oliver was able to fairly easily solve these types of problems. Thus, we moved on to understanding fractions. Again, Oliver was able to fairly easily work through some basic problems related to fractions. Finally, we worked together on Sumdog to enhance Oliver's math skills.

Today we almost completed lesson 1 "The Home Row Keys" however Oliver needs to complete the rest of this lesson at home. I will send home the website , username and password with him.
We also created a folder and a journal to keep our research and notes in for future reference. We will be continually going back and revising what we know throughout each research project so it will be important to establish an organizational system. We also learned about proper ways to search for information and ways to determine if a source is valid and useful.

Design fundamentals. Oliver is working on his first lessons on using the elements of line, shape and value. He did two "value" paintings today.

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Today, I began Oliver's lesson by showing him how to plot points and make shapes from the plotted points on an x-y coordinate grid plane. Oliver was able to fairly easily understand this concept, and we designed a hexagon and a pentagon from points plotted. Next, we worked on a worksheet related to the various names for 3-dimensional solids. Finally, we spent some time practicing basic math problems (multiplication, division, and addition and subtraction) using the online computer learning program "Sum Dog". Oliver was attentive for the class and did very well with answering most of the problems correctly.

Today, I substituted for Kara Rahilly's Language Arts class with Oliver. We began the lesson by reading two books on the Raz Kids website. The first book, "James and King Arthur" described a baseball player who magically becomes the kinsman of Arthur briefly after Arthur draws Excalibur from the rock. Oliver answered the test questions related to this story. Next, Oliver read "Robin Hood and the King" and answered the test questions for this story. Finally, I had Oliver discuss writing a story about what life would be like with a superpower. This work will be continued next time.