Gracyn and I read the next chapter in Judy Moody, making predictions as we read. We reviewed the spellings of the long a sound. She worked on lesson 81 of Reading Eggs and will complete a book cycle on Raz independently at the end of our session.

We began with an ear-training exercise in which Gracyn identified tone direction on the piano. Gracyn then listened to music by Beethoven and Tchaikovsky. We discussed these composers, as well as the classical and romantic periods in music.

Gracyn took a test on unit 6 today. She got a 100%! We began a new unit living things and their parents. We discussed how animals and people have babies that have some of the same characteristics as their parents but don't look exactly the same. I asked her the question if she has three brothers and they have the same parents, why don't they all look the same? We looked at mixed up pictures of adults and children and she had to put the parent with its child based on some similarities. She paired them up and then said why she thought they belonged together. We did an activity where she had to make a baby bug using characteristics from its mom and its dad. She had a sheet with characteristics of the mom bug like body type, body size, eye shape, eye color, and leg size. She drew a picture of the mom bug. She had another sheet with characteristics of the dad bug and drew a picture of the dad based on his characteristics. She then took characteristics from each side and made a baby bug. She gave the baby bug the mom's body type but the dad's eye shape. She gave it the dad's eye color but the mom's tail. She did this for each characteristics and came up with a bug that looked a little like the mom and a little like the dad but was its own bug. She answered the question of why all of her brothers look different. It is because they have a different traits from their mom and and different traits from their dad and different traits from their grandparents all the way down the line which makes each one of them different.

Gracyn participated in school festivities today by Skype (her brother's birthday). We were able to do a few yoga stretches with limited time.

Gracyn and I continued our reading of Judy Moody, focusing on summarizing what was read and making predictions about what is to come. We reviewed our word work from yesterday, the spellings of long vowel a. Gracyn read over her narrative and added a few more sentences to the story. For guided reading, she read a Raz story and completed the quiz with 100% accuracy. I am very impressed with the level of attention she is giving our Skype lessons!

Gracyn's lesson reviewed different counting patterns within 100. She wrote in the missing numbers on a hundreds chart. Then counted on by 1's, 5's, and 10's starting at any given number along with counting backwards from any given number. This review was to prepare Gracyn for counting patterns within 1000 that we will begin tomorrow. Finally, she completed a counting by 2's up to 100 maze.

I Skyped with Gracyn today. We conducted a verbal Quiz with questions and answers. Gracyn did a great job and earned an A. We watched biographies on BrainPopJr. and learned more facts and history about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. This flowed into discussion about states and capitals, slavery, and civil rights. We talked about Martin Luther King Jr. and his beliefs, immigrants, and geography. Gracyn located places on the map and answered questions about geography. She also defined vocabulary words. We discussed examples of natural resources, goods and services, and raw materials and finished products. We began a State Stats activity, tracking stops around the country with the New York Yankees schedule. We will begin with that activity tomorrow.

Gracing was absent today.

For arts and crafts Gracyn made sand art pictures. Two small pictures which had stickers to peel off and cover with sand were brought with her to Tampa. As Gracyn chose which colors of sand she wanted she would remove the sticker and sprinkle the sand on. She enjoyed making her own color by mixing three sand colors together.

Gracyn and I read two more chapters of our Judy Moody book. We stopped and talked to make connections and predictions. We also began to analyze the story by noting when the problem was revealed. She completed a word sort with cvc,cvce and cvvc words. For guided reading she read a Raz story about elephants.