Gracyn had requested that we make another meditation jar like we did last year. We experimented with our ingredients and ended up with a perfect jar that Gracyn brought home. Our active part of class incorporated music with our movements. Gracyn picked out a song (Katy Perry's Roar) and we did yoga and acrobatic movements along with the music. We also did our lion pose to go along with the theme of the song.

Gracyn was prepared and ready to take her unit test today which she completed with 100% accuracy. The test's standards covered demonstrating fluency for addition and subtraction within 20 using strategies, using place value strategies to add two-digits within 100, and using place value strategies to subtract multiples of ten in the range of 10-90. We spent the remainder of our time looking through a Where's Waldo book Gracyn picked out from the library.

Today, Gracyn reviewed the material learned from the unit in order to prepare for the unit test. Vocabulary, using the hundred chart to count by tens and ones, finding the sum and difference of two-digit numbers, and using models were a few of the concepts covered. I believe Gracyn is prepared and will take the unit test tomorrow. Together, we played a dice game called 101 and out. The object was to get as close to 101 without going over. We took turns rolling one die, that number could be taken as a ten or a one. The numbers were continuously tallied until a 101 was reached.

Gracyn identified ways that the main character is changing in our 'Still Just Grace' story. She also noticed that the problem is beginning to be solved in a way that we didn't expect. For word study she completed a sort of words with r-controlled vowels and then wrote the sorted words. She read her favorite Pigeon story and we talked about possible alternate endings.

Today, in arts and crafts, Gracyn made two turtles using popsicle sticks and yarn. She painted 3 sticks green before I hot glued them together. Then, using yarn, Gracyn weaved the yarn around each stick to form the shell. She used a blue, green yarn for the boy and, very creatively, made the girl a skirt and top from pink and purple yarn. They were given the names Zack and Michele.

So glad to have her back! First order of business was to go to the library and select new books for the week. We continued our reading of 'Still Just Grace' after Gracyn did an oral summary of what has happened in the book up to this point. For today's reading we focused on the problem and made predictions of possible solutions. Our word study was three letter beginning blends. We spent some time talking about the features of a fiction story and how she can use those to plan her own narrative. She will be thinking about a problem that friends might have and is considering making her story realistic fiction based on people she knows.

Gracyn and I reviewed our map skills, making a map of her classroom and creating a key/legend and compass rose. We learned about the 7 continents and 5 oceans. We discussed our two new States this week - New Jersey and New Hampshire. We looked to her textbook to discuss ancient Americans, Incas and Aztecs. We also explored the fallen Pioneer Cabin tree in the Calaveras forest, the largest sequoia in the world. Gracyn discovered that sequoias are the tallest trees in the world, although the one that died last week was the widest, not the tallest. She shared her love of snow leopards with me and we located on the map where they come from - the middle of the continent of Asia. We read Studies Weekly about Presidents and the Patriots.

Gracyn read 'Mom's Secret', a level H book, while I took a running record of her reading. She read with 99% accuracy and 100% comprehension, which demonstrates independence at level H. We will move to level I books for our guided lessons while she reads at level H independently. We also read two books with the same topic/characters so we could compare and contrast fiction and nonfiction.

We continued 'Still Just Grace', reading aloud and making predictions and connections as we read. Gracyn learned about syllables and specifically closed syllables for word study. She reviewed 100 sight words, mastered! She chose 'Pigeon Wants a Hot Dog' for her independent story and read with excellent fluency.

This morning we began with chapter 3, "Across the Bridge" in our Magic Tree House book, The Knight at Dawn. We discussed what Gracyn felt the word knight means. We also focused quite a bit on context clues today. For example, in our story we discussed the meaning of the statement, "A piercing shriek split the air." We discussed reading on to see if more information can help us with the meaning. The next statement read, "It sounded like it came from that house over there!" We talked about how this sentence used the word "sounded", so that may help us know that a shriek is some type of sound. We then completed our follow up questions for chapter three and worked on writing our responses in complete sentences. Gracyn demonstrated great recall of our reading as she responded to all the questions correctly. Next, it was Gracyn's turn to read! She read the first portion of a fiction story entitled, Splat the Cat: Blow, Snow, Blow by Rob Scotton. This book provides for good practice of reading tricky blends and clusters (two and three consonants together in words). We practiced using context clues again in this book, for example with the word "stared". Gracyn couldn't sound it out, so I instructed her to skip the word and read the whole sentence. This helped Gracyn generate the appropriate synonym "looked" to fill in the blank. We then worked on chunking “stared” into parts to sound it out.