Today's lesson required Gracyn to use models to help her compare numbers. She completed word problems which focused on the concept of greater than and less than. From the information given, Gracyn determined the information that she needed to use in order to find the answer. Number card models were drawn to help her solve the word problems. Also, Gracyn completed subtraction review word problems.
Gracyn and I reviewed for the Quiz - transportation, inauguration, goods and services, trade, needs and wants. We began learning about money. We learned about natural resources from the textbook. We listened to Studies Weekly about money and we read the book "Don't let the Pigeon Stay up Late."
Today Gracyn made reindeer and snowman bark. We melted semi-sweet chocolate and spread it on a parchment paper lined pan. Next, she added candy eyes and a red M & M for the nose to make the reindeer's face. She then broke up pretzels for the antlers. For the snowman she used white chocolate melts. Gracyn added the eyes, carrot nose and buttons using edible markers. She finished by sprinkling crushed up candy canes over the chocolate.
We continued today on the concept of greater than and less than. Gracyn used the correct symbols to compare two given numbers. She drew cubes to show each number in order to compare the tens and ones place. Then, we played flip flops number game. We took turns rolling two dice and creating a two digit number. Each of us recorded our number and the largest of the two numbers was circled. A flip flop was colored by the player with the largest number and the first player to color all of their flip flops won. Gracyn won two games in a row. Finally, Gracyn took the 5-minutes timed addition quiz.
We began our day with a favorite story, "Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late!", and continued reading with a phonics paragraph focused on the /ou/ sound. We made a list of known /ou/words and played a game of Quick Erase with that sound. Gracyn illustrated the second page in her Ocean Animals book. We concluded our session with the next chapter in "Beezus and Ramona", looking for words and phrases that suggest feelings. She also read, "Terrific Tree Houses" on Raz-Kids with 100% accuracy and comprehension.
Today we continued our reading of "Beezus and Ramona" and Gracyn successfully retold the major events within the chapter. We practiced her word wall words and played a game of Quick Erase with the /ea/ sound spelling. She read "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" with an emphasis on reading fluently. We spent a little time decorating her 'office' for Christmas and making an ornament for the school tree.
Gracyn and I did a variety of things today using a variety of skills and techniques. We warmed up and stretched and especially worked on her bridges and splits today. We then spent a little time doing cartwheels on the beam. Then we switched to yoga and had a great time doing some "double" yoga poses where we helped each other in each pose. We even learned a new double circus move from Ms. Judie :). Because some of the poses were difficult for Gracyn to do with me because of our height difference, Arianna joined us for a little while and the girls did poses together. We also spent a little time working on Gracyn's walkovers, she continues to make progress on them!
Gracyn continued the chicken hatching project today. She researched on the computer what the embryos look like inside the egg on day 15. We candled five of the eggs and found three were developing as they should be and two were not. She wanted to break open the eggs that were not developing and see what was going on inside. She found one of the eggs was unfertilized and looked like a normal egg. The other had a tiny embryo inside that looked like it stopped growing after day 7. She was fascinated and looked at in under the microscope. She then showed it around to everyone at the school.
We began with Jingle Bells, which Gracyn has partially memorized. We practiced the piece several times, and it is becoming more fluent. We also started to learn an additional section of the "Knuckles Song" and began "Jolly Old Saint Nicholas." Today we also played through pages 16-18 in the Bastien Method primer.
Gracyn began unit 7 this morning. She completed two lessons, one on the concept of greater than and one on less than. We discussed how to first compare the tens to determine which number is greater than or less than. If the tens were the same, compare the ones. Many correlating problems were completed. Then, Gracyn worked on a mixed practice worksheet. She solved 2 addition or subtraction equations to determine if the answers were greater than, less than, or equal to each other. She cut and pasted the equations into the correct true or false column. Finally, Gracyn made an ornament for the school tree. She stiched two felt mittens together before gluing Santa Claus felt pieces onto the mitten.
