Gracyn read "Just a Baby Bird" for her independent reading time. Then we read "Crawling Crabs" to learn about crabs for her informational writing. She wrote her rough draft of the pages about crabs. As we read we looked for confirmation of what we knew and synthesis of new information.
Gracyn participated in our school wide Thanksgiving celebration today. She really enjoyed her meal, particularly the mashed potatoes and stuffing. After lunch, we spent a little extra time at the playground before coming back for pumpkin pie. Together, we read Nighty Night Zoo Borns by Andrew Bleiman. She loved looking at the adorable baby animals. Then, we played two games of Gracyn's favorite card game Blink, each of us winning one game. Finally, we practiced doubles facts by tossing the doubles facts beach ball to each other.
This morning we began with a Thanksgiving grocery list. Gracyn had to re-write the list in ABC order. We discussed how to do this, especially when two words start with the same letter. We also talked about chunking words in parts when trying to sound out unfamiliar words. Next, we practiced using a Table of Contents with a worksheet about The First Thanksgiving. In this practice scenario, we found page numbers, chapter numbers, and made inferences as to what the chapter might be about based on the chapter title. In honor of Thanksgiving, we completed a sight word poem entitled "I Am Thankful", which practiced the word, each. We looked at proper handwriting techniques and wrote the word on each set of lines. We then read through the poem, which expressed thankfulness for some of Mother Nature's gifts such as little raindrops, leaves on trees, and little bugs. We ended our morning session with an activity requiring Gracyn to pay attention to details. In a field of 7, she had to eliminate the duplicate letters and circle the remaining single letter. These were displayed on turkey feathers. She then had to use the circled letters to solve a riddle which asks, "What is the best sentence to hear on Thanksgiving Day?" The response was, "Let us eat!"
This afternoon, Gracyn and I read a sweet non-fiction book, A Turkey for Thanksgiving by Eve Bunting. In this story, Mr. and Mrs. Moose invite all their animal friends for Thanksgiving dinner and the only one missing is Turkey. When they set out to find him, Turkey is quite afraid thinking they want him ON their table, not at it. We then reviewed the story elements of character and setting. She wrote these using proper sentence structure. We also talked about verbs and how they are the action words in the sentences. I then read 10 sentences from the story and she chose the verb. She did an excellent job finding the verbs! Gracyn and I read a funny Thanksgiving themed book entitled, Turkey Trouble. In this fiction story by Wendi Silvano, Turkey finds various ways to disguise himself in order to avoid becoming the Thanksgiving main course. We laughed at the whimsical turkey and his lack of knowledge of animals that humans eat. We finished the day with a craft activity in which we made an American Indian feather headband.
Gracyn started her session by stretching and warming up. Next, she practiced her bridge and handstands. I spotted her for several backbends from standing lowering down to the ground and then back to standing. We talked about going straight back in her movement to the floor. She practiced her cartwheels, one handed cartwheel and round-off. Finally, she practiced some jumps and cartwheels on the balance beam.
Today Gracyn continued her lesson on natural resources. She read in her science book and did a word activity game with the vocabulary words. She also made a flip book about why it's important to keep our natural resources clean.
We warmed up with Mary Had a Little Lamb, first on the black keys and then transposed into three different positions on the white keys. Next, in preparation for learning "Jingle Bells", Gracyn learned to identify and recite the names of the keys in right-hand "C" position, both up and back. We then studied the piece in actual music notation. Gracyn did an excellent job reading and labeling all of the notes in the piece, as well as playing through the first line of the music.
Gracyn took the lesson 5 assessment this morning. This assessment covered solving addition and subtraction word problems within 20, adding 3 whole numbers, using properties to add, using addition to solve subtraction, and using strategies to add and subtract within 20. She was very focused and concentrated extremely well, wanting to do well on the test. We were both so happy when she completed all 20 questions correctly. Gracyn and I are very proud of her hard work.
