Today, Gracyn took a practice test which covered all of the strategies that we have been working on for the last two weeks. Addition and subtraction skills using counting on, doubles, doubles plus one, and doubles minus one were covered. Gracyn had trouble and struggled with a few of the concepts that came with ease earlier. We will review tomorrow and reteach any areas of concern before I give her the final assessment.
Today, we used painters tape to make the capital letter G on think white art paper. Gracyn creatively chose different shades of blue, pink, and green watercolor paint. She painted all of the white paper a mosaic of her chosen colors and then made decorative stripes and polka dots. When it was dry, she peeled off the painters tape to reveal the letter G in white. Gracyn was so happy with her work and is excited to hang it up.
Gracyn chose "Silly Sally" as our read aloud but she soon saw that she was able to read it along with me, so we read the book in partner fashion. She read "Will it Sink or Float" on Raz-Kids with good fluency and comprehension. Her word wall practice showed that she still needs to work on 'once', 'know', and 'round'. We began doing research on an informational writing piece of her choosing, Ocean Inhabitants. She will write to teach about crabs, sharks and sailfish.
Today Gracyn and I started with Chapter 6, “Dinosaur Valley” in her Magic Tree House book, Dinosaurs Before Dark by Mary Pope Osborne. In this chapter, Jack and Annie discover a valley of dinosaur nests being guarded by a duck-billed dinosaur. They then encounter a T-Rex! We discussed really listening and focusing on the story in order to recall specific details, such as those asked in our follow-up questions. We discussed the responses to the questions and Gracyn wrote them in complete sentences. We practiced writing and reading the sight word down with a poem called Autumn Leaves. This poem used color words and repetition for good reading practice. We also discussed and practiced good handwriting technique. Finally, we wrapped up with Gracyn’s favorite game, ZAP! We used the Dolch Primer word set and she did a great job. A few of her tricky words today were: went, ride, and out.
Gracyn was a little tired from her birthday yesterday and didn't feel like doing much gymnastics today. She was much more interested in playing baseball with the nerf ball I brought in. She had a great time both batting and pitching and played very well! By the end of the session she had some of the boys playing with her as well!
Gracyn's lesson practiced the adding 3 addends skills we focused on yesterday. She used pictures to solve addition word problems along with math strategies. Within the word problem, she found the information that she needed to use and the information that she needed to find. Make a ten and doubles were two strategies she focused on. Gracyn was very excited with the enrichment page we started today. Word problems containing 4 addend addition were given. We used strategies to simplify the addition sentence and find the sum.
Today Gracyn began a new unit on natural resources. She read about six different natural resources (air, water, plants, animals, rock, and soil) and what comes from each resource. She did an activity where she had pictures of natural resources and man made objects and had to sort them into the correct categories. She also did a STEM activity where she built a flower out of glow sticks. She had to find all the correct pieces and carefully follow the directions to build the flower correctly.
Gracyn read "At the Movies" a level F book on Raz-Kids. She read with accuracy and comprehension. She also read "Happy Birthday, Dear Dragon" again with today's focus being fluency. We worked on words by spelling words containing the /sh/ sound and reviewed the l and r blends. Our read aloud story was "Ling and Ting Share a Birthday" and our strategy focus was on inferring a character's motivation. She composed and wrote 2 sentences using words containing the /sh/ digraph.
We began with "On the Swing," which reviewed and reinforced "F" and "G" for the right hand in "C" five-finger position. We moved on to "Ducks on the Pond" and "Snow in Winter", introducing and practicing "F" and "G" for the left hand in middle "C" postion. We then discussed quarter notes, reviewed half notes and learned a few notes of "Happy Birthday". We ended with a review of previously-learned songs.
Gracyn had a wonderful day today. She was so excited that it was her birthday and talked about all of her birthday plans. We spent time on her lesson which covered adding three addends. We reviewed the idea that the addend order can change while the sum stays the same. We also used previously learned strategies to group addends to find the sum. Gracyn used counting on, doubles, doubles plus one, doubles minus one, and make a ten to easily solve addition sentences. Worksheets containing 3 addends addition sentences and word problems were completed which correlated with the lesson.
