Gracyn practiced word wall words with a game of "Concentration". She decided on a title for the story she is writing about Halloween. Using her graphic organizer, she decided what to write about next. She added two sentences to her story. We focused on when to use capital letters. Gracyn passed a level E quiz on the book, "The Vet".

Gracyn continued the unit on matter today. We reviewed what matter is as well as the three phases of matter. We also discussed different properties of matter such as size, shape, color, and texture, She wanted to demonstrate how liquid can change to a solid by making butter. She took some heavy whipping cream, poured it into a jar, and shook it until all the liquid turned into solid butter. She did a short lab write up on her scientific demonstration.

Gracyn and I had another great session today. We did a lot of work on the floor and also a little on her beam. We continued her work on front and back walkovers and also front dive rolls. We are going to continue to focus on improving her strength and flexibility.

Gracyn's lesson covered the concept of double plus 1 and doubles minus 1. We discussed how doubles facts can be used to solve problems when one of the addends is increased by one or decreased by one. Gracyn completed doubles fact problems, using cubes as models, then determined if she used doubles plus one or doubles minus one. Together, we played a game of Tic-Tac-Doubles. We took turns solving problems that were circled if they were a doubles fact. The problems were X'ed if they were a doubles plus or minus one fact. To finish, Gracyn worked on a Sudoku puzzle.

We left school early to prepare for hurricane Matthew.

Gracyn had a dress on today and seemed tired, so she was not interested in doing an active class. We did some body, leg and arm stretches and rolls on the mat and reviewed some poses. We ended class with a quiet time discussing visual relaxation/meditation.

Class was cancelled today because of hurricane. Gracyn and I were to have a Columbus Day lesson.

Gracyn began writing her Halloween story. She reviewed the graphic organizer that she wrote. She began her story with a "strong" first sentence, letting the reader know what the story is about. She then wrote two sentences about a pumpkin. During our shared reading time we read the poem, "Halloween Time". She can read much of it independently.

Gracyn began a fall pumpkin project. She measured out 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of salt and combined them in a bowl. Then, 1/2 cup of water was stirred in. Gracyn had a lot of fun kneading the dough until it was a smooth ball. We flattened it out and shaped it into a pumpkin. I am leaving out a few details to keep the finished project a surprise. She will continue working on this craft next week and is very excited to bring it home.

Gracyn and I finished her Columbus Day ships. She created an Election Book with illustrations of her winning election and becoming President of the U.S. She expressed an interest in the Presidential debate, so we looked to an example and watched two highlights from the last debate from CSpan website - answering questions - Name one good quality about the other candidate, and Do you think you've set a good example for today's youth? We completed two worksheets about voting and the road to the election and had a discussion about election day, inauguration and voting. We watched a piece of video of the Obama inauguration.