Gracyn was very focused and accomplished a lot of work today. She completed lesson 6.9 and 6.10 which covered modeling, reading, and writing numbers from 100 to 120. To enrich this lesson, we played a game of place value shopping. We used a piece of paper divided into tens and ones columns, a pair of dice, and base ten blocks. We went over the place value rule that only 9 ones can be in the ones column and only 9 tens can be in the tens column. The two dice were rolled, added together, and the total was given in blocks. We had to keep exchanging ones for tens if the ones column gained more than 9 ones. Gracyn had a lot of fun with this game pretending to be the cashier.

Today we read the book "I Am Yoga" and Gracyn named the poses in the book as we looked at each page. Our new pose today was the advanced 1/2 moon pose. We practiced this against the wall with a yoga block. I took pictures of Gracyn doing the pose. We also did stretches and movements over the large yoga balls. We bounced on the balls and checked our heart rate to see how it increased after bouncing.

Today we took a look inside the piano and discussed the various parts and how they work. Then we moved on to Gracyn's pieces. First, she very nicely played "The Knuckle Song," both solo and with my accompaniment. Next Gracyn played "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and we added more of the song. We then moved into a lesson book, from which Gracyn played pieces while curving her fingers and counting the half notes. We also reviewed finger numbers, and high and low tones. Lastly we discussed improvisation and played an improvisational duet.

Today we listened to the ABC song and worked on the letter B. We colored pictures that start with the letter B and watched a short video on Elmo singing about the letter B. Also we worked on some arts and crafts using the words for letter B.

We read three more chapters of Junie B. for our read aloud with a strategy focus of summarizing events. Gracyn blended and created words with r-blends for her word work today, in addition to reading her word wall. We read "Crazy Cakes" on Raz-Kids for our shared/guided reading today. She choose to read another chapter from her "What Would You Do?" book for her independent reading. We created a graphic organizer for possible story topics, patterned after yesterday's book "The Best Story".

Gracyn and I finished her map projection project, turning a flat map (distorted) into a 3D globe. She completed a worksheet about citizenship, time, past, present and future, and a timeline about George Washington's life. She looked at more symbols of America. We read about patriotic symbols, citizenship, rules and time in Studies Weekly and listened to some chapters about time so that she could earn points.

Gracyn began the lesson by making a doubles fact flip to hang on her wall. This will give her quick access to her doubles facts to help her save them to memory. She then completed lesson 6.7 which covered tens and ones to 100. We used base 10 blocks as manipulatives to help complete the lesson. Finally, we played a game of Roll it! Make it! Expand it! together. We had to role two dice and write down each number. Next we had to draw the tens and ones and write the expanded form of the number.

Today, in arts and crafts, Gracyn began to make a dream catcher. I cut the center out of a paper plate and used a hole punch to place holes around the perimeter. Gracyn used a beautiful multi colored yarn of blues, pinks, and purples to weave in and out of the holes, making a web pattern. At the bottom, three long pieces of yarn dangle, which were decorated with glow-in-the dark beads and white feathers. Finally, Gracyn used paste to glue sparkles around the plate. It came out great! She is so excited to take it home and place it by her bed.

Gracyn practiced her word wall words for word work, identifying opposites and rhyming words. We read three chapters of Junie B. Jones as our read aloud with our strategy focus being noticing what the author does to make Junie a funny character. She read Healthy Choices pages 1-3 as her independent choice. Our read together story was on Raz-Kids, we read a level E book and she took the quiz afterwards. Excellent! She sketched a description of her pretzel and added a closing page to her family book.

Today I introduced Gracyn to The Magic Treehouse book series by starting a read-aloud book study of the first book, "Dinosaurs Before Dark" by Mary Pope Osborne. We will be analyzing the behaviors and actions of the characters as we read through this book together. In this first chapter, we were introduced to 8 1/2 year old Jack and his 7 year old sister Annie who come across a magic treehouse in the woods near their home in Frog Creek, Pennsylvania. Gracyn did a great job answering follow-up comprehension questions from chapter 1. We worked on writing the answers in complete sentences. Additionally, we practiced the pre-primer sight words with ZAP!