Gracyn and I had a productive day, she was so excited to wear her leotard! We read the gymnastics book she checked out from the library. After warming up and stretching (we are still working on getting her flexibility back), we spent some time going over basic movements on the beam. We did different styles of hopping and jumping and practiced mounting and dismounting. We then practiced her front and back walkovers on the floor. We also did the "Gymnastics ABC's" we started to work on at the end of last year.
Gracyn started making a pirate map. She wanted to add mermaids, a jolly roger, a caravel and a compass rose. She decided she will use her own art to complete it. We looked at Studies Weekly and learned about government and the Constitution. Gracyn enjoyed earning points and decorating her rat cage. We reviewed vocabulary and Gracyn completed some pages in her interactive notebook - About Me. We learned about communities and community helpers and read in the textbook. We learned about our founding fathers and patriots relative to citizenship.
Gracyn loved making her coffee filter flower in arts and crafts. She used water colors to paint an array of colors onto a coffee filter. In between colors, Gracyn used a spray bottle of water to spray the filter and make the colors blend together. Once finished, we bunched the filter in the center and wrapped it with a green pipe cleaner to make a stem. Then, Gracyn hung it upside down to dry. The flower looks beautiful.
Gracyn worked very hard today on Lesson 2.6 which covered how models can be used to compare and subtract. A bar model was used to help Gracyn solve word problems, write the number sentence, and write how many. This concept was new to Gracyn but she comprehended it quickly and enjoyed the problems. Skittles were used as models to help solve the problems. We really focused on the vocabulary associated with subtraction. Gracyn and I put up an addition and subtraction clue words chart on her wall. This chart will be a visual aid to help her as the word problems become more difficult. We finished with a mid-chapter checkpoint on which Gracyn answered all of the problems correctly, and then we played a game of war.
Our strategy focus continues to be predicting events and today we applied that strategy to our read aloud, 'Arthur Gets the Chicken Pox'. We read 'Eloise Breaks Some Eggs' for shared reading. Our word study focus was cvce words and we used Reading Rods to build words using all previously learned patterns. She began her family story page about herself, but only had time to complete her sketch.
Today we read "Officer Buckle and Gloria" by Peggy Rathman. In this cute story, Officer Buckle performs safety speeches at local schools. The speeches get a lot more exciting when the police dog Gloria becomes his partner. We analyzed the story further by completing a sequence recall worksheet. Gracyn was to put 6 pictures in the order of which they occurred in the story. We walked through the details together to complete this task. Next, we completed a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast the characters Officer Buckle and Gloria and then the two together. We read the traits described and attributed it to the single character or the pair. This activity helps us practice understanding the characters and their actions in text we read. We finished up our session by practicing the Dolch Pre-Primer sight words with a game of ZAP! A few of Gracyn's tricky words are: away, little, find, and three.
Gracyn did plant observations today. She compared her plants and drew pictures of the changes they have made since last Friday. We began a new unit of the Earth and Sky. She completed a Venn diagram of what she might see in the day sky and the night sky, and what she might see in both. We went outside to observe the day sky and Gracyn drew her observations.
