Today we only had 30 minutes on Skype, as Gracyn slept in, so we decided to read "Moody Cow Learns Compassion". Gracyn loves the Moody Cow books and this was a new one the school ordered. In reading the book, we discussed what compassion for others (people and animals) meant. She really enjoyed the book.

Today Gracyn completed her morning work. In writing she wrote three good quality sentences about her dad. She also drew a beautiful picture (including his beard) to share with him. We watched a Magic School Bus video "The Big Stink" (all about noses). She loves these videos and she learns a lot. In reading she read a level E reader on Raz Kids.

Today Gracyn and I watched some videos while she finished eating her lunch. We watched part of a historical documentary on the rise of USA gymnastics. We then did some songs and warm up and we finished the ABC Gymnastics game we have been playing (a gymnastics move for each letter of the alphabet).

This morning Gracyn and I read 2 stories together. The first one is called "The Three Little Javilina's". She really likes this book and listens very well. The second book is called "Hello Ocean" which is about a little girl going to visit the ocean. She then worked on her language arts sheets of the day. She watched a Magic School Bus video named "Takes a Dive" all about being under the ocean. We read about different types of sharks and watched a short kids video on different types of sharks. She asked if she could see different images of sharks on the screen. Some of them were too scary for her. She finished by drawing a picture and writing 2 sentences about the picture. (It was a picture of her mom and dad.)

Gracyn and I watched a cute movie on turtles. We are continuing our lessons on the ocean. She loves turtles! We are lucky living so close to the ocean and we are able to see sea turtles burry their eggs in the sand. Next she read me a level E book on Raz Kids about animals that live on the farm. She is doing great blending words and decoding the words she doesn't know!

Today I read Gracyn "So you want to be President". It was a funny story about all of the different presidents we have had and their likes and dislikes. Gracyn wrote her spelling words and completed her morning work. To go along with the reading this morning she wrote one thing she would do if she was president.

Today we read a biography about "Wilma Rudolph" by Eric Braun. The book told the story of how this heroic woman overcame illness and disability to become an Olympic medal winner in two separate games for track. We compared her to Gracyn's favorite Olympic gymnast, Gabby Douglas.

We continued work on Topic 15 by completing pages 473-478 in her large Envision workbook. She did a great job reading the schedule to see what times events and activities took place. She had a little difficulty with determining how long events took in terms of time; however, she estimates how long activities should take (such as putting on a jacket), well. We reviewed time to the hour and half hour in various analog and digital presentations. We looked into Topic 16, “Addition Facts to 18”
by completing pages 481-484 in her large Envision text. This lesson was on "Doubles". We talked about when adding the same two numbers together, it is a “doubles fact”. We practiced this throughout various equations. We then solved additional equations and circled if they were “doubles facts”. We also discussed even numbers and how they can be split into two halves without any leftover. We discussed practical scenarios with family members, etc. We read a fun book entitled “If You Were an Even Number” by Marcie Aboff. This book showed various ways even numbers occur. We saw that even numbers end with 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8. We found even numbers throughout the book and even applied this concept to finding even numbers in problems we solved in the math work for today. Gracyn showed me her dolls and we found even numbers that applied to them (two arms, two sleeves, two shoulders, ten toes, etc.). She completed a practice page in her drill workbook (page 15), to work on + 2 facts. Additionally, we wrote some more number words on her “Graph a Word” dice roll number word writing paper. In closing, we finished reading “Thumbelina” by Hans Christian Andersen.
We were happy to see Thumbelina did not have to marry the mole as she was rescued by her friend the swallow. We made predictions throughout our reading and discussed higher level vocabulary words such as "sorrow”.

Our active yoga included the following poses: elephant, bridge and variations (for core), flower, butterfly, shoulder stand, turtle, down dog/up dog, tree, palm tree, victory/star. We then read the story "Lion and Blue" a story about a lion falling in love with a beautiful blue butterfly. After we read the book, we did the lion pose and giraffe (we created this pose).

In math today, we began with a Brain Pop Jr. learning video about “Elapsed Time”. Annie and Moby walked us through items such as looking at how long it takes to get somewhere, how long activities last, how long until something will start, and what time an activity will finish, as well as using a chart and a number line to calculate some of these times. We worked on Topic 15 in her Envision math curriculum by completing pages 55 – 56 which tasked her with practicing telling time, elapsed time, and determining the activity which takes the least amount of time. From her original textbook (page 473), we generated an afternoon schedule to practice elapsed time and planning in a realistic scenario. We determined that 1:30 would be end school time (Missouri time). Then at 2:30 she would go to basketball with her brothers. She would stay there for 30 minutes. She would then play Barbies for 15 minutes. At 3:15, she'd jump on the trampoline for 30 minutes. Then she'd play with Reed at 3:45. Gracyn completed a +2 addition drill in her workbook (pg. 14). She scored a 22/23 (96%) in 3 minutes and 52 seconds. We then wrote out and examined +2 equations with even numbers and then odd numbers to see the pattern of “counting by 2s” to solve +2 addition problems. Additionally, we practiced reading and writing number words (three, seven, four, one, nine, and six) on her “Graph a Word” activity sheet. In closing, as a work completion reward, we continued reading “Thumbelina” by Hans Christian Andersen. We read of how cold Thumbelina was in the harsh winter until she came upon a nice field mouse who gave her shelter. She nursed a sparrow back to health. She was sad to see the sparrow depart in the spring. We discussed higher level vocabulary words such as “tatters” and “notion”. We will read on next time to find out if poor Thumbelina must marry their neighbor, the well-off, but poor sighted, mole!