Gracyn and I completed a life cycle of a butterfly book together. Her prior knowledge came into play here. She was able to fill in the information without any clues from me! We colored the pictures and she shared it with her mom. We watched a Magic School Bus film on butterflies. Then in Raz Kids she read me a level E story about Caring for the Earth. She read beautifully!

Today Gracyn and I started her morning reading Pinkalicious stories while she ate her breakfast. We read one story about a butterfly. Perfect for our science lesson and her field trip to the butterfly museum later today with her mom! She completed her morning work and wrote about her favorite dessert...wedding cake!

I used this time to plan ahead

We watched a portion of a Nest Learning Video about "The Wright Brothers". This video provides an animated retelling of the invention of the first flying machine. We discussed reasons they initially didn't want to share part of their discoveries. We also discussed feelings including frustration and how important it is not to give up even when things are tough.

In Math today, we practiced writing the date on Gracyn’s paper and discussed what each number represented. We will continue to do this daily. We completed the last half of a Fact Families worksheet in which the three numbers were presented in a triangle format. Gracyn did a terrific job and worked independently through solving all four problems.
Gracyn completed the Topic 17 test and reteach page for her unit assessment. She did very well on her assessment, scoring a 95%. This assessment covered related addition and subtraction facts, using parts and a whole to write the fact family, using addition to help with subtraction, and learning subtraction facts by using addition facts that match. Gracyn completed a +1 times drill (workbook page 12) in which she scored 50/50 in 3 minutes, 40 seconds. She did a great job! We watched a Brain Pop Jr. video regarding "Time to the Hour". This showed us how to read the clock, how to write time, how to read digital time, and that we have the same time occurring twice a day (a.m. and p.m.). Gracyn had an easy time with the follow up "easy quiz"! We completed Puzzle One in Gracyn's new "Sudoku for Kids" book. I explained how to complete this 4 x 4 puzzle in which each square, row, and column can have each number only one time. Gracyn seemed to be grasping the concept when several numbers were in place. This is a great activity for developing higher level thinking skills including concentration, logic, and deduction. We continued working on the “Graph a Word” activity using the written number words. For the spelling sentence, Gracyn wrote “I have seven dolls”. In closing, we read the first half of a fun storybook entitled, "If You Were a Minus Sign" by Trisha Speed Shaskan. The book utilized characters in a story format to explain a bit more about subtraction. For example, it showed how the minus sign would be used in place of the words "take away". We also saw how problems can be written vertically or horizontally. We read about how a minus sign helps show the “difference” in a subtraction problem. We also learned that a minus sign helps subtract small numbers or big numbers, and finally, that it if we were a minus sign, we could help solve story problems.

Discussion of posture (i.e. a marionette puppet being pulled by a string), active yoga: review of poses, twists, half bow (challenge pose), twinkling star (seated).

Today we had an active yoga class. Gracyn did several poses: turtle, frog squat, happy baby, arm and leg circles, horse, shoulder stand, twinkling star, twists, and ball. Our challenge pose of the day was 1/2 bow. Gracyn tried this and we will continue this on Thursday. We ended class with Gracyn jumping rope. She did 20 jumps in a row!

Today Gracyn wrote her spelling words and completed her morning work. We watched a Magic School Bus video on how rainbows are created. She was so excited because her new bedding is rainbows! She learned about rainbows and her bedroom is rainbows! We then had to write about our favorite thing to do in the spring. She wrote "I love to watch the flowers bloom in the spring." In Raz Kids she read a level E story about animals that live in the city. She answered the comprehension questions. She wanted to re watch the plant video that we watched yesterday and because she worked so hard I said, "Yes."

In Math today, we practiced writing the date on Gracyn’s paper and discussed what each number represented. We will continue to do this daily. We completed ½ of a Fact Families worksheet in which the three numbers were presented in a triangle format. Gracyn needed a little help on the first one, but then did well on the next 5 fact families. We then moved on to her math textbook, lesson 17-5 “Draw a Picture and Write a Number Sentence”. The introduction page, Guided Practice, Independent Practice, and Problem Solving sections all tasked her with reading a short word problem and then determining if she needs to add or subtract. She then drew a picture and wrote a number sentence to accompany the word problem. We discussed the verbiage presented that tells us when we need to add (how many in all, or altogether, etc.) or when to subtract (how many are left, etc.). We watched a Brain Pop Jr. video on “Basic Subtraction” as a review for her test tomorrow. This video went through basic subtraction, drawing pictures, horizontal and vertical writing of problems, counting back to solve, using fact families and number triangles, and finally, counting up to solve. It provided a very thorough review of this unit! Additionally, we began a “Graph a Word” activity using the written number words (three, seven, four, one, nine, and six). In this activity, Gracyn rolls the dice and then reads and writes the word that is under the accompanying dice number. This activity will be ongoing and provide good practice in mastery of reading and spelling numerals in word form. She then wrote a sentence using the word “three”. We ended our time with a fun storybook entitled “Penguin Pairs: Counting by 2s” by Amanda Doering Tourville. We had fun reading and counting the penguins up to 20. We also talked about how many pairs there were vs. how many total penguins there were.

Today Gracyn wrote her spelling words one time each. This week the words end in -ing and also a few number words "three, four, and five". Her bonus word is "number". We completed her morning work and then she wrote about Mother's Day in her daily journal. We watched a clip on spring. Gracyn had to fill in a word web about spring things she saw in the clip. She wrote "birds, butterflies, flowers, rain, owls, sun, green grass, and ducks". Then she had to use the word web to answer questions about spring. These questions were "In spring I see..., In spring I hear..., and In spring I smell...". She had to choose two words for each question. She did great! Next we watched a movie by Magic School Bus on plants growing. We learned about what plants need to grow and how they grow. In reading she read me the level E book about Crazy Cakes. She showed her mom some of the crazy cakes she read about. She is really doing well in reading!

Today we read a non-fiction book entitled “The Wright Brothers” by Kitty Shea. We explored facets of the lives of Wilbur and Orville Wright in this biographical learning format. We discussed the many attempts it takes to get an invention working. We also compared the old planes to today’s planes and both agreed we’d have no desire to fly on one of the older models!