Monday, November 30, 2015
12:30 - 1:30; 60 min.
Science:
Food Chain - Invertebrates -
Samantha was eager to show me the trophic pyramid she made, using Legos, for her homework assignment. We looked it over together, and made a couple of improvements on her excellent project. I then quizzed her on the vocabulary words associated with the pyramid. I then discussed with her the animals that do not have backbones known as invertebrates, and how they fit in the pyramid as carnivores, herbivores, omnivores and filter feeders. We discussed how the classification of animals provided the area for these animals, and we listed them. As we had our discussion, I provided examples of each class from my collection; A soft sponge, a selection of corals, jars of annelid and flat worms preserved in formalin, and a large selection of mollusks including abalone and conch shells, and finally horseshoe crab molt showing the segmented appendages related to arthropods. We watched a short video that showed some amazing facts about each class.

Review the structure of government, in keeping with the Weekly Newsletter

Samantha began the session with a review of the short vowel, welded, digraphs and consonant sounds. She read several words that were created with the magnetic tiles. The /z/ sound for the letter s was discussed and words were read with this suffix. Samantha charted 14/15 real words and 14/15 nonsense words from this step. She then fluently read several sentences. Samantha was asked to use the magnetic tiles to spell some dictated words. For the written part of the lesson Samantha spelled 5/5 real words and 3/3 nonsense words correctly. The sight words that were dictated need some work. Word cards for these sight words will be created.

Samantha completed her chapter 3 test today. She had an oral review of previous concepts. Methods for estimating sums and differences were presented.

warm-ups, new poses: archer, diamond; ABC Yoga Book for Kids (looking for new poses); hooping outdoors.
We worked on focus with our poses today by counting, trying to stay in the pose in stillness. This is an area that we will continue to work on. Sam did well and attempted all of the poses. We then went outside for some hula hooping and ended class with free-time active movements.

Sam started class with grammar practice on the board: mainly proper use of quotation marks and capitals. Next, she participated in snack break for about 5 minutes. Then, she read another 15 pages and completed her active reading strategies chart/daily reflection to reading. After that, she was reminded to do last night's homework and added vocabulary list from the current chapters of her novel. At the end of class, she quickly put up a blog post at Sam's Sweet Spot.

Today Sam and I mixed a starter batch of Friendship bread. We talked about the steps to this 10 day recipe. We then went on to make a cat bed. Sam picked the fabric and sewed all 3 sides together. The cat bed turned out very cute.

The session began with a place value game. Samantha reviewed the place value concepts from chapter three. She began a chapter test that will be completed on Tuesday. The session ended with a game of multiplication war.

Today we started the Thea Stilton book chosen by Sam as our initial novel. I was able to find a few vocabulary words and we read aloud together. Before reading, Sam was asked to predict on her Daily Writing in Reflection to Reading log. During reading, we had a mini lesson on connecting to the text, then Sam was asked to connect in writing on her daily page. She completed a summary and evaluation as well. For homework she will write spelling sight words and a root word page.

Today was all about Newsies! Samantha said she saw this musical in New York and so we were able to sing our way through her favorites. I love her appetite for new things and her endless creativity!