Sam started class reading through the first page of Geronimo Stilton's Reading and Writing Guide. She agrees that using dialogue, incorporating pictures, using descriptive words, and strong vocabulary are all necessary. She's been completing a very short writing assignment about her family. From this lesson Sam chose to create a baking blog to use as a regular outlet for writing. We set up the blog at the end of class: samssweetspot.wordpress.com. We also set up her Thea Stilton notebook and included an Active Comprehension Strategies (reciprocal teaching) chart for her to use to spark daily writing assignments. l
We had a brief lesson on root words, prefixes, and suffixes, and Sam took home a worksheet for homework , pulled from the Word Roots Beginning book she brought with her.

The session began with the completion of the written portion from the previous lesson. Samantha spelled 5/7 real words and 5/5 nonsense words correctly. She is continuing to use tapping for the unknown words, which is good. She got 100% on the sentence dictation. For fluency she read a short paragraph from step 1.4. The welded sounds of an and am were introduced. Samantha read several words using the magnetic tiles. She also spelled words using the tiles. At times Samantha will read these closed syllable words using the incorrect vowel sound. We will continue to work on this. This should improve when she learns more about closed syllables. The session concluded with Samantha reading a list of step one words and correcting the ones that needed bonus letters added to them.

Samantha began the session with a game of mental math. She had to create as many four digit numbers as she could using specific digits. She was very quick with this exercise. She completed her review of the chapter and began the chapter test. The chapter test will be completed at the next session.

We created a map of the US with rivers and mountains and will label the features tomorrow

design fundamentals. using the elements of lines and shapes, Samantha did d drawing of a turtle and then used "primary" colors to fill the drawing in. She also made a background in "primary" colors using sponges to show "texture."

We started with the social studies site that Jackie suggested, but it seems to require payment. The clay map Sam made last session had broken, so we will need to find another way to explore US geography

The session began with a review of both real and nonsense words. Samantha was fluent with the real words and did some tapping for the nonsense words. She charted both real and nonsense words and did a super job on both lists. Next Samantha used the magnetic tiles to identify letters and sounds. She then spelled dictated words, which included nonsense words. For the written part of the lesson Samantha spelled 5/7 words correctly. One of the words she had difficulty with was whiz and the other one was mesh. She is working on the /s/ and /sh/ sounds in encoding words. The remainder of this lesson will continue tomorrow. Upon completion of this lesson we will work on step 1.5.

The session began with a game of mentally rounding numbers to the nearest 1,000 and then adding two numbers together. Samantha did a great job! She continued to work on problem solving with unknown quantities. The instructor had Samantha use pattern blocks and/or drawings to solve various problems. A review will follow at the next session and then a chapter test.

We continued our discussion of meditation and techniques of focus. I brought in my meditation pillow and we practiced lotus pose, deep breathing and Namaste. We discussed the history of yoga in India and found India on the map. We then practiced balancing poses: tree, mountain, crow, eagle and crane. Our active yoga included arm movements, down dog and pigeon. The last part of class we did creative movement with yoga and dance and an obstacle course. Another student, Gracyn, requested to join Sam in the last few minutes and they created combinations of yoga, jumps and ball movements.

Sam chose an independent-level book to read and we ordered it today, with the understanding that non-fiction pieces at instructional level will accompany the book. Additionally, we introduced two new books and found that one was too sad and the second is a bit too high level content-wise for her. We will read through the ordered book while working to find the right fit: a novel at her instructional level that is high-interest. We read aloud and searched the library today. She also researched for quick facts on Peru to accompany the book we ordered.