In today's session Loulie was introduced to the basic Spanish routine which consists of recognizing and voicing : 1.- the letters of the alphabet 2.- months of the year 3.- days of the week 4.- numbers (up to 40 as of today). 6.- weather & 5. today's date.

Loulie and I talked about elements of the garden and then we went on an adventure to the garden to hand pick things of her liking. We then created a craft on paper by gluing the pieces and by identifying and writing one by one the items found.

Loulie and I read two books, 'I Want My Mom' and 'You Noisy Monkey'. Loulie provided the voice for the monkey when he was speaking, correctly demonstrating conversation tags of yelling, shouting, sobbing, and roaring. We also compared the two books, identifying that they both have animal characters who talk and therefore are fictional. We sang the alphabet song while pointing to and making the sounds for the letters. In math we made Skittle patterns using one and two attributes in the patterns. She did a fabulous job of completing patterns with increasing number and changing colors.

Intro to counting rhythms: Clap and count simple 4 beat quarter note rhythms.
Basic guitar technique: Parts of the guitar, holding the guitar, holding the pick, and basic open string strumming.
Sing along songs: Play and sing simple childrens' songs.

Loulie did very well in her first guitar class. She was able to strum the open strings in rhythm, and she seemed to have lots of fun in class. She was very enthusiastic and listened very well.

The session was compiled with activities that engaged Loulie in becoming familiar with the sound of basic words to be put on paper starting the initial stage of writing. We began with the word fish (pez) and spelled out the word on paper with Play Dough which supports her strenghtening of fine motor skills for future writing. We developed an activity that invited her to count up to 30 in Spanish and practiced her ability to put a fish puzzle together. Louile is learning how to spell her name in Spanish.

Today Loulie and I baked a delicious batch of rainbow miniature cupcakes. Loulie measured out all of the dry ingredients and combined them together in the mixer. For a special touch Loulie added 2 tablespoons of rainbow sprinkles Next, Loulie counted and lined the cupcake pans and used an ice cream scooper to place the batter into the pans. After the cupcakes cooled Loulie handed them out to all of her friends.

Loulie learned about the 5 senses today. We discussed how we use our 5 senses in science to make observations and how each sense is different and is an important part of making observations. We sang a song about the senses and did a hands-on activity where she used each sense independently to try and identify an object. For sight, she looked at pictures of optical illusions. For hearing, she heard sounds of a door bell, a barking dog, and waves and identified each just by listening. For taste, she tasted a lemon, a pretzel, some bitter chocolate, and a cinnamon graham cracker to experience sour, salt, bitter, and sweet. For touch she put her hand in a blind bag and felt some popcorn kernels and a stuffed animal and described how each felt. For smell, she closed her eyes and smelled some coffee and some garlic.

Miss Loulie and I had a lot of fun today. After decorating her room we played a game with foam dice identifying and comparing numbers. We used her number chart to count on from one number to another. Loulie decided we needed to play a new game with the dice, so we tossed and caught while naming rhyming words and beginning sounds for letters. We played with a puzzle identifying opposites, ending in a tie. We sang and danced to Alligators All Around.

I worked initially on making an assessment of Loulie's comprehension level in Spanish. In the process of this assessment Loulie and I worked on recognizing color balloons of different sizes. We read the initial book The Cat and the Box (El Gato en la Caja). Loulie and I created a paper box. I showed her 25 basic learning flash cards and asked questions in relation to the pictures shown on the cards. We sang a few songs including "Sol Solesito" and we made a drawing with stickers of the sun and a few things in the sky.

Loulie and I worked on math skills by sorting colors and identifying their attributes, creating a graph with the Skittles and comparing amounts, practicing one-to-one correspondence when counting, and writing numbers. We read a story,'When Sophie Gets Angry' and talked about how the illustrations tell the story. We sang 'Alligators all Around', with me doing the motions.

Loulie and I played a matching game with rhyming words, she created some impressive rhyming pairs of her own. We sang and acted our alphabet song 'Alligators all Around' and played a letter game. Loulie was able to classify objects into groups and identify the odd object in a set. We read a counting book and matched numbers to sets.