We began today's session by reviewing vowels and short vowel sounds. Gabriela and Laina were asked to say the name of each picture depicted on worksheets and listen for the short vowel sounds "Aa" and "Ee". They were then asked to print, by tracing, the words that began with the short vowel ‘Aa’ sound and ‘Ee’ sounds and asked to draw a line to the words that began with the sounds. Next, it was time to review shapes. To do so in an interesting way, I asked the girls to think about the main shapes seen in a house. They were shown a simple drawing of a house to facilitate this task. Gabriela identified the roof as being a triangle and Laina identified the windows as rectangular in shape. Gabriela and Laina were then asked to bring materials to the table that they thought might be useful when recreating a model of the house. I had brought in a carton, toilet paper roll, and pine cones brought from the park, with which to create the model. We constructed the house using the common everyday household items that I had brought in or that were available at the school and allowed curious students to participate in the activity (after being given permission by their teachers). I put out water color paints and allowed the girls to use their imaginations to try to replicate door, chimneys, etc. They could also use materials we had available with which to adorn the windows, etc. but the girls were most interested in using paint to accentuate the details of the house. All the while they were doing this, they were asked to identify shapes and colors – as well as any patterns they repeated in shapes or colors. This was done in order to consolidate prior learning gains and any skills acquired in previous sessions. Laina and Gabriela were also encouraged to describe the differences they experienced when using paint on a taped slippery surface or one that was more porous (the cardboard) to get them to use their words to discriminate. Both girls asked if they could paint the pinecones that were being considered for the chimney, and they also glued transparent blue paper around a toilet paper roll. They will decide which they think will be the better option once all has dried. After this activity was completed, the girls assisted in cleanup before being permitted to participate in an end-of-day activity involving playing with bubbles and joining in a bingo game played with their peers. The girls were excited that were to be picked up by their mother and were given their body pictures prior to leaving as their last day is to be next Tuesday, 3/28.

Gabriela and Laina made beautiful spring flowers in arts and crafts today. They each had a large flower cut out of cardstock. Using q-tips, they made dots and strips with all different paint colors. Then, they used glitter and sequins to make their flowers shimmer and shine.

Gabriela, Laina and I read "Reptiles: A Nature Trail Book" by Maurice Pledger. They enjoyed feeling the different reptiles' textures. They used small manipulatives, working together, to build with blocks. We did journal writing next and used dark brown paper with oil pastels. They were surprised to see how bold and vibrant the colors showed on the dark background. Gabriela calls them "magic crayons". They imagined with animals. We watched BrainPopJr about rhyming words and then sang along with "Old MacDonald's Farm "on the computer. We also sang along to "5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed". We went to the music room for half an hour and put on Disney Sing-a-Longs. The girls enjoyed playing guitar, drums and all of the other instruments in our music room.

Laina and Gabriela had play dough out and were experimenting with different shapes and textures. We placed the different shapes on the play dough and stamped them out. We then used 3 different color stamps with which to create our own color patterns, and repeated the names of the colors as we created the designs. This was to consolidate the concept of patterns introduced in an earlier session. The girls then looked at the library books and asked that I read them a few. Gabriela correctly noted that I had two Freckle Strawberry” books, and two “Petal and Poppy” books. I read them to the girls. Laina crawled onto my lap and both girls were intrigued by the story lines in the Level 2 Petal and Poppy books – using visual cues to figure out who was Petal and who was Poppy. The “Petal and Poppy” books, by Lisa Clough and Ed Briant, provided us with a good opportunity to use descriptive vocabulary to describe the characters and to make predictions. We concluded the session by reading the book” The Mess’, and the girls read along as I read each word aloud and pointed to it – asking them to try to sound out the beginning sounds and read/repeat each sentence with me. Laina and Gabriela then asked to sing some songs as we cleaned up the room prior to dismissal. It was a productive day

design fundamentals. Using some interesting shapes and lines, Gabriela and Laina drew two pictures today. They each made a drawing of "Oliver" the owl and "Tommy" the turtle. They then added colors to each drawing.

Gabriela, Laina and I finished our ladybugs. We read in the big classroom Book of Numbers to learn beginning word sounds and numbers. They practiced writing their numbers on the dry erase board. Each of them created a new page for their journals. They drew a picture and I wrote the caption. Both read "Kiss! Kiss!". We also read "Rolie Polie Olie; How Many Howdys?" to practice counting again. They worked together to build a skyscraper from Tinkertoys and did sewing cards - small manipulatives. Analise visited to read them a story.

We played hopscotch, follow the leader, and made an obstacle course.

We began today's session with having Gabriela and Laina participate and complete a 1:1 number to written word correspondence activity. It required that the girls draw lines from pictures of dogs shown in examples to their correct numeric correspondence. They also participated in a tracing activity, to further consolidate and refine number and letter recognition and fine-motor skills. Three worksheets were provided, which addressed visual discrimination and critical thinking skills. The girls were asked to find 6 fish hidden in a picture and to count and trace 20 butterflies; they required assistance in writing the numbers and were offered hand over hand guidance to complete this task. I then read two Freckle Face Strawberry books to the girls - "Lunch, what's that?" and "Backpacks". Gabriela was most interested in the stories and gasped where and when appropriate. This would engage Laina's attention. As I was reading the book, I would point out words and word blends we had reviewed in earlier sessions. Gabriela and Laina would be encouraged to sound out new words and review basic vocabulary. Gabriela asked me to explain any words that were new or unfamiliar to her, and both girls were asked to make predictions, based on the content of the text. Gabriela was eager to make such predictions and demonstrated understanding of the material when queried.

Today Gabriela and Laina an amazing batch of Hershey’s Secret Kisses Cookies. They measured and added all the ingredients to the mixer. Once the ingredients were well blended they were ready for the next step. Gabriela and Laina got the Hershey Kisses ready. Next, they formed some dough around the chocolate kisses making sure no chocolate showed. We baked the cookies for 12 minutes. We finished class with Gabriela and Laina sharing their cookies with all their friends.

Gabriella and Laina and I made Easter eggs with blown-out eggs and tissue paper. We watched the animated version of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle. The illustrations are similar to the effect we made on our eggs. We looked at "Florida's Fabulous Butterflies" to prepare for our field trip to Butterfly World next week. We also learned about the four seasons and, specifically, Spring on BrainPopJr. The girls enjoyed going outside with clipboards and completing their Spring walk activity, noting what they saw, heard and smelled outside. We saw lots of flowers, a cat, a lizard, and they wrote down words and checked off boxes as they identified each. We learned how seasons change and how plants and animals change in Spring. We practiced counting and used the Math Mat Challenge, which is an interactive mat that lies on the floor. It has sound and asks numbers and counting questions which the girls have to answer by touching the correct answer/number with their foot, similar to Twister. We looked at a giant book from the Reading and Writing Workshop (Unit3) and read about Spring. The girls wanted to read and sing along again to "Baby Beluga" with Raffi. We also read "Counting in the Garden" by Kim Parker. Finally, we painted some rocks to look like ladybugs!