At the onset of today’s session, Nicholas expressed that he was very tired; however, he responded to prompts and sat at the table as we reviewed today's homework assignment. The assignment was to work on I-Ready; however as a password is required to access the site, this tutor instead reviewed Friday's assignment which was to use doubles to assist in addition problems. Nicholas completed 8 problems, but prompts were required as he seemed unfamiliar with the concept of doubles. To facilitate his comprehension, we watched a video and Nicholas was responsive to the music and watched it three times. It seems that the video sufficiently engaged his attention and sustained it for a period of at least 15 minutes. We also watched a video in which words to a song were highlighted on a screen and Nicholas enjoyed watching that twice as well, and repeated the words as his eyes tracked the words. Nicholas was tasked with one last math problem in which he was to solve an addition word problem. Nicholas approached this using lines to represent the numbers; he remains reliant on hands on one-to one correspondence strategies to help him solve simple addition problems. Use of a number line is encouraged as it has demonstrated to be beneficial in assisting his computational skills. Nicholas's mother will have him complete his I-Ready math assignment at home and will provide this tutor with his log in information and password the next time he comes to our program. It should be noted that Nicholas will not be there this Wednesday, 11/14, as he was invited to a mid-week birthday party and wishes to attend. Ms. Judie Batt Yarnell is to attend a conference with Nicholas's mother and Nicholas's teacher tomorrow, 11/13/18, at his school, Jerry Thomas Elementary.

- Nicholas practiced his sight words.
- Nicholas looked at words organized by sound (we, me, she, he and cry, my, fly, by).
- Nicholas read Jig and Mag, Dot and Mit, and The Lost Dog.
- Nicholas chose Dot and Mit to read to Judie.
- I read The Reason for a Flower to Nicholas.

To engage and sustain Nicholas's attention, while completing today's math homework assignment, some additional creative techniques were employed during our session. As Nicholas appears to struggle with the computation of addition and subtraction facts and one-on-one correspondence, this tutor represented addition and subtraction using objects, fingers, mental images, drawings, sounds (e.g., claps), actions, verbal explanations, and expressions. This appeared to facilitate his comprehension and additionally satisfactorily re-focused him from the disappointment he expressed upon learning he did not have music today as his mother had told him. Nicholas completed his math homework, with prompts; however, he was greatly assisted by a number line that we utilized to help him derive the answers to the addition and subtraction problems with which he was tasked. It took a while to demonstrate what he needed to do when given a problem, but it appeared that the number line greatly enabled his understanding and expedited performance. We ended the session using a deck of cards to match numbers and to perform some rudimentary arithmetic skills in an engaging and fun way that appeared to reduce some of the frustration that Nicholas occasionally exhibits when tasked with problems.

- Nicholas practiced word endings...
- Nicholas read The Lost Dog...
- I read Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day...
- Nicholas read Mat...
- I read Edward the Emu...
- We played the letter game...

- Nicholas practiced letter combinations...
- Nicholas read phonics book to me...
- I read to Nicholas...

Nicholas worked on creating beats with a beat maker. We then improvised as robots playing the part of mother and son. We then did a scene with dinosaurs that sang.

Nicholas began the session by completing 2 pages assigned to him for homework. He was tasked with circling the greater of two addends and then adding the two together and writing the sum. Nicholas was also asked to use a non-standard measuring tool with which to measure several objects illustrated in the examples. We used a paper clip, as indicated by the assignment, to measure objects in about 8 examples. Some of the sizes were half or 3/4, while the rest were the size of one whole clip. Nicholas completed this assignment with prompts. He finished the session by counting up to 120 and improved his performance considerably from prior trials, stumbling on only on 2 numbers before counting successfully to 120. He was permitted to play with Legos for a few minutes due to demonstrating sustained attention to the task and the quantifiable gains evidenced in his performance.

- I read Clifford's First Halloween to Nicholas.
- Nicholas read The Lost Dog to me.
- Nicholas practices short vowel words, adding silent e to make long vowel words.
- Nicholas and I read Go, Dog, Go together.

- Nicholas practiced blend cards.
- I read Amelia Bedelia to Nicholas.
- Nicholas wrote and read op and ig words.
- Nicholas read The Pig and the Ant to me.
- We examined the wordless picture book of The Lion and the Mouse.

Nicholas arrived in a good mood, as usual, and happily announced it was his birthday today, on Halloween. He just turned 7. He enjoyed hearing this tutor sing happy birthday to him, happily sang the part about him being 7 years old today, and enjoyed two treats out of his goody bag. He also presented this tutor with a creative popcorn person he made in school made with popcorn and candy corn (he does not like popcorn), and this tutor graciously accepted it. We then got to work - page 175 in his Go Math workbook. Nicholas was tasked with comparing and ordering objects by length and we made a clue game out it. We ordered three objects by length, comparing the lengths of two objects indirectly by using a third object. (This is MAFS.1.MD.1 in the Florida standards for first grade math students). We then discussed measurement. This tutor talked about using a ruler to measure objects and Nicholas recognized that a ruler is a tool used to measure length to the nearest inch. We observed the interval markings on the ruler and discussed how they can be counted to determine the overall length of an object. This is MAFS.1.MD.1.a in C-Palms (Florida standards). We ended the academic part of this session by measuring a series of objects in the room. He enjoyed doing so very much and seemed to understand where to place the ruler to measure accurately. As Nicholas worked well and sustained attention (via prompts) today, we concluded the last ten minutes of the session by going on the playground and this tutor went on the seesaw with Nicholas, much to his delight, and watched him have fun on some of the playground equipment. Nicholas was overtly demonstrative and affectionate today, thanking this tutor for the great time he had on his Halloween birthday.