We began with a review of the letter "Nn" and the sound/n/. We did this by looking at our picture of "Noisy Nose" (which Nicholas remembered immediately) and the letter card with "Nn"and a picture of a "nest." Nicholas then printed his name on the dry erase board and we reviewed that his name begins with "Nn" /n/. Nicholas completed his "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" activity by placing stick-on letters, which spelled his name, on the tree. We then engaged in additional activities to reinforce "Nn" /n/. Nicholas found the capital "N" magnetic letter and its "best friend," the small "n." We then looked at pictures of things beginning with /n/ and placed each one on the felt board...necklace, nail, nest, needle, nose. For each word we stretched our arms as we stretched the "nnnnnn" sound at the start of each word. We then looked at an environmental print picture which showed the letter "Nn" and the "no smoking" sign. Nicholas then began to look at the letters "Ss" and the sound /s/. Nicholas made the /s/ by pretending he was a snake (sssss). We then looked at two letter cards, one with a "sandwich" and one with a "silly snowman." We watched a two minute video with a song called, "I'm a Little Snowman." Nicholas made a capital "S" and a small "s" with play doh. His final activity today, was to glue various sizes and colors of the letter "S" on to a large "S."

Nicholas and I looked at the letter "Nn" and the sound /n/, as in "Nicholas." I had Nicholas stretch the word, focusing on /n/--- NNNNNicholas. Every "Nn" word we looked at, today, was stretched in this manner. We looked at the "Nn" letter card and identified the picture of the "nest." I showed Nicholas a picture of a "nose," glued to an index card. Each letter we look at will be placed on an index card and sent home for letter and sound practice. We named this "nose," "Noisy Nose," and we watched a two minute video of "Mr. Noisy Nose" on YouTube. Nicholas then made an "N" out of play doh. I read, "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" for enjoyment and exposure to letters. Nicholas took it upon himself to point out letters in his name when we read the page where all the letters fell out of the tree. Nicholas worked on creating a Chicka, Chicka Boom Boom tree of his own. On Monday, he will glue the letters of his name to the tree. The next activity focused on Nicholas supplying a word beginning with /n/...for example, The sun shines in the daytime and the moon shines at ______. Nicholas printed his name on a whiteboard and we tried naming the letters.

WE started the session with guided reading books "We Go" and "We Sit" reinforcing skills and strategies to figure out unknown words. Nicholas ran his finger under each word as I read them. We would try to figure out the sound of the initial letter of unknown words. We used the pictures to mainly assist in attempts to figure them out. He did a great job recalling information and facts about "We Sit" he was able to predict what would happen next if the circumstance/events were different, and infer why.
Using an alphabet chart Nicholas was able to identify a few more letters than last week. Again he was able to tell me more of the letter sounds if I told him the letter. Nicholas was able to tell me 3 short sentences about the story and traced out the letters that I dashed out for him. He was not able to tell me all the letters in his first name as I wrote his name for him. He could not remember what his last name was, but he knew it began with De.

We started the session with a guided reading book "Dragon at School" (brought to the session by Nicholas) reinforcing skills and strategies to figure out unknown words. Nicholas was encouraged to help by running his finger under each word as I read them. We would try to figure out the sound of the initial letter of unknown words. We used the pictures to mainly assist in attempts to figure them out. Nicholas was able to answer questions about the story and make a few inferences. Using an alphabet chart Nicholas was able to identify very few letters this week. He was able to tell me more of the letter sounds if I told him the letter. He referred to the letters as numbers. When filling in vowels on a short vowel chart Nicholas would know we were writing the letter "a" in each blank, but after a few words, he would forget the name of the letter and the same for e,i,o and u. He had difficulty retaining the names of the letters while working on them. I spread out bean bags with letters on them and asked Nicholas to find "N" the first letter of his name.

To assess letter recognition, Nicholas used Play-doh and letter cookie cutters. I read the book "Dinosaur Stomp" and Nickolas counted objects in the pictures. He counted Stegosaurus's plates, toenails, etc. He identified circles, triangles, and squares.

Letter identification A-Z: Nicholas was able to identify a, o.
Letter sounds A-Z: Nicholas was able to say the o & s sounds.
Letter formation: Nicholas was able to trace the letters in his name with assistance.
Nicholas was able to follow along for the book "We Can".
Nicholas became more engaged once we began to incorporate imaginative play and talked to each letter of his name- so they became characters.

Letter identification A-Z: Nicholas was able to identify a, o, c, n.
Letter sounds A-Z: Nicholas was able to say the O sound. "O is for octopus", n.
Letter formation: Nicolas was able to trace the letters of his name. Nicholas created the letter N with a total physical response.
Nicholas made a prediction of what would happen on the next page in "We". He was able to follow along 2 books 8 pages each. He was able to relate to the words See and look once I drew eyes and lashes on the double vowels.

Letter identification A-Z: Nicholas was able to identify a, o
Letter sounds A-Z: Nicholas was able to say the O sound. "O is for octopus"

Today's lesson was spent primarily in Nicholas' "office"! We reviewed all of his letters - of which Nicholas has retained 18 uppercase letters! We reviewed using whiteboards and markers, played games, and two more letters were explicitly taught. Word plays are VERY helpful in his work to commit letters to memory! We completed the session with a read aloud and playing a memory game "RATS!" with his letters.

Today's lesson was spent primarily in Nicholas' "office"! We reviewed all of his letters - of which Nicholas has retained 15 uppercase letters! We reviewed using whiteboards and markers, played games, and two more letters were explicitly taught. Word plays are VERY helpful in his work to commit letters to memory!

We completed the session with a read aloud and playing a memory game "RATS!" with his letters.