Today, we started making the shield to accompany Kelcy's sword that we made last week. Once again, we used cardboard as the base adding two handles to the back so that it is easy to carry. We mixed together liquid starch and flour to make the paper mache glue and Kelcy tore pieces of brown paper shopping bags into strips. Then, we dipped the paper into the mache mixture and completely covered the shield. We set it aside to dry and will paint it tomorrow.

Kelcy and I began with a subtraction dice game. We took turns rolling two dice, recording the bigger number first, subtracting the smaller number, and finding the difference. Whoever had the lessor difference earned 5 points while the greater difference earned 0. After 6 rolls we tallied our points counting by 5's. Then, Kelcy rolled 2 dice to make a two digit number. Once he had his number, he wrote the number that was one less and one more. Finally on Mathseeds, questions pertaining to area, doubles, time, and sorting objects by size were answered.

Kelcy's first activity was a less than 10 or greater than 10 mixed addition, subtraction practice. He cut out 12 addition and subtraction equations, solved them one by one, and glued them into the correct less than 10 or greater than 10 column. Then, we moved onto missing function problems. Kelcy looked at problems containing the 2 addends and the answer. He had to write in a plus or minus sign to make the equation true. Finally, Kelcy was introduced to the concept of area by filling squares and rectangles with small squares to find the total area.

Today we warmed up the lesson with a couple chapters in our new Junie B. read aloud. He caught me up on what's been happening in the last couple days in that book!

We spent the rest of our time today doing some arctic research with books I brought, including one about how to build an igloo which seemed to really interest him! So once we had gathered some information from our books, we found a really great video that showed two native Inuit building a quick overnight igloo for hunting shelter. Kelcy had lots of great questions that I'm looking forward to finding the answers to next week!

Kelcy will be working on a poster of famous Nintendo characters. I will have him work with the Wacom tablet to see how comfortable he is with the tool. We will work with the Lasso tool function of Photoshop to increase his production. He will also learn some about the shortcut keys within Photoshop.

design fundamentals. Kelcy finished painting his painting of a shark today. He then started a new series of lessons dealing with the element, "texture." His first project has a musical flare.

Today, Kelcy and I practiced the letter sounds written on his whiteboard. I would try to trick Kelcy by pointing at a letter while saying the wrong sound. He corrected me every time laughing hysterically. Then, we read 2 chapters from Junie B. Jones Is Not a Crook along with a few poems which Kelcy picked out from Where the Sidewalk Ends. Finally, we used the instructional Judy Clock which visibly shows functioning gears and maintains correct hour hand and minute hand relationships.

Kelcy will be working on a poster of famous Nintendo characters. I will have him work with the Wacom tablet to see how comfortable he is with the tool. We will work with the Lasso tool function of Photoshop to increase his production. He will also learn some about the shortcut keys within Photoshop.

This afternoon we began with a review of the —at word family. On Starfall.com we read three short a vowel stories. Kelcy first echo read each story and then worked to read each by himself. We then used the animated word builder machine in which he built three-letter words by changing the first or last letter with the vowel remaining a. For example, he began with cap, can, and then fan. Kelcy practiced reading each word. Kelcy practiced building words in the -an family (can, pan, ran, and fan). Finally, Kelcy worked to make more —an words by stamping them in his journal. He stamped pan, can, and ran.

Kelcy and I began our lesson with a flip flop number game. In this game, we took turns rolling 2 dice to create a 2-digit number. The player could determine how to create their number from their roll. After both players recorded their number the player with the larger of the two numbers won the roll with the winner of the game determined after 7 rolls. Kelcy used the 100's chart to help him determine the greater number. Then, we used the whiteboard to create subtraction word problems drawing quick pictures to represent the problems. Finally on Mathseeds, Kelcy solved subtraction problems using the number line and bar model along with solving addition with 3 addends.