We kicked off our session with the list 25 spelling list. Morgan chose 10 of the 14 words on which to focus for the week. This list does not follow any spelling rules, requiring memorization of the words. She chose valuable and library as her vocabulary words and she wrote down the definitions using the glossary in her book. Her bonus word of the week is: dilly-dally (wasting time). In her text, she listed the words in order of those she most uses in writing to the least used. In literature today, we compared our stories from Friday: the classic version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears and a fractured fairy tale version entitled, Somebody and the Three Blairs by Marilyn Tolhurst. We used a compare and contrast chart. Morgan did a nice job recalling the stories. Today, we read Cinderella by Marcia Brown and The Rough-Face Girl by Rafe Martin. The second story is from the Algonquin Indian folklore providing a powerful version of Cinderella. The Rough-Face girl is burned and scarred as a result of her older sisters making her tend the fire. Despite her appearance, she feels she is the one that is destined to marry the strongly desired Invisible Being. After reading The Rough-Face girl, Morgan created a scrapbook page to capture the setting and basic plot. We worked on these together. In these two stories we discussed vocabulary such as disposition, vilest, and hardhearted. Additionally, Morgan practiced her Latin flashcards for this week’s six words. This afternoon, Morgan participated in an online Lindamood Bell session. She began with math and practiced counting backwards on an imaginary number line by ones and by tens. She practiced addition, subtraction, and multiplication flash cards. For reading, she practiced her targeted sight words. She ended her session by reading and discussing her Anne of Green Gables chapter book in progress.

Latin adjectives were introduced today. Baylie read the rules for using adjectives, read all of the vocabulary words, and then completed a workbook page. For Science, Baylie experimented with washable markers and alcohol. She had asked several questions after her last experiment with markers so today was spent finding out if her hypotheses was correct with regard to the alcohol and the markers. Some time was also spent looking at the crystal formation from a previous experiment. Baylie asks some excellent questions which creates a great learning environment.

Baylie read about the Oregon Trail and The Pony Express today. She had to answer comprehension questions on both topics. She and the instructor discussed the items that the pioneers had to bring with them and the difficulty of their journey. For Latin, all of the vocabulary words from Lesson XVII were read by Baylie.

We started the day with a review of her list 24 spelling words. Morgan made only two errors on her 19 words. Later in our session, she completed her test, scoring a 100% and she got the bonus word! She spelled all words correctly and did not perform any self-corrections. In her spelling text, we looked at commonly mispronounced words that often lead to misspelled words. We looked at these to confirm proper pronunciation and correctly writing the words. In Latin, Morgan practiced her vocabulary for the week by writing the Latin and English words together in her workbook. For literature today, we worked on rewriting Morgan’s Rapunzel document from yesterday. This is a lengthy piece with quite a few edits. We worked on it a while today and we will finish this final copy in our next session. We completed a flip book to compare and contrast our two stories from yesterday (Little Red Riding Hood classic version and the newfangled prairie tale version). Morgan did a nice job comparing and contrasting facts from the two stories. Next, we took turns reading a classic version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears and a fractured fairy tale version entitled, Somebody and the Three Blairs by Marilyn Tolhurst. Morgan worked hard in her reading for decoding and fluency. Morgan was given an independent writing activity as a follow-up. The task was to write a letter to “Somebody” (the bear in the story) as coming from Baby Blair (toddler) to help interpret this character’s response to the events of the story. This was a challenging task and we discussed ideas of what could be written. Finally, Morgan participated in an online Lindamood Bell session this afternoon. She first practiced finding numbers and solving problems on an imaginary number line. She then practiced addition, subtraction, and multiplication flashcards. She had fun with a game of multiplication war! For language arts activities, Morgan practiced reading her sight words and continued reading from her Anne of Green Gables chapter book.

We began with spelling practice today. Morgan practiced writing her words on the wipe board today for Thrilling Thursday! She spelled 17 of 19 words correctly and provided the correct definition for the bonus word of the week (wrath). In the text, we worked on two activities in which Morgan had to fill in the blank to complete the sentence. One of the activities focused on vowels in words. In literature, we continued our study of fairy tales. Morgan finished writing her recap of Rapunzel from yesterday. Her first draft had a number of spelling, punctuation, and grammar mistakes. We discussed focusing simply on a beginning, middle, and end instead of retelling the story with many details. She was encouraged to read it over and self-edit. She read it first for grammar and to see if the sentences made sense. She then read to see if the words “say what she wanted them to say” (spelling). She found a number of mistakes independently. I was so excited to see her make these corrections on her own. We then went through her paper together for spelling, grammar, and content revisions. She will rewrite her draft tomorrow. We then read three different versions of Little Red Riding Hood. Two were slight variations of the classic story while the last was characterized as a “newfangled prairie tale” by Lisa Campbell Ernst. In this last version, Little Red Riding Hood sets off to visit her grandmother on her bicycle and red-hooded jacket. The setting is a midwestern prairie vs. the woods and instead of finding a frail old granny, the wolf encounters a feisty fit grandma! We discussed vocabulary concepts such as the phrases: off her rocker and improved his disposition. For science today, Morgan completed a matching of five of the unit vocabulary terms. She correctly matched all of the words to their definitions and was able to discuss each. We also reviewed the unit in preparation for assessment. We enjoyed a quick visit to the preschool room to see their presentation on Arctic animals. The children shared all kinds of neat facts, artwork, and masks of Arctic animals. Later in our session, she completed the unit assessment. She scored 12/13. We began lesson 17 in Latin today. Morgan made her flashcards for this next lesson. This lesson continues on with the remainder of the constellations: Leo (lion), Libra (scales of justice), Pisces (fish), Sagittarius (archer), Scorpio (scorpion), and Taurus (bull). We also discussed that a myth is a traditional, ancient tale about supernatural beings or heroes. The constellations tell mythical stories.

Today Baylie read about the California Gold Rush and the Oregon Trail. We used the globe to identify the location of the boundary between the England and the U.S. and to get a better idea of the route used by early pioneers to travel by boat around South America to the Oregon Territory. Baylie asked some good questions as the material was read and discussed. She also began to answer comprehension questions about this subject. She is to continue this study at the next session.

Morgan's Lindamood-Bell lesson began with her visualizing the number line and counting forwards or backwards by a given number along with jumping forwards or backwards to the nearest 10. Morgan was quized verbally on basic addition and subtraction facts. Then, using multiplication flashcards, she quickly found the product and to reinforce these facts they played multiplication war together. Next, they moved on to Morgan's sight word box along with reading her Anne of Green Gables book. After each paragraph, Morgan paraphrased and discussed the context of her readings.

Baylie took the Latin Lesson XVII test today. She had to write the Latin translations for a given set of words. Today in Science Baylie read from the text about mixtures, solutions and chemical changes. Next, the vocabulary words from these lessons were reviewed. She and the instructor did an experiment with permanent and washable markers. Baylie had some excellent questions and ideas as the experiment was conducted. It was a very impressive session today!

This morning, Morgan worked very hard at writing her list 24 words in alphabetical order. She independently found two that she had missed of her 19 words; however, she had mixed up five words that she didn’t catch. We went over these together. We talked about using a check mark beside the word in the book to help her track what she has done. For Latin today, we reviewed her six vocabulary words. As Morgan knew these confidently, we proceeded with her assessment. She scored 102% as she got the bonus question correct, too! In science, we reviewed lessons 6.1 - 6.4. We focused on the vocabulary including open/closed circuits, switch, conductor, and insulator. We also looked at the pictures of series and parallel circuits. We read lesson 6.5 about electricity in homes. This focused primarily on incandescent and fluorescent lighting. Finally, in lesson 6.6, we read about electrical safety. We talked about downed power lines, not using electricity near water, and proper use of power outlets. Finally, in literature today, we continued our study of fairy tales by reading, Rapunzel by Paul O. Zelinsky. We made predictions, shared reading, and discussed the characters and their actions. Throughout our reading we discussed vocabulary such as sorceress, consented, fiercer, abundance, hoist, and inquired. Morgan began writing about reading to summarize as our session ended.

This morning we began with spelling practice of list 24. Morgan wrote her words in her notebook and used two words to write sentences. In her textbook, Morgan completed two different fill in the blank style activities in which she chose the appropriate spelling word from the word bank to complete the sentence. We reviewed her journal entry from yesterday. We corrected capitalization and punctuation errors as well as discussed sentence structure and worked through spelling. In literature today, we read Hansel and Gretel as told by Cynthia Rylant. We made predictions throughout the story as well as discussed vocabulary and interpreted events of the story. We discussed how fairy tales are animated and involve children, yet at times the characters are quite evil and the stories scary! Finally, we reviewed Morgan’s six Latin vocabulary words and the origination of these words (constellations as named by the Greeks and Romans).