Baylie and the instructor set up a data collection sheet for an experiment on density. She was asked to draw pictures of the experiment as it progressed. Several items were dropped into a beaker containing nine different liquids. After Baylie dropped each item in the beaker she recorded what she saw. After she had completed observing all of the things she had dropped into the beaker she was given three additional items to drop into the cylinder. Before she dropped the additional items she was asked to formulate a hypothesis. She did a great job with this experiment.
For history, Baylie and the instructor went over the results of her unit test on The Louisiana Purchase and The War of 1812. She did fantastic job on the test.

This morning we reviewed Morgan’s Bible verse, spelling, and vocabulary words. We went over the spelling sentence Morgan wrote yesterday for grammar and spelling. Later in the morning, Morgan completed her spelling and vocabulary test and scored a 100%! She also got the bonus word, “meddle”. In literature today, we began reading from Arnold Lobel’s Fables collection. We discussed the two main elements of fables throughout our reading (has a moral and uses personification of animal characters). We first read, The Bad Kangaroo. Morgan recalled the story and answered in writing to answer why the principal ran out of the kangaroo house! She did a nice job with her recall and we worked through spelling and grammar errors. For her fables book project, Morgan did a nice job writing what she inferred the moral of the story to be. She indicated that the boy thought it was ok to do the (bad) things he was doing because his parents were doing them, too! We discussed how a child’s conflict will reflect the ways of his parents. Next, we read The Baboon’s Umbrella and followed the same procedures as above. Morgan inferred that people should be careful of people’s instructions as it could be wrong. This was generally along the lines of the moral to be careful of a friend’s advice: sometimes it is good and sometimes it is bad. To practice grammar skills, Morgan did a “daily fix it” activity. She worked on correcting sentences for punctuation and spelling. She is also practicing phonics, the sight word "always", and synonyms. She completed a dictionary challenge for the word discovery. For Latin today, we practiced the five adverb vocabulary words flashcards for Lesson 15. Finally, this activity had a journal prompt to write four sentences to describe herself and a question for me. We reviewed for spelling, word choice, and grammar. To end the day, Morgan participated in a third-party online Lindamood Bell session. She was asked to picture a number line 0-50 and find designated points along it. She also counted back by 2s and back by 5s. She practiced flashcards for mixed addition and subtraction facts of single digits. She was instructed to “get a picture” of items in which she struggled or missed. With a “picture”, she air writes the equation. She also worked through an addition story problem and earned a Magical Learning Moment for her hard work. She practiced a reading list evaluating the chunks in the word. These were sensical and nonsensical words such as stature, brived, tromp, and mengent. She practiced words from her sight word box. Finally, she read some of her book, Anne of Green Gables working on reading technique and fluency.

It’s Thrilling Thursday! Morgan reported that on Thursdays in Georgia, they get to prepare for their spelling test with fun activities. She had asked to type her spelling words today. We worked through them several times with typing. She had a few errors that we practiced a few extra times with typing and air writing. She practiced her keyboarding skills as well. She continued the activities in her spelling book. This included writing two sentences about why she’s grateful for others using a spelling word and her own personal target word. She did a nice job and we discussed spelling errors on other words as well as punctuation and capitalization along the way. Her spelling book contains a Writer’s Thesaurus. We read about how items are entered in the thesaurus with the definition, word used in a sentence, synonyms, and an antonym. We used the thesaurus to complete designated tasks. Later in our session, Morgan completed a practice spelling test, scoring 11/12. We then wrote sentences using the spelling words. We identified spelling errors in other words as well as punctuation mistakes. After discussion, Morgan was then tasked with trying to add an adjective into her sentence. She did a nice job and we’ll review her last sentence in our next session. For literature, we continued reading our Aesop’s Fables. We discussed how we are practicing inferencing in reading the story and working to determine what we think the moral of the story might be. Morgan is really enjoying these stories and doing an excellent job retelling the stories, recalling details, and inferring the moral. We are working through unfamiliar vocabulary as we read. This included words like flattery, deceiving, flock, exquisite, and outdistance. We read The Fox and The Crow (moral: Beware of flattery. It can make you forget what is sensible.), The Boy Who Cried Wolf (moral: Don’t tell lies. People may not believe you when you tell the truth.), The Cat and the Mouse (moral: Appearances can be misleading), and The Stag at the Pool (moral: Value everything about yourself. Each part is important and unique). Morgan’s strong moral fabric is lending itself well to interpreting this type of literature and she is really enjoying it! For handwriting practice, Morgan worked in her cursive writing book on the letters g and o pages. She is working to not make a little extra loop at the top of the letter o. For Latin, Morgan reviewed her 5 adverb vocabulary cards in various ways. She also worked to write the correct meanings in her workbook. Also, in her workbook, we read about adverbs and were reminded that they describe the how, when, why, and where something was done. We practiced working with the provided adverbs (loudly, quietly, sadly, etc.). Finally, we also worked on Science today. We read the text lesson 6.2, which revolved around static electricity (the build-up of nonflowing electricity). We also read that opposite charges pull toward each other (attract) while the same charges repel. We read about conductors of electricity (materials that allow electricity to flow through it easily) such as metal and water while insulators, such as plastic, or rubber, do not allow electricity to flow through easily.

For history Baylie and the instructor used a play format to learn more about the Lewis and Clark expedition. She read a short selection on the expedition and gave it a new title. Vocabulary words from the article were defined to ensure comprehension.

For Science Baylie and the instructor did some research on density of liquids. The materials needed to conduct an experiment were discussed. We also talked about the importance of writing procedures so the experiment can be replicated.

Morgan began by visualizing the numbers 1-50 on a number line. Then, she practiced counting up by 10's and down by 5's. Also, Morgan solved addition facts by jumping to the nearest 10 then adding the remaining amount. Finally, for the end of the math portion, basic addition, subtraction, and multiplication flash cards were used. Next, Morgan read 1-3 mixed syllable words along with reviewing past sight words. Finally, she read short stories discussing the context when finished.

Kelcy and I played a letter/sound game and a sight word game. I am always impressed by what a good sport he is when he plays a game. Also, he has very nice manners. We read the first three chapters of a new Junie B. Jones book. Kelcy is an active listener who asks and answers questions as we read. He also makes reasonable predictions about what may happen next. He completed another level in Reading Eggs, practicing sight words and word families.
He has been a delightful addition to our Batt family and will be greatly missed.

Today for science, we began the chapter on electricity. We completed the first lesson in which we learned the various items that need electricity whether it be from a plug on the wall or by batteries. We used the glossary to define electricity as the flow of charged particles. For Latin, Morgan made flash cards for lesson 15. This lesson focuses on adverbs: clam (secretly), numquam (never), nunc (now), saepe (often), and semper (always). We practiced reading the cards along with the meanings. For language arts, Morgan wrote her 10 spelling and 2 vocabulary words in alphabetical order. She needed a little help making sure she got all of the words and talked about checking them off the list for organization. She then continued in her spelling practice book with a proofreading exercise. She was tasked with using editors marks to correct three words with spelling errors and one careless error. She did a nice job finding the mistakes. As her class is beginning a unit study on fables, we discussed that fables are stories that have a moral and typically feature animals as the characters. We read from a selection of Aesop’s Fables for young readers. Our first story was: The Lion and the Mouse. The moral of this story was that kindness is never wasted and that all creatures need each other. Additionally, Morgan read, The Dog and the Reflection. In this story, the moral was that if you want too much, you may lose what you already have. We made predictions, reviewed throughout for comprehension, discussed the actions of the characters, theorized on the moral of the story, and discussed the presented moral of the story as related to what we concluded.

Kelcy and I reviewed all of his sight words, great job. We also played a game with the words. He wrote a description of his favorite snack food, chips, in his journal. He described their appearance, taste and sound, then wrote a sentence about them. We reviewed the word families in his journal and practiced the -ad family. We played games with the sound /j/ on Reading Eggs, he completed 3 levels with 100% accuracy. We finished his Junie B. Jones story and looked for a new one to read next. Kelcy read a book about penguins on Raz-Kids for his guided reading and answered 5 comprehension questions correctly.

Morgan and I began our session unpacking and looking through her materials. She began working on Spelling List 20 in her book by choosing 10 of 14 words for the week. She wrote them in her notebook. These words follow the rules of short u and oo in moon and included words such as study, such, true, who, and blue. Morgan then used the glossary in the book to write the definitions for the words whoever and clumsy. Next, she completed the activities on the two pages of her book which included tasks such as sorting the spelling words by vowel sounds ue, o, and u, finding opposites of her spelling words, and making meaning connections between the three words movable, mover, and moving van.