Today's plan was to review and practice sight words from Word List B, to practice oral segmentation, and to introduce a new reading book, "Pig is Big on Books".

It was so good to have Siena back. I''m glad she is feeling better. Thank you for sending her books back from last week! She informed me that she can't find her word work rings so I will make her a new set. We began today's session with a review of the first 25 High Frequency Words. We also reviewed 6 words from the next 25 word set that I introduced to her at our last session. We played a bingo sight word game and a phonics game focusing on initial sounds. I introduced a new text for home practice. She was very excited as she practiced, and so proud that she could read some whole sentences on her own. She can practice this text at home. I told her I was looking forward to hearing her read it to me next week when she returns!

High frequency word work.
Sight word games.
Introduction to new independent level reading books.

Siena forgot to bring her word rings in but reported that she now knows all of the words that were on her rings. We looked at the second 25 high frequency words (HFW) and Siena identified correctly the words "too" and "as". We will begin our focus on the following HFW words from that list : "for", "all", "ball", "day", "play", "was", and "fun". I've also begun to look at her decoding ability. I administered a letter/sound identification assessment. She was able to correctly identify all the letter names. She was also able to identify all the consonant sounds however could not give me both the short and long sound for the vowels. That is an area we will address in our sessions. As Siena encounters unknown words in her reading, I am noticing that she doesn't attend to the initial sound. Rather, she uses the picture clues to guess at the word and doesn't verify if the word in print starts with the sound or if the word she guessed at looks right or sounds right. She needs to be encouraged to point to the words as she reads and "get her mouth ready" for the first sound of an unknown word. We will focus on phonics and decoding unknown words in our sessions. For word work today, we did word building puzzles and a rhyming game. I introduced a new story, "Rosa Gets A Pet". She seems to be enjoying our word work and is cheerful and happy during our sessions.

I am so pleased with Siena's progress. She practiced her high frequency words over the weekend and knows almost all of the first 25. In our session, we reviewed the words she knows on her word ring and practiced the last 5 on her "need" to practice ring. We practiced her words with a dry erase board on which she wrote the words and then read them to me. Next, we played a bingo game with the sight words. This is a great way to practice her words since she needs to read them, say them, and recognize them on the game board. After completing the sight word bingo game, Siena reread the books she brought home for practice. Then, I introduced her to a new text which introduced the /ea/ sound. She will be bringing this text home for practice. Siena is a pleasure to work with and is doing very well. !

Today, Siena and I worked with her high frequency words. I made 2 word rings for her to use at home. One ring included the words she knows now and the second ring has practice words on it. We will move the words over and add new words on the practice rings as she learns her HFW words. Next, we read some level B texts, which are texts at her independent reading level. This is the level text I recommend she practice reading in at home. She did quite well, and I am sending them home for her to read to her family. She next practiced building sight words with plastic letters. She built the words, spelled them out loud, and then recorded them on a sheet of paper. Siena was happy and engaged throughout our work session.

It was wonderful to meet Siena. At first she was very shy, but opened up quickly as we talked about school and she told me a bit about herself. After taking some time to get to know each other, we began our work with a high frequency word (HFW) assessment. She could read 10 of the first 25 words on the list. We chose 5 of the unknown words to begin work with right away. We used stamps to write the HFW words and practiced spelling, saying and reading the words. We then read an alphabet book which she enjoyed very much. I am looking forward to working with Siena. She is a very friendly and engaging child!