Christopher started his lesson today doing Quick Drill in Reverse. He practiced all the vowel sounds with their keywords. Christopher practiced g, sh, f, ch, z, and wh. He practiced the welded sounds ing, ind, olt, ost, ive, and all. Christopher created open vowel words using the magnetic tiles. He built the words: pro, she, and sky. Christopher remembered to use the "sh" digraph tile for the word "she." Christopher continued to build words: pregame, restate, retold, preplan, and cohost. On these words, Christopher was asked to separate the words into syllables. He was able to do this successfully, seeing that the prefixes such as pre, re, and co make a syllable that stands alone. Christopher practiced the sight words: thought, brought, four, before, and different. He needed extra review to write the word, "different." Christopher practiced spelling the words: brazen and crusade using the syllable cards. We spent a few minutes looking up the meaning and the history of the first Crusades. Christopher looked at digital pictures of famous paintings showing the Crusades of the Middle Ages. Christopher did not hear about this before, but I further explained to him how the crusades were wars waged by Christians and Muslims for control of the Holy Land. Christopher then began his dictation. He is working on understanding and remembering how to represent the long sound of the vowels. I am showing Christopher the right markups on the whiteboard when he gets stuck. Christopher succesfully completed five real words, five nonsense words, five sight words, and three sentences. We will analyze the sentences next week. For the balance of the class, we read from the book Because of Winn Dixie. Christopher did some of the reading aloud. He showed very fluent reading with excellent expression.

Christopher started his lesson by reviewing all of the vowels with their keywords for all three syllable types that he has learned. Christopher practiced the digraphs: sh, ch, th, and wh. He reviewed the welded sounds: ive, ing, olt, and ang. Christopher reviewed the prefixes: co, de, e, pre, pro, and re. He worked on two new vocabulary words: erupt and lilac. Each word was entered into his personal dictionary with a definition and a sentence. Christopher drew a diagram for each word. We discussed the eruption of the volcano on the island of Hawaii, called Kiluau crater. Christopher was able to tell me about lava. We looked at pictures of this active volcano. For the second word, we discussed the lilac bush. Christopher looked at pictures of a lilac bush. We discussed the lilacs as the spring flowers in the northern climate known for their beautiful fragrance, and also about the iconic puple color known as "lilac." Christopher was charted using the words on p. 9. Christopher got 14/15. He had trouble reading the word lilac in isolation. We will continue to practice this new word. Christopher did markups on words with open vowels. Christopher practiced scooping these 5.2 words into syllables and labeling the vowels as open or closed. Christopher practiced the sight words: brought, bought, ought, thought using the whiteboard and colorful markers. Christopher read ten sentences on p. 21, scooping the phrases with a vis-a-vis pen. He did a good job of this and had a few corrections to make by not scooping between the adjective and the noun it modifies. Christopher asked to play the Slolem game after this. We used the word stack from 5.2 including B words and nonsense words while playing the board game.

Christopher started his lesson today by reviewing the vowel sounds for closed vowel, vowel-consonant-e, and open vowel, using keywords for each word. Christopher reviewed the consonants and digraphs sh, ch, the, and wh. He reviewed the welded sounds ive, ing, olt, and ang. Christopher read the words try, spry, and she to review the sounds of the open vowel. Christopher read the prefixes: re, co, de, pre, pro. He read the words: defrost, moment, remix, pretest, and rehire from the magnetic tiles. Christopher practiced a stack of words from 5.2 by playing Slolem with me. We will continue this lesson on Wednesday.

Christopher started his lesson by reviewing the open vowel sounds using the guide words. I demonstrated how to mark up the words with open vowels on the whiteboard so that Christopher would have a guide for his analysis work today. Christopher had to identify the words with the open vowel "Y" sound. For this vowel, which sounds like an "" in some words, Christopher learned to underline the long vowel "y" and draw diacritical markings on top of the vowel showing that the "y" vowel sounds like /i./ Christopher practiced this skill on ten words. He needed guidance to recognize how to set up the diacritical markings. Christopher spelled all of the sight words correctly. He then worked on analysis of the sentences. Christopher remembered to capitalize the first word of a sentence 2/3 times. This was excellent. Christopher circled the punctuation at the end. He correctly marked all the words with closed vowels sounds and bonus letters. Christopher found all of the digraphs and the blends. He worked at marking up the new words with a long vowel sound (open vowel.) Christopher began the new lesson for Book 5.2 by reading five prefixes: pro, pre,de,e,co and re. Chsrisotpher read the words: defrost, prevent, rewind, and defend. Christopher will continue with this lesson next week.

Christopher started his lesson by playing Quick Drill in Reverse. He practiced the long sounds of the vowels first by reciting using the chart as a guide. Next, I wrote a sample word with the open vowel sounds on the whiteboard and showed Christopher how to mark up the vowel. This open vowel concept is new to Christopher so we will review until it seems easier to him. Christopher practiced the long vowel sounds for a, e, i, o, and u. He is also learning the sound of y=/i/ when y is used as a vowel at the end of the word, like in the word "sky." Christopher practiced the digraphs and consonants: th, g, z, j, and f. He practiced the welded sounds: ing, ank, all, ive, onk, and old. Christopher did the markups for the words "demonstrate' and "inexpensive" as a review. He scooped the words into syllables and showed the correct markings for each syllable type. Christopher used magnetic tiles to spell the words: sly, pry, why, spry, and sky. In each case, Christopher was helped with finding the vowel "y" when it says, "i." Christopher worked on the dictation for the rest of the period. He wrote five sounds, five real words, and five nonsense words. Christopher spelled all of the sight words correctly. Christopher wrote three sentences for dictation. We will do the analysis tomorrow. Christopher ended our session by reading, The Spy Plan. He did a good job of reading the text and describing the action to me. Christopher was able to answer inference questions today.

Christopher began his lesson reciting all of the sounds of the vowels. Christopher referred to the chart of vowels to assist with the new guide words that are now part of his recitation portion. Christopher then reviewed the consonants and digraphs: th, ck, qu, and t. He practiced the welded sounds: all old, ind, unk, onk, and ing. Christopher reviewed the vowel-consonant-e rule and the vowel-consonant-e exception "ive" as well as a word that ends with the /v/ sound. He read: inexpensive, disruptive, and dissolve from the magnetic tiles. Christopher then reviewed the meaning of "open vowel." This is a word that has a vowel that is not closed by a consonant. Christopher read the words: flu, try, spry, she, and why from the magnetic tiles. In the case of words that end in "y" as a vowel, Christopher reviewed the sound of "y" when it says long /i./ Christopher played the snowboard game to practice a stack of 5.1 words. He used colorful markers to practice the sight words: would, bird, out, school, and your. Christopher needed a little help to spell the words school and bird correctly, but he quickly got the word right after our review. Christopher read ten sentences and scooped phrases using a vis-a-vis marker. He took the charting test and scored 15/15. Christopher did well in his lesson today.

Christopher started his lesson today spelling nonsense words with vowel-consonant-e. Chrstopher successfully wrote the words sheves, glire, vennape, wames, and colgrone using colorful markers on the small whiteboard. He was then ready for his nonsense word spelling test. Christopher spelled fifteen words correctly on his test. He has officially passed Book 4. I congratulated him on this success. We then introduced the new concept of "open vowel" in Book 5. Christopher read the word "my." This was the introduction to the use of the letter"y" when it is a vowel. "Y" has the sound of long "i" in many words in the English language. Christopher read six more words with open vowels. He read she, no, acorn, hi, me, try, flu, and pupil. Christopher could see that long "u" has two sounds. One of them has an /00/ sound as in the word "flu." Christopher also learned the guide word for long "u" being "pupil." He read this word correctly. We reviewed the fact that Christopher now has three syllable types in his knowledge base. He has the closed vowel sound, the vowel-consonant-e, and now the open vowel sound. Christopher reviewed the words: inexpensive, disruptive, and dissolve. He was able to tell me that the "ive" is a vowel-consonant-e exception. Christopher was reminded that the construction of the word "dissolve" is based on the fact that any word in the English language ending in a /v/ sound, is followed by a silent "e." Chrisotpher read the words flu, try, spry, she, and why. We discussed the vocabulary words: spry and pry using a discussion and a sentence for each. Christopher did very well today.

Christopher started his lesson today by practicing markups on the whiteboard using colorful markers. He practiced finding the base word and circling the suffix. He practiced marking up vowel-consonant-e, and the closed vowel sound. Christopher practiced scooping syllables. He needed a little review on remembering to scoop the syllable between two consonants, such as in the word "illustrate." Christopher pointed out compound words. We did a special lesson on the word "bathe" because in this word, the vowel-consonant-e construction jumps over the digraph "th." Christopher was then given a page of nonsense words: He had to circle the suffixes. I reminded him that the only suffix he has learned is "s." Christopher then underlined the syllables in the basewords successfully. He went through every word and marked up the vowel sounds correctly. This included decipheriing whether it was a vowel-consonant-e syllable or a closed vowel sound syllable. Christopher then had to highlight with a yellow marker, any letter s that sounds like a /z./ Christopher practiced understanding the /z/ is a voice sound. I had him put his hand on his throat to feel the vibration. I helped him compare this sound to the sound of /s./ Christopher found four correct answers. He did however also highlight the /s/ sound, demonstsrating that he needs more work on understanding the difference between voiced and unvoiced sounds of the letter "s." Christopher then took one half of the spelling test. He spelled 15/15 words from all of the steps in Book 4 correctly. At our next meeting, Christopher will be tested on the nonsense words. Then we will move forward to Book 5. Good work!

Christopher started his lesson by reviewing the long and short vowels with their key words. He reviewed the consonants and digraphs: sh, g, v, z, and th. Christopher reviewed the welded sounds: ive, ind, ink, and all. We reviewed the following words from Book 4 using magnetic tiles: snake, reptile, valentine, solve, expensive. Christopher played a snowboard game with me to practice large stacks of words from 4.1-4.4. The words he reviewed included vowel-consonant-e words, words with two kinds of syllables, multisyllabic words, and nonsense words. Christopher practiced these words as he took turns moving around the gameboard that had different snowmen and winter comments like "sled down the hill three spaces." Christopher read the real words and the nonsense words for his charting test. He got 15/15 on real words and 14/15 on nonsense words, missing the nonsense word, "stathe." At our next meeting, Christopher will take the markup test and the spelling test. We ended the lesson with a short reading from Because of Winn Dixie. We read about the part where the preacher talks to Opal about how people have their own troubles and that if they seem cross, it could be that they are suffering from some problem. Christopher listened during this reading. He worked well today.

Christopherl was absent from school today.