Using animals, elements and colors, we explored some basic concepts of mindfulness and the ability to calm the mind at will.

Religion: Practiced the Act of Contrition. Created flash cards of the Faith Words from lesson 6.

ILA: Lesson 12 - Text Features part 2. Completed pages 188-189 in iReady textbook. Watched and discussed the Martin Luther King Jr. Brainpop Jr video. Brainstormed ideas for the writing prompt (What is a dream that you have to make the world a better place?) Wrote the rough draft using 4-5 sentences.

Social Studies: Lesson 2 - The World Around Us. Read and discussed North America pages 74-81 from Google Classroom.

Jonathan was given his clay sculpture and instructed to begin smoothing out the head of his character. After he was done we added more clay to make the head more round and more accurate to the reference image. I worked with Jonathan to create the ears with tinfoil, clay, and armature wire to attach them to the head.

We practiced greetings, days of the week, and numbers 1-50.

Math – Jonathan completed the assigned iReady math diagnostic for Monday. Then we worked on the assigned classwork and homework Lesson 8 Pre-Test.

Jonathan continued working on his clay sculpture focusing on the feet, tail, construction of the head, and eyes.

Science - We began to keep a science notebook in which we added notes on compare and contrast. We added definitions for comparing and contrasting. Then we added the example of oranges and bananas and added the ways they are different first and then the ways they are alike. Next we learned that using a Venn diagram is a great way to organize your thoughts when you are comparing and contrasting. The comparison or the way the two items are alike goes where the circles overlap and the differences go where they don’t overlap. Next we added a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting elephants and giraffes in our science notebook.

Religion: Wrote and practiced the "Act of Contrition" for sacramental prep. Language Arts: Respond to writing prompt by using correct capitalization, punctuation and add an adverb to describe an action word. Final read Abe Lincoln's Cabin. Complete the short response and learning target on page 187. Went on a Text Feature scavenger hunt using the book Abraham Lincoln - Lawyer, Leader, Legend. Student created text feature anchor chart from a non-fiction book of his choice. Anchor chart is hanging in his room as a reference.

Discuss current science coursework and there is none. Please note that I (Valerie Clark) am Episcopalian and am enthused that Jonathan's curriculum comes from a Catholic school.
We discussed Jonathan's interests in reptiles. In Jacksonville there is a Alligator/crocodile farm featuring >15 species of crocodilians, and I'd be happy to assist in a field trip (my PhD background is in herpetology, fieldwork and chemistry) there or to the local zoo.
Colored a page of a panther chameleon, a species of lizard from Madagascar. Jonathan was amazingly adept at using Google Earth on his own initiative to look up the place where I live part-time in Madagascar-- he even zoomed in (via blue dot) to see an area of one of my study transects where I marked a tree with blue paint. Amazed that at age 7 to be so adept at geographical exploration! I am a National Geographic Explorer and I believe he would be competitive for the kids' explorers programs at the NGS, although I did not mention all that to him.
Visited the science lab to check out materials for setting up a terrarium with tropical plants suitable for small rainforest animals to live in.

I had Jonathan fill out the get to know you form. Once Jonathan completed the form we did a quick review and then I asked him what he would like to do for his clay sculpture. Jonathan chose to create a character named Richu. I worked with Jonathan to create a pose and then we created the armature. Jonathan covered the armature with tinfoil and began adding clay.