Language Arts: Jonathan continued working on publishing his latest writing piece. Today he wrote the final two pages implementing our revisions and edits. He also drew the four illustrations (making sure to match the story on that page) including speech and thought bubbles to provide more detail about the characters. Additionally, he created a cover page. He made a copy to take home to show his family as he is proud of his published work! Next, we read the book The Empty Pot by Demi. This is a fiction source text for his iReady textbook. After reading the book, we made comparisons to another source text as to what each book features and if it is fiction or informational. We wrapped up the day with one more chapter of our novel study, Dinosaurs Before Dark. Jonathan did a nice job on his follow-up response journal as well. Religion: Today we concluded lesson 18 focusing on We Are Followers of Jesus. We reviewed with our song, Walk in the Light and Jonathan completed his luminary project using a paper bag with a flashlight to light up the words he colored on his star, “Jesus is the Light of the World” which was then glued on the bag. We read how Jesus wants us to be peacemakers and work for peace. We discussed ways Jonathan can be a peacemaker at school. Additionally, we read about making choices as children of God and read through a few realistic, problematic scenarios and discussed loving choices for resolution. We prayed to the Holy Spirit to help us make good choices. Finally, he completed his chapter 18 follow-up quiz.

We explored and reflected upon the weekly question posed in Jonathan's Daily Science Student Practice book, which asked why we are not able to walk through walls. We discussed how everything in the world is made of 'matter,' and learned that 'matter' is everything that takes up space. Jonathan completed work that demonstrated his comprehension of the material reviewed today. Other vocabulary words reviewed included mass, shape, and mixture.

Jonathan worked on several problems in his Ready Classroom Mathematics workbook. We discussed what the word 'strategy' means, and Jonathan explained how he approached solving the problems. Jonathan understands that it does not matter in which order he adds the numbers (the 'addends') because the sum will be the same. We discussed that is an example of the commutative law of addition, which states that any sum is unaltered by reordering its addends. We finished our session with a review of math vocabulary terms and a math assessment, in which Jonathan got 4 out of 5 correct, or 80%. We reviewed his work together and Jonathan was encouraged to check his answers carefully before submitting his work; he realized he would have caught his error had he checked.

Jonathan was given his clay sculpture. We discussed the goals of completing the face, arms and final details of his sculpture.

Language Arts: After completing the daily language review which examined plurals, compound words, and alphabetical order, we tackled Jonathan’s iReady textbook. We compared a fiction book and an informational book. Following a chart with target items such as text features, illustrations, photographs, plot with story, and events, we marked off which items the book featured. Jonathan then identified if the book was fiction or informational and we discussed why he made his choice. We did this for two sets of books. We enjoyed a fun adjective related story called “Lost Dog”. We read about how a boy found his lost dog with the increased use of adjectives on his posters. We then generated adjectives to help add details to provided sentences. For writing today, we worked on the revision and editing of Jonathan’s piece based on the Stink the Incredible Shrinking Kid novel we recently read. This story is the adventure of Stink’s class pet, a newt, and what he’d do if he got away. Jonathan was prompted to revise and edit independently and then we went back through together. We adjusted some sentences for clarity, word use, verb tense, and punctuation. We also added a few adjectives for detail. Jonathan then began the publishing process and wrote two pages. Next, we began our next novel study, Magic Tree House book 1, Dinosaurs Before Dark by Mary Pope Osborne. We read the first two chapters and completed reader’s response questions after each chapter. Finally, Jonathan worked a little on lesson 61 of Reading Express. This lesson focused on descriptions in the information we read. He read about finding adjectives to describe a character as well as looking for who, what, when, where, and why in paragraphs. Religion: Today we began Unit 18, We Are Followers of Jesus. We learned a portion of the song, Walk in the Light and we sang along with a children’s You Tube version. We read about how Jesus is the Light of the World and he helps us see what God’s love is like. We read and discussed things that we do as children of the light and ways we show others the light of Christ. For our craft this week, Jonathan cut out a star and traced the letters for the words “Jesus is the Light of the World” in a colorful pattern.

Today, Jonathan was helped to understand basic principles about the properties of matter. This was initially achieved by performing a hands-on classroom experiment to illustrate the property of wind. We made a wind gauge using a sharpened pencil, two small paper cups, a drinking straw, a pin, and tape. We then went outside with our wind gauge to check to see if it would spin. We discovered that air makes the wind gauge spin; Jonathan noted that there was very little air or wind current today after observing that the wind gauge remained still. However, we subsequently used a fan and Jonathan noted how quickly the cups spun after being exposed to the air current generated by the fan. The vocabulary term learned today was 'anemometer,' which is an instrument used to measure the speed of the wind, direction , or any current of gas. Jonathan seemed to greatly enjoy this hands-on activity, and he hung the wind gauge in his room.

We designed our own obstacle course outside with various equipment that challenged him to use different physical skills: kicking, bear crawling, tossing, and jumping.
We added dice into the mix to randomize which part of the course he got to do next. He was loving it!

This week, Jonathan will begin learning to use different strategies to add 3 numbers. Today, he was instructed to look for two numbers to add 1st, using a familiar strategy such as the 10-frame from his math tool kit and to then add the 3rd number. This should facilitate Jonathan's ability to think about number relationships. Jonathan used his preferred strategy to add 3 numbers solving problems in his Ready Classroom Mathematics book, and he demonstrated his ability to solve word problems calling for him to add add 3 whole numbers whose sum was less than or equal to 20.

Jonathan and I prepared to learn his song for his pantomime. I found a video of "How Far I'll Go" from Disney's MOANA sung by a male. We listened and watched it. Jonathan and I created some movements that we can use for his pantomime.

Language Arts: We kicked things off with our daily language review which focused on finding proper verb tense, correct article, correct pronoun, and correct contraction. We completed our reader response journal for our novel study of Stink the Incredible Shrinking Kid. Jonathan wrote a paragraph practicing transitions of first, second, and last. He also created an acrostic poem for the main character, Stink. Next, we read in his iReady textbook about different types of books. We compared features of fiction books and informational books. Next, we continued our focus on adjectives. Jonathan completed five fill in the blank sentences adding adjectives and details such as where and what happened. We read the sentences back as a story. We then watched the Brain Pop Jr. learning video on adjectives to compare. Jonathan then continued to work on his creative writing piece by completing his last page of his rough draft. Finally, we ended our day with Fun Friday! We practiced the reading skill of sequencing through a fun board game activity. The game tasked us with reading a story broken into four cards and we had to put them in the correct sequential order. Religion: Today we reviewed the Sacrament of Baptism to finish up this lesson. Jonathan scored well on his follow up assessment on Baptism and the concept of grace. He completed his craft activity which was a mobile style display of the elements of the Sacrament of Baptism.