Today, Jonathan completed a unit review about seasons and weather. Jonathan answered questions to determine his comprehension of material reviewed. He attained 100% on the assessment and only deliberated over a question about the Earth's axis but ultimately figured it out and derived at the correct answer.

Jonathan completed examples solving problems that assessed his ability to find totals greater than 10. We reviewed alternative strategies, and Jonathan is comfortable applying different ones to arrive at the correct answers. Jonathan was given a timed assessment the last few minutes of class in which he got 100% correct.

Jonathan was given his clay sculpture along with the goals of completing the legs (so that the structure would be balanced and stand freely) and completing the tail of his sculpture.

Language Arts: In his iReady textbook, we continued identifying which senses the words captured. We read a page from Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel and discussed what the text helps us picture. We continued working on our plural nouns packet that we started yesterday. We finished reading the story about The Elves and the Shoemaker. We were tasked with generating lists to practice pluralizing nouns that end in -f, -lf, -fe, and irregular plural nouns as well. For our novel study, we continued working on our reader’s response journal to answer questions about Stink the Incredible Shrinking Kid. Jonathan pretended to draw his own state quarter and drew his face and name on one side and a palm tree and “Florida” on the back. He also practiced changing verbs by adding the -ing such as make to making. As we have been working on parts of speech, we watched the Brain Pop Jr. learning video on Adjectives and Adverbs. Jonathan scored 4/5 on both the easy and hard quizzes. Jonathan continued working on his creative writing piece we started yesterday about Newton the newt’s adventure out in the wild. Additionally, Jonathan completed his preliminary diagnostic test for readingeggspress.com. He will begin on lesson 61 for this language arts resource. Finally, we ended the day with a fun word ladder. Using phonics and vocabulary clues, we worked from “fried” up to “baked”! Religion: Today we continued discussing the Sacrament of Baptism. We read about how a white garment is placed on the child and then a candle is lit by a family member. The Father prays that the child will always walk in the light of Christ. Jonathan colored a candle for his craft project for this week.

Jonathan continued to learn how seasons change throughout the year. We focused on fall today. Jonathan learned that the air gets cooler in autumn, and the days get shorter due to the Earth orbiting away from the Sun. This causes leaves to change color and fall from trees. He also learned that some animals gather as much food as they can and that others travel to warmer places. Much of this knowledge appeared to be a review of already acquired learning. Jonathan then worked on exercises on pages 88 -90 in his Daily Science Student Practice workbook. We used a supplemental resource, Scholastic's Super Science Stem activity, which supports the Science standards, in efforts to consolidate emergent gains.

Jonathan continued practice finding totals greater than 10, using counters, connecting cubes, and 10 frames. Jonathan appears increasingly familiar using addition strategies with totals between 11 and 20, such as using doubles and making a ten to add two numbers. He has been arriving at the correct answers an average of 95% of the time. He is ocassionally off by one, either due to his haste completing his work or failing to check over his work. Once reminded, however, he arrives at the correct answer. I have been encouraging Jonathan to review his answers to facilitate his performance, accuracy, and test-taking skills.

We continued practicing playing rhythms and rudiments on the drum set.

Language Arts: Jonathan’s daily language review added matching vowel sounds and identifying descriptions tasks in addition to his correction of two sentences. He scored a 100% on his short / long u vowel picture sort. Next, in his iReady textbook, we continued identifying which senses the words captured (for example: dirt was flying everywhere). As we have been studying parts of speech, we picked back up on plural nouns with a fun story and activity booklet. We began reading The Elves and the Toymaker. As we read the story, we were tasked with generating related word lists based on pluralization rules for most words (add s), words that require an -es, and words that require us to drop the -y and add -ies. We continued reviewing our novel, Stink The Incredible Shrinking Kid with Jonathan working through his reader’s response journal. He is answering questions in complete sentences and also practiced matching words from the story with the same vowel sounds. For writing, Jonathan began writing a fictional story based on our novel study. His story will tell the adventure of Newt the Newton and his adventure after he escapes. We worked on brainstorming various ideas to write more creatively. Religion: Today we learned more about the Sacrament of Baptism. We learned that water is an important sign of Baptism. During the sacrament, we are placed in water or water is poured on us. We read through a script and looked at pictures of a Baptism. Jonathan colored a portion of his Baptism art project for the week.

Jonathan completed several activities in his daily science book. He read small passages about spring, answering questions for each passage. He colored in pictures and used new vocabulary to complete sentences.

Today, Jonathan focused on the season of spring. He learned that the temperature gets warmer and the days get longer, by observing and tracing the Earth's orbit. He also explored why there are a lot of flowers in the spring because plants receive more heat and light. Finally, Jonathan answered questions in his Daily Science Student Practice book to assess his understanding of the material reviewed.