Today, Jonathan reviewed the phases of the moon and learned new vocabulary. We discussed how half of the moon's surface is always lit up, or 'illuminated,' by sunlight - that just how much of that light we can see from Earth changes every day, and that these are called 'moon phases.' He learned that the moon does not 'radiate,' or give off its own light, but that the moon's surface reflects the sun's rays. We then performed a hands-on exercise using a flashlight, 2 balls, (one of which was an orange), and a globe to represent the Earth. We used these materials to demonstrate how the moon is illuminated differently depending on how the sun reflects off it as it rotates around the Earth. Jonathan enjoyed watching the phases change using the light source and materials in a darkened room to illustrate the different phases.

Today, Jonathan learned to use 'the make a 10 strategy' to add 2 numbers. He learned that adding 2 numbers can be easier when one of the numbers is 10 and that using the 10 strategy can help him add 2 numbers that have a total greater than 10. Jonathan worked on an activity which required him to use his fingers to explore a different strategy to add, and he then solved problems using his fingers to make a ten strategy. He also demonstrated fluency for addition and subtraction, within 10, using a variety of different strategies.

Language Arts: Starting off with our daily language review, Jonathan practiced phonics, pronouns, plural nouns and punctuation. Next, we read the book, Who Eats What? Food Chains and Food Webs by Patricia Lauber. This is a source text for his iReady textbook. Jonathan followed it up with a three question quiz (in his iReady textbook) on the book which focused on the basics of how food chains and food webs are created. For antonyms practice, Jonathan matched word pairs. We continued to practice common and proper nouns by completing a follow-up activity to our story booklet, The List. Jonathan had to get creative and think about a proper noun to insert for the provided common noun. Next, we completed Word Sort 1 in which Jonathan sorted pictures for short a and long a. He made a few mistakes with 5 of the 20 pictures. We will continue to practice this skill. For writing today, we began with a Brain Pop Jr. learning video about Writing with the Senses. This video encouraged us to use our five senses to find adjectives to make our writing more descriptive. Then, it was conference time! We worked together to revise and edit Jonathan’s small moment narrative on Christmas Day. He was encouraged to do this independently first, then we discussed needed corrections in punctuation, capitalization, and spelling. We also looked for areas to provide more detail. Finally, we discussed the illustrations and decided if they matched the writing on the page.
Religion: Today in Jonathan’s We Believe textbook, we began lesson 16. This lesson is entitled, We Celebrate the Sacraments. We read some text about how we see God’s love in his gifts of creation and in one another. We found a sing-along and read and sang the chorus and one verse of the song, We Celebrate with Joy. Additionally, we discussed how Jesus celebrated special times. We discussed things that Jonathan and his family celebrate. Finally, we read Psalm 100: 1-2, which is used as a song in praise of God.

Jonathan reviewed relelvant vocabulary and facts describing Martin Luther King Jr's early life, his mission, and his legacy. He began answering questions to assess his understanding of the material, and he was able to demonstrate good recall skills, synthesis of information, and comprehension. We plan to review additional facts, complete a packet, and answer questions based on the material, but today, Jonathan was invited to join other students in an outdoor activity at the end of the day and he enthusiastically and readily complied.

Jonathan reviewed vocabulary and definitions pertaining to the moon. He reviewed the phases of the moon, we read a poem together to help illustrate the phases through imagery, and learned new vocabulary ('craters'). Jonathan subsequently and satisfactorily answered questions when queried both orally and on paper. We discussed that man's first mission to the moon. Apollo 11, happened in 1969 and that astronaut Neil Armstrong was the first man to set foot upon the moon. Jonathan also learned that we needed to bring air and water with us on the mission as these elements are absent on the moon. Jonathan finished his sea drawing on the whiteboard for the few minutes of our session together. He researched images of octopus, sea horses and barracuda to add to his creative artwork. He was very proud of it and we showed it to Miss Judie and to his mom. He was thrilled that we had ordered colored markers and pencils, in addition to new crayons, and showed all his new art implements to his mom when she arrived to pick him up at the end of the day.

We continued to develop our understanding of teen numbers. Jonathan used cubes to make different teen numbers, drew lines to match the numbers, completed number bonds, and practiced writing equations. He was able to satisfactorily demonstrate that he understands that the two digits of a two-digit number represent amounts of tens and ones, that ten can be thought of as a bundle of 10 {called a "ten"} and that the numbers 11-19 are composed of a ten, and one, two, three,four, five, six, seven, eight, and nine "ones."

Jonathan and I played some Ping Pong and did a little bit of boxing/body weight movements.

He's very strong and confident for his age! It'll be great to see him develop his strength and skills.

1.After reading and completing page 66 in his "Daily Science Book" we read a poem about the moons 28 cycle.
2.He was than given moon phase cards to place pictures in order.
3.He made a “Moon Phases Flip Book”.
4.Lastly, using Oreos, he created the moons phases and ate a few along the way.

Jonathan began Unit 2- "Numbers Within 20 Addition, Subtraction, and Representing Data". Using base ten blocks he showed the numbers 11-19 (concrete model) and his textbook showed these numbers using abstract models. He completed pages 237-250.

Jonathan and I discussed some of the basics of public speaking. We also went over how to do an introduction speech. We watched some videos of students performing Humorous Interpretation at the National Forensic Speech tournament. Jonathan really enjoyed them. We also talked about doing a pantomime/lip sync to a song of his choice. That will be our first project.