Ben read an article on Newsela about "How a Dog Became Mayor of a California Town." Curious and with no predictions, Ben read to find out how this happened. After a short review, Ben continued reading 'Stone Fox.' As he predicted, Little Willy does enter the race and is confident he will win. We notice that the author makes it seem that Willy may be wrong about his chances when other racers decide not to enter because "you couldn't blame people for wanting to save their money." We note that Willie is the underdog in this race, and Ben knows that underdogs often come out on top in stories. We also find out that Stone Fox can be mean when he slaps Willie for petting his dogs.
I worked with Ben to mix a resin solution. I had him let the solution stand for 5 minutes while I showed him the led system that would go into his resin base. Afterward, I had pulled out a 5"x5" plexiglass container, he placed his sculpture into the container and poured the solution into the container. I placed his work on a shelf to cure. Before the end of class Ben and I recreated a Minecraft sword for his character.
Antonyms and synonyms were reviewed. Given pairs of words, Ben did well determining if the words were antonyms or synonyms. Ben enjoyed creating a fictitious newspaper article about himself. He drew a picture of the event before completing a story web. Ben referred to the story web while writing the article. The CUPS method of editing was employed when proofreading.
Ben read a Dogo News article about the rescue of "The World's Loneliest Elephant" from Pakistan to a million-acre refuge in Cambodia. We reviewed what we learned about the characters in 'Stone Fox' and what we believed to be the problem. However, in today's reading, a new and larger problem is revealed. Ben made some clever inferences as he read, and he predicted what Little Willie will do to solve the problem. He also inferred some of the obstacles Willie may face.
Ben's mother was told this morning that there was not a tutor for Hank and that neither boy would see Marcus today. She decided to cancel for Ben for the morning. She was offered to have him do online learning so she wouldn't have to come in for one son for one hour, but she declined. I was told one hour before his session started. His lesson for the day was prepared and ready to go.
Ben continues to learn and practice the slant, form and sizing of cursive writing. He is currently working on letters i, u and w. He enjoyed a game of catch in which a verb had to be stated before throwing the ball. He did well using a verb word bank to complete sentences. Using the research notes from last week, Ben wrote an expository paragraph on the American Kestral. He colored the picture of the bird he drew last week and glued the paragraph to the bottom of the picture page. He was pleased with his finished product. Additionally, we reviewed and practiced using time order words used in narrative and process writing.
Session Minutes
60
Minutes Student Attended
60
Lesson Comments
Ben shows pride in his work and is eager to share finished products with his mother.
Ben began a new realistic fiction story, 'Stone Fox,' after examining the cover and table of contents. After reading chapters 1 and 2, Ben recounted the main characters and the story setting. We were also introduced to the overarching problem in the story, Grandfather's illness. Ben practiced thinking ahead and planning a course of action in a Lumosity game
As we came to the end of 'Fantastic Mr.Fox,' Ben recognized that his predictions were very close to precisely the ending Roald Dahl wrote. We looked for the lesson Mr. Fox learned and used it to identify the theme of the story. Ben determined the theme was "Never give up, keep trying." He gave examples from his life where this theme would apply, sports and learning something difficult.
Ben was given his reference image of a Mindcraft sword to cut out. Ben placed the image on a piece of clay and he cut out the design. I worked with Ben to refine the design before it was placed into the oven.
As Ben continued reading 'Fantastic Mr. Fox,' we focused on the language used to color our opinion of each character. Ben made some robust predictions about the pending resolution to the foxes' problems. We will look to confirm or disconfirm those predictions as we read.
