Ben continued reading "The Chocolate Touch," focusing on making predictions based on textual evidence. He did a fabulous job of inferring the character's feelings and providing support for his ideas. His fluency is so strong, especially reading with expression.

The journal prompt was, 'Describe something you did in Nashville'. Ben wrote three, 3 word sentences. With guiding questions, Ben added details and describing words to each sentence. The CUPS strategy of editing was utilized. He further practiced including details and descriptive words by using all his senses to describe pizza and an animal of his choosing. Given words, Ben did well determining if each was a verb or a noun. He enjoyed a creative writing activity in which he drew a picture of a teacher with his left hand and then completed a template describing what happened to the teacher, why it happened, how other's reacted and what the teacher did.

Ben gave a very detailed retelling of the events from our previous reading of 'The Chocolate Touch.' Afterward, he read chapters 3 and 4, focusing on the details of John's new chocolate problem. We looked for details that proved John was not just tasting chocolate but that the things he put in his mouth were changing into chocolate. Ben had some ideas about ways that this could be a problem and made some predictions supported by the text.

Ben continues to learn and practice cursive writing. He is learning that some letters require 'going up an down the same line' such as i, m and n. Ben was tasked with proofreading a postcard and correcting for proper noun capitalization. He worked hard on completing his personal narrative on being trapped in a snow globe. He utilized the CUPs method of editing. Ben was pleased with the final product. He did a great job!

Ben selected 'The Chocolate Touch' as his next book. We previewed the book by looking at the cover illustration, chapter headings (images in this case), and reading the blurb on the back cover. Ben made some predictions about what the chocolate touch could be. He read chapters 1 and 2, getting an introduction to the characters, setting, and noticing where the story changed from realistic to fantasy. Ben practiced answering literal comprehension questions about a text on the Reading Eggspress site.

Ben was introduced to the concept of perspective, horizon lines, and vanishing points. We worked together to make 2-point perspective cubes and a staircase.

Ben reviewed writing connected 'l's in cursive. He practiced writing connected 'm's and 'n's. We are working on formation and slant of letters. Ben was tasked with proofreading and correcting a passage for capitalization of proper nouns. Ben is working on a personal narrative about being trapped in a snow globe. He completed a graphic organizer determining the introduction, beginning, middle, end and conclusion. Ben drew a picture to go along with the his story. He wrote the introduction and beginning of the story. He will finish the story on Wednesday.

Ben tried out a new Newberry Award-winning fantasy story today, about a superhero squirrel. We decided it isn't quite the right fit for now, so we will find a new story next session. After reading a passage about the Sweetgum Tree, he practiced sorting 4 story summaries into appropriate categories. (e.g., too much detail, too little detail, copied and just right) He also practiced drawing conclusions and interpreting punctuation on the Reading Eggspress site.

Ben began reading "Everything Sports", a NatGeo Kids book. He compared and contrasted this book to the fiction story he was reading before the break. We noticed the features used to bring the NatGeo book to life, such as text boxes, strong colors, photos, captions, and other special nonfiction text features. We also talked about ways we read nonfiction differently than fiction. We reviewed the features of a good summary and watched a Khan Academy video on the topic. Ben practiced making predictions and using vocabulary on the Reading Eggspress website.

Nouns and proper nouns were reviewed. Given sentences, Ben did well identifying the proper nouns. His journal prompt was to write about Christmas Day. The CUPS method of editing was utilized. Ben began the prewriting process for a narrative story he is going to write about being trapped in a snow globe. He answered specific questions about how he got trapped, what it was like and how he escaped. He will write the story when we can work on it together in person. Additionally, Ben practiced differentiating between fact and opinion.