We reviewed the Law of Conservation of Energy. Then we played a board game where we identified the forms of energy such as mechanical, sound, thermal, light, and electrical energy.

Introduction to Andy Warhol. Go over the history of Andy Warhol and his main life events. Review some of his artwork.

Add some details to Mercer's Artigras project, including finishing his background.

Today's lesson focused on completing the unit based on life in Ancient Egypt. Mercer read material about a game board found in many Egyptian tombs. Mercer learned details about playing the game Hounds and Jackals and found out it was comparable to the famous American game called Chutes and Ladders. Mercer participated in an interactive game of Hounds and Jackals and learned how this ancient game was so popular during that era and still played today. Mercer spent the remainder of class learning information and facts about different islands in other countries using Google maps.

Today, Mercer compared and contrasted the schools he's been to since Pre-K. He demonstrated exceptionally good retrieval skills, recalling that the first school he attended was Discovery, when he was very young. He then attended Benjamin when we was about 5 years of age, and mentioned that he got sent to the principal for chewing on a pencil. (“Can you believe it?” he asked incredulously). Next was Palm Beach International Academy in Wellington, followed by Global Perspective and then the Greene School. Mercer stated that the best thing about the Greene School was that there were a lot of students there, and the worst thing was that he was given a lot of homework. He then attended Score at the Top, which was in a bad neighborhood in Riviera Beach; he was there for only about 2 months. He then returned to Global Perspective before coming to the Batt School, which he said was his favorite by far. He went on to explain that he was not a fan of online learning at Global Perspectives because he likes to socialize with his peers and it was a very small school with only about 5 other students. In addition, he had to do chores before his online learning. Mercer likes the way things are run at Batt but added that he feels the lunchtime is too short. He is unsure of his plans for the future but stated he enjoys geography. We researched some world geography games he could play online. Mercer then asked me about the countries I visited and the states and elsewhere in the world and shared that he enjoys traveling and has been to 4 continents, North and South America, Europe, and Africa. His favorite country was Peru and here in America, he’s been to 35 states. We finished our interesting getting-to-know-one-another better activity by guessing ancestries. I shared that I was of Polish descent and Mercer asked me to guess his ancestry. I did so and Mercer was surprised I guessed both sides right so fast. I got England right on the first attempt and German on my second try, and Mercer stated that his maternal side is English and his paternal side, German. He somewhat reluctantly complimented me on my guessing skills and it was time for our next class. We enjoyed a very interesting conversation and I commended Mercer on his candor, responsiveness, and engaging conversation skills.

Mercer began class with a 5-lap warmup around the perimeter of the playground. After discussing badminton terminology, he participated in a passing activity. Mercer and his teacher were able to string together 12 total passes. Individually, he was able to complete 9 consecutive hits without the shuttlecock touching the ground.

Mercer used the period to complete the ‘MELTS’ graphic foldable on the following types of energy: mechanical, electrical, light, thermal, and sound.

Mercer worked on his painting.

We began with a discussion about musical instruments of the world and Mercer expressed interest and curiosity about the Australian wind instrument, the didgeridoo. We looked at a video on how the instrument is made from the bark of eucalyptus trees that is hollowed out by termites. We then shifted gears somewhat and read about the composer Beethoven. Mercer answered questions about its content and answered 7 out of 8 multiple choice questions correctly. Although his answers to open-ended questions were correct, they were succinct – and prompts helped encourage him to add more in-depth analysis and detail to his answers which reflected good depth of knowledge. In the last quarter hour, Mercer was asked to add detail to his interpretation of the Batt school logo. After pointing out the flame atop the books in the logo, Mercer reflected on its meaning and added more content to his paragraph. When I encouraged Mercer to share his work with others, he initially balked and said it would be embarrassing; however, I think he gave it more consideration after I commended him for his interesting interpretation and effort.

Today’s discussion centered upon and addressed logos. We discussed their purpose and function and I showed him examples. Mercer had to determine if he could recognize the store or brand the logos represented. He did remarkably well and identified approximately 15 logos, from cars (Mercedes) to stores (i.e., Target) to clothing apparel (Nike). We discussed our interpretation of the logos (e.g., the ‘swoosh,’ for Nike to represent speed or motion), to the identifiable bulls eye image for Target, a bird for twitter, the propeller for Mercedes, etc. Mercer was engaged in this activity and was then tasked with looking at the Batt logo which we found on a mouse pad. Mercer wrote a paragraph about what he thought the symbols represented. He was given the option of referring to a primary source (Ms. Judie) but chose instead to compose the paragraph of his own thoughts and interpretation, and he dedicated a good amount of time reflecting and revising his paragraph. Mercer shared it with me and remained attentive to my suggested edits which did not change content but rather modified grammar and sentence construction, including the use of contractions, run–on and fragmented sentences. Mercer listened to the suggestions and revised his work accordingly without sacrificing any of his original content or ideas. I pointed out that I would like him to give additional thought to the other components in the logo – in particular, the flame. We may add more detail and embellish his paragraph in our next session. I was very satisfied with Mercer’s engagement in the enrichment activity. Although he was initially reluctant to share it, he did not object when I offered to type it. It was a productive session and we enjoyed a constructive dynamic.

Mercer began several exercises from the 6th grade math Envision textbook, All Four Operations With Fractions.