Will and I began our session with a read aloud, "Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons" by Eric Litwin. We discussed the character, Pete, and what the problem in our story was. In Will's journal, he traced the words, 'Pete's Buttons'. He then traced words describing the problem, 'Pete's four buttons rolled away' and 'He did not cry'. Will then illustrated a picture of Pete and his four buttons. We ended our session with creating a tornado in a jar using vinegar, dish soap, water, and glitter. Will was so excited to choose his glitter. He chose red glitter. He was thrilled to be able to take his jar home. Will and I had a wonderful first session. We had fun!

Will and I read a book about animals in the rainforest titled, “In the Rain Forest”. As we read he counted the animals on each page and tallied the hidden frogs throughout the book. He then wrote a sentence in his journal about the story. After that, we used food coloring mixing primary colors to make secondary colors and wrote about this activity in his journal.

Will practiced pretend play with animals and people. He also played chess.

Goals:
-Create a sunset with a tree silhouette
-Use acrylic paint to practice smooth brush strokes
-Practice bending...

Today, Will was asked to recall the main parts of the story we read Tuesday. When prompted, Will remembered that Pete's friends chose his clothes for him and that he wanted to look cool, but he ended up sweating. We did not have the book today, so we watched the video, which Will enjoyed very much; it helped him remember more details. Will was encouraged to make sentences for his journal and helped to write the words, using dots to help him form the letters. When done, he drew pictures to match his writing and was asked to read the sentences. Will had difficulty reading some of the words, but guided reading and support, prompting methods and decoding strategies facilitated his performance.

Goals:
Chose your favorite colors and paint an ostrich.
Learn about how to use paint and how to control the paintbrush.
Learn wide brush stroke.

This afternoon, Will worked in his Summer Writing and Drawing journal. Via guided reading, we read the book, "Pete the Cat - Too Cool for School", even though Will said he had read it at home with his mother. I encouraged Will to read familiar words, sound out unfamiliar words, and tackle some short sentences through guided practice. He as yet benefits from reminders to sound out the word with its beginning letter, but his performance has considerably improved over the past month. I showed him some strategies, such as breaking the word up into smaller chunks to make it easier to sound out and decode, and he wrote a sentence and drew a picture about the story we read in his summer journal. To end our session, Will wrote the letter 'S,' practiced the beginning sound it makes, and spelled the word. We then created the letter into a snake using markers and thought up other 'sn' words. With encouragement and supportive prompts, Will makes the effort to persevere when challenged and is proud when he succeeds.

Will practiced imaginary play while building. We did movement outside.

In efforts to improve Will's phonemic awareness, or ability to identify and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words, I presented him with a hands-on activity involving short-A words. He was tasked with sounding out a series of three-letter words and then cutting and pasting the words under their corresponding pictures. I helped Will cut out the words, but he was afforded strategies to help him sound them out with decreased prompts. I then selected a "B" book from the library and afforded Will supportive guidance and strategies to help decode the words, several of which had 4 or more letters. I specifically selected the "B" book to read as Will, on occasion, will reverses the letters 'b' and 'd.' Will worked hard blending the letters. I was satisfied with Will's efforts today.

Will worked on math seeds for a few minutes before moving on to a phonics activity. He was tasked with matching letters to their sounds and identifying words that began with the sounds. Although making gains in phonemic awareness, He will occasionally become frustrated and says "I don't know" if he struggles with a word, but when offered supportive guidance and prompts, he makes an effort and is very pleased with his successes. We also went up and down the hallway and read the student's names aloud, as they are written on their individual doors. Will seemed to enjoy this activity and remained interested and engaged as we sounded out the students’ names. We finished up our session with a Reading Eggs activity to reinforce and consolidate gains. We focused on phonics and sight words, practicing skills and strategies reviewed in prior sessions. Will remained engaged and motivated by the interactive animations and rewards that are built into the lessons and earned by progressing to different levels.