Today's lesson focused on the unit quiz. Atticus completed a unit quiz about cultures around the world. Atticus participated in class discussions about social awareness skills.

I worked with Atticus to create a salmon. I helped Atticus understand basic construction concepts, illustration techniques, and volume.

This morning, Atticus completed the unit test on using all operations to solve decimal problems and multiplying and dividing fractions and mixed numbers. He answered the fraction-related problems today which were not immediately accepted because he did not show all of his work. Once he took his time, followed all of the steps, and showed his work he did great. I was very generous with this test allowing him ample time and redo questions because we are working on neatness, thoroughness, and patience more than his arithmetic abilities which he proves during our lessons. He took home extra point questions this weekend which were not returned today. These will be looked over tomorrow and may be added to his 87.5% test score.

After reviewing some typical characteristics of a dystopian novel, we studied the first two chapters and identified events and behaviors that inform the reader that the characters are living in a dystopian world ,quite different from our lives here in the U.S. We identified the fear of outsiders, the absence of all wildlife and animals, and the use of punishment for apparently small infractions. We hypothesized what event might have occurred before the action of the novel opens to account for the creation of this type of society.

Today we will played a game of Chess.

Today, Atticus went back into the lab to complete our Unit 1 Lesson 1 Lab 2 activity: to design a basic magnifying glass using common household items. The purpose of this activity is to creatively problem solve using tools, and to recreate what it may have been like for the first scientists who created the magnifying glass and microscope. We discussed how microscopes are essential for observing cells and, therefore, were instrumental in their discovery.

Atticus continued with the unit test this morning after we reviewed the rules of decimals and fractions and we discussed him taking his time and not skipping steps. He was able to redo the missed problems from yesterday before continuing. He was still unable to finish today and it will need to be completed on Monday. He was sent home with decimal and fraction-related real-world problems for homework, which will be added to his grade.

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Atticus completed the essay portion of his test on the novel during today's session. We reviewed some of my writing suggestions at the conclusion of the class, mainly addressing the unnecessary repetition of the same sentence and idea throughout the essay.

Today, Atticus and I analyzed our data collected from observing the samples under the microscope. We analyzed our observations about the samples and determined similarities and differences between the cheek cells, onion cells, pond water (algae cells), and salt crystals. We observed that only the salt crystals were nonliving, and recorded our reasons for determining that the salt was nonliving and the other samples were living.