We read the story, discussing beginning, middle, and end. Then we discussed the importance of teamwork, including the emotions that we feel when we work as a team. Liam brainstormed ways he could encourage someone when working on a project as a team.
Liam and I discussed the title of the book and when queried, Liam suggested that the title comes from a point when a character, Jeff, is horribly embarrassed after accidentally entering the girls' bathroom while trying to go to the school counselor's office when a teacher gives him the wrong directions. We picked up where we left off on Tuesday and read Chapters 12 and thirteen together. We discussed the relationship that the school counselor is trying to establish with the protagonist in the story, Bradley, and the relationship that Bradley and the antagonist, Jeff are forming. Liam and I discussed words such as timidly and reluctantly and suggested synonyms to replace them and used the words in examples. We finished the session drawing a picture of one of the main characters in the school as described by the author.
Liam reviewed the steps in the scientific method. He changed over his calendar from November to December. He read and discussed an article about environmental changes in the Ecosystem. He answered comprehension questions in writing pertaining to the article.
We corrected Liam's homework on converting cups, pints, quarts, and gallons. We created a Gallon Man that depicted the capacity of cups, pints, quarts, and gallons. We discussed and completed more problems converting cups, pints, quarts, and gallons.
We read a story about trains. Liam identified that main idea and learned how to decode words that he didn't recognize using context clues. We also read Miss Nelson is Back. He really likes this series about Miss Nelson and Viola Swamp. I had him retell the story in his own words. This encourages critical thinking skills as students evaluate which parts of the story are crucial to include in their retelling.
Before continuing our reading in 'There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom,' I queried Liam on the setting, place, and character traits of the main characters in the book. He was reminded what a protagonist is and Liam identified Bradley Chalkers as the protagonist. Afforded some prompts to facilitate recall and events, Liam gave accurate, albeit succinct, descriptions of the characters. We discussed the meaning of words such as sympathetic, and I afforded Liam examples to help him better understand and integrate the information. We read and discussed chapter 11. I encouraged Liam to compare his favorite character, Lincoln Loud, to Bradley Chalkers in the book. We discussed how Lincoln Loud feels about his ten sisters and Bradley Chalkers' thoughts about the girls in his school. Liam and I were able to establish a connection between the two as both characters are similarly annoyed by them.
