Lesson 1 Analyzing the Rock and Fossil Records – We learned how rock strata and the fossil record are used to establish the relative ages of major events in Earth’s history and how the geologic time scale is used to organize that history.

PJ explored lesson one of his Wordly Wise vocabulary book. He reviewed the parts of speech. He wrote down his spelling words and discussed their meanings. He began a study of his first literature book for this year, "To Kill a Mockingbird," by Harper Lee.

PJ was given time to work on a project of his choosing.

I worked with PJ to complete his painting.

I worked with PJ to touch up the arm and hand of his character.

I worked with PJ to complete the arm of his character.

I worked with PJ to paint the head of his character.

PJ was in a good mood today, chatting about his summer plans and lamenting the lack of a coffee maker in Michigan. He invited me to see the completed painting he’s been working on with Mr. Marcus (it looked amazing!). He couldn't really get into working on his ongoing Blues Clues project. He began to talk about Yoshi from Super Mario and I showed him a short animated film "Gobble-Gobble" (1976) in an effort to inspire him. It worked because he felt inspired to spend the remainder of class “speedrunning a funny little guy”. He produced an excellent design with strong linework and color.

PJ was in a relaxed, open-ended creative mode today. He drew an original character he called “Blue Dude” from Roblox and opted to work on something self-directed. I encouraged this freedom of expression and supported his choice to redesign the character. We also watched some Roblox lore videos as a light background while he drew.

PJ and I spent the period reminiscing about the school year and the future.