This afternoon we began with a review of The Hundred Years War, The Black Death, and Joan of Arc by discussing the questions she answered on Friday. Baylie's teacher in Georgia tasked us with studying an artist from the Renaissance. We agreed on Leonardo da Vinci. We watched a Brain Pop learning video to gain some overview knowledge on this 15th century inventor, sculptor, mathematician, and painter. We saw his famous works, "The Last Supper" and the "Mona Lisa". It was interesting to discover that he wrote in mirror script to help protect his work. Next, we read a two-page informational guide on Young Leonardo which outlined his life. We discovered he was born to unmarried parents and his mother was humble. He was raised in his father's household which gave him the benefit of an education and led him to an apprenticeship with a famed local artist. We completed a challenging vocabulary matching activity including words: humble, serving, guild, appreciated, patrons, notary, and advancement. Additionally, we began answering follow-up questions for the material read.

For History today, Baylie and I read her home school provided information card about The Hundred Years War, The Black Death, and Joan of Arc. The card gave a general overview of these three topics. We then completed a follow up comprehension activity in which Baylie responded with complete sentences to demonstrate understanding of the material. We watched a short video on History.com that briefly outlined how quickly The Black Death spread and how individuals suffered with this highly contagious illness. Next, we read a beautifully illustrated nonfiction text, Joan of Arc by Demi. This book gave us great insight to the actions of Joan of Arc as she began seeing visions at age 13 and her challenging but successful move into the French Army to help the people of France. We read how the king deserted her and allowed her to be captured. Being true to herself, she withdrew her confession, which led to her death by being burned at the stake. Finally, we reviewed the information we discussed today.

I gave Bobby a copy of the assignment sheet related to the Ali assignment. We discussed all of the components regarding the assignment. Then, Bobby watched a short video titled, "A Child of Contradiction, Muhammad Ali was an essential American?" The assignment will incorporate a brief/concise biography. It will also make connections to the most oft quote from the Declaration of Independence, "We hold these truths . . ." Last, we began to discuss the article associated with the video clip prior to the end of class.

We began with a nonfiction text, President's Day by Mir Tamim Ansary. In this book, we learned about the holiday and briefly discussed George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and slavery in simple terms. We then watched a Brain Pop Jr learning video about George Washington. We learned he was born in Virginia, a land surveyor, a leader in the war, and our first President. We saw that he set the guidelines for a two-term presidency and that he did not want to be titled "King". He is honored by being on the quarter, dollar bill, Mount Rushmore, as well as having schools, monuments, and the capital city named after him. We then read a short paragraph about him and Danny answered some follow-up questions to reinforce his understanding. Next, we looked at pictures of items to help Danny understand that Washington lived a long time ago. He accurately discriminated the pictures by choosing what items Washington would have used many years ago. We reviewed the Father of our Country reader from yesterday as well as enjoyed a fun song about George Washington. Next, we completed a task in which Danny spelled out Washington by matching lowercase letters to the uppercase versions. Finally, we colored a hat and a face of George Washington that we will put together in our next session. To wrap up our session, we reviewed the cardinal directions with our song. We then worked in Danny's Geography textbook on pages 13 and 15. We identified the compass rose on each page and practiced finding designated items to the south and the west.

We read aloud pp. 101-108 from The Barefoot Mailman. I introduced "popcorn" reading to Stephen. It helped keep Stephen more engaged related to his reading. We also discussed vocabulary terms and the format of the quiz that will take place next week.

Jackson was absent from school.

Today we focused on cardinal directions. In order to help Danny learn the names of the four directions we used multimodal learning techniques. First, we completed a page in his Geography textbook. We looked at a compass rose and Danny traced the letters signifying each direction. He then filled in the blank to complete the sentences, such as N is for ______. He needed to look at the key, find the word that matched, and then write the word. After help with the first two, he was able to complete the last two independently. I provided extensive verbal modeling of the letters and the words they represent. Next, we watched a Geography Games video that used bright, kid friendly digital illustrations to show the cardinal directions on various items such as maps, globes, and GPS. The flashing and moving visuals offer a new source of learning input. Finally, we watched a song video about the directions. The repetitive rhythms and simple lyrics provided a fun way to present this material and offer learning through music. Danny showed increased understanding at the end of our lesson as he was now able to name some of the directions without modeling.

Today in Social Studies we reviewed several areas of study. We first went through the calendar routine to determine today's day and date, as well as yesterday and tomorrow. We went through the days of the week and the months of the year. Additionally, we talked about how the pictures on the calendar dates make a pattern and we named the pattern. Since today is the last day of the month, we discussed that a new month (February) starts tomorrow and we prepared the calendar for next month. Next, we reviewed the cardinal directions. Danny has them hanging in his room in the proper location. Each of his signs contains a labeled compass rose and I've highlighted the corresponding letter in yellow to help him find them. We looked for each of the directions in his room. Then, Danny worked on labeling his own compass rose. He used the signs in his room to help him. Finally, we reviewed facts about maps and globes.

I helped Stephen with organizational skills related to setting up and organizing his notes. I had Stephen put his name on the front cover, as well as label the cover with the name of the subject. The notes were also dated and labeled. And, I suggested a basic outline format for taking notes. Then, we took turns reading aloud the "Barefoot Mailman". We stopped and discussed key points especially those that will help Stephen with his post reading written assignment.

We reviewed the definition of Geography and the 5 themes associated with the study of Geography. Next, we worked on note taking and organizing Bobby's notebook. Bobby did well related to applying concrete examples from the video "God Grew Tired of Us" to several of the themes. Bobby labeled the front cover of his notebook with the subject of study. He dated the first page of notes and began to use a basic outline format when taking his notes.