at home reading tutoring part 11

Last Thursday, SJ had another tutoring session.  They did a few Readers’ Theater plays that had penguins as characters.  They started off with "Penguins of Antarctica:  All About Adelies" by Sheri Skelton.  SJ chose Penguin 2 and 4.  He said to Mrs. Banks, "I am going to be 2 and 4.  I'm the evens and you’re the odds."  This was an informative play that explains what the penguins like to do and how they act. 

The second Reader's Theater was called "Some Like It Cold" by Beth Beutler.  It had only two characters.  They were Felix Fur Seal and Penny Penguin.  He told Mrs. Banks that he would be Felix since Penny is a girl.  It was a funny little play where the two characters are telling why they love living at the South Pole.  They were talking about a friend, Tina the Tiger, who would be visiting.  They were concerned that Tina would want them to visit her in the jungle.  They didn't want to go where it is so warm, so they decided they would have to convince Tina not to leave the South Pole.

The last Reader's Theater was called "To Zoo or Not to Zoo" also by Beth Beutler.  This play had three characters: Penny (again), Patsy and Peter.  He wasn't sure if Patsy was a boy or girl penguin, so he clarified that with Mrs. Banks.  She told him that Patsy was a girl, so he told her he was only going to be reading Peter's part.  The play was about the three penguins worrying if they were going to be captured and taken to a zoo in the United States.  In the play, Peter says his uncle was taken to a zoo and said it was pretty nice.  The penguins discuss if it is better to have your freedom or comfort.

Next, they did a crossword puzzle on penguins.  Mrs. Banks said he had a little bit of trouble with this activity.  He had forgotten what "blubber" was and she needed to explain that to him to be able to complete one of the crossword answers.  She also said he had trouble making words with disconnected syllables.  He couldn't connect "be" with "luga" for beluga and "nar" with "whal" for narwhal. 

Then, she presented him with groups of words that had to be put in alphabetical order.  She was amazed at how quickly he completed this worksheet.  (I wasn't.  He has always been strong with spelling and putting things in alphabetical order.)  For example:  fox, Arctic tern, blubber and iceberg was presented to him.  He had to write 1, 2, 3 or 4 on the line before each word.  He wrote in 3 fox 1 Arctic tern 2 blubber 4 iceberg.

The last thing they worked on was a madlib style activity.  She had a list of items and SJ had to fill in the blanks.  These random words would then be placed in the story.  Mrs. Banks had to help him with some of the words.  There was a lot of his usual "I don't know", but Mrs. Banks doesn't put up with this tactic.  This was his list.

name Peabody

adjective mean

color black

noun-a food fish

noun penguin

noun-a body part legs

adjective blind

verb-gerund form painting

adverb happily

noun-place city

adjective wiggly

noun town

adjective whining

verb eat

This is his story after his words were plugged in.  Enjoy!

There once was a penguin named Peabody.  He was a mean penguin.  He wore a black coat.  His favorite food was fish.  He liked to hold a penguin on his legs.  This penguin lived on a very blind iceberg.  His feet were cold from painting on the ice!  One day he bought a ticket.  He would go somewhere warm for a change.  He got on a jet and happily flew to the city.  Boy, was he surprised when he climbed down from the jet!  "This place is very wiggly.  I did not expect to see so many towns!  It is a whining place to visit, but I will never want to eat here."

She said he laughed and laughed when they read his story out loud.  I just bet he did.