at home reading tutoring part 15

On Monday, SJ had his weekly reading tutoring session with Mrs. Banks.  He was asking me to cancel it as we were driving home from school.  "No, I am not cancelling," I told him.  "But why?" he asked.  "Because you need it," I answered.  "No, I don't.  Cancel it, Mom," he cried.  "Sorry buddy, I am not cancelling it," I told him. 

When Mrs. Banks came, he was extremely resistant to begin.  I could hear him give her grief about working.  She told me that initially she didn't think she was going to get him to work.  She said he had some Skittles on the table.  She said she scooted over a few green and purple ones (her favorites).  She told him she was glad he had these Skittles here, since she really likes the green and purple ones.  "You didn't really take them," he said.  "Yes, I did.  It says here it is a share pack," she replied.  She said he then got up and started to separate the rest of them by color.  She also reminded him that she wouldn't be back this week and he would only be tutored on Mondays.  "Really?" he questioned her.  "Yes, only on Mondays," she reassured him.  Then, SJ gave her the rest of the green and purple Skittles.  How nice of him. 

Now that he was ready to work, they began with a Reader's Theater called "An Instrumental Wish" by Colleen Messina.  It had a narrator, music genie and children.  He said he didn't want to be a genie, since genies were stupid.  He also didn't want to be the narrator initially, so he opted to be the children.  Then, he realized that most of the lines were said by the children and the narrator only had one line.  He tried to get her to switch, but she was not allowing that to happen. 

The play was about a child finding an old lamp and when he rubs it a genie appears.  He thinks the genie is going to grant him wishes, but he is a musical genie that only grants musical wishes.  He asks for a flute, then a drum, then a guitar and then a trumpet.  He doesn't like any of the things are associated with the instruments, so he asks the genie what he should wish for.  The genie is taken off guard, since wishers never ask for his opinion.  He suggests a music CD.  The child takes that and the genie disappears in a puff of smoke.

Next, they worked on an instrument packet that had connect the dots, mazes, word search, word code and a puzzle.  He definitely would have enjoyed that.  He loves to do things like that.  Then, they moved onto a sheet where they make up words to fill in the blanks.  These words got inserted into the Madlib type story.  These were his words.

verb, past tense  watched

adjective  boring

adjective  funny

noun  city

adjective  whiney

noun  dog

adjective stooge

noun, plural  people

verb  race

verb  crabby

This is story the words were inserted in.  It is called "Polka Dot Music".

Aline watched in the middle of the boring living room.  Her spotted skirt flared out around her.  "This new dress is so pretty!" she told her mother.  "What is this funny pattern called?" 
"They are called polka dots," said Mom.  "The pattern is named after a kind of city.  "What does the dance look like?" asked Aline.
"Well it's very whiney and lively," said Mom.  "The dog is quite stooge and fun." 
"Bouncy like people?" asked Aline.  "The dots look like balls.  Polka music sounds like it would be fun to race to." 
"It is," said Mom.  "It's even more fun to crabby to."

The last thing they did was a glyph on music.  SJ had to decide the color of the boy's hat (blue and green because he'd like to play drums), the color of the girl's outfit (green stripes since he listens to rock), color of drums (blue since he is a boy), color of the guitar (gray since he listens to music 4-6 days per week), color of music notes (green since he pretends to play instruments), color of boy's outfit (a dark color because he would not enjoy performing in front of an audience) and he wrote three words to describe how music makes him feel (bored, a little happy and tired).  Below is the finished glyph.