714.

NOTE: Only one photo today, at the very end of the blog. Sorry, but busy day.

Another long day today. But a very good one. Bubs has been blowing my mind lately with what she all of a sudden knows. More on that later.

Babe's Math lesson was on probability, so I took an empty tissue box and told her to put ten pennies and two dimes in it.

"Thanks! OK, now, which coin are there more of in this box?"

"The dimes."

"Hmm...are you sure? Do you remember how many dimes you put in the box?"

"2."

"Right. And how many pennies did you put in the box?"

"10."

"Right! Now, which coin are there more of?"

"The dimes. They make 20 cents. The pennies only make 10."

Oh.

My.

Gosh.

I laughed to myself and told her she was exactly right. I did a quick vocal lesson about the difference between 'number of' and 'amount', but ended up retreating and just thinking of something else to use. Coins were a mistake to use for this exercise.

So I emptied the coins from the box and ran to get the connecting cubes.

We started over and I asked her to put 10 red cubes and two blue cubes in the box.

"Now, what color cube is there more of in this box?"

"Red!"

"Right! Now, I'm going to have you grab a cube without looking. What color do you think it will be?"

"Red, I think. There are more red cubes."

Amazing. I told her she was exactly right, again, and explained to her that this was called 'probability.' That there is a higher probability of picking a red one because there are more red cubes.

So I had her make a tally chart, and then had her start picking. We did this ten times.

It figures that the first four picks were going back and forth between colors, as in, red then blue then red then blue. I was having a minor panic attack trying to quickly figure out how to explain to her that sometimes probability goes out the window. Ha! But by the end of the chart she picked red 7 times and blue three times. Or something like that.

Her last pick was blue and she gasped, haha. But I had her count how many times she picked red and if it really was picked more times than the blue.

"Yes! I was right! Because there are more red cubes!"

Amazing.

She completed her worksheets, and we were able to quickly do Reading Comprehension on the book she read last week "The Wheels on the Bus" by Maryann Kovalski. I had her reread it because she couldn't quite remember the main detail of the ending, and as she read it, she remembered it. So after answering some questions about the story, we packed up and headed for the library for Bubs' and Z's class (the library class replaced bin work today).

After lunch, I put Z down for his nap, then headed to Bubs' room to read her a story. I chose "Beach Day" by Patricia Lakin. I opened to the first page and Bubs gasped.

"Look! H. O. T."

My mind was blown. The very first word of the book was the word HOT, in all caps, because it was being exclaimed by a character.

"That is exactly right!"

I continued reading the story and and she was able to spell all the words that were in caps (she doesn't recognize lowercase letters yet). So the first time she spelled BEACH, I told her what it spelled.

"B. E. A. C. H. Beach."

I read the rest of the story and on one of the last pages, 'beach' was spelled again in all caps. I pointed to the word to see if she remembered from the previous pages.

"What's that say?"

"Beach!"

Um. What the?! Looks like her bin work will have to get much harder, and I already have ideas reeling in my head. Look for those in two weeks, since next week will be all about Ireland and St. Patrick's Day!

So while she was napping, it was time for Babe's transportation discussion. I bundled it together with the Science lesson about Earth's three properties - land, water, and air. We talked about modes of transportation in each property. Then I had her look through her Scholastic book catalogs and cut out all the books with modes of transportation on them. She had a nice pile that we will use for an exercise tomorrow.

I then read her "Light Up the Night" by Jean Reidy. It was the perfect book to read during this discussion because it's about a little boy who wraps himself in his blanket and pretends to fly through outer space in his rocket, then it turns into a UFO, then he comes back down to Earth and turns his blanket into different modes of transportation. It was great. Plus I asked Babe throughout the pages which property of Earth he was traveling through. So perfect.

After I read that book, I had Babe choose from two books about buses to read for her reading log.

"Can I read both?"

"Of course!"

So she did! She read two books today! "The Berenstain Bears Catch the Bus" and "Lucky School Bus" by Melinda Melton Crow were both added to Babe's reading log today.

She did her Checkpoints, then did a last remaining Science worksheet, then I gathered her on the couch to officially end the day by reading her "First Pup" by J. Patrick Lewis. It was a little different than what I expected, since this book was a more generic Bo book (not really about Bo, but using illustrations of a Portuguese Water Dog as it travels the world to find his perfect home, until it lands on the steps of the White House to two little girls sitting on the porch). The two little girls, I might add, are only visible by their shoes. But nonetheless, Babe was so excited to finally read a book about Bo. I will have to check out more from the library.

The book, though, was an added lesson in kinds of transportation! There are some cute illustrations of the dog boarding a boat, riding a motorcycle, and riding a train. So again, I asked Babe which property of Earth each mode of transportation was traveling through. Amazing.

And with that, the day was ended. Bubs and Z were awakened to another transportation-themed snack.

This one a little more obscure, but Babe got it right away and especially loved the mountains.

Onward to FRIDAY!!!