• The Happy Hackers (Fiction, Level 15, Stage 3) by Sandy Lanton

Fifth grade is upon us, and despite a few tears shed over the end of summer break (and a few of Mama’s tears shed over being old enough to have a fifth grader), we are happy to be getting back into the school groove and into a whole new year of AlphaSkills. I can’t wait to see which books we’ll use this year and how much we’ll learn together!

The activities I want to highlight this week are the writing activities provided as part of the 5 days of activities in the Guided Lesson. Since writing was one of our weak points last year, I’m always happy to see grade-appropriate writing prompts provided from day one because they make me feel confident that I’m equipped to help Elijah’s writing continue to move in the right direction this year. This week he was asked to answer the following questions (one per day, each appropriate to the portion of the book read that day): Write 3 sentences describing how you and Danny are alike or different on school mornings; Write 1 sentence about what Danny expected to find in his mother’s desk drawer; Write 3 sentences about your reaction to the story at this point. (Is it exciting? Scary? Etc.); Write about your favorite character in the book; and Write 3 sentences using at least 3 of the words made with the letter cards this week.

Was writing easier for Elijah this week than it was at the end of fourth grade? Yes, it was. Maybe it was the summer break or maybe it was just natural growth. Was he happy about doing it? Not extremely. But he is improving. I can see it, in by leaps and bounds in regards to skill, and little by little in regards to attitude. And I can tell this is going to be one magnificent school year! For more information about the AlphaSkills Read with Sarah curriculum and our family, see the AlphaSkills Blog Introduction.