“Superkids, Traveling Money, and More” Week 14 First Grade

Superkids (Fiction, Levels A-J) by Brian and Jillian Cutting

Fun with Fives (Non-fiction, Level G) by Danielle S. Hammelef

Travel Money, U.S.A. (Non-Fiction, Level G) by Margie Burton

The Atlantic Ocean (Non-Fiction, Level G) by Anne Ylvisaker

Little Car (Fiction, Level G) by Joy Cowley

Superkids must be written by someone who has a 6 or 7 year old at home because it is the perfect book for this age group! What kid wouldn’t like to read about monsters, giants, dragons and such being chased away by superkids? Fun with Fives is a book that teaches first graders how to group things into fives in order to count large numbers of items faster. Travel Money, U.S.A. was our favorite book in this week’s kit because it was all about traveling and how much money it takes to do fun things on trips. (Although since part of the book was designed to teach first graders how to count coins, the amounts were not realistic, no matter how much I wish they were!) It was paired with another non-fiction resource The Atlantic Ocean to highlight the location of the excursions featured in Travel Money. Little Car was the book that brought out the giggles in this week’s kit because it was all about a very large family trying to fit into a very small car and how that very small car turned into a very clever car to outsmart them.

The activity I want to highlight this week is the Guide to Linking Reading to Social Studies which provides an activity to complete before the reading and afterwards. Through the content of this book and the discussion prompted by the Read with Sarah guided lesson, I was able to help my first grader feel confident about locating oceans and some states on the USA map, and we were also able to talk about how much of a blessing it is that we have been able to see some of the places on the map in the book.

My favorite part of our AlphaSkills time this week was when I asked Malachi to complete Step 7 Connecting Writing and Reading for Little Car and he wrote all of the adjectives that had described the little car in the book, giggling as he wrote the word clever because it reminded him how the car outsmarted the very large family. It truly warms my heart to see my child enjoy reading so much! For more information about the AlphaSkills Read with Sarah curriculum and our family, see the AlphaSkills Blog Introduction.