Week 2 – Fourth Grade

  • George Washington: Soldier, Hero, President (Non-fiction, Level 12, Stage 3) by Justine and Ron Fontes

IMG_20140925_151737-300x300 week 2Learning about military strategy and the occupation of surveying in the second week of fourth grade? Yes, if it relates to our country’s first President, let’s go for it! We loved this little book about George Washington, especially the parts about our first President’s personality, childhood, and upbringing, what he did for work, and how he found himself the leader of our great country. In fact, my fourth grader was so fired up about this book so much that during silent reading, he bounded into the room with, “Do you know why George Washington loved and hated the Minutemen? Because they could be ready to fight in a minute, but also they could be away from him in a minute too!” and laughed and laughed.

The activity I want to highlight this week is the vocabulary element that is taught in each and every lesson with AlphaSkills. Not only does the book have a glossary full of terms and definitions, but the Guided Lesson also provides questions and prompts to make learning new vocabulary easier. For example, the words surveying and military strategy were words that we hadn’t learned previously, but after this week they are words that my fourth grader will probably always relate to George Washington and his way of life before becoming President. Other words we learned this week were: colony, Mt. Vernon, smallpox, and climate. While we do utilize other spelling and vocabulary lessons from time to time, I believe the vocabulary element in this curriculum is the most helpful for my fourth grader’s building a larger vocabulary base so that he will develop into a great writer this year.

I am so thankful for being able to use a curriculum that not only develops one aspect of development for my fourth grader, but many aspects. Because of this, I am confident that he is learning exactly what he needs in multiple subject areas. For more information about the AlphaSkills Read with Sarah curriculum and our family, see the AlphaSkills Blog Introduction.