Week 21- Fourth Grade

Week 21 Fourth Grade

Twisting Up a Storm (Non-fiction, Level 13, Stage 3) by Cheryl Duksta

week 21 We had so much fun learning about tornadoes with Twisting Up a Storm this week! My fourth grader loves all things science, so this book was right up his alley, especially since it follows last week’s fiction book about a tornado. This little 30-page book is packed with information from specific tornadoes from the past to general information about tornado alley, peak months, intensity scales, damage caused, formation, tracking, weather balloons, satellites, radar, and storm chasers. It even contains a list of signs to look for and ways to stay safe as well as websites with more information. Our favorite part of school this week was visiting the local library and watching episodes of Storm Chasers to add to the knowledge we gained from this book. It’s amazing how much more library books and educational television shows can teach us when paired with great resources like this!

The activity I want to highlight this week is the Knowledge Chart where my fourth grader was asked to write 6 answers to each of the following items:

  • My prior knowledge about tornadoes;
  • My new knowledge about tornadoes;
  • Where I found this new information;
  • Things I would still like to know about tornadoes;
  • Where I might find this information.

Although writing is one of his least favorite things to do, Elijah answered each question with a complete sentence, and we were able to talk about making the sentence so thorough that the reader can tell what the question was without actually reading the question. This was a learning moment for him, but because he enjoyed the content it wasn’t as painful as it could have been. He completed this chart early in the week, and then we completed the other activities listed in the Guided Lesson Plan through the rest of the week. Then on Friday we went back to the last two columns: Things I would still like to know about tornadoes and Where I might find this information, and he looked up the information and wrote the answers.

To say that we learned a lot this week from Twisting Up a Storm and the accompanying activities would be an understatement, and that is often how it is for us with AlphaSkills. For more information about the AlphaSkills Read with Sarah curriculum and our family, see the AlphaSkills Blog Introduction.