“Aunts, Hugs, Science and History” Week 24 First Grade
My Wonderful Aunt: Story Three (Fiction, Level J) by Margaret Mahy
A Hundred Hugs (Fiction, Level J) by Joy Cowley
At the Science Center (Non-fiction, Level J) by Brenda Parkes
We Remember Our Past (Non-fiction, Level J) by Teri Tilwick
American Legends: Paul Bunyan (Non-fiction, Level J) by Marianne Johnston
Tess and Paddy (Fiction, Level J) by Joy Cowley
This week is the third My Wonderful Aunt story we’ve encountered, and we are loving them! I wonder if there will be a fourth?! Another familiar character was Huggles in A Hundred Hugs, and my first grader’s face broke into the biggest smile when he saw little Huggles on the front cover. We also enjoyed the other books in this week’s kit, but our favorite was At the Science Center because of the fun water experiment.
The activity I want to highlight this week is the science activity featured in the Guided Lesson for At the Science Center because it was Malachi’s Aha! moment of the week. I can’t even begin to count the number of times we have talked about the fact that liquids do not hold their shape but rather take the shape of their container. Obviously, though, this was something that Malachi just grasped for the first time while going through the science activity for this book. As is common with the AlphaSkills lesson plans, there was a science activity to do before reading the book and another one for afterwards. So, before reading the book we followed the instructions and poured water from one container to the next in different shapes comparing the amount each time we poured, and I could see his face start to show new interest. Then, when he read the book silently for Step 5 of the Read with Sarah model, he shouted out, “Hey, look at those different containers! And the same water goes in each one and changes shape!” It’s so fun to see things click like that for my little guy!
The skill I want to highlight for this week is Step 3 B. Meaning Words. We had such a great time this week before reading the books talking about different meanings for the words listed, especially the following words listed for At the Science Center: science, center, what, find, today, about, these, shells, sort, they, different, shapes, sizes, weigh, small, draw, write, found, water, each, containers, float, cork, rock, microscope, use, feather, honeybee, leg, next. For more information about the AlphaSkills Read with Sarah curriculum and our family, see the AlphaSkills Blog Introduction.