“Talking Rivers, Money, and Magnets” Week 26 First Grade
Emilio and the River (Fiction, Level 2) by Joy Cowley
Earning Money (Non-fiction, Level 2) by Tanya Thayer
The Mystery of Magnets (Non-fiction, Level 2) by Melvin Berger
This week was a rough one, to be honest. We started off the week completely exhausted from traveling and hosting friends and family for a weekend-long birthday celebration, and just as we were feeling a bit more like ourselves, a stomach bug hit 2 of the 4 of us in the middle of the night, which meant little to no sleep. Needless to say, this level of exhaustion impacts our homeschool schedule for the week, which reminded me just how thankful I am to be using a curriculum that can adjust to the needs of my family. Some weeks the first grade kit has 4 or even 5 books with associated activities, and other weeks there are only 3. But regardless of how many books there are in the kit, I know that we can always adjust according to our needs and use all or only a few, and then use the rest later or skip something altogether if we get too far behind. Thankfully, this week just happened to be a 3-book week, and the books were really funny and interesting, which made everything a whole lot easier, and we were able to finish everything. To say I was thankful would be a huge understatement.
Our favorite book this week was The Mystery of Magnets, because my first grader has always loved to play with magnets, and the pictures and activities this week really helped him discover new things about one of his favorite toys. He even went around the entire house sticking his magnets to everything to see which ones were attracted and which ones weren’t, and he was amazed to think about the magnetic poles in something as big as the Earth reflected in a compass.
The activity I want to highlight this week is Step 7. Connecting Writing and Reading. This step is included in all Read with Sarah Guided Lessons, and it always helps Malachi make the connection from head to print in a way that is appropriate for his skill level, which is going to be essential for building writing skills as he gets older. A few of the writing prompts for this week were: Write one sentence about something that a magnet attracts; Write about how you would like to earn money; and Write about what you would do with money earned. For more information about the AlphaSkills Read with Sarah curriculum and our family, see the AlphaSkills Blog Introduction.