“Dares, Eagles, and Eggs” Week 31 Fourth Grade

The Dare at Eagle Rock (Fiction, Level 14, Stage 3) by Helen Chapman

All About Eggs (Non-fiction, Level 14, Stage 3) by Cheryl Jakab

Over the past few weeks we’ve been doing a lot of hiking as a family. It must be the warmer weather and the sunny days that inspires us to get out and see what we can see, and wouldn’t you know that just as we’ve been hiking and watching birds in their nesting season, the AlphaSkills kit comes with 2 books about birds and eggs, and one about hiking! Needless to say we absolutely loved this week’s books, and since they both applied to what we’ve been doing outside of school, we learned heaps!

The activities I want to highlight this week are the writing prompts for The Dare at Eagle Rock. The first day’s prompt was, “Think about and then write about which part of today’s story was scary or surprising (one or the other),” and it was so interesting to hear Elijah’s response. The next prompt was, “Think about and then write about a time when you or a friend did something brave like Jenna, or if it hasn’t really happened, write a fictional account of such bravery,” and Elijah wrote about one of the characters earlier this year who saved her elderly neighbor from drowning. The last prompt was, “Think about and then write a paragraph about how the eagle in The Dare at Eagle Rock reacted as Ryan neared the nest and why, based on the information from All About Eggs,” and I was happy to see Elijah write about not only what he observed from both books but also what he knows from our recent hikes when we’ve had to choose trails based on the nesting season. I love the thinking, conversation, and writing sparked by these questions in addition to those provided in the Independent Assessment Booklet. It really makes reading come to life!

For more information about the AlphaSkills Read with Sarah curriculum and our family, see the AlphaSkills Blog Introduction.