“Sharks, Sharks, and more Sharks” Week 32 Fourth Grade

Shark Rescue (Fiction, Level 14, Stage 3) by Tandi Jackson

Amazing Sharks (Non-fiction, Level 14, Stage 3) by Melvin Berger

My boys love sharks. The teeth, the ferocity, the danger; they love it all. So this week’s kit, with 2 books all about sharks, was an especially popular one in our house, and not just for my fourth grader. We couldn’t keep little brother from joining in even if we tried!

What I want to highlight this week is the diversity of activities, prompts, and questions provided for these books and how they all work together. Not only is there a guide for using the fiction book with the nonfiction one throughout the week, but also there is a chart where the student identifies what he/she already knew about sharks, what he/she learned from this book, where he/she learned it (page number), what he/she would still like to know, and where he/she might find out. There is also a prediction chart for Shark Rescue where students are asked to stop at certain intervals throughout the reading and write what he/she predicts will happen, why he/she predicting this, what actually happened, and what he/she learned that will help with the next prediction. And last but not least, there are writing prompts for each day and an Independent Assessment Booklet for each book with questions of all kinds. My favorite section this week was the Crossword Challenge for each book where Elijah was able to test his vocabulary skills and learn more than a few new science words. Elijah’s favorite activity this week was when he was asked to write a letter to a shark hunter using at least 5 facts from the book to convince the hunter to stop hunting sharks. It always amazes me how many different skills we can build with just 2 little books!

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