Week 7 Second Grade

Bogle’s Card (Fiction, Level 2, Stage 2) by Joy Cowley

George Washington Carver (Non-fiction, Level 5, Stage 2)                                    by Martha E.H. Rustad

What is a slave? Where is Kansas? Do all farmers do the same things? What was so special about Tuskeegee Institute? How can you make soil grow more plants? How is it possible to make cheese from peanuts and glue from sweet potatoes? What does inventing and farming have to do with each other? Can you believe we learned all of these things just from one of our AlphaSkills books this week?!

The activity I want to highlight is the Comprehension After Silent Reading (Step 6) for George Washington Carver. During this step I asked Malachi to tell me 2 facts he learned about the man George Washington Carver, and then explain why he thought Carver became so famous. At first Malachi started off talking about making glue from sweet potatoes and cheese from peanuts, but as I asked follow-up questions, he started to talk about the fact that George Washington Carver started his life as a slave and ended up as a college professor and that this was a big deal. We continued the lesson with the other Read with Sarah steps, and as often happens with AlphaSkills, I was amazed at how many different things we were able to learn with just one little book.

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