Week 8 Fifth Grade
Martial Arts (Non-fiction, Level 15, Stage 3) by Donna Malane
“Did you know there are over 300 different types of martial arts? And some of them are actually Olympic sports!” These are just some of the words that floated into the living room from my 5th grader as he studied Martial Arts for the first time this week. What a perfect book to follow last week’s fiction book My Name is Yun Jin!
The activities I want to highlight this week are the writing activities provided. Not only do the AlphaSkills guided lessons provide daily instructions for leading the student through reading the book, picking out vocabulary words to research, and creating knowledge charts, survey charts, and timelines, but there are additional writing activities provided for each day as well. These writing activities for this week include the following: Think about and write two facts you learned about tae kwon do this week; think about and write 2-3 sentences about how to use the index page and what information is found there; think about and write two facts you learned about tai chi; think about and make a timeline for 5 events during this school year so far; think about and write a paragraph about which book you enjoyed better and why; write about one question you would like answered about one kind of martial art; write about one goal you have set in life, whether or not you met the goal already, and explain why or why not; write 2 sentences about where you would look to find new information on martial arts and why that is a good resource; use a computer to research today’s type of martial arts and write about what you discovered; etc. Not only did these activities build Elijah’s writing skills this week, but it also provided such a powerful opportunity for me to teach him about researching a topic online. We worked for several days to pick out the best sources of information, and he was so happy to be able to go even further than the book to learn more about the types of martial arts that interest him the most.
For more information about the AlphaSkills Read with Sarah curriculum and our family, see the AlphaSkills Blog Introduction.