Week 9 Fifth Grade

Scientists on the Cutting Edge (Non-fiction, Level 15, Stage 3) by Anita Robb

My fifth grader Elijah absolutely loves to teach, which I’m finding is both a blessing and a challenge that I quite deserve since I was always the same way in school. This week his love for teaching was definitely a blessing with Scientists on the Cutting Edge because he was able to take a small assignment and turn it into quite a few science lessons for his little brother (and himself). Not only did Elijah enjoy the activities provided in the AlphaSkills guided lesson, but he chose to complete the Think and Write activity in the back of the book by dressing up as each of the 4 scientists interviewed and preparing a speech about each branch of science and how it could help the world. Then he gave each speech to the President of the United States (his brother) and the Secretary of State (me), making sure to tell us how his research could help the country right now. I wish I could have recorded the speeches to remember each one; he is really quite the little teacher!

The activity I want to highlight this week is the Compare/Contrast Chart. On this chart Elijah was asked to list several facts about nanoscience, several facts about astronomy, and then elaborate on how they are different and how they are alike. I really like this activity because it helped Elijah think about the content of the book in real life. Not only was he able to draw from the facts provided in the book, but he was also able to think about the super blood moon lunar eclipse we saw on Sunday night (the first one since 1982) and the Perseid meteor shower we saw earlier in the summer and how viewing those things as a family is different from research in the astronomy and nanoscience fields. This is definitely something I wouldn’t have thought of myself; just another reason I’m so thankful for AlphaSkills!

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