“Birds, Ice Cream, Gas, and Jobs” Week 5 First Grade

Duck and Hen (Fiction, Level D) by Joy Cowley

Water Change (Non-fiction, Level D) by Brenda Parkes

People are Working (Non-fiction, Level D) by Carol Hosking

Ice Cream (Fiction, Level D) by Joy Cowley

What first grader gets to read about birds becoming friends, water changing states, people working at their cool jobs, and kids eating a little too much of something extremely cold and tasty all in one week? The first graders using AlphaSkills of course, and this week was quite a fun reading experience for Malachi because of it. I still can’t believe how far he has come in only 5 weeks of first grade curriculum! It seems like he’s been reading independently for years already!

The activity I want to highlight this week is Step 4 in the Read with Sarah model: Pre-Reading Comprehension. This section always helps my first grader to think about what he’s going to read before he launches into trying it out on his own, and I can see his mind working things out as he thinks about the questions. For example, the pre-reading questions for Ice Cream are, “Do you like ice cream? That’s the title of today’s book! What are some places you think these children will like to eat ice cream? What happens when you eat too much ice cream? Yes, you get sick. Do you remember another word we learned earlier today that means the same think as sick? Yes, ill!” After going through those questions Malachi’s interest was peeked, and he was ready to read!

Something else I really love about the AlphaSkills lesson plans is that each one includes details about the Performance Standard that it meets, including performance tasks, key criteria, other evidence, and learning activities. While I am someone who has not earned a degree in education and therefore may not fully grasp these concepts, I can appreciate that this is a curriculum that meets state and national standards and has been developed out of years of research and evidence-based practice. And that gives me peace of mind. For more information about the AlphaSkills Read with Sarah curriculum and our family, see the AlphaSkills Blog Introduction.