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Since I homeschool year round, my children have more than 36 weeks to cover content. My 2nd grader completed all of the daily assignments in Evan-Moor’s Daily Reading Comprehension (CLICK HERE to read my full review of Daily Reading Comprehension) and I thought she would benefit from additional practice at the 2nd grade level over the summer. I selected Skill Sharpeners Reading Grade 2 for her to try. I received a free copy in exchange for this review.
Overview of Skill Sharpeners Reading Grade 2 Activity Book
The second grade Skill Sharpeners Reading Activity book has 15 stories for your child to read. After each story, there are a set of activities to support comprehension and vocabulary. Each story may also include additional activities to cover grammar, writing, phonics, fluency, structured analysis, reference skills, and/or spelling skills.
Additional levels for the Skill Sharpeners Reading Activity books are available from Pre-K to grade 6. CLICK HERE to go to Evan-Moor’s website for more information, to see sample pages, and a description of each level.
Benefits of the Reading Activity Book
Visually Motivating
The Skill Sharpener workbooks are full color. The 3-page stories have eye-catching photos or drawings to support the text. These stories are a little longer than my daughter was used to reading at one time, but she has been able to read them on her own without any problems. She has really enjoyed each story we have read over the past weeks and looks forward to each new one.
Each of the activity pages also has full color and a pleasing visual layout. Have you ever had a child moan and groan when you pull out a curriculum? I have in the past and that is not happening with this activity book. The colors and visual layout really have been a great fit for my child’s learning needs.
Great Comprehension Practice
Right after each story, comprehension skills are practiced. The child will answer comprehension questions about the passage in both multiple choice and question format. Due to my child’s learning needs, I scribe answers as needed. CLICK HERE to read about 4 ways to adapt writing assignments for the reluctant writer. My daughter enjoys drawing and had a great time drawing the dirty dog and clean dog in the sample page above.
Additional comprehension activities are included with some of the stories, such as the sequencing activity pictured above.
A great review of language skills
The Skill Sharpeners Reading book also provides a wide variety of grade-level language skill practice activities related to the included stories. This has been perfect for our summer practice and a great way to generalize language arts skills learned in different formats. The Skill Sharpeners Reading book would also be a fun Friday activity to support learning throughout the school year.
Although I often scribe for my child during learning activities that do not specifically target handwriting, she has been motivated to write out her own answers in many of the Skill Sharpeners Reading activities. Her motivation to write her own answers really left me pleasantly surprised. I love how much the full color and visually clear format has worked for my autistic daughter.
Open-And-Go
One of my favorite aspects of the Skill Sharpeners Reading series is that is completely open-and-go. As a busy mom with minimal prep-time, easy-to-use is a requirement for any and all curriculum I use. You may need a few basic supplies such as scissors, glue, or markers, but I keep those close by so they are easy to find and grab quickly at a moment’s notice. We just open the book to where we left off and continue on.
Final Recommendations on Skill Sharpeners Reading Activity Books
I highly recommend the Skill Sharpeners Reading Activity book. It is an excellent source of grade leveled reading content and language review. This has been perfect for our summer reading practice, but would also be a great addition to use throughout the school year. The workbook is child friendly with its full color pages and activities and clean layout. CLICK HERE to go to Evan-Moor’s website for more information, to see additional sample pages, and to make your purchase.
Thank you for sharing such a colorful resource to that kids want to read! 🙂