surprised how much it cemented the facts for them.

I think this has been mentioned already, but my take on your situation, Mary, is that the week's reading should be done at home and then you do some discussion, review of the questions (or do those orally in class), activities, crafts, maybe a quick additional read-aloud (maybe not even an entire book) for the highlights of that week's lessons. At the end of the class, the pretest (which is optional, IMO) will introduce what they'll be learning at home for the week.