In this recap, I am going to share what we did at home for more hands-on learning related to Classical Conversations Cycle 3 Week 23: Bible, History, Geography, and Science memory work. I will also link our favorite picture books, my tutor plans, and a preview of my week 24 plans — our final week!
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BIBLE:
Resources: Foundations of the Bible vol.3 | Bible Memory Songs | Hymnology Cards
For week 23, we learned about the rebuilding of the third Jewish temple, which is also referred to as the end times temple. A Jewish temple hasn’t stood in Jerusalem since AD 70, but the Jewish people have been working hard to have all the elements ready to build a third temple. It’s fascinating to learn about! In fact, the Temple Institute (the leading organization working to prepare the third temple) announced this week that they believe they have a man who meets their criteria to sacrifice the red heifer. You can read about it here.
Note: This study pairs with each week of the CC optional Bible memory work, but you can go at your own pace because there is SO much to learn. You can also jump in at any time — it’s not too late. Anyone can do this study, not just CC families. Learn more about the Foundations collection here.
HISTORY:
Resources: Story of the World Book (Match Up List) | Story of the World Series | Real Cool History for Kids Podcast
Activity: Make a comic book style page to help you remember the Preamble
This week, we learned the Preamble. To help with memorization, we drew pictures for key words in the song, such as “We the People,” “union,” “justice,” “tranquility,” etc. We folded our paper into sections and drew simple images.
SCIENCE:
Resources: Learning with Friends Year 3 Bundle | CC Connected Sandbox File
Activity: Make salt dough fossils or dinosaur eggs (in CC Sandbox)
GEOGRAPHY:
Resources: CC Sandbox Geography page | Drawing the USA Natural Wonders
Activity: Map all the locations, watch videos of the places, read books, and print these pictures as visual aids
We learned about prominent features in the U.S., like the Grand Canyon, Black Hills, and Niagara Falls. Now I want to plan every family vacation at one of these places, lol. We mapped the locations using our geography book. We also read this interesting (longer) picture book about a woman who went down Niagara Falls in a barrel! We searched YouTube for short videos about each of the places. I think it really helps the kids to see the places they are learning about. You can also print these pictures I put together as visual aids.
LIBRARY BOOKS:
Here are some books related to the weekly memory work.
- The Black Hills by Rachel Bithell (Geography)
- Deep in the Swamp by Donna Bateman (Geography)
- Marshes and Swamps by Gail Gibbons (Geography)
- Mule Train Mail by Craig McFarland Brown (Geography) — based on a true story
- Queen of the Falls by Chris Van Allsburg (Geography) — based on a true story of a woman who went down Niagara Falls in a barrel in 1901.
- The Interactive Constitution by David Miles (History)
- Dinosaur Lady by Linda Skeers (Science) — It's based on a true story of the paleontologist Mary Anning, but it does mention evolution and the earth being millions of years old.
TUTORING:
Here is my tutor board for week 23.
TUTOR PLANS:
Here's what I did with my class of 8-9 year olds.
Math: Taped the letters and symbols for the distributive law to magnetic tiles. I colored coded the a's the same color, the b's the same color, etc. We also sang the song to help memorize it while we built it.
English: We did a chant with hand motions. Said the chant over and over and went faster as we said it more times.
History: Taught the song and hand motions, and then read the sentence with silly words. I try to make the silly words be the same syllables as the word I am replacing so it sounds similar. I throw a few funny ones in there too.
Science: We sang the memory work to Hush Little Baby. For rocks the kids made a fist. For fossils they pretended to brush away dirt looking for fossils. For ice they shivered like they were cold. For tar they had to be stuck in sticky tar. Lastly, for amber, they either made an "a" for amber or swayed like a tree since that's where it comes from.
Latin: Taught the kids hand motions and played musical chairs to the Kings Thing song. I have 2 less chairs than there are kids so 2 kids get out each time (makes the game go faster). The first and second place winners get to go first for presentation.
Geography: I filled out the maps prior for the kids so they could see where the locations were. I also printed out these pictures for the kids as visual aids to show them what the places look like. We sang a song and did hand motions.
Timeline: Our community enjoys doing the hand motions, so I read the new sentences and then taught all the hand motions. Then we sing and do it all together.
Hands-on Science: I made these worksheets to help my class with hands-on science. We didn't have time to do both the die roll and quarter toss, so we only did the quarter toss.
YOUTUBE PLAYLIST:
I created my first YouTube channel to record all the songs and hand motions I want to use with the kids. I've compiled each subject's songs into a weekly playlist. I create this primarily to help the parents in my class review the motions with their kids at home. I also think this is a great resource for other tutors to use to build their plans for the week.
END-OF-YEAR GIFT IDEAS:
If you are looking for gifts for CC Directors or Tutors, then check out these cute items from my shop! Bags, apparel, and accessories that point to God!
PREVIEW:
My Plans for Week 24 Activities
Here is what I plan on doing for next week's activities. Here's the link to the Bill of Rights Bingo Card. I will also be reading the amendments from this lesson plan online. I like how it simplifies the words for kids to understand the meaning (pages 10 & 11).
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