We did it! We finished another cycle with Classical Conversations. This was my 4th year and 1st year tutoring — my favorite year yet! I am tutoring again next year, and my oldest will be joining Essentials, so I'm excited to continue sharing as we work through the program.
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 24: Bible, History, Geography, and Science memory work. I will also link our favorite picture books and my tutoring worksheets.
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BIBLE:
Resources: Foundations of the Bible vol.3 | Bible Memory Songs | Hymnology Cards
We finished our Foundations of the Bible vol. 3 study this week! The last lesson taught us about the original language of the New Testament, which was Koine Greek. If you used this study this year, I pray your family was blessed by it! I hope it helped you understand the Bible in a deeper and more meaningful way. Stay tuned for Volume 1 coming this June!
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. 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: Play Bill of Rights Bingo | Read the Amendments in this PDF (pg. 10 & 11)
I made Bingo cards to help the kids learn the Bill of Rights. We discussed what each one meant and learned the songs and hand motions. Then we all played Bingo together. The kids had so much fun that they asked to play over and over. I even used this in my class for tutoring.
SCIENCE:
Resources: Learning with Friends Year 3 Bundle | CC Connected Sandbox File
Activity: Natural selection activity by Learning with Friends
This week, we learned about natural selection. We used the activity idea from Learning with Friends. We gathered different items from around the house that could be used as bird beaks. Then we put a bunch of different items on a pan, and they had to race to grab the most “food” in 1 minute. The one with the most food was the fittest bird to survive. Very fun!
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 finished filling out our large maps with the last prominent features in the U.S. I really enjoyed this supplemental geography book that paired perfectly with the CC memory work. The book had every week’s memory work and fun details about each natural wonder. I definitely recommend grabbing the other related books for other cycles. We also watched videos of each location in the US. My kids really enjoy seeing the actual places on video.
LIBRARY BOOKS:
Here are some books related to the weekly memory work.
- Earthquakes by Franklyn Mansfield Branley (Geography)
- Aquatic Adventures: Biome Explorers by Laura Perdew (Geography)
- California by Ann Heinrichs (Geography)
- Charles Darwin by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara (Science)
- Lives of Scientists by Kathleen Krull & Kathryn Hewitt (Science)
- When Darwin Sailed the Sea by David Long (Science) - longer picture book. I haven't had a chance to finish it, but sharing it if you want something with more detail.
TUTORING:
Here is my tutor board for week 24.
TUTOR PLANS:
Here's what I did with my class of 8-9 year olds.
Math: We did Mathercise while the kids sang the song.
English: We sang the seven sentence patterns to It's a Small World. It's a longer song, so I had the kids hold a wall sit and a plank while we sang it. They thought that was fun.
History: We reviewed all the Bill of Rights and then we played a quick game of Bingo using my Bill of Rights Bingo cards.
Science: We sang the memory work to 6 little ducks. Since it was a duck song, we played Duck Duck Goose as we sang it. Every kid got a turn being it, so we were able to do it 7x.
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. I made a video that shows the hand motions for all the weeks combined. You can watch that here.
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 this worksheet to help my class with hands-on science. We used it as a warmup to help the kids get an idea of statistics with the number of siblings in the class. Our community also did Presidential Pets for our data instead of the Big Foot topic. I found the file on the Tutor Facebook Group (can't find it on CC Connected), so I will link it here for you. I recommend organizing the data in excel for your class beforehand. It goes much smoother if you have the numbers in order to find the median and mode together.
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!
That's a wrap! Hope you had a great year!
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