In this recap I am going to share what we did at home for more hands-on learning related to Classical Conversations Week 3 Bible, History, Geography, and Science memory work. The Bible memory work is optional, but we do it as a family using my Foundations of the Bible study because it has such great info for every Christian to know! At the end of this post, I will also share some Grammar ideas for Tutors and a few of the favorite read-alouds we grabbed from the library this week.
Let's dive right into what we did for Week 3!
Bible:
Resource: Foundations of the Bible vol.3 | Bible Memory Songs | Hymnology Cards
We completed Lesson 3 of our Foundations of the Bible study volume 3. The first 3 weeks we have been learning about the structure of the overall Bible. We spent week 1 learning about the major themes, then week 2 we discussed the Old and New Testaments, and for week 3 we discussed the seven subdivisions of the Bible: law, history, poetry, prophets, Gospels, letters, and prophecy.
The Bible is not organized in chronological order, but rather by types of literature. For example, the five books of Law are all grouped together (Genesis to Deuteronomy), the 12 books of Israel's history are together (Joshua to Esther), and so forth.
History:
Resource: Story of the World Book (Match Up List)
Activity: Colored the scribblers coloring page while having a tea party
We learned about the Boston Tea Party this week. For our read-aloud time, I decided to set up a little tea party to relate to our history lesson. I gave each of the kids 6 little cookies, but they couldn't eat them until I taxed them. So after I finished taxing them for wearing blue, for being in 2nd grade, for being in kindergarten, etc. they were left with two cookies each. They obviously didn't like being taxed and that helped get the point across before diving into our read-aloud.
Science:
Resources: Science with Friends Year 3 Bundle | CC Connected Sandbox File
Activity: Hand with bones and muscles
This week we learned about 3 different types of muscles. We did the recommended Sandbox hands-on activity. We made a simple craft to help show how muscles move the bones in our hands. This was a great visual for myself and for the kids. My tip if you try this activity is to leave more gaps between the straws so they have more room to move and bend. We also used pipe cleaners instead of yarn, so it was much easier to thread through the straws. Kids enjoyed this activity!
I also had the kids hold themselves up in a plank position to show how muscles fatigue and get tired. As we do science at home, I am really trying to be more intentional to work through the scientific method so we get used to asking questions, researching, making a hypothesis, doing our experiment, and so forth. I'm doing this as a tutor as well in class, and it's helping science be more engaging.
Geography:
Resources: CC Sandbox Geography page | Drawing the USA | Eat Your Way Through the USA Cookbook
Activity: Make a meal from one of the states we are learning each week.
Recipe: Try these Collard Greens (So Good!)
Each week we color and find the states using the CC Connected map printouts that are located in the Sandbox e-zine file. We then draw the states using the geography book Drawing the USA. It's super simple and easy to follow.
We also made a recipe from the states of North Carolina and South Carolina. This week was a feast! We had pulled pork, collard greens, BBQ sauce for each of the states, and banana pudding. It was all so good! The traditional NC and SC BBQ sauces were interesting. Never knew about Carolina Gold which is BBQ sauce made from mustard. The kids also had vanilla wafer cookies for the first time, and they were blown away by those lol. It's so fun to try these recipes. I think my husband might enjoy these dinners the most out of all of us! He made the pulled pork, not me.
Library Books:
As always, we grab a ton of books from the library because I love picture books. I find the easiest way to find books for each week is by searching your library's online catalog for key words from the memory work. Every library's catalog is so different, so it can be more time consuming trying to find other people's recommendations vs. just searching by keywords for your local library. However, here are a few books we enjoyed:
- The Boston Tea Party by Russell Freedman (History)
- How Muscles Work by Sue Heavenrich (Science)
- Washington, DC by Sarah Tieck (Geography)
- North Carolina by Julie Murray (Geography)
- West Virgina by Sarah Tieck (Geography)
- Virginia by Sarah Tieck (Geography)
- Maryland by Julie Murray (Geography)
Tutor Tips:
Activities: Memory Review Game | Activity Flash Cards
Here's a brief overview of the hands on activities we did for Grammar review:
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Math: For 5's they high-fived their neighbor as they skip counted. For 6's each student picked an activity card to do for skip counting. Each child had their own activity card so everyone was excited to see who got what. They looked crazy doing the skip counting haha.
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English: We sang the memory work to the tune of “Do Your Ears Hang Low” while playing hot potato. The kids would sing the song and when they finished, whoever had the ball had to sit out. We did this until we had one person left and that person got to go first for presentations. Watch on YouTube
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Latin: We sang the Latin pronouns to "London Bridge is Falling Down." We played limbo while they sang the song. Watch on YouTube
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Geography: I laminated the black line master maps from CC Connected and have one for each child. Each week I pass out the maps and they trace the states and capitals. We do a show me tell me method, and then we sing the CC States & Capitals song (on iTunes or YouTube).
- History: We read the sentence, then taught the hand motions, and then sang the song with the hand motions. Watch on YouTube
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Science: We read the sentence then said it several times with the hand motions. It's a super simple science week. Watch on YouTube
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Timeline: I read the events out loud to make sure they knew what they were actually singing. We then reviewed the hand motions and sang the song a few times with hand motions.
- Review Games: This week we tried family feud where I divided the kids into two teams. I would ask a memory topic and the kids would have to grab the buzzer (a maraca that I had on hand) and answer to get a point. To avoid a child being embarrassed about not knowing the answer (they grab the buzzer even if they don't know it haha), I would let them choose if they want to answer it by themselves or have their team help them. That way they weren't put on the spot. After playing that for a few minutes, we did four corners. To avoid kicking kids out of the game, each student took turns counting and picking a corner. The student counting also got to choose the subject of memory work that their chosen corner would have to answer. Each student got a turn to be it.
YouTube: Week 3 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.
If you are a parent and not tutoring, the "best practice" for CC is to let the tutor introduce the memory work in class for the first time on community day. You then review the week's memory work with your child until the next CC community day. You ideally use the methods you saw the tutor use in class at home with your child.
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