Classical Conversations Cycle 3 Week 1 ~ Wrap Up

We made a dramatic change in our homeschooling this year!  We started Classical Conversations a few weeks ago and today I’m excited to share what we did for Cycle 3 Week 1 at home and as an Abecedarian tutor.

For all you Abecedarian tutors, hopefully, my ideas (many gleaned from others) are helpful.

For class, we followed the basic format of…

Say > Children Repeat > Motions or Point (for Geography) > All together with song

Geography

I used my big Hand Pointer to help highlight the state on the United States Scrunch Map.  This map is also available at Hobby Lobby (and it is less expensive, especially with a 40% off coupon).

The children sat at their table and pointed to personal size maps with an expo marker while we sang.

I printed and laminated blown-up maps of the Northeastern portion of the U.S.  Make sure to explain that this portion of the U.S. is part of the big U.S. map.  My map came from here. (awesome site for all printable maps)

(at home) Besides review, we covered blob mapping the U.S. Fun!!!

Timeline

I had my timeline cards on the magnetized board and they were displayed until we finished with the Timeline.

We said and did the motions for timeline card #1 > #1 & #2 > #1, #2, & #3, etc.

Lots of repetition!

(at home) We put our labels on our homemade Accordion Fold Timeline from Half a Hundred Acre Wood.

History

Basic Format.  Since the Abecedarians are mostly non-readers, I started incorporating hand-drawn pictures on my whiteboard week 3.

(at home) The Story of the World: Vol. 3, Chapter 1.

English Grammar

I used the English song for week one from the user, “marykbry”.  LOVE her song and so did the children!

(at home) I printed some sentences off for my older children to identify the infinitives.  Simple.

Latin

We chanted the Latin grammar this week and listened to another one of marykbry’s songs during the review.  To get the kids feet moving, we stomped our feet. (the song was a huge hit though so I decided to do a song for the new grammar portion as well next week.

Math

We sang the math skip counting songs and passed bean bags around the circle.  I didn’t have bean bags for everyone so this was a bit of a mess and confusing for the kids.

Science

Basic Format.

Fine Arts

We covered Oils and the children practiced.  Afterward, the children played a Crazy Critter Dice Game from Expressive Monkey (that is no longer available).  They loved it and came up with some cute critters.  During the review, we also played with OiLs on the board and the kids were able to demonstrate the elements of drawing on the board.

(at home) The kids and I went through this art lesson on how to draw an owl.  My kids are still drawing owls almost a month later.

Science Experiment

In class, we followed Miss Wizzle’s lab sheet. (Wonderful resource available from CC Connected uploaded by user: loriberlie)

Review Tool

Is this NOT adorable!?

Because we are learning the songs this year, I can not seem to remember the tune for skip counting. SOLUTION: tape a post-it note flag and label the songs.  SO much easier!

This booklet has gotten tons of use already.  I bring it in my purse to review on the go.  And I use it for review in my class.

That wraps up our Week 1 of Classical Conversations. Next time around I’ll share some of my review games for my Abecedarian kids too.