Classically Catholic Memory: Gamma Year: Week 1
I'm blogging my way through our four year curriculum program so I don't forget everything that worked for us! Please feel free to use what works for your family and share in the comments anything you would add. For more on Classically Catholic Memory go here.
Religion
Lesson 1
We listened to an audio recording of Thirty Five Cakes from Angel Food for Jack and Jill. The Angel Food series is a delightful collection of sermons for kids from the 1950s. Some of the lingo is old school, but the stories are very relatable and easy to understand.
Lesson 2
familycatechism.com has some additional insights on this week's topic, so we watched Sr. John Vianney and Cardinal Arinze discuss it more in depth. Check out the cross references Family Catechism supplies as well!
LatinI'm blogging my way through our four year curriculum program so I don't forget everything that worked for us! Please feel free to use what works for your family and share in the comments anything you would add. For more on Classically Catholic Memory go here.
Religion
Lesson 1
We listened to an audio recording of Thirty Five Cakes from Angel Food for Jack and Jill. The Angel Food series is a delightful collection of sermons for kids from the 1950s. Some of the lingo is old school, but the stories are very relatable and easy to understand.
Lesson 2
familycatechism.com has some additional insights on this week's topic, so we watched Sr. John Vianney and Cardinal Arinze discuss it more in depth. Check out the cross references Family Catechism supplies as well!
We are learning the Salve Regina by watching and listening to this version on youtube. I like this one because it has both Latin and English subtitles, as well as beautiful art.
History
Lesson 1: Christopher Columbus
As you can imagine, there are tons of resources and ideas out there for teaching Christopher Columbus, so this is a small fraction of what you could use! Check out this Pinterest board to find your favorites.
We made a Columbus craft using this map (this is a new link, so the map is a little different than what you see below) and the cartoons on page 35 from Christopher Columbus Mini Pack Part 1 (scroll down until you see the link) from 3dinosaurs.com. Bean loved using it as a visual for her memory work as all the key players and places are on the map!
For books we used Columbus by Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire as a read-aloud and perused through Christopher Columbus: First Voyage to America from the Log of the "Santa Maria". Finally Bean read Where Do You Think You're Going, Christopher Columbus? by Jean Fritz.
Columbus: Adventure to the Edge of the World (CCC) I hear is a great DVD, but I couldn't get my hands on one, and Drive Thru History's segment on Columbus (Focus on the Family) was thoroughly entertaining to me, but geared for kids older than mine, so it didn't make the final cut.
*Update, I recently found this movie at Gloria.tv. I still need to watch it, but it looks like it might be good! And you could check out Columbus and the New World from the Catholic series form Vision books.
I grabbed several books on these two explores from the library, glanced through them, and ended up using the following for our study of da Gama and Magellan.
The Usborne Book of Explorers (pages 22-23 and 38-39)
Vasco de Gama: Quest for the Spice Trade by Katharine Bailey
Ferdinand Magellan: Circumnavigating the World by Katharine Bailey
When picking out Magellan books be careful and read how they explain his death. In a nut shell, Magellan had a fair amount of success in converting a group of natives. This got him a little excited, so he took a small army to battle against a large army, with the belief that size didn't matter because God was on his side. His attempt failed miserably and he died a gruesome death. As you can imagine, some historians have a hay day with this one. Lessons to be learned here are: 1. You can't force people to convert, 2. Watch out for pride, and 3. Prudence is good.
Science
Lesson 1
We started by investigating matter with a bottle and balloon experiment.
Next, we read What are Atoms? by Lisa Trumbauer and watched a TedEd video on atoms. The kids asked to watch the TedEd again, twice.
Finally we made a diagram of a helium atom with play-dough and bracelets from Bean's dress-up box.
Here is everything you will need for this introduction to matter and atoms.
We started by investigating matter with a bottle and balloon experiment.
We talked about how even although the bottle was "empty", I could not blow up the ballon inside of it because it was still filled with matter, in this case air. Then we cut a slit into the bottle and saw how the matter (air), could now escape from the bottle, which made room for the balloon to inflate when I tried to blow it up.
Finally we made a diagram of a helium atom with play-dough and bracelets from Bean's dress-up box.
Lesson 2
Here are the supplies we used for this lesson on the parts of an atom and charges.
To start, we made a booklet on the parts of an atom using a printable from Great Science Adventures. The printouts came from the book, but you could easily create this booklet on your own. I'm thinking of using several of the printouts from Great Science Adventures to make a chemistry lap book over the next few weeks, we'll see if it actually happens :).
On the front cover we colored each of the components of the atom and then on each tab we colored only one specific component and listed what type of charge it has.
After discussing charges we rubbed balloons on each others heads and watched the charges in action by picking up paper hole punches with balloons. This experiment is laid out in the CCM teacher's edition.
Finally, we watched Bill Nye the Science Guy: Atoms. My kids think he is hilarious... and they are correct.
Here are the supplies we used for this lesson on the parts of an atom and charges.
To start, we made a booklet on the parts of an atom using a printable from Great Science Adventures. The printouts came from the book, but you could easily create this booklet on your own. I'm thinking of using several of the printouts from Great Science Adventures to make a chemistry lap book over the next few weeks, we'll see if it actually happens :).
On the front cover we colored each of the components of the atom and then on each tab we colored only one specific component and listed what type of charge it has.
After discussing charges we rubbed balloons on each others heads and watched the charges in action by picking up paper hole punches with balloons. This experiment is laid out in the CCM teacher's edition.
Finally, we watched Bill Nye the Science Guy: Atoms. My kids think he is hilarious... and they are correct.
Math
Lesson 1
To kick off math in general we read 2, 4, Skip Count Some More. It was a fun way to introduce the concept of skip counting.
Lesson 2
For reinforcing the multiples of two we built each multiple with legos. And then we played with legos, for no real reason other than legos are fun.
Lesson 1
We are creating a picture timeline this year with CCM's new blank timeline book. I am participating in an exchange with a co-op group, so I don't have to find pictures for all 144 entries, which is a huge blessing. Each week we will be gluing eight new pictures to our timeline.
The top of the timeline is for specific events in history and the bottom is for time periods in history. FYI: If you use the CCM book, you don't need pictures for the first three cards, they are already in the book.
Lesson 2
To make memorizing the timeline a little more entertaining I hid the cards around the backyard. Once the kids found them all they put them in order. Kids love it when you hid things... it's like Easter.
Geography
For geography we read The Seven Continents as a basic overview of the continents. Then we pulled out our big floor map and labeled each of the continents.
Then I had the kids jump to the continents as I named them.
Which led to them jumping over the continents.
Great Words I
The first memory work poem can be found in A Child's Garden of Verses and you can also listen to it on youtube, which are two resources we used this week.
Great Words II
The first Great Words II poem is about Christopher Columbus, which you studied plenty of in history! I couldn't find the work in any book or on youtube, let me know if you can.
I'll be back with our week two plans in two weeks. Please add any ideas or resources you used in the comments!