Monday, November 18, 2013

Classically Catholic Memory: Gamma Year: Week 5

Classically Catholic Memory: Gamma Year: Week 5
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
Catholic Inspired has a communion of saints activity which helps explain this week's memory work. We used Catholic catalogues to find images for the activity.

Apparently when you get to purgatory you get a hat.
While the kids did their worksheets we listened to some Angel Food sermons on praying for the souls in purgatory. Pick your favorites!
Lesson 2 
This week's catechism question is on the communion of saints, so we read about and searched for saints in Can You Find Saints? by Philip Gallery. The book mainly features canonized Saints, but it also has a page dedicated to the faithful on earth and even the souls in purgatory get a cameo.


You can also check out what Family Catechism has to share on this topic.

Latin
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
This week's history memory work basically covers one topic, so one lesson was all we really needed... and, to be honest, I struggled with finding resources for children on the Ottoman Empire/Battle of Lepanto. Here is what I came up with.

Ascension Press's Epic study has a segment on the Battle of Lepanto and it is available on youtube, so we started by watching that. Then Kevin talked to the kids about the significance of the battle and what led up to it, as well as how we still honor the victory with the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.

We also watched The Impawssible Dream, which is a Wishbone tale on Don Quiote. The author of Don Quiote fought in the Battle of Lepanto, so it was a fun way to learn about what life was like during this time in history. There are three parts to the video: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Science

Lesson 1
We only did one science lesson this week. Here is what you'll need.


We began our lesson on some kinds of chemical reactions by watching this awesome TED Ed video on chemical reactions. My kids thought it was hilarious, watch it and you'll know why my five year old son thought it was so funny.

Trying to teach the 6 types of chemical reactions (you learn 5 this week and the 6th next week), to a 5 and 7 year old is quite complicated. So we just did some experiments and worked on the memory work.

First we did activity 3 in the CCM Teacher Text on decomposition using a potato and hydrogen peroxide.


Then we did activity 4 and cleaned my silver! I like it when homeschooling multitasks for you. This experiment is laid out in your teacher text as well.


I wish we could have done one of the experiments with Alke-Seltzer, but I just couldn't pull it off on our first week back into the swing of things!

Math

Lesson 1
For math this week we made a Venn Diagram to review the multiples of 4 and to learn the multiples of 6.


We skip counted each set and moved the numbers around to their proper locations until we were satisfied. It was a little more challenging than I thought it would be!

Lesson 2
We also played multiples of 6 Balloon Pop Math online at Sheppard Software.

Timeline

Lesson 1
For timeline this week we went fishing for the timeline cards. The goal was to catch the cards in order. If you caught the wrong card... I mean fish... then mom threw it back. Fun was had by all.


I made these poles years ago and they have served us well. All you need is magnet rings, string, and a stick. Also, it's important to put a large paperclip on each of your timeline cards so the magnets can pick them up. Go get em.

Lesson 2
Finally, we put some pictures into our timeline book.

Geography
This week we began learning our states and capitals. Since May we have been studying one state per week to go along with our study of North American geography. Here are the states I've blogged about so far. You could pick one thing from each lesson or just do something fun about a few states each week. I'll keep linking to the state studies as we move through our Journey Across America!

Maine
New Hampshire
Vermont
Massachusetts
Rhode Island
Connecticut

Great Words I
We continued memorizing The Moon by Robert Louis Stevenson. You can find it in A Child's Garden of Verses.

Be saints, it's worth it!
Lisa