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
Using this week's Scripture memory work, I made a copy work worksheet for the kids at Worksheet Works so they could practice their handwriting while working on commiting the verse to memory. While doing the worksheets we listened to two Angel Food stories on loving your neighbor as yourself: The Saturday Morning Special and The King with the Black Heart.
We are learning the Anima Christi by listening to a few different versions on youtube.
History
Lesson 1:
The history topic of the week was the Constitution. I read the kids A More Perfect Union and then Kevin took to the white board and did his history explanation thing.
Well, Pal was truly interested because the next day I found him giving 5 month old Peanut his own lesson on the government. He told her "We vote for the president, and he picks the judges. But if he picks bad judges, then we don't vote for him anymore."
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| History takes place on Sunday night, hence the PJs. |
Lesson 2:
For our next lesson we made this sweet craft:
We used the information we found at kids.usa.gov to write about each branch behind it's green leaf section.
Then the kids watched a Liberty's Kids episode titled We the People and this School House Rock video that summarizes the branches of the government in 3 minutes.
Science
We used the information we found at kids.usa.gov to write about each branch behind it's green leaf section.
Then the kids watched a Liberty's Kids episode titled We the People and this School House Rock video that summarizes the branches of the government in 3 minutes.
To begin, there are three movies you can watch this week, so pick one, or watch them all: Magic School Bus Gets a Bright Idea (there are ghosts in this one, heads up), Bill Nye: Light and Color, Bill Nye: Light Optics, Bending, and Bouncing. Now on to the actual lessons.
Lesson 1
The supplies we used included:
Our lesson began with reading All About Light for a basic introduction to light.
Next we did Activity 2 from the CCM Teacher Text. The point of this activity was to teach them how light rays reflect off of objects, which allows us to see objects. This involved my children looking at a plastic baggie, piece of waxed paper, and piece of construction paper. They were supposed to note that they could see clearly through the baggie (although they argued with me on this one, so we scratched the baggie and I had them look through a window) because it is transparent, they could sort-of see through the waxed paper because it is translucent, and they could not see through the construction paper because it is opaque.
Then we headed to a dark room for Activity 3 to learn about reflection using a mirror, flashlight, and spray bottle... directions are in your Teacher Text... and I couldn't get any decent pictures of this activity!
Lesson 2
Material for lesson 2 included:
Beginning with a book again, we read Day Light, Night Light. Then we used fruit to discuss visible light, color, and absorption.
Next, we did Activity 4, which showed how white light is actually a rainbow of colors that are either absorbed or reflected by objects. They suggest using a prism to demonstrate this truth, but I didn't feel like buying one, so instead I used the mirror-in-a- bowl-of-water-with-a-flashlight-reflecting-onto-a-white-piece-of-paper method.
Finally to teach the kiddos about light being refracted we did Activities 4 and 5 from the Teacher Text.
Math
I couldn't find a free worksheet on the area of a square, so I made one. I bet you are as talented as me and could do the same.
Timeline
Lesson 1
Timeline Tube Towers. That's what we called it.
I wrote the 8 timeline cards on 8 toilet paper tubes and then had the kids build a tower out of them in the correct order. While building, the tower fell down several times, which gave them more practice in committing the order to memory. Brilliant, I know.
This would make for a fun co-op game if you made two sets and had the kids race to see who could complete the tower, in the correct order, without it falling over, first.
Lesson 2
Eight more timeline pictures found a permeant home in our timeline book this week.
Geography
Now that we have memorized all of the countries in North America, we are focusing on memorizing our continent's major geographical features. I'm letting our Journey Across America continue to be the supplemental fun on this one, as I point out these features as we study the states they reside in.
Great Words I
We continued memorizing "Pocahontas" by Rosemary Carr Benet this week.
I don't know of any picture books of the actual poem, but as you memorize it you could do several things to learn about Pocahontas. Check out a book on her, watch the Disney movie (maybe, I don't know if it's any good, I've never seen it), or check out this Pinterest board for snack and craft ideas.