Ideas for Classically Catholic Memory Delta Year: Week 4

Classically Catholic Memory: Delta Year: Week 4
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:

This week we finished our Sacraments books! Memory work for the next several weeks focuses on the Eucharist, so we went back and added Holy Eucharist in between Confirmation and Penance to finish the project off.

For the printouts I used this free printout from Catholic Toolbox for the host and chalice and used this priest for the altar from Catholic Inspired. Finally, I copied a section from the bible on the institution of the Eucharist for above the altar.

*Last year Bean made her First Communion and we did a lot of Eucharist crafts, activities, and audio stories for her preparations. You can check out our plans at my First Communion Preparation Plans post for even more ideas for teaching the Eucharist.

Lesson 2:
The kids watched Br. Francis' The Bread of Life to finish up our review of Holy Eucharist.

Latin

We concluded our memorization of O Salutaris Hostia this week. The kids learned it from the Delta year CD, this youtube, and this youtube by my CCM friend's talented husband!

History

History this week consisted of reading a few books... and that was it. After doing two back to back weeks of American Girl units, we needed a slow week in history!

Science

Lesson 1:

In science this week we looked at the three types of vascular plants. I gave the kids a brief lesson on what they are and then we went on a nature hike to find and sketch them.

Lesson 2:
Here are the supplies we used for our second lesson.

I read the kids Ferns and we looked at the sections on gymnosperms and angiosperms in Plant. Then we watched a quick youtube on the topic and added a mini-book to our botany books using page 1 from this set of templates from Homeschool Share.

Math 

Lesson 1:
The kids filled out this free worksheet on counting nickels to practice the multiples of 5.

Lesson 2:
You can find more ideas at my 20+ games for teaching the multiples post!

Timeline

Lesson 1:

You can also pick your favorite timeline game from my archives!

Lesson 2:
We pulled out our Timeline Book from last year and I had the kids find this weeks cards in the book.

And if you are a timeline actions kind of family, you can find actions for each of the cards on my friend Virginia's youtube channel.

Geography

Lesson 1:
Rather than read individual books on every country in South America, I grabbed a copy of National Geographic Kids' Ultimate Globetrotting World Atlas and had the kids read about the countries we are learning this week from there. I borrowed it from the library, but I think I'll order a copy soon we will be using this book for several weeks.

Lesson 2:
And we watched another episode from Wild South America, which is free with our Amazon Prime membership.

Great Words I
We finished The Turtle by Vachel Lindsay this week. Check out youtube 1 and youtube 2 to watch it and you can find it in Playtime Rhymes (with cute hand motions!) and A Children's Treasury of Poems.

Be saints, it's worth it!
Lisa

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Ideas for Classically Catholic Memory: Delta Year: Week 3

Classically Catholic Memory: Delta Year: Week 3
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
As our memory work continues to revolve around the sacraments, we continue to work on our Sacraments books with the addition of Holy Orders and Matrimony.

Lesson 1:

For Holy Orders we used another free printout from Look to Him and Be Radiant. Everything you need is right at that link with the exception to the bishop miter. You can follow my directions for making a miter here! (Just cut the dimensions in half so it will fit in your book.)

Don't forget to download the answers for the inside of the Holy Orders flap :).

While the kids worked I taught them about the Holy Orders from The New Saint Joseph Baltimore Catechism (No.1) - Lesson 34 (pgs 163-166) and then they listened to two kid's sermons on vocations from Angel Food: The Tablet without a Name and How to be a Cowboy.

Lesson 2:
For Matrimony I used another free print out from Look to Him and be Radiant (she's so awesome!), had the kids color a picture of a couple getting married (page 3 on the link) from Bible Kids, and made a craft from Catholic Inspired. For the craft (left side) I let the kids pick how many kids they wanted. They both picked all 12. Bean wanted one boy and 11 girls, while Pal split them evenly with six boys and six girls.

And of course, while they worked we read about Matrimony from The New Saint Joseph Baltimore Catechism (No.1) - Lesson 35 (pgs 167-169).

Latin

Over the next few weeks we will be memorizing O Salutaris Hostia. The kids will be learning it from the Delta year CD, this youtube, and this youtube by my CCM friend's talented husband!

History

Lesson 1:

This week's history sentence focuses on the south's history with Mexico, so we completed a quick unit on Josefina. I'll link to the plans once I post them.

Lesson 2:

We also learned about the California Gold Rush by reading Gold Fever! and Striking it Rich to the kids. This would have been an awesome week to go panning for gold, but we've done it enough in the past, so I didn't make it a priority, but you should!

Science

Lesson 1:

It was all things xylem and phloem this week for science, which course called for some classic experiments!

First we let some celery soak in blue dye so we could identify xylem tissue.

Then we created a rainbow of dyes for some white carnations to soak up.

Didn't they turn out lovely?



Here is the trick: Call a florist about a week ahead of when you will need your carnations. Ask them when they will receive their next shipment of carnations and see if they will leave a bunch dry packed for you to pick up on the morning that the shipment arrives.

Basically, when flowers arrive they are dehydrated from being dry packed and when a florist puts them in water they soak up a ton of H2O in about 30 minutes to rehydrate. So if you can get them dry packed, they'll soak up all of your dyed water, which will give you some pretty dramatic results in about 24 hours.

Of course I used the CCM Teachers Text to explain what all of the above means, and then we finished off the lesson by adding a new booklet (I used page 4 of this link to create it) to our botany books with this week's science question, and then we watched some segments from Rock N' Learns Life Science DVD (here's the part on xylem and phloem... the song is a bit unfortunate in my opinion), and then... just kidding, that was all.

Lesson 2:
Our second lesson was simply simple.

We talked about tree rings and bark...

and then the kids did some Magic Treehouse style sketching in their botany books.

Math 
I didn't come up with anything new for learning the multiples of 5 this week, so check out my post on 20+ games for teaching the multiples for some inspiration!

Timeline

Lesson 1:

You can also pick your favorite timeline game from my archives!

Lesson 2:
We pulled out our Timeline Book from last year and I had the kids find this weeks cards in the book.

And if you are a timeline actions kind of family, you can find actions for each of the cards on my friend Virginia's youtube channel.

Geography
Delta year geography begins with the memorization of South American countries and features. This week we located Brazil and several rivers, including the Amazon. Here are some books that we read: The Amazon River, Afternoon on the Amazon, and A True Book: Brazil.

We also began watching Wild South America, which is free with our Amazon Prime membership. (Have I ever mentioned that I DON'T get commission if you link through and buy something I recommend? It's illegal in my state. Just wanted you to know... not that there is anything wrong with Amazon Affiliates.) Episode 2 is dedicated to the Amazon River, and is quite fascinating!

Great Words I
We began memorizing The Turtle by Vachel Lindsay this week. It's a pretty simple poem and I think the kids already memorized the whole thing. Check out youtube 1 and youtube 2 to watch it and you can find it in Playtime Rhymes (with cute hand motions!) and A Children's Treasury of Poems.

Be saints, it's worth it!
Lisa

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Ideas for Classically Catholic Memory: Delta Year: Week 2

Classically Catholic Memory: Delta Year: Week 2
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
This week the kids memorized the seven Sacraments. While working on adding Penance and The Anointing of the Sick to their Sacrament books (see below), they listened to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs from Angel Food.

Lesson 1: Penance

*We skipped Holy Eucharist for now because there will be several weeks of memory work on the Eucharist in the coming weeks. I had the kids skip two pages in their books so we could fill them in later.

This week we studied the Sacraments of Healing, beginning with Penance.



All three of the printouts that we used were free!

The Steps to a Good Confession booklet comes from Catholic Icing. You have to subscribe to the email list to get it, so make sure to do this a few days in advanced to the lesson. I scaled the images down so they would fit in their books.

The Act of Contrition comes from Raising Little Saints (scale that one too), and in the pocket is a 10 Commandments memory game from St. Brigid's Academy.

They also made a Sacrament of Penance Treasure Box from 4 Real Forums.

While the kids worked I read them the section on Penance from A Child's Guide to the Seven Sacraments and we skimmed Lessons 29-32 (pgs 139-158) in The New Saint Joseph Baltimore Catechism (No 1).

Finally, they watched Br. Francis' The Blessing of Confession.

Lesson 2:
Next, we covered the Anointing of the Sick.

First the kids created a Prayers for the Dying booklet from St. Anne's Helper to put in their book. Then I had this kids make a spiritual doctor's bag from Look to Him and be Radiant. I was so thrilled to find this cleaver idea! 

The other quotes that are on the pages come from the spiritual doctor's bag printout as well.

And while they worked, I taught the kids about the Anoiniting of the Sick from The New Saint Joseph Baltimore Catechism (No.1) - Lesson 34 (pgs 163-166).

Latin

Over the next few weeks we will be memorizing O Salutaris Hostia. The kids will be learning it from the Delta year CD and this youtube... because mama can't sing.

History

Lesson 1:

Over the past two weeks we did another American Girl Unit study on Kirsten! These are so much work, but also very worth it.

Lesson 2:

The Monroe Doctrine was also coved in this weeks history sentence, so Kevin read the kids Getting to Know the U.S. Presidents: James Monroe.

Finally, you can check out this quick youtube on the topic. Oh and, here are 164 other youtubes on the Monroe Doctrine, so you can pick your personal favorite.

Science

Lesson 1:

Leaves (period) That's what we studied this week. The supply list was short for our first lesson, but you'll need an ipad/tablet.

First I read the kids Leaves! Leaves! Leaves! and we talked about how leaves can be classified. Then we gathered leaves from our backyard and used the free leaf snap app to instantly classify them. It was a... snap. And a lot of fun.

Lesson 2:

For our second lesson on leaves I read the kids Leaf Jumpers and we added several booklets to our Botany Books.

Pal wanted to fit everything on one page. Bean wanted to use two.

Below are the links to the booklets that we used. You'll have to add the text yourself, which can easily be done in their PDF format. Or you can just write everything in by hand. All of the links come from homeschoolshare.com.

Also, you'll need to printout pages 2-5 from York CCD for filling in the pages of your booklets.

Ways to Classify Leaves: Page 9

Leaf Shapes: Page 3

Leaf Veins: Page 1

Leaf Arrangements: Page 6

Leaf Margins: Page 12

And I had the kids do some leaf rubbings in their botany books, but I forgot to take a picture of that and I really don't fell like pulling out the camera again :).

Math 
I didn't come up with anything new for learning the multiples of 3 this week, so check out my post on 20+ games for teaching the multiples for some inspiration!

Timeline

Lesson 1:

You can also pick your favorite timeline game from my archives!

Lesson 2:
We pulled out our Timeline Book from last year and I had the kids find this weeks cards in the book.

Geography
I found two fun activities for teaching the circles of latitude this week. And I found time to do one of them :).

What we didn't do is this free printable activity from The Wise Nest. However we did use this free world map printable from Layers of Learning.

Great Words I
We began memorizing The Turtle by Vachel Lindsay this week. It's a pretty simple poem and I think the kids already memorized the whole thing. Check out youtube 1 and youtube 2 to watch it and you can find it in Playtime Rhymes (with cute hand motions!) and A Children's Treasury of Poems.

Be saints, it's worth it!
Lisa

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Ideas for Classically Catholic Memory: Delta Year: Week 1

Classically Catholic Memory: Delta 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.

Here we go again! Delta year, let's do this!

Religion
For the first three weeks of the year our Catechism memorization focuses on the Sacraments. We will be making a Sacraments book during this time by studying two sacraments each week for three weeks. During the subsequent weeks there are several questions that focus on the Eucharist, so we will add Holy Communion in then.

In addition to making our Sacraments book we will be reading a Child's Guide to the Seven Sacraments and excerpts from The New Saint Joseph Baltimore Catechism No 1.

Lesson 1:
First we did a quick introduction to the sacraments by reading Lesson 23 (pg 111-115) of The New Saint Joseph Baltimore Catechism No 1. The kids colored this awesome worksheet from Look to Him and Be Radiant for the inside cover of their sacrament books. To the right of the worksheet they will be writing out the weekly memory work on the sacraments.

As the kids colored they listened to a free sermon for children on sacramental grace called The Penny Man from Angel Food for Jack and Jill. 

The sermons are old school, so sometimes you get old language. In this sermon the phrase "buy your way into heaven" is used, so you'll have to explain that clearly to your kiddos so they don't get confused.

Lesson 2:
The first Sacrament we studied was baptism. We read the section on baptism from Child's Guide to the Seven Sacraments and did Lesson 24 (pgs 116-119) in The New Saint Joseph Baltimore Catechism No 1. Then the kids added two pages to their books using this free printout from Sadlier Religion and this free printout from Teachers Pay Teachers.

Finally, they watched Born into the Kingdom from the Brother Francis series.

Lesson 3:
The next sacrament we studied was Confirmation. (Baptism and Confirmation are the Sacraments of Initiation, so we kept them together.)

To learn about Confirmation we read the section on Confirmation from Child's Guide to the Seven Sacraments and did Lesson 25 (pgs 120-123) in The New Saint Joseph Baltimore Catechism No 1. Then we added two more pages to our Sacrament books.

On the left I had the kids cut out flames and write down the 7 Gifts of the Holy Spirit on them. Bean said "Wait, we memorized these!" She was right. Beta Year, Week 8, Religion asks "Which are the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit." Look friends, CCM works!!

On the right the kids sealed a letter with the phrase "Be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit" and colored and cut out a picture of Pentecost.

For the sealed envelope we took a standard white candle and dripped a thin amount of wax onto the paper. Once the wax was almost hard again we pressed a rubber stamp of a bird (dove) into it. I sprayed the stamp with cooking spray before we used it so it wouldn't stick to the wax. It turned out pretty well!

Latin

Over the next few weeks we will be memorizing O Salutaris Hostia. The kids will be learning it from the Delta year CD and this youtube... because mama can't sing.

History

Lesson 1:
Per the suggestion of a reader (I LOVE getting lesson ideas from readers, please email me your ideas!! catholicmissionaryfamily(at)gmail(dot)com) I picked up A Child's History of the World from the Library and read to them chapter 78 on Latin America and the Caribbean Islands. So far I really like the approach the author takes and I think we be reading from it again for future lessons!

Lesson 2:

Next, Kevin read the kids A Picture Book of Simon Bolivar to learn about the George Washington of South America. And we watched this Brain Pop video on him as well.

Science

The first 10 weeks of science, Delta Year focuses on botany. There are several good overview books and movies you can use throughout these 10 weeks, so pick your favorites!

Books

• From Seed to Plant
• The Magic School Bus Plants Seeds
• How a Seed Grows
• The Tiny Seed
• Seed to Plant
• From Seed to Plant (Rookie)

Movies

• Bill Nye: Plants
• Bill Nye: Flowers
• The Magic School Bus Goes to Seeds
• The Magic School Bus Gets Planted
• Rachel and the Treeschoolers: Plants and Flowers

Also, during these 10 weeks we will be creating botany books that we will use as a sketch book and that will be filled with lapbook items. The CCM Teacher Text suggests getting a subscription to enchantedlearning.com for printouts for making a lapbook, but I'm going to see if I can pull it off without one... which means you will be able to also!

Lesson 1:

Here are the supplies we used for our first science lesson of the year.

First I read the kids Seed to Plant and introduced them to the world of botany.

Then we talked about the differences between vascular and non-vascular plants and made this mini-book for our botany books. Use page 4 from homeschool share's Lapbook Templates: Flap Books to print off your own.



We also did the "paper towel absorbing water like a non-vascular plant" demonstration that we suggested in the Teacher Text.

Next we talked about the 3 major parts of a vascular plant. As we discussed each part, the kids filled them in on a free diagram printout from Wikispaces. I reduced the image to 50% when I printed it so that it would fit into their botany books better.

Leaves: We gathered various leaves from the backyard and discussed what makes them important for a plant. We'll study leaves more in depth next week.

Stems and Roots: We read Plants Stems and Roots and then discussed what makes them important for a plant.

We also divided up our plants into taproots or fibrous roots. Next the kids made a mini-book on these two types of roots using page 2 from homeschool share's Lapbook Templates You Can Type On!.



Here are our completed botany book pages!

Lesson 2:
For our next lesson we took our botany books and went on a nature hunt.

Specifically, I had the kids sketch several of the interesting plants that they found, and then label them as vascular or non-vascular. Pal was much more interested in throwing rocks and sticks into the creek, but hey, he's a 5 year old boy.

Math 

Lesson 1:

To review the multiples of 2 The kids created these freebies from Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits (scroll to the very bottom). You can also print them for 1s, 5s, and 10s. She has a few other ideas at the post as well!

Lesson 2:

The kids grabbed 12 pairs of stray shoes from around the house. Then we skip counted them and I had Pal skip count and tell me how many shoes were mom's, dad's, etc. Finally the kids put all the shoes back to where they belonged. School and cleaning up... so great!

For more skip counting ideas check out my post on 20+ games for teaching the multiples.

Timeline

Lesson 1:

Pick your favorite timeline game from my archives!

Lesson 2:
We pulled out our Timeline Book from last year and I had the kids find this weeks cards in the book.

Geography

Lesson 1
To review the continents we read Where is my Continent? and looked through the Beginner's World Atlas. And here's a simple online game from Soft Schools.

Lesson 2
My Discovery Kid's World Map came in handy again this year! The kids labeled the continents...

and then we placed several landmarks on the map. You can buy the toobs of landmarks at Michael's with a 40% off coupon!

Great Words I
This week we memorized "Happy Thought" by Robert Louis Stevenson.

The poem can be found in A Child's Garden of Verses. It's only two lines, which is a nice way to feel like you already accomplished something!

Be saints, it's worth it!
Lisa

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