I’ve been working on this list for a VERY long time. In recent conversation with my CC tutor buddies though, I realized that this won’t be of much help to tutors and parents if I never …

I'm sharing my summer study plans for the upcoming year as a Classical Conversations teacher and tutor for my Challenge students.

Hello! If you’re looking for an easy, fall back list of ideas of introducing your students/children to new grammar, here it is! I have kept my ideas that worked from my original list on here …

Here is the breakdown of what we did for Classical Conversations Cycle 3 Week 2. I'm personally loving the material and extra sources for supplementing our curriculum!

Classical Conversations Cycle 1 Week 1 tutor plan for abecederian abc class with all subjects including new grammar, art, presentations, science, and review game. Also included is my weekly parent email. CC Cycle 1 W 1

In an earlier post, I went over a list of memory review games that I am planning on using this year with my Foundations class. (CLICK HERE if you would like to read that post.) In this post, I am s…

Planning to tutor over the summer? Here are tips for quick and easy planning! Hi there! It's Sarah! I've been tutoring kiddos for the last year and have developed a routine that makes my planning easy and my session flow smoothly. All of the kiddos I tutor are grades K-2 and in need of a boost in their reading skills...fluency, comprehension, and phonics. Warm-up I like to start with some reading that is simple or familiar. I'll either have the kiddo re-read a text from the previous session or read fluency sentences. I have my kiddos keep a composition notebook with past passages to go back and re-read. I use lots of guided reader books to find the just right text for my kiddos to read. These are also great books to leave for kiddos to practice between sessions. Fluency sentence strips from The Moffatt Girls are a GREAT help to boost fluency and confidence! They are also super easy to leave for practice between sessions. Fluency Reading Practice My kiddos have all had good sight word recognition and really need fluency work. I switch between leveled readers and text passages. I usually have kiddos read the text themselves first. After reading, we go back through the text and find words that were tricky and read them. Next, I have the kiddo read through the text with me or by themselves if they are confident. Using a leveled reader Using fluency passages and recording words read per minute (the kiddos love to see their growth!) Find these fluency passages HERE! Using text evidence passages. Grab these passages HERE! Comprehension After some fluency practice with the selected text, I move into comprehension work. In our district, kiddos need to do a written response comprehension question as part of their reading assessment. I have my kiddos practice a written response question with every text and in every session. Comprehension with level reader I use these question stems to develop questions based on the text. Grab the question stems HERE! Completed written response, kiddos write in their composition journal Comprehension with text evidence passages. Grab these passages HERE! Here I use a reading passage with several comprehension tasks for a 2nd grade kiddo. Find these reading passage + comprehension packets HERE! Phonics After the reading and comprehension tasks are complete, I work on some phonics task with my kiddos. One of my favorite tasks is doing a word family word splash. I select a word from our text. I like how this tasks shows kiddos that if they can spell a work like bat, they can also spell cat, mat, sat, etc. Writing short sentences with words from the Word Family Splash Word building and sounding out Extras I like to use phonics poems as an additional fluency tool. The kiddos glue them into their composition notebook so they can go back and re-read between sessions, continuing to build fluency with familiar texts. These phonics poems are from Susan Jones. I use our Literacy Bags in between reading tasks. Literacy Bags break up the rigorous reading and fluency practice we do for much of the session. You can find Literacy Bags HERE! I'm working with a few Kindergartners who need sight word practice. I use the K version of our Differentiated Reading Fluency passages. In K, the passages start as reading letters, then sight words fluently. It perfect support for my K kiddos! You can grab these HERE! Additionally, our Print a Standard packs have been a great support for targeting specific skills students need to work on. Each pack contains tasks for one standard and has several activities for that standard, so there are a lot of opportunities to help the student learn, practice, and master standards based skills. You can grab Print a Standard packs for ELA AND MATH HERE! Connecting with students and parents on a more personal level is the best part of tutoring. I love giving kiddos instant feedback and celebrating their successes! I also love that I can give them more choices to foster a love of reading. In the picture above, I'm showing several text selections. The kiddos I'm working with is able to choose the book he'll read with me for the session. I also love being able to help parents foster learning at home. I've found most all of my parents did not really know about their kiddo's reading level or reading abilities. This makes it difficult for parents to find the best "just right" books for reading at home. After I work with a kiddo, I leave the text piece we worked on for that session (a passage or a book) so the kiddo can re-read it with parents. I leave their composition notebooks with phonics poems for the kiddos to go back a re-read. I also leave the fluency sentence strips for practice between sessions.

Click to enlarge the images. :) - posted from Mrs. Mandel's iPhone

because life is an unpredictable adventure full of twists and turns

Tin Whistle, Teaching Tin Whistle, CC Music, Fine Arts, CC Cycle 3, Music Theory

If you are working in the grammar stage of the classical model with your kids, then you are familiar with the "Oh man, do we have to do that again?" response to recitation/memorization! So here are some creative ways to make recitation and memorization fun and engaging for them and YOU! Below is my Top 20! These are some of my tried and true methods I've used at home and as a Tutor that are guaranteed to be fun, silly and engaging for your kids or students - so give some a try! Bear in mind that some of these will work for younger kids verses older kids and some ideas work for the classroom setting verses home - you decide! Top 20 Silly Balls! This is my number one requested prop - bar none - across all ages and classes! Kids ask for these without fail weekly! Here's how I use them: Reach in your container and grab a random silly ball from your pile and throw it to a student, asking them to recite the memory work you are working on, while they squish, squeeze and pull. They recite it and then throw it back to you. Repeat until all the kids have had a turn reciting and squishing, squeezing and playing! Voice Changers! Pick up some voice changing microphones. I have a bull horn one that switches to different voices and an elf voice microphone. Kids love to hear their voice in silly sounding voices. Let them recite and pass it around as they do to take turns. Ball in Cup! You know those cups on a stick with a ball attached to them? Well, now you have a good use for them! Have the kids recite while trying to get the ball into the cup. That was Easy Button! Grab some Staples "That was easy" buttons or any button saying something silly. I have ones that say "whatever" and "you're awesome". Have the child recite the information and then you hold out the button for them to hit it and hear "That was easy!". Hot and Cold! Send a person out of the room and hide the piece of memory work (either written on an index card or a flash card etc.). When they return have the remaining children who know where it's hidden, all recite the information, singing or saying it louder as the child gets closer to the hidden object and softer as they get further away. Once the card is found then send another student out and hide it again and repeat. Silly Cubes! Using cardstock paper for the cube page, print this out and cut it and fold the cube, gluing it to stay in place. Then you can cut out the faces and headings to glue on each cube side. There is one for each side. Once everything is glued and in place, use clear packaging tape to give it a sturdy kid proof finish. Then you can have the kids roll it like a dice and do whatever action or voice it says - they like the pictures/animals a lot. There are other cubes like this out in cyberspace if you just google. Girl Band/Boy Band! Using echo microphones have two teams form. They become two bands. Have the bands come up and sing their memory work in their best song. Works well for the CC History songs. Headbandz! Use those headbands from the game Headbandz and put flash cards in them (works well for timeline). Have the kids put themselves in order (works well for a CC type class) or have them guess which flash card they have based on asking questions (works good at home when you have more time). History Walk! Want your kids to remember some key events in history? Great! Then do a history walk. Print out rebus' for them or flashcards of the information about history you want them to remember and then have them walk from print out to print out around the room reciting the information as they go. You can even scatter them around the room and have them figure out which one they need to go to in which timeline order and recite them. Hat Heads! Using dress up hats such as chinese cooley hat, cowboy hat, sombrero, fancy tea hat, army hat, king hat, clown hat etc. whatever you have. The kids pick a hat and say their memory work in that accent or voice. Stair Fall! Have them start at the top of the stairs and then as they recite the asked information correctly they get to move down the steps. First one to make it to the bottom wins a prize or has a treat waiting for them when they finally arrive! Healthy marshmallows is our favorite treat! Emotional Wreck! Have each child come up with some sort of emotion to recite their memory work while acting that emotion out, go around the room as they take turns acting and reciting for one another. Emotions like crying, laughing, being angry, happy, hysterical (I let them even do valley girl although it's not an "emotion" -it's popular with the girls) - you get the idea - whatever they want to do. Also works well at home to be really silly as a family. Leader Change! The kids form a line and pick a starting point, then the leader picks an action to do as they begin to walk around the room (hop, skip, leap, walk backwards, sideways, crawl etc.) doing that action and recite. When they get to the starting point again, the leader runs to the back and the next person in line picks a new action and leads them around the room as they recite. They keep switching until everyone has had a turn to lead. Hide and Seek Facts! Hide parts of a sentence or groupings of information, individually, around the room. Have them seek for the parts to make the whole and put them together in correct order. Rockettes! Kids line up and put arms around one another's shoulders or waists, to form a cancan line. They then recite while dancing alternating their kicks coordinating them together. Girls like this and it gets very silly! Shout out! Form two teams. Each team takes turns saying the memory work. The first side starts with a whisper and the second side says it a little louder. They keep ramping up the volume as they go back and forth and the speed until they are shouting loudly! Decide which team was loudest and switch people around to try again. What kid doesn't like an excuse to be loud? LOL Walk Don't Run! As they walk briskly around the room (but they can't run), have them recite their information calling out voice volume commands (loud, soft, whisper, louder etc.) they must continue to briskly walk. Anyone who doesn't change voice volume, stops singing/reciting as they walk or breaks into a run - has to sing/say it solo in front of everyone or do push ups (or whatever you want to make the silly consequence)! Make Up Your Own Motions! You don't need an official hand motion for any memory work you have and it doesn't even have to be restricted to your hands. I find that the ones we have made up ourselves are the most memorable and stick the best because the kids make up things that are intuitive to them. I will often read the list and then go through them one at a time and have them throw out ideas for what they think of. If they get stumped, I give an idea. Kids agree on what is best and then move forward with the next piece of information. For example my daughter made up the motions for remembering a pint and she said it sounded like "punt" so to remember it she used the motion of kicking a punt in football - whatever works! Hop Scotch! Using blue tape, tape out a hopscotch board. Have the kids take turnings hopping through while reciting their memory work. Strike-A-Pose! Using your iPad's photo-booth app - have each child recite a piece of memory work and then you take a picture of them using one of the photobooth selections (this app makes pictures very silly by stretching, twirling, squeezing, x-ray, light tunnel, twirling and other picture warping features). Don't let them see it. Keep going one by one and taking a picture as they each recite - choosing different ways to warp the picture for each child. Then when they've all recited, do a silly faces slide show of all of them. They find this very, very funny! Some of the favorite Review Games I've used that are popular: Memory Mogul! It's a favorite and you can download with directions on how to play it from my website for FREE. In essence it's played with memory work and $ and a bunch of funny cards that the kids read out loud in response to their correct or in-correct answers. The cards say silly things and give directions to either take or give money to other players or the bank. You can get everything right and still loose - so it evens the playing field when players of different levels compete. Duck Duck Goose! Have the kids sit in a circle and one child begins by walking around the outside reciting the memory work. When they get to the last word then the person they touch gets up and chases them to try and tag them before they make it to their seat first. Then the game continues with that person and so on. Shamrock Showdown! Great for younger kids - teaches place value while doing memory work. This is what I use to play the game HERE. The way I use it is to have the kids break into two teams and then ask a question of one team, they draw a number from the coins (put them in a jar or something they can't see the number they are drawing). Once they draw a number as a team they decide where to place it on the board. The next team goes and does the same after they answer correctly. They too decide where to put the number on the board. The team to get the highest number wins that round. We keep score and the team that has the most points from rounds won is the winner of the game. Kids actually like this a lot in the younger ages (6-9 years) and it helps teach place value at the ams time. Human Tic-Tac Toe! Three rows of three chairs each. Two teams and have them compete with one another to place people on the board to get three in a row. Team player who answers must be the one to sit if correct. If incorrect the opposing team can steal and then pick whomever they want from their team to sit (usually the weakest link). Red Rover, Red Rover! Great game for outside on a nice day! Two teams, holding hands creating a human "chain". A question is asked or piece of memorization requested and when the team gets a correct answer they get to call a person from the other team of their choice to come over. That person runs and tries to break through the human "chain". If they are "captured" they remain on the team. Don't Wake Daddy! Using the game Don't Wake Daddy HERE. Have the kids say their memory work and each correct turn they get to push the button one time. They take turns and keep going until someone pushes it and the Daddy wakes up. That person is out of the game and it continues until each person has gone - last one to survive wins. Crocodile Dentist! HERE. I divide the class into two teams and each team goes back and forth answering a review question, one person on the team at a time. If that person gets it right for their team then they can push down a tooth - if the crocodile doesn't slam shut they get to keep the point. If the crocodile closes his mouth then he "ate" their team's point and none is given. If the person on the team can't answer the question, then the other team can steal. Play resumes after point awarded to steeling team -if correct and the crocodile doesn't eat it! CC Tutor Tip: I look at all these things above as "frameworks" that I can put any memory work on. It makes preparing each week to teach much easier because I know what my "frameworks" are and I just move around the order and subjects they are used for and bring in and out different ones each semester. Sometimes I even let the kids decide which prop we will use by giving them a few choices of what I have in my box (which they really like to do). I also use more basics like chanting, singing, erasing the board progressively and other non-prop dependent methods to get through the 30 minute segment in time. However, adding some of the above ideas for say three or four out of the 7 areas we cover, throws some fun into the mix for the kids and keeps them fully engaged. I hope these help make some Tutors, Moms and kids out there - enjoy the Grammar Stage even more!

I’m sharing with you today my New Grammar games/ideas for CC. This is my “easy” list of things to fall back on if I haven’t created a new, more “complicated game”…

I am a first time tutor this year with Classical Conversations and I will be tutoring the Foundations program. I am super nervous because I really want to make sure that I do a good job with these …

Before brilliant minds came up with Pinterest I used to save all the pictures of great ideas I found. I have been scouring the internet for ...

"And Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto him, preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him." Acts 28:30-31 ANCIENT ROME Paul in Rome BIBLE: We'll read Acts 28 and discuss Paul's life in Rome. I really want to emphasize 1) Paul's dedication to preaching the Gospel, even in scary circumstances 2) God's provision and rewards to those who faithfully serve Him 3) Hospitality, especially the importance of allowing others into our home, even when it doesn't seem convenient for us, for the furtherance of God's kingdom. Actually, since I'm late getting this post up, I've already read the account of Paul at Rome aloud while the boys watched this slideshow. It held their attention, and I think it helped to "see" Paul and the setting. We'll also discuss the challenges Paul must've faced as he lived in Rome. We'll tie back into the Roman gods, and how Paul had to reason with the Romans about idol worship. He had to deal graciously with unbelievers and be a living example of Christ's love to the Romans. I'll have the boys make a house out of their cardboard bricks. They can take turns pretending to be Paul. I might have them say things like, "Jesus loves you," or "God sent his Son," "Jesus is the Messiah," etc. We'll continue using Doorposts' Put-On Chart for character study. This week, we'll continue to practice patience. HISTORY: Monday: Introduction to Ancient Rome. We'll watch clips of these videos, just so the boys can get a feel for the setting, time period, etc. Since Johnathan and Samuel are so young, they don't yet grasp the concept of hundreds or thousands of years, so I think it helps for them to see the buildings, people, dress, etc. of the time periods we're studying. That way, they understand that this isn't happening now, but a "long time ago." We'll also read Romulus and Remus. Thanks to CC's timeline, Johnathan is already familiar with Romulus and Remus! We enjoy Kingfisher history books. Romulus and Remus Tuesday: CC Community Day; no "school" at home Wednesday: We'll delve into the mysterious Pompeii. I am over-the-top excited about learning more about Pompeii. I remember being a little girl in a small country school learning about Pompeii. I was captivated by a documentary that we watched in class; I can still picture the images of the preserved bodies! Fascinating! On Wednesday, I'll probably read bits of Pompeii...Buried Alive! before naps and bed, or if we have a comfy minute on the couch. Thursday: Today's history hour will be spent recreating a Pompeii home! This looks easy and very fun. I'm thankful for the people who do the work for me sometimes. Friday: We'll probably spend this day recapping. Here are some fun activities I've found on the web: "Dress the Gladiator" online game (great for boys!) Ancient Rome coloring pages Have fun like the children of Rome: play tic-tac-toe, sword fight, play jacks, or throw a ball GEOGRAPHY: Egypt! If you don't use CC's Geography Tables, I would highly recommend them. In fact, I think I'm going to have to buy another one for Samuel. These are beautifully done, match the maps that CC uses on community day, and are easy to wipe off. (The boys like using Vis-a-Vis markers on the maps. The fine tips on those markers help me to see that Johnathan knows the locations he's tracing or circling.) ENGLISH: Continue using our Preposition Penguin to review and learn prepositions. MATH: Learn to skip-count 9s and 10s using the song (for the 9s) on CC's audio CD. We'll also use skip-counting charts and the skip-counting game (very helpful). LATIN: Learn the second declension noun endings. Johnathan is breezing through these noun endings, mostly due to the great songs on CC's audio CD.. Classical tools are beautiful things! SCIENCE: We're learning the major groups of invertebrates this week. We'll use our plastic toys to find invertebrates and watch this fun, short video. TIMELINE: Johnathan is continuing to obsess over the timeline. He wants to listen to the song as soon as he wakes up. He likes to line up his cards on the kitchen floor. I hear him singing "Israelite Conquest and Judges, Greek Dark Ages..." in the bathtub..Sometimes I wonder if he needs a little break... ;) FINE ARTS: This week, we're focusing on perspective. I'll follow the ideas given in the back of the Foundations Guide. I also like some of the images and thoughts provided in this lesson.

By popular demand comes a post for all of my Classical Conversations friends. I love to share what we are using on Instagram in the Facebook community - someone asked the other day if I could write a post with all of my "favorite goodies" for CC Cycle 3. Ask and you shall receive. N

I love to make things interactive for my kids. Creating games they can play or learning tools they can manipulate makes learning more engaging! Here are some things I've made to do that: Memory Mogul© - is a game I made up because I was tired of Jeopardy and Trivial Pursuit! The game has a Bank (Parent or Tutor) and each player is given money to play with. The board is filled with one green and one pink card for each number. As they answer questions and get them right they draw a green card from the number they select for that subject or if they answer incorrect they draw a pink card from a number for that subject. Each card either has them getting money or giving away money depending on correct or incorrect answers. The winner is the person holding the most money - but watch out - it could be the BANK! (I'm hoping to have these available to purchase soon!) These review circles are available on CC Connected and then I went to my local Project Enlightenment and used their die cut machine and cut out 4 game boards and colored them to correspond with the subjects. In class the kids can team up and play memory games similar to Candyland. These are the t-pins and maps for the Geography. We just went to Staples and got a $3 engineering copy made then had it laminated cheaply at Project Enlightenment and then purchased an $8.97 framed corkboard from Walmart to put the maps on and be able to pin them. We are pinning maps with all our Geography locations for this year during our Wonderful Wednesdays. The end of the year, we'll have a beautiful map of where we've been along with our passport stamped for all the Countries. This is available on CC Connected as a Math matching game - I just put it on a file folder and stuck an envelope to hold the answer pieces for the kids. This is also available on CC Connected as a Mnemonic and I took the side with the mnemonic and laminated it to the blocks on the other side so I could use the colored answer strips for my kids to put in order on one side and fill in the mnemonic on the other side. I used a self-sticking library pocket to hold the answer pieces.

This easy Classical Conversations review Fishing game, was a hit with my Abecedarian kids! Bonus is this game is quick and easy to make! Branches, hot glue gun,

You know I've been trying to simplify CC planning. So, I really only have about 6 games to use throughout the year. I can repeat each gam...

In addition to attending a CC Practicum, which is required for tutors and is wonderful, what can a Foundations tutor do over the summer to get ready for a great school year in Classical Conversations? These are 3 things that I'm doing to make my life easier for this next year. Take them or leave them as you need them, but as a prep-junkie (someone who is always prepared for just about anything) I find them to be my best tips for brand-new tutors. 1. Go over the Timeline Song and the motions several times over the summer. This is not to say you have to have it perfectly memorized; it is very intimidating and took me a whole school year to learn it well with lots of practice. But I'm so glad I became acquainted with it by playing my audio cds the summer before tutoring, since I was jumping into tutoring the very first year a CC group started in our town. Go over the actions so that when you review them briefly before you teach each week they will be familiar. Since I have a year of the timeline song under my belt, I'll spend this summer going over the Latin song and passage of Scripture in Latin so I can get the correct pronunciations down before I present it to my students. 2. Map out a general plan for games for the year. I came away from last week's tutor training with ton of new ideas for introducing memory work and for review games. I also utelize this page and this page as well as Pinterest for ideas. If I jot down enough ideas for 6 weeks, meaning 6 different review games and 6 very simple ways of introducing each subject on my board, then I can reuse that paper for every quarter, and the games will only be used 4x each during the year. Examples: 6 Review Games I Like: Zonk Connect Four Jeopardy Ping Pong Throw LilyPad Toss Target Shoot with Nerf Gun 6 Ways to Introduce Science: Clap the syllables as we say our science fact Jump up and down while reciting Roll a potato around the table as we say it Put our science fact to music and sing it (Look for Kim Jaky's songs on CC Connected--they're great!) Pass around an echo microphone (from The Dollar Store) and have the kids take turns saying it Practice the science fact starting with a soft voice and gradually getting louder each time In less than an hour you can have a year's worth of game ideas mapped out so that you are prepared when the busyness of back-to-school hits. You can always change them and tweak them according to the needs of your students and the time you have left in class, but jotting down ideas is a great way to plan ahead. 3. Get a Head Start on Presentations. One of the most challenging things for me last year was helping my kids with their presentations. I had 3 kids in Foundations last year and this year it will be 4 kids. Because I was new to CC and new to tutoring, I had to learn how to help my kids get their presentations done in a timely manner while also prepping for tutoring a class. Many of the topics they had to present on required lots of reading or study so that we could come up with enough for their report. Often, it was a lot of work just to get them to decide what they wanted to do. This year, I hope to discuss presentation topics with my director over the summer so I can get an idea of what they will need to be presenting on so that we can do some of the decision-making, reading, and preparation in advance. Whether it's choosing a state they want to present on, reading about a favorite president, grabbing a historical costume from a yard sale, or drawing a picture of someone from history, extra time definitely won't hurt when I have 4 kids to prepare. Since they are all in different classes this year because our community has expanded from two Foundations classes to four, I'm hoping that they can all present on the same thing to each of their respective classes and we can study that ONE president/state/event/etc. together instead of all choosing separate ones, like last year. What tips do you have for preparing for tutoring a Foundations class?

The Tin Whistle is a wonderful little instrument we can utilize to teach children the beginnings of note reading and the grammar of music. I hear so many groans from tutors and parents, however, when week 7 (the dreaded start of the tin whistle) rolls around.

I was thinking this afternoon that 1/12 of the semester is already over. All three previous years when we've participated in CC, I've found that the year goes very quickly. A sober view of the semester's brevity helps give me perspective when things get busy. God uses the shortness of time to wake me up to the wonder of the moment and to try and take time and really love the students around my breakfast table as well as those circled up in my CC class. When I was 23, a verse in Psalm 39 woke me up to time's quick pace. 'O Lord, my life is a mere handbreadth...' Now 12 years later, my hand seems smaller than it did back then. When your days feel like more than you can handle, take a look at your hand, remember the shortness of these days and ask God for grace to 'live to the hilt' the moment in which you find yourself. To hopefully make the most of your brief moments, perhaps these plans for Week 3 will save you a bit of time this week. Timeline I always start the class with Timeline. For the first few years tutoring, I taught hand motions. But over time, I've found that the students were focusing so much on the gestures that they missed the overall picture of the timeline and the actual wording. So, this year, we're slowly filling in a grid (7 columns down and 6 rows across, providing for half of the semester). You can easily do this in a Word document table. So far, drawing symbols each week has gone well. But I do have to keep my class moving as some want to draw an entire scene in one grid. Card 15-I'll see if they can draw this symbol for Hinduism. Otherwise, just a swastika Card 16-ABC Card 17-O Card 18-A fire and cloud Card 19-A gavel Card 20-Greek symbol for Omega Card 21-crown History We'll review the sentence about three times and learn it by 'chunking' the material. This is a key skill in memorization: learning to break large parts of information into smaller chunks. I don't want to type the full sentence here for copyright purposes. But, these are the final words of each phrase: 1773, Mohawks, Company, Harbor. Then I'll hand each student a tea bag. They'll line up in a straight row facing me. The students will take turns and tell me the sentence in a relay, each student saying a phrase of the sentence, tossing their tea bag and then retrieving their tea bag and running to the back of the line to go again. With four phrases within the sentence, four students will recite their phrase and then we'll start the sentence again. With 8 students, we'll probably rotate through the class 2 or 3 times, singing the song about 6 times. We'll move quickly. My students loved relays like this last year and it provides a great opportunity to practice 'chunking' and repetition without becoming monotonous. Latin Latin is more difficult this week with six definitions. I'll teach them quickly and have index cards with one English or Latin word on each. I'll divide the class in half and give the Latin cards to one group and English to the others. Then we'll recite the list as each student finds their partner. There are six words, so I'll either involve parents if they're in the room or I'll give one or two students two cards, making sure to give a student on the other side the two matches so that they're still a pair. English The students are starting to love the English raps, a previously dreaded subject. So, we'll keep doing. If you've missed the previous weeks' raps, they're here. Science Science is a fun one to do away from the table. My favorite way is to have the students form a circle and either sing together, motion together, or pass items in a relay. This week, we'll likely use Missy Wilson's Science song and first stretch out for skeletal, step in and make a wave form with our hands for smooth, and then pound our chest for cardiac. We'll start slow and go faster and faster until it's ridiculous. Math For fives, we'll first sing the song a few times through. Then we'll get partners and give high 5's to one another and sing the song. Then rotate partners and do it again. For sixes, we'll first sing the song about 3 or 4 times and then pretend to be insects and crawl or buzz around and sing a few more. Geography I always finish New Grammar with Geography. The setup for Geography changes the flow of class and so I find it is a good activity with which to end New Grammar. We'll keep adding to our parchment paper maps this week. We started this in Week 1 and we'll work until we complete the entire US. I've started having the kids label the abbreviations on each state as well. We sing the Geography song and review the capitals as we go. Fine Arts We will warm up with a mirror image review. I'll give the class paper and ask them to place it in portrait position (short side on the top and bottom) and fold it in half and then in half again. I'll challenge the class to draw as many mirror items along those folds as they can think of in a few minutes. Then, we'll do some of these together. I took all these from the Usborne'What Shall I Do Today?' book that must be out of print. But, you could find ideas like this in any drawing book. Or, just use mine! Then, I'll teach upside down drawing with a few simple images like a bug, a chair or a car. After the simple introduction, we'll get into the larger project as this is what they enjoy most. I'll have pre-folded paper, horizontally (landscape) in half and then in half again, giving me four columns horizontally. I'll then fold the paper vertically (from portrait position) into 2" sections, which should give me five rows vertically. Look at the picture below if this seems confusing. This will give us blocks to work in so that I can direct the students where to place each item on the page as we draw upside down. I'll then start at the top of the paper but the bottom of the image and instruct the children to draw one item at a time. We'll work through the picture together and then flip it over for a fun reveal. We'll do either or both of these pictures below. George Washington's profile comes from Draw Write Now book 5 and the Mayflower comes from Book 3. Review Game Our first week of class, we played BINGO and the students really enjoyed it. I printed up 50 states Bingo cards for free here. You can print State Capital BINGO here. I used stones for BINGO markers and the kids took turns answering a question from Grammar and then dropped a stone over the map. If it was on the line, the students could place markers on all states surrounding the line. It's a great way to reinforce geography, ask new Grammar questions and add a bit of competition for interest all at once. After this week, we'll be 1/8 of the way through the semester! Let's pray for grace to live each moment to its fullest, learning more about God's love for us in Christ and finding more opportunities to share that surprising love among those who He brings to our table. I'd love to hear your ideas or questions for Week 3 in the comments.

CC kiddos have a ton of fun with this review game whether it's played during Community Day with their friends OR at home during independent play! Questions cover material from Weeks 1-12: timeline song, English grammar, science, history sentence, skip counting, Latin, and geography. Each question card is labeled with the week so that the Classical Conversations flashcard ring can be quickly and easily used to check for correct answers. Check out the preview for a more detailed look. Click HERE for weeks 13-24! CLICK HERE for additional review materials for Classical Conversations. **NOTE TO BUYER: We are independent teacher-authors and are in no way associated with Classical Conversations. This is not an official resource from Classical Conversations** TERMS OF USE Permission is granted specifically for student or teacher use only by the original purchaser or licensee. Sharing the product link for any other use is strictly prohibited. Copying the product link and placing it on the Internet (even a classroom website or personal blog) is strictly prohibited. Doing so makes it possible for an Internet search to make the product available on the Internet, free of charge, and is a direct violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA). ♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦ We value your input on this product so please leave us a comment / rating! Remember you can earn credits by leaving feedback ♦TpT Credits As a follower you will be alerted as soon as Teachers R Us lists a new product or a freebie. During the first 24 hours, we often price our products at a 50% off discount. To follow, look under where our logo is located and click on “follow me”. Thank you! Have questions regarding this product? Shoot me an email at [email protected]! ♥Check out our blog ♥ ♥Follow us on Pinterest ♥ ♥Follow us on Instagram @teachersrushomeschool ♥ ♥Follow us on Facebook ♥

Classical Conversations Cycle 3 Week 1 tutor plan for abecedarian abc class with all subjects including new grammar, art, presentations, science, and review game. Also included is my weekly parent email. CC Cycle 3 W 1

This week is not over and we have not completed everything listed here, but I thought I would post anyway. History Week 3: We learned about Eleanor of Aquitaine, Richard the Lion-Hearted, and the Crusades. Blaine did some coloring pages while I read and we made a sword and shield with cardboard, paper, and foil. Geography Week 3: Western European countries - I made another puzzle (printable here). Blaine really seems to like these. I will probably do one every week. English Week 3: Cut and paste activity Art Week 3: Upside down drawing activities. If you read this post, you will know that Blaine LOVED THIS drawing activity. He was so excited when he flipped the paper over and saw what he had drawn. Math Week 3: I have to be honest. Blaine has a very difficult time with numbers. We do our memory melodies and these cut and paste skip counting activities very quickly because I am still working very diligently with him trying to get him to do basic counting. He is showing some improvements, but math has always been a frustrating challenge. I'm open to suggestions. Science Week 3: Parts of the food chain. I googled some more random clip art and came up with this cut and paste activity. We took an unexpected trip to the aquarium and insectarium this week and seized the opportunity to learn hands-on about some consumers and decomposers. Also, we talked again about week 2's topic of consumer types: herbivore, carnivores and omnivores. We had fun guessing what each animal was by what we observed in their habitats. Our timing was perfect for a few exhibits, seeing the animals being fed. Blaine will also play a food chain game that I found, available here. Seeming underground, in a dark room of the insectarium, I took the one and only picture of our downtown adventures. Here's Blaine on a huge worm... a decomposer! Latin Week 3: We are still learning verb conjugation endings - imperfect tense. Nothing fun to show. I did do a cut and paste activity and later we combined our Latin with handwriting exercises. Here are printables for both. Our tutor came up with a cute pictorial available on C3 that Blaine enjoys and has been very helpful. That's it!

In the Collaborative Model, struggling students are never left out or left behind.

Tin Whistle and Music Theory instruction for Classical Conversations: ideas, games, and resources to supplement your CC music lessons!

In the Collaborative Model, struggling students are never left out or left behind.

how to tutor, how to build out memory work, free e-book, teaching plan, cycle 1

I’ve been working on this list for a VERY long time. In recent conversation with my CC tutor buddies though, I realized that this won’t be of much help to tutors and parents if I never …