Plans for CC Cycle 2 Week 1

I came home from my Classical Conversations Practicum full of ideas.  I began putting them to paper week by week.  Here we'll look at week 1and how I'll present the new grammar.

Week 1:

Timeline- We'll start by going over the hand motions (I use the hand motions from the CC timeline on their website so that everyone has access at home to the same video, not trying to find a youtube, that can be frustrating for parents trying to make sure it's the same as what you've presented)  Show the motions for the first card, add the second, repeat 1, and 2, add the third, repeat 1, 2, 3   get my point.  We'll finish off with the timeline song for those first 7 cards.  

Science- for the seven types of biomes we'll do a bit of drawing.  Fold a paper in half both directions, and then into eighths.  They can write "7 Biomes" in the first eighth.  Then draw grass for grasslands,  sand for deserts, shrubs for Scrublands, snow for tundra, apple type tree for deciduous forest,  pine tree for coniferous forests, tree and vines and rain drops for Rain forest.

Don't make your drawings too exact or fancy, because more than likely your students will be quite simple.  Frankly my sand "dune" looks like waves.  The point isn't to have a precise drawing but to keep them simple enough to fit in your time.  Also, just so they can remember a sample of what is found in that biome.  

History- I plan to use the song and these hand motions found on CC Connected website

• 800 AD	Four fingers on each hand
• Medieval Period	LH palm up, RH circles above L palm, then plants fingers into palm on “period”
• Pope Leo III	Use your thumbs and index fingers to make a triangle, place it on top of your head (hat)
• Crowned	Bring hands down on head, use finger to make a crown
• Charlemagne	Stroke/swoosh hair (he had long hair)
• Holy Roman Emperor	“Gather” your cape with your right arm and bow.

Songs are easy to remember, and actions help use other parts of your brain so it's engrained.  I was a music teacher and trust me when you combine repetition, actions and song, you get the fastest way to memorize for most people.  I tried to look up the science behind it (at one time I knew why, but should have put it to a song with actions, because I forgot:), but I couldn't google the right thing.  If I just hum the beginning of a song for my kids they can remember the rest without any help.  Remember to give a simple explanation of the action so that they make the connection- kinda forms a picture in their head.

Geography- I like the continents to a song that my kids learned at practicum. I noticed that Africa and Australia need to be switched according to my mini foundations guide.  I'll have to check that against the current foundations guide to see where the mistake is.  I tried switching the two in the song and it works. It's on youtube if you search for Classical Conversations Continents Song by username stephaniesavagetv.    I'll run through the song while I use a pointer to show the locations on the map.  Then I'll give the students each a turn to point while we sing.  Or you could use the fly swatters and have two students stand by the map to swat the continent or ocean I call out (if there is time).

Math- I plan on having the students stand in a line for skip counting the "1's".  Each kid will take one step forward as we count to twelve.  Simple, and no, we probably don't need to expand on general counting, they should have this one down :).  For the "two's" I am going to bring pairs of socks.  I'll hand out the socks and we'll sing the song.  Each student will take turns throwing the socks into a laundry basket as we sing. I've also seen printables for the two's that use the socks.  You could print them and have the kids point to each pair as you count.  I just like getting kids up and moving to keep them focused and use some of that energy they are waiting to use up.

English- You can sing the 8 parts of speech to "One little, two little, three little Indians".  We will sing as we pass a bean bag around in a circle.

Latin - We will sing the song as presented on the CC website, and use a printed poster that has the visual.  I'll probably try to squeeze in giving each kid a turn pointing.  The posters haven't been printed yet but this is what I found on CC Connected.  I just took a screen shot.

 I know they've switched to just saying the endings.  So you'd really just point out the ending, but could show them here how it fits on the end of a word. I wish when I saved things from CC connected it had somewhere who had uploaded it.  I'd have to get back on and look to give this great person credit.  It takes forever on CC Connected so please forgive me.

Review Game: for this first week when we might have a bit more time, since there is less to review, we are going to play the bucket toss game. I explained this in another post.  I sure do wish I was better at  embedding   links.  Right now I just don't have time- gotta get another coat of paint on before dinner.  You won't have a hard time finding it since there's not many posts ;).