Cycle 3 wk 4

I am glad to be moving ahead on preparations for the Classical Conversations year.  I have a few songs recorded for week four.

Science

English to the tune of Poor Unfortunate Souls

I have yet to work on Latin songs for week 3 and 4. I have some ideas, but need to work on pronunciation ;)

Cycle 3 wk 3

For history sentence this week I think I'll have Native American feathers on head bands to represent the how the colonists dressed as Mowhawks.

Then I'll have paper cups, two for each kid. One labeled British East India Company and one labeled Boston Harbor. There will be a tea bag in each of the BEIC cups that they can dump I to the Boston  cup. They can "pour" the bag back and forth as we sing.  

How cool is it that the science for this week fits to "Achey. Brakey, Heart" since we're talking about the heart muscle!

Okay and for some reason I labeled these as week two on you tube.  I don't know how to fix that, oops!  At least here they can be found as week three and if you search for "three kinds of muscle" or "past participial" on you tube they should come up. Hey, better yet just follow my blog and you tube channel and you'll be sure to get all the videos regardless of my inferior labeling. :)

Happy week three!

Cycle 3 wk 2

Well, I started this post already... And it somehow didn't save... So here goes again :(

I thought I would do some props this week for history.

Pilgrim: I'll print out a hat and put it on a craft stick photo booth style. 

England: British flag

Mayflower: a fake flower

Compact: makeup compact (though I'll explain it stands for compact as in promise)

Plymouth: 

I think I'll do flashcards again for geography (as long as they go over well wk one, which is August 26). I went ahead and made the flashcards already since they are fast. 

Montpelier: banana PEEL 

Vermont: Mountain=mont

Albany: bunny

New York: sparkle =new and the girl is being a "dork" (no, we don't advocate name calling, but you could explain that as well)

Trenton: tent 

New Jersey: sparkles =new, and it's a sports jersey

Harrisburg: meet my hairy pet monster named Harris

Pennsylvania: pencil

Don't know why this is sideways...

Dover: a dog named Dover instead of Rover

Deleware: what to wear?

Take note that you can use these with the pictures showing for a while, then cover one up, and eventually cover them both.  I wouldn't say we should use these alone, I will always use them with our cc black line map.  Having them point to the state as they say the name. Doesn't do as much good to identify a card, when for memory masters and real life they need to be able to locate the state.

Also, don't always do them in the order of the song.  After they get the order of the song well known, mix the cards up to challenge them. 

Have a happy week two!

Geography for cycle 3 week one

I like the song Classical Conversations has for memorizing the states and capitals.  I also like the fact that we are starting out just going down the east coast. But there can never be too many memory helps.  

I put together some "flashcards" with the outline of the state and two picture "helps".  One picture for the capital, one for the state.  

Here's how you can do it, too.  Real simple, real quick.

Google " Maine outline map image" and you get several to choose from.  Click on one. Click "view image".  Hold a piece of printer paper in front of the screen- presto quickest light table for tracing.  I did it this way so I could make it my own size and right on the paper where I wanted wihout messing with sizing and layout... Took a couple seconds and I didn't waste time or paper.  You could simply print.  But I'm also trying to print as little as possible, and don't we encourage our students to trace maps ;). 

Then I did print some little images for the helps underneath.  Cut them out, and tape them to a large construction paper.  I thought I would do each week in a different color paper.  In a couple weeks they can use the large flashcards for a review game/activity.  Also great for my kids to trace at home.

Here are the pencil outlines of the states, one per half sheet of paper, and the little memory help images.

Augusta- a gust of wind

Maine - horses mane ( I think that the stat of Maine looks like the profile of a horse head, mouth pointed north and the mane going down the coast.  That's how I taught my three yr old to find it on a map)

Concord- electrical cord

New Hampshire - new hamster (lol)

Boston- work boss

Massachusetts - chewing

Providence- hands praying, God's leading (this was hard)

Rhode Island - this is a road in a circle I drew waves around.  A road island.

Hartford- heart

Connecticut- scissors

I plan to show the large map provided by my director. Point to the states and say the names and capitals.  Then have them locate the area on their map.  I'll get out my large flashcards, explain the helps.  Then I'll hold up a flashcard and have the kids point to it on the map and say the name and capital.  We'll squeeze the song in, too.

We'll see how it goes week one.  My kids thought the pictures were funny and seem to have held onto their meaning.  If it works, I'll probably do it again, though some states or capitals might be harder to come up with helps.  

Two posts in one week- What!?!?

Long time, no post

Well, we have moved.  Yes it was in November, but moving takes so long.  The unpacking, settling things in their place, creating an "organized" home. We are still running around like chickens with our heads cut off... Speaking of chickens... Not only did we move to a small acreage, but we gained two cats, two ducks (a gift), and twelve hens (actually we think one may be a rooster). We raised the ducks from one week old.  The chickens we hatched. Originally there were 18, but we are just wanting hens.  We gave the roosters back to my sister-in-law's dad, he was the one who lent us the incubator and gave us the eggs. We have also been busy with a huge garden and a bunch of berry bushes. I still don't "have time" to be posting, yet... But I'm doing it anyway. Maybe out of excitement for the new Classical Conversations year starting so soon.  Yes, we have more than a month before our community will meet for week one, but I will be gone for most of August.  Because I'm not busy enough already, probably like most of you. I hope you will forgive me for my long absence thus far, and that I'll be MIA in August.

My dearest dad is taking my sister, myself, and our husbands on an Alaska fishing trip. This is wonderful for many reasons.  Time with family, fishing, first time in Alaska, and... I have gone fishing with my dad every summer that I can remember (save one).  Mostly on lakes where we used to live in Wyoming.  I didn't think I'd get a chance to go with him this year.  Instead, he's taking us to Alaska. Yipee!!  My mom will be watching my girls since she's not as big on fishing as she is grandmothering.

Then my oldest daughter, Claire, age 9 (just barely) will be going to Burkina Faso, Africa to help some missionary friends of ours.  What!?!?  I get to go to Africa! with my daughter!  On a missions trip!  A.maz.ing!!!  The Lord has been great in accomplishing this trip, but that's another post. 

Let's get week one of cycle three kicked off with some fun memory work.  

BTW- we have our first day of CC less than 48 hrs after we get home from Africa.  What!!?!  Not sure how I'll pull it off, except for planning and prayer... And probably coffee. Though I just got some homeopathic stuff that's supposed to help with jet lag.  Maybe I'll review that product since I'll definitely be putting it to the test after being in like seven time zones within three and a half weeks.

But I digress...

For English I may have heard this on c3?? I downloaded a bunch of mp3s and may have heard it when I did that.  However, I can't remember. I'll try to find out so that I can give credit if it's due to someone.  But I also want to get it up on the blog while I can. I looked on c3 and couldn't find this chant.  So apparently it may be one I made up. This is the brain of someone who's always singing and making up songs... I never know where they come from. Our home is sometimes like a musical ;). 

This is a step clap back and forth with a chant. The girls decided to do the crossed arm pose at the end.

For science memory work we added some motions and a little tune.  This is originally from the youtube channel Remole Reels.  They do a great job.  I hope she doesn't mind I just removed the intro and end.  Just to make it more concise for my class- we are always running short on time.  But this is her song. She's got lots of great videos you should check out!

Actions: blow your nose with the word tissue

Link fingers for connective 

Rub arm for epithelial

Flex for muscles

Give shaky scratching-chalkboard- type hands for nerves. As in it gets on your nerves.

Latin is a made up song. With each time you repeat, you take the song up a half step. Also, get a little faster each time as they learn the words.  Get so fast you get tongue tied and giggle.  Which means you may want to save it for last if your class is hard to reign back in.  Though you may not know your class on week one ;).

I have plans for some pictures to help remember some of the geography. But I'll hopefully post them tomorrow. I will be using the song on c3 I believe by Classical Conversations for the geography.