Here we go again with twister hoopla

Single Race approach

make a start and finish line

divide the class into pairs

each team gets one of each color ring

spin the wheel that says how to carry the ring

ask the memory work question

when they are done saying the fact, they race accross 

if they get accross without dropping the ring they get to count it as a point

if they drop the ring they take it back to the back of the line

first team to get all four rings accross wins

The game comes with little line markers or you could use masking tape.  I'll probably use masking tape as it is easier for everyone to see, and wont get kicked out of it's spot.  

I like these twister games because they are physical.  Another great point to the games is that it doesn't single any person out to say memory work on their own.  Sometimes when you have a class ofveteran  CC kids and a few newbies, the newbies feel inadequate to compete.  Make sure to team up newbies with vets when possible.  

If you have a class full of veteran CC kids go ahead and give them opportunities to say memory work alone.  

Another Review With Twister Hoopla

So, this is my version of the second game available with Twister Hoopla.  The game is called Toss in the Twister box.  We will change a few things to fit our class of eight.  I will have two teams of four.  One person from each team will be designated the catcher first.  The other three will be in line at the throwing end. (might have to add some pictures so you are sure to catch my ramblings) I will ask a memory fact question and have everyone recite the answer.  The first person in line at the throwing end will pick up a ring, I'll spin the spinner labeled with an orange ring and the words "twister disperso".  It will tell the catchers how to catch: with their right or left hand, or right or left foot.  The spin also tells which color ring to toss. If they catch it they get to keep the ring. If not they take the ring and go get in the throwing line.  The person who just threw is now the catcher. The rings are a type of score keeper.  So count up the rings and announce the winner (if your group is good with winners and loosers ;).

How far will the $20 I spent on this game go???? stay tuned...

Another Review Game

So, here I am with another review game using the Twister Hoopla.

This is my CC version of Twister Hoopla Glue.  Using the rings and spinner...

I'll split the class into teams of two giving each team a ring of each color.  I'm going to spin. Tell the kids "put a green ring between your ____" .  They have to keep the ring between their knees, ears, elbows... whatever, while they answer the next memory work question.  Then I'll spin the wheel and they put another ring wherever the spinner dictates.  If we've got a red ring between our elbows and the next spin says red ring between our knees, we'll just move the red ring ;)

I think they'll have a blast working in teams to keep the rings in place, and we'll be sneaking in review.  WOOHOO!!!

I have a feeling this game is going to "spin" off lots of ideas (punn intended, okay it's late and I'm getting cheesy).

Week One Review and Drawing

Well, I'm excited! I'm excited for a few reasons.  In two days I leave for a missions trip in Burkina Faso, Africa.  I'm excited because I get to take my oldes daughter, Claire, with me.  I'm also excited because CC starts as soon as we return.  So, as I've been readying for Africa, I've also been readying for CC.  

I thought I wouldl let you know about another thing I'm a bit excited about (excitement is relative, right?).  On our way home from our fishing trip (a gift from my dad) in Alaska my kids introduced me to Twister Hoopla.  A five in one game.  All of the variations we've tried so far have been fun.  The one we had access to belongs to my parents, so I went to Amazon and found my own.  I'm planning to use it in CC for various review games.  

For week one we'll divide into groups of two and each group will recieve a ring.  Here I show a blue ring from the game set.  There are also yellow, red, and green rings, four of each color.  On the spinner you'll notice on the outside ring there are several ways to carry the ring between the two players.  I'll spin the wheel, tell the kids how to carry their ring (between elbows, ears...), the first team to carry it successfully from start to finish line will get a chance to say the memory fact.  We'll keep score with talleys- I'll have a mom, or two, help with this.

For our Drawing lessons this firsst week, I'll start with sectioning a piece of paper in four quadrents.  In each sections we will practice one of the OILS elements.  Then I found these drawing instructions online and thought they were great ways to use our new OILS skills.

The page on the left is from Art Projects for Kids.  I had found it on pinterest and the link was no good. I ended up just searching on the site for faces and found what I was looking for.  The page on the right is from the same site.  Here are the web addresses for your search bar (I don't have time to link them)

http://artprojectsforkids.org/how-to-draw-cartoon-faces/

http://artprojectsforkids.org/portfolio/fox/

I have 6-9 year olds and thought these were well suited.  

I hope you are just as excited about the upcoming CC days.  

ARE YOU READY??? LET'S CC!!!

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!