Catholic Schoolhouse Tour 2: Week 3
I’m glad you’re back for more ideas and printables to make your homeschool come alive!
Memory Work Idea
Play duck, duck, goose to a memory work sentence this week. Have your students sit in a circle. The ‘goose’ recites the memory work as they walk around the circle, when they finish the memory work they tag the next person they come to, to be the ‘goose.’ In the traditional duck, duck, goose, the tagged person has to chase the current goose around the circle back to their spot. If the goose gets to the spot before being caught, the tagged person becomes the ‘goose.’ You can choose if your group is too wild for this part or not. 😉
Religion
Finish up your Saint Fun pack this week!
- “How should we assist at Mass? We should assist at Mass with reverence, attention, and devotion.” Have your students recite this before going to Mass this week (or every week). It’s a great reminder right before entering on how we are to behave.
- Spend one day on each behavior this week discussing how we show each in Mass. What is reverence? How do we show reverence? How do you pay attention? What are some things that distract you in Mass and how can you avoid being distracted?
Math
- If you were with me the last two weeks, I’ve been promoting jump roping rhymes to practice your skip counting. Did your students create any of their own to match the history or another subject? Here’s one more from me:
God promised Abraham many descendants
lots of kids, moms, dads, uncles, and aunts
How many people were in his family?
6, 12, 18, 24…. keep going
- Have a balloon skip-counting challenge! Do you know the game where kids try to keep the balloon in the air as long as possible? Modify it for skip counting- every time you hit the balloon you have to say the next number in the skip counting sequence. If you miss the balloon OR the number- you’re out! See which student can get the most numbers in the sequence.
- You can check out my ideas for practicing your skip counting by 6’s and 7’s on the Tour 1 Week 3 post also.
Language Arts
- I love the song for possessive nouns on the Catholic Schoolhouse Tour 2 Memory Work CD– it really gets stuck in my head!
- Go somewhere with lots of people, such as a mall, zoo, or playground, and challenge your students to write sentences using possessive nouns based on what they see around them. “The baby’s sippy cup is empty.” “The playground’s slide is hot.” “The girl’s dress is pretty.” etc.
Music
- Fill out the music notebooking page again this week and focus on Bongo Drums!
- Build your own bongo drums. Using construction paper and two different-sized cylinders will create a different type of sound than your instrument last week! Add to your percussion instrument band, and put on a performance!
- After you’ve made your bongo drums, try to learn a simple beat with this How to video
History
- When you teach about Abraham this week, be sure to pull out your Bible or Children’s Bible. The story about Abraham begins in Genesis Chapter 11 verse 27 and continues into Chapter 25. Have your older students read it all and then write a biography of Abraham. Who were the people important to Abraham? What were the most significant parts of his life? Where was he born and where did he live? Adjust the assignment for your age groups- older students can write more, and younger students may write a few sentences and draw a picture.
- For your older students (whether they write a biography or not), have them draw Abraham’s journey on a map. I made a map of the area with most of the places mentioned in Genesis, but you could also trace the map in your Bible. Do they recognize the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and the fertile crescent?
Abraham’s Journey Printable Map
- Check out these great notebooking pages by Lacy at Catholic Icing. I love how versatile they are- you can use them for older students all the way down to the 2 year old! Use them as you teach about Moses and Abraham this week!
- Here’s a fun craft for your younger students. Print this coloring page of Abraham, cut him out and paste him onto some black construction paper. Have your student write Genesis 15:5 (or just use what’s already written on the coloring page). Then decorate the page with star stickers (as many as your little one wants to use)! If you don’t have star stickers, make dots of glue and sprinkle with glitter.
- Continue reading your Bible or Children’s Bible aloud as you tell the story of Esau and Jacob, and then about Joseph. I found this website with tons of easy worksheets on the Bible. While I haven’t looked at all of them, the ones for Abraham, Issac, and Jacob look like they could be great for your younger ones to fill out as you are reading. Or you could use them as a reading comprehension ‘test’ for your slightly older ones.
- Try this demonstration with your students when you teach about Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac. Before introducing the topic, ask them to each retrieve their most prized possession- whether it’s a doll, stuffed animal, cool toy, etc, and bring it to you. Ask them if they trust you, and know that you have their best interests in mind all the time because you love them. Then pull out a box and let them know that you will be donating these to the local shelter/children’s home. See how they respond. After the protesting dies down, let them know that you already bought/prepared a different donation on their behalf and that they may keep their prized possession. Read or tell them the story about Abraham taking Issac to be sacrificed. How did Abraham respond to God’s request? How did your students respond? Can they imagine what Abraham felt? Abraham was asked to give up his son, how much more of a sacrifice would that be than a doll or a toy? If the discussion is going well, go ahead and connect this story to God the Father giving up Jesus to die for us. THAT is how much he loves us.
- This week the Catholic Schoolhouse Tour 2 Tour Guide introduces Chinese History with the Shang Dynasty. You can use this week to introduce them to some Chinese culture and landmarks, like the Great Wall of China. Here’s a beautiful panorama of the Great Wall, and you can control which way you look using your mouse. This short YouTube video (2 1/2 minutes long) shows some facts about the Great Wall along with some nice pictures.
- Make some Chinese Lanterns this week! Have each student make one, or make a few of them and write the different dynasty names on them. Ellen McHenry has a great pattern for making a paper Lantern. Or you can make an easy one, by simply folding a piece of construction paper in half, making some slits with scissors (don’t cut all the way through), unfolding and rolling into a cylinder. Decorate the top and bottom with the memory work or Chinese art. Add a loop at the top for hanging and tassels on the bottom, if desired.
Geography
- Last year, I posted how to make a tiny book of landforms using blue and green construction paper, check it out!
- If you want to try something different this year, I think that bread landforms are pretty cool! When you’re done making bread landforms, go to a real lake and feed the ducks. (unless your kids eat all the bread before you get there)
picture from pinterest.com
Science
- While we are studying nature, a great book to use for any age group is Handbook of Nature Study, by Anna Comstock. It can be a great resource just for reference (when you get those questions you don’t know the answers to), or just for some self-study time. It has lots more than just plants in it (although that’s what we’re focusing on this quarter), so you can use it again when we get back to the Catholic Schoolhouse Tour 1 cycle and study animals. It’s awesome for a huge range of students!
- This week, students will dissect a flower if they are following the Catholic Schoolhouse Tour 2 Science Guide when their programs meet (or at home). To keep the study of flowers going, search for some in your yard or nearby park. See if your students can identify the parts of the flower in different species. Some are harder than others!
- If you are looking at flowers in your yard, consider collecting them and pressing them. Pick some flowers that do not have a very thick center. Sandwich them between two sheets of white copy paper and squish them in between some pages in a really thick/heavy book. Leave to dry for several days to a week. The ‘wetter’ the flower the longer it may take, and if they are too moist or thick they may mold. Try several kinds to see which works best! When you’re done, you can display them in a picture frame or carefully sandwich between contact paper and make a pressed flower bookmark.
- This is the week for drawing flowers in your Nature Journal. Go to a Botanical Garden for a great supply of flowers to draw. See which are easiest to identify the parts of, and which are the most difficult. Isn’t the world God created beautiful?
- Keep going in your Botany Lapbook!
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