Catholic Schoolhouse Tour 2: Week 10
Here’s a quote from Socrates to get you started this week!
Memory Work Idea
Write some memory work (BIG) on the sidewalk or driveway/parking lot with chalk ahead of time. Before going outside, line up your students and say the memory work pointing to a student for each word. Then go outside and see how fast they can find their word. Once everyone is in place, go down the line, each saying their word in the memory work. Then everyone says it together. Shuffle the kids and repeat as many times as you want!
If you can’t go outside, write the words on cards or paper and tape them to the floor!
Religion
Get started on a new fun pack this week! Learn about John the Baptist!
- If you need more coloring work for your little ones, here’s a cute Jesus is Baptized coloring page.
Math
- Try this activity to prove the calculation of circumference. Grab some string (something that does not stretch easily, think floss, thread, or rope- not yarn, or elastic). Find something circular in your house- (a pot lid, your car’s wheel, anything that’s a circle). Do your best to measure the diameter with a ruler or tape measure. Calculate the circumference (C = pi times diameter). Use your string to wrap around the object, or trace the circle part, all the way around. Then use your tape measure to measure the string. Is it the same!? ( I certainly hope so!)
- Eratosthenes measured the circumference of the earth first. Read about it in this cute picture book, The Librarian Who Measured the Earth
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- Or watch a cute video showing how Eratosthenes did it in this video on YouTube.
Language Arts
- Practice prepositions. Check out some of my ideas from the Tour 1 Week 10 post for preposition fun!
- This is a cool website where you can move the mouse around the room, and read/quiz the prepositions that describe his placement. You have to be able to read to play the game.
- Also, check your library for a picture book that covers prepositions. One that I love, that our library carries (or you can get on Amazon) is Under, Over, by the Clover: What Is a Preposition? (Words Are Categorical)
. Ask your librarian, I know there are several more picture books with lots of prepositions.
Latin
- Do you have the Liturgy in Latin, maybe in a book or a Latin missal? Go hunting for the word “donum” (including all the forms of the word). There are several in there, and “Dona nobis pacem” comes to mind. If you don’t have a Latin Missal, Latin Liturgy Association has one online. You could print it out in several sections and highlight all the times you see Donum, Dona, etc.
Art
- Last week, your program meeting should have included making three types of columns! If you have lots of students in the program, you may have brought home a lot of columns. Combine Art and History this week by using those Columns to build a Parthenon. You will need some cardboard boxes, paper, scissors, and some packing tape or hot glue (and a little ingenuity). Check out how Design In Play made paper columns– maybe you could make a less accurate one with fewer columns, using the ones you made in Art.
Music
- Remember that site I told you to remember last week? I’m sending you back to learn about the Cello this week. The video is about 20 minutes long and describes what the cello is made of, how it’s played, and how the instrument is utilized in the orchestra. I love the cello!
- Listen to some cello music, with Bach’s Cello Suites. This YouTube music is 2.5 hours long so you can play it in the background during some quiet study or reading time.
History
- Much of this week’s history timeline focuses on the Greeks. Make your own ‘Grecian’ money this week. You simply cut out a lot of circles from paper/cardstock and have your students decorate them. (It could be a good activity for while you’re reading to them) How were coins decorated in the past? Usually using the faces of their leaders. Your students can draw themselves, or a leader that they admire on their coins.
- Learn about the golden rectangle this week, with a simple ‘craft.’ Cut out a rectangle that’s 4 inches by 9 inches. Your youngest students can skip to decorating it. Have your older students write a sentence or two about what it is or how the Greeks used it, and the ratio is 4:9, or 4 inches on the short side and 9 inches on the other. Then color and glitter it GOLD! To save you about 5 minutes of measuring (because every second counts), here’s a template so you can just print it and go:
- Socrates was known for teaching people how to think. Thinking is something your students have probably never thought about. You could spend some time examining how they think. Ask an open-ended question and have them verbalize every part of their thought process leading them to a conclusion. (You could take notes together) If they jump to an answer right away, then have them go back and think about the why’s, who’s, when, etc to support their conclusion. Then fill out this worksheet using the same question. Even if the conclusion is the same, I know the thinking was different. Discuss how they think vs how the paper made them think about the issue. Which was better? (Some open-ended questions: What is the most important event in ancient history that we’ve learned so far? What is your favorite instrument we’ve learned about so far? Which country in Europe would you like to visit?)
- Not sure if this will be useful… but here’s a coloring page of Aristotle teaching Alexander the Great.
- If you live anywhere near Nashville, TN, then you have to go see the Parthenon there. It’s amazing.
- If you don’t live anywhere near Nashville, then you can check out this Art History in a Hurry video. It is about 3.5 minutes long and talks a little about Greek art, history, etc. Or you can watch this one The Parthenon through History, it’s 8 minutes long. There’s not much speaking, mostly a computer-animated visual of what the Parthenon looked like over time as various groups gained control of it and changed it from a Greek God building to a Church to a mosque, etc My kids thought the explosions were the best part. “The Curse of Minerva” by Lord Byron is also read about halfway through the video.
- If you don’t want a Parthenon video, you can read about it and see some pictures and diagrams here.
- The timeline has Hippocrates in it, the ‘Father of Medicine,’ but let’s not leave out Galen, who is “the gateway to medicine.” Rarely in history, does one single person lead to a huge advancement, but usually it’s a team or several people working together. Check out this book about Galen Galen and the Gateway to Medicine
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- Ok, so I know I share crazy ways to ‘play’ history with your kids… and I have another one. If your students like playing doctor (with those cute doctor sets and their stuffed animals/ dolls), then this is for you! Teach about Hippocrates and the Hippocratic oath, then print it and make your student ‘swear in’ before doing any medical procedures on their stuffed animals. If it’s too long for them, make a revised version that says “I promise to do no harm to my patients, and to heal them to the best of my ability.”
- If you have some time to listen to books on audio, either on a road trip or just at home during quiet time, check out this free audiobook. The Story of the Greeks by H. A Guerber
Geography
- Keep going in your Europe Lapbook!
- The Scandinavian countries are known for seafood, which makes sense because there’s so much water surrounding them!
- Mmm, food from around the world is my favorite:
- Denmark- make some Danish Pastries or cheat and make them with crescent rolls and apple pie filling in a can.
- Sweden- make some Swedish Meatballs from scratch recipe- so yummy.
- Finland- make a Finnish Mushroom Omelette Roll or try something else from the website dedicated to Finnish food, Finnish Recipes. One that might be easy to pull off with most stuff you have on hand is a ‘Rosolli’ Salad.
- I just found this website called kidspressmagazine.com, with ‘culture maps’ that you can print for some countries with a paid membership. They show pictures of the country, food, buildings, and what that region is known for. Here’s Denmark’s and here’s Finland’s.
Science
- Even the smallest student can memorize that acids react with bases. The easiest experiment to show this with is vinegar and baking soda. Make it more fun and add some food coloring to the vinegar!
- Another fun experiment I found, is this one about using acids and bases on apples.
- Read about Acids and Bases from an elementary level on www.chem4kids.com.
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