Catholic Schoolhouse Tour 2: Week 23
Don’t forget those important parent-teacher conferences.
Memory Work Idea
A cool memory trick I learned is to write down the first letter in each word in something you are trying to memorize. First, have your student read the memory work aloud. Then hand them a sheet of paper and have them write down the first letter in each word, as you read the memory work to them. See if they can recite the memory verse using just their ‘cheat’ sheet of first letters. Next, use only the first letter in the sentence. Then recite with no cheat sheet! You’d be surprised how fast you can memorize something this way!
Religion
Keep going in your Saint Joan of Arc Fun Pack this week!
- Matrimony is something you as a mom probably have experience with. Pull out your wedding album and share it with your students this week. You can talk about how God calls some to marriage, some to holy orders, and other callings.
- Here is a handwriting and coloring page of Matrimony.
Math
- The math this week covers coins. Set up a little shop at your house to practice using money. Give each student a way of earning coins (extra chores?) and spending coins (maybe on small little treats like stickers or jelly beans). When they receive or spend their money make them tell you the value of it. If you have thrifty savers, you could have them tally up their earnings continually on a chart somewhere.
Language Arts
- Check out the Tour 1 Week 23 post for some great ideas on paragraphs.
- Write a paragraph about something you learned this week! Make sure to have a clear introduction, supporting sentences, and conclusion.
Music
- You can still use the Music Notebooking Page as you learn about the trombone this week.
- Enjoy some classical and jazz pieces that use the Trombone a lot with this YouTube playlist.
History
- Go explore some unknown place yourself this week as you learn about Marco Polo. He inspired many discoveries through his explorations. Even if you can’t visit a new State or National park for exploration, you can play explorer in your own house. Grab a hat, some binoculars, and some travel gear, and pretend you are exploring new places with your kids. Get their imagination going by describing what you ‘see’ and ‘smell.’
- Play Marco Polo, the game this week. As Wikipedia describes, maybe the name of this game came from the fact that Marco Polo didn’t know where he was going- much like the blindfolded ‘it’ in the game.
- Have your students write their own Magna Carta this week. What powers do they think a King should have? How should the King’s powers be limited?
- Watch Robin Hood this week!
- Saint Francis and Claire are both beloved saints of the Catholic Church. Pull out your books on these saints this week for storytime. If you don’t have any books, here are a few that we’ve enjoyed:
This is a favorite around Christmas time here. I just love the illustrations in this book, and how kids can identify with the main character, Mario, a shepherd boy, who meets Saint Francis. Saint Francis and the Nativity
This one you may have to check your church’s library to find. But it’s a cute rendition of a famous story of Saint Francis and a Wolf. (These are affiliate links and CSH receives a small portion of the profits.)
And a Saint Claire book to add to your collection: A Story of Saint Claire. We love all the “Footsteps of the Saints’ books, and this one tells about Saint Claire. (This is not an affiliate link, but we love supporting fellow Catholic businesses)
- A cute book to learn about Genghis Kahn this week is Who Was Genghis Khan? Our library carries the whole collection of these, so check there first, unless you want to add this to your own bookshelf.
Geography
- Keep going in your Asia Lapbook!
- Go out for some Mongolian stir-fry this week. It’s becoming more and more popular at those Chinese buffets, although I can’t really promise you it’s very authentic.
- I found a whole blog dedicated to Korean cooking. You could also try a Korean restaurant if you live in a bigger city!
Science
- You can set up an easy demonstration of amplitude and frequency with two kids and a jump rope. Have the kids stand apart from each other, each holding one end of the rope. Have one student wave the rope to cause a wave. Try making big waves, this shows amplitude. Now take a step back (as to make the rope tighter), and watch your big waves quickly turn into little waves. Wave it faster, to get a higher frequency.
- You can ‘see’ sound waves with a simple experiment using a speaker (a subwoofer would work best). Turn the speaker on its side, and lay a cookie sheet over it with some sand or small beads spread across it. Then turn up the music! You can see the sand/beads jump with the sound coming out of the speaker!
- Check out this cool YouTube video where you can ‘see’ the sound pressure waves in a flammable gas. Pretty cool, but maybe don’t try it at home.
Did you miss Tour 2 Week 22? Check it out.
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