Catholic Schoolhouse Tour 3: Week 1

Yay! It’s a new school year! I hope you are excited to begin planning your Tour 3 schooling- I know I’m excited. 🙂 Sometimes I add a little funny something to the beginning of these posts. So if you see something totally ridiculous and non-educational but makes you laugh, don’t be surprised. We all need something to smile about sometimes.

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Religion

The first saint we learn about this year is Saint Ignatius of Loyola!  You can read about him in your Week 4 History cards and in the Saint Fun Pack.  Get started on your fun pack activities this week!

Print the Saint Ignatius of Loyola Fun Pack

• If you did CSH history last year (Tour 2), we learned about the life of Moses in ancient history.  Religion in the first quarter of this year focuses on the Ten Commandments.  Specifically this week, students memorize that Moses was given the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai.  You could read about this part of his life in your Children’s Bible or in the actual Bible Exodus 19:9-20:20.
• If you have little squirmy kids, let them color these cute Moses Coloring Pages at Mamas Learning Corner while you read!
• Make a “Mount Sinai” at lunch or snack time today.  You can use rice krispie treats to form a mountain, or pile anything up on a plate (donuts, pretzels, cookies, slices of fruit, etc.)  and call it Mount Sinai (I’m all for simple).  If you make a mountain of fruit, drop some whipped cream on the top to be the cloud!

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Math

• This week students learn or review skip counting by 2’s and 3’s.  There are plenty of items to practice skip counting by 2’s (just think- anything that goes on your feet or hands!).  While you’re doing laundry this week, have your kids skip count the socks.
• Have a 3-legged race this week when your program meets- then count the ‘legs’ by 3s.

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Language Arts

• There are 8 parts of speech to memorize this week, which can be tricky- some of them are big words!  Work on just memorizing their names this week, and don’t worry- we define and memorize what each means in the coming weeks. You can have a little fun this week, and see how much your students already know about the parts of speech.  Let them tell you what they think each part of speech is this week, and if they don’t know, let some anticipation build by telling them you’ll be learning about it soon!

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Music

• Handel’s Messiah is a very long composition.  I’ve found the entire oratorio (2.5hrs of music!) on youtube.  You can listen to it in the background all week as you do your schooling, or just put it on during quiet reading time, etc.  If you want to focus on this piece in detail, choose a different scene each week to listen to specifically and read the description of the scene to your students.  See if they can picture it in their mind as they listen.  What sort of mood does the music put you in, how does it make you feel, do you like it, why or why not. (The description in this youtube video has the time stamps for each scene beginning).
• I’ve made a simple Music Notebooking page for younger students, and a music notebooking page for older students.  Print them out this week and get started filling them in with information about George Fredrick Handel.

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Art

• Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper is possibly one of the most recognizable pieces of art in history.  Catholic Icing’s Last Supper craft is perfect for this week or the next couple.  You’ll need two egg cartons, crayons/pencils, scissors and some glue to do this awesome activity. If you scroll down, Lacy even lists ideas on how to teach about Leonardo da Vinici’s Last Supper painting.

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Latin

• Each week this year I’ll have some printable Flash Cards to practice your Classical Roots.  You can use these any way you want! Just regular flash card style (show one side and see if your student can tell you the meaning on the back), or play games with them.  For the cards this week, consider taping them in places that help your students memorize their meaning.  Tape “photos” to a lamp shade, “tropos” to something that can turn like a toy steering wheel, “graph” onto your dry erase/chalkboard, etc.  How will you use these flashcards?

Latin Roots Flash Cards Week 1

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History

• In general, common people were uneducated before the Renaissance.  Have a discussion or writing exercise this week on how life would be different if you were uneducated.  I bet at first your kids might think it’s nice not to do school- but have them think of all they would NOT be able to do- read menus at restaurants, know if they are getting correct change when they buy something, and all the other life lessons we get through education!  Have them write, draw or just discuss the challenges of being uneducated.
• Shakespeare falls into the timeline this week as well.  If you have older students pick a Shakespearean play to read aloud (or you could just read one act or scene), assigning each student a different character.  Romeo and Juliet is one of the most famous Shakespearean plays, or you could choose one of your personal favorites.
• Bartholomew Dias sailed around the Cape of Good Hope in the timeline this week!  Draw his path from Portugal around the tip of Africa just to the Bay of St. Blaise and then back again with dry erase on your world map.
• The Cape of Good Hope, despite its name, was a really rough and stormy area to navigate.  Make some paper boats this week using these instructions.  Label your boats with “Bartholomew Dias, 1488.” Then you can play with them in any number of ways.  During bath time (if you don’t mind splashing) your kids can play Cape of Good Hope by making the bathtub as wavy and stormy as they can and playing with their paper boats (you could even paint Africa on the shower wall with those bath paints if you’re so inclined).  If a messy bathroom isn’t your thing, then fill a Rubbermaid tub or kiddie pool outside to play.
• The Medici Family was known for sponsoring art production.  Have your own Renaissance time period at home this week by sponsoring your students to create artwork for you.   Ask for a specific picture of something (varying it depending on your student’s ability level).  Make your requested ‘art’ match something from the Tour Guide this week.  An example might be to ask for a Last Supper Painting from an older student (it doesn’t have to look like da Vinci’s), or a picture of Dias’ boat from a younger student, or a clay model of Moses on Mt. Sinai from a kid who loves modeling.  I’ll let you decide how much to pay them! (You don’t have to pay in money- I ‘pay’ my kids in jelly beans for most things).  You can also challenge them to hide an image of something important to you in the picture somewhere, just like the Medicis’.
• I love combining ‘play’ with ‘school.’  Really the line between the two is blurry (in my opinion).  Anyway, you could ‘play’ the War of Roses with your kids this week as you teach about this event in history.  Divide your Barbie dolls, stuffed animals, army men, or action figures (whatever your kids play with) into two groups.  Then decide which group is the House of Lancaster and which is the House of York.  You can give little white stickers/flowers (use your creativity here) to the House of York and red stickers/flowers to the House of Lancaster.  Explain they had a big war, but now King Henry from the House of Lancaster is marrying Catherine of York to end the war! Have a play wedding, and let everyone ‘party’ together instead of staying separate based on their flower/sticker colors. (I’m sure your little girls will love this)

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Geography

• The first week of each year in Catholic Schoolhouse focuses on learning or reviewing the seven continents and five oceans.  I have a few other ideas on the Tour 1 Week 1 post and the Tour 2 Week 2 post you can check out.
• Another idea for reviewing your continents and oceans is to play a version of “Four Corners.” In the traditional game, the teacher closes his/her eyes and counts to 10, while all the students chose different corners of the room to run to.  Without looking, at the end of the count, the teacher chooses a corner to be ‘out,’ and all those students sit down.  Then the teacher starts counting again, and the students disperse again amongst the four corners, until only one student remains.
  • To modify this game for geography this year, draw a world map (as best you can) using sidewalk chalk on some pavement.  Draw boundaries for the oceans, and then play!  Have the teacher close their eyes, count to 10, and then chose a continent to be ‘out.’  Keep going until there’s a winner! Then repeat using oceans. If your students don’t yet know the continents/oceans yet you can label them, or make it harder and leave the continents/oceans unlabeled.

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Science

• Go outside and search for items in each of the five kingdoms! Animals, plants and fungi will be the easiest to find. But look under some dead logs and talk about the bacteria that must be there helping decompose dead wood/plant material.  If you have some stagnant water, run your finger along the edge of the container it’s in- is it slimy? There’s your protist!
• Magic Schoolbus episodes are on Netflix! Season 1 Episode 6 “Meet the Rot Squad,” is all about decomposition.  It’ll fit in well with either this week or next week’s science. You can also watch this on YouTube.
• Get started on the Ecology Lapbook! Even if you don’t want to do the whole lapbook, you could print just the Five Kingdoms wheel to assemble and ‘play’ with this week.