Catholic Schoolhouse Tour 3: Week 3
Ok, there are a lot of funny history memes out there- this one happens to fit this week. These are just for you moms out there!
Religion
Keep going in your Saint Ignatius of Loyola Fun pack!
Saint Ignatius of Loyola Fun Pack
Here’s the flag for the second commandment! Add it to your garland!
10 Commandments Garland 2nd Commandment
- Talk about what the second commandment means. What are ways that people use God’s name in vain? How does your family handle it when someone uses God’s name in vain in front of you?
- Mary’s Books has an “In the footsteps of the saints” book on Saint Ignatius of Loyola called The Man Who Limped to Heaven. I love all the Footsteps books, and this is another great one to add to your collection.
- Saint Ignatius of Loyola was wounded by a cannonball, which led to his recovery, which led to his virtuous living and faith-filled life. Have some fun this week and make your own cannons! There are instructions here, and although they use marshmallows, I’d recommend cotton balls for indoor (and not-so-sticky) play. You can also use toilet paper tubes if you don’t have any disposable cups available.
Math
- Skip counting 6’s and 7’s. How are you incorporating skip counting into your daily activities?
- Did you know lilies always have 6 petals? If you have daylilies growing in your yard, go skip count their petals! Or if you feel like cheering up your home, buy some next time you’re at the grocery store!
- Learn about the significance of specific numbers in the Catholic faith.
- Learn some superb Facts about the number 7.
Language Arts
- Possessive nouns are the topic this week! Go through your house with your kids, naming the objects you see and their owners using possessive nouns. Examples: “Kristen’s desk, Eva’s toy, Daddy’s chair, Ben’s fishing pole, Sally’s ball etc.” Now go through the house again, but change the owner to God! “God’s desk, God’s toy, God’s chair, God’s fishing pole, God’s ball, etc.” You can use this week about possessive nouns to discuss how nothing is truly ours, and that all belong to our maker!
- If you have many children, you may have had many hand-me-downs. As you do your laundry this week show-and-tell some hand-me-downs to your kids (maybe a favorite onesie that survived many children). Talk about how “First this was Anna’s onesie, then it was Mary’s onesie, then it became Sally’s onesie” etc. Can your students find other objects that have changed ownership over the years? Many times our clothes, toys, and books get passed down to the younger kids when the older ones have no more use for them! You could even write the sentences on a board or paper and have your students fill in the possessive nouns where they belong.
Music
- Keep playing music by Handel. You could have an execise where you listen to both Messiah and Watermusic and compare and contrast them. That’s a common activity in our public school counter parts- comparing and contrasting. Listen to each all the way through once, then put them on repeat as your students make two lists: all the things the two pieces have in common and how the pieces differ. For your younger students, it may be plenty just to write how each makes them feel. Challenge your older students to think about tempo, instruments, dynamics etc.
Art
- Did you get your set of the Tour 3 Classroom Display Pictures?
- Spend some time this week examining the Mona Lisa, da Vinci’s most famous piece of work. Have a short discussion about it- what do your students think? Like it, hate it? What is she looking at? What do they notice about the piece.
- Make your own ‘Mona Lisa portrait’ pictures. Let your students choose an outside location for a background (notice the Mona Lisa’s background is a nature scene). Have them sit like she does in her portrait. See how closely they can imitate her posture and facial expression. Take a picture with your phone or camera. If you meet in a CSH chapter or program, print the portrait and bring it to class- it might be helpful for when your students draw their own portraits!
Latin
- Here are this week’s Classical Roots Flash Cards!
- If you’ve checked out the “What else should I use?” page you’ll notice English from the Roots Up was recommended for Latin. All of the classical roots we examine this year are in this book. You can get either the book or the flash cards. Some moms find they only need the flash cards (which have the root on one side and the meaning plus several words that use that root on the other side). But I think the book may also be useful because at the bottom of each page there are some teaching notes and details about extra words. There’s pictures of the inside pages on the Amazon listing for the book to see what I mean.
History
- Here’s a compilation of famous Madonna paintings throughout history on youtube. After learning about Raphael’s painting Madonna of the Meadow, watch the video with your students. Then have them decide which one is their favorite one and why.
- Draw Magellan’s path around the world on your world map. If you aren’t tired of building boats yet (we’ve had a lot of explorers in these first few weeks!) then go ahead and build some more paper boats! Write Magellan and 1519 on the side.
- Learn a little about the nautical world this week. Ever wondered where the term ‘knots’ comes from when measuring speed on the open seas? A knot is a one nautical mile per hour (or 1.15 miles/hr). Sailors during this time would tie knots in a rope at specific intervals, and then drop the end into the sea. The faster the rope unraveled the faster their boat was traveling. They would count the knots over a time frame to determine their speed. Create your own speed measurement this week- tie knots every 3ft in some rope or string. Tie a weight to the end of it, and then coil it around a popsicle stick (or other stick). Have your students have a race- drop the weight and run allowing the string to unravel as they go. Have another student use a stopwatch to time them. Then calculate each student’s ‘knots’ (distance/time). After everyone’s had a chance to try it- discuss it! What were some things that went wrong? (maybe your string tangled, the weight moved even when it was supposed to stay in one place, etc). What can they conclude about this method of speed measurement?
- Another measurement was using rope to measure depth. (This is an easier project to try, in case the knots idea above is too much!) Tie a weight to the end of a string, then use your string and weight to measure the depth of water in your bathtub at bath time, or the depth of your pool, a bucket of water etc. Drop the string with the weight into your body of water. Mark the place on the string where the water level is. Pull the string back to the surface and measure with a ruler/measuring tape.
- There is a really old movie about Saint Thomas More called “A Man for All Seasons.” Unfortunately it’s not on Netflix or Amazon, but a lot of times you can borrow these old movies from your library.
- Saint Thomas More wrote a book called Utopia, which is where we get our modern definition of the word. Have your younger students describe and draw a picture of what they think a utopia might look like and include. What is their idea of a perfect society? Your older students could get a copy of the book (or borrow it from the library) and read it for themselves.
- Vision Books are always some of our favorites of saints. Add Saint Thomas More of London by Elizabeth Ince to your library this week. Read it aloud a little bit at a time this week, or have your older students read the whole thing.
Geography
- Check out the Tiny Book of Landforms and Water Features mini-book you can make to go with this week’s geography in this water geography post.
- If you have a world map (or a US map) spend some time searching for each of the land and water features this week. Assign a different feature for each student, hand them each a different color dry erase marker for circling and see how many they can each find. If you want to make it more challenging set a timer to see how many they can find in just a few minutes.
Science
- Did you know there are more bacteria cells in the human body than human cells?! Learn about cells and microscopes in Tour 3: Hands-on Science Guide (Supplemental)
- Grab two paper plates. Label one with “Alive” and the other with “Not Alive.” Then play a game with your students using books, posters, pictures etc. Show them a picture or something and have them hold up either the alive or not alive sign. Make it funny by showing them some obviously not alive things (chairs, rocks, lamps, anything). Ask them why they don’t think it’s alive, which criteria from the memory work does it not meet?
- Grow your own plant that has adapted to it’s environment, a cactus! Cacti are sold in some grocery stores and definitely in home improvement stores. You can read about how to care for your cactus- don’t add too much water. Then talk about the adaptations cactus has for living in dry sunny places. Check out the sign attached to this cart of succulents and cacti I just saw the the Home Depot!
- Here’s a really simple worksheet where your students decide what pictures show a living things growing. (probably a K or 1st grade level).
- Here is a little more advanced worksheet where your students determine what is and isn’t alive.
Thanks for reading! I hope you have a wonderful Week 3! 🙂
Did you miss Tour 3 Week 2? Check it out.
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