Catholic Schoolhouse Tour 1: Week 2

How did your first week of school go?  Exhausting, Fun, Exciting, Interesting? Maybe, all of the above? If you were able to use some of the ideas from last week’s post, I hope they helped your kids get excited for a new year of school. This week at CSH we’ve got more in store to keep you going, having fun and most of all,  learning!

---

Religion

Did you have fun learning about Saint Kateri last week?  Pull out your fun pack this week for the activities labeled “Week 2.”

Saint Kateri Fun Pack

If you’ve never been there before www.CatholicIcing.com is a great resource for the Catholic Moms out there.  Check out this post about making a St. Kateri Costume for All Saint’s Day.  Why wait, though?  Make a Saint Kateri costume while you are studying about her.

St. Kateri Costume (www.catholicicing.com)

Also, check out this St. Kateri Snack time Activity:

St. Kateri Snack Time

---

Math

• This week students practice skip counting by fours and fives.  You’d be surprised how many household items come in 4’s.  Have your kids go around the house skip counting by 4 to count the legs on chairs and tables.  If you have a lot of pets, you can skip count by 4 their legs too!  If you happen to live in an animal-free house, if you’re headed to the zoo anyway (maybe to see the Reptile and Amphibian house?) count the legs of animals there by 4’s. Your older students may be able to skip count by 5’s counting nickels.  This could be a fun opportunity for your older students to teach the younger students the value of nickels!

---

Language Arts

• This week have fun discussing nouns in your daily life.  Nouns are easy because they are literally ALL AROUND US. Task your students to name as many nouns as they can from one viewpoint of the room.  Now move to a new position in the same room- can they add more nouns to their list?
• Print this fun Mad Libs Printable:

NounsMadLibs-Printable

---

Music

Play music by Bach this week while you eat lunch or snack!  Discuss the music you are listening to over your meal.

---

History

• This week we learn about the early explorers of our country.  What better way to learn about exploration than to become an explorer?!  Discuss the explorers that you learned about this week.  What did they do? How did they do it? Where did they go? What does it mean to explore?   Grab a notebook and pencil, some water, and snacks, and take your students on a hike somewhere you haven’t been before.  Allow them to take notes on all that they see as if they are seeing it for the first time.  If they have trouble knowing what to write, prompt them as if you are discovering for the first time as well.  “Look at that tree!  Do you notice how the shapes of the leaves are different?”  “Wow, this path is really rocky (or smooth)!” “Look at this strange insect! Can you draw it?”  They can write descriptions of the land, plants, trees, wildlife, and even other people you run into!  Taking good notes is critical to exploration so that information can be passed on.  If you live in a very urban area or are not able to go somewhere outdoors consider going to a mall, shopping area, zoo, aquarium- anywhere that can be ‘discovered.’

• Print the map of the US and draw the paths of the explorers in different colors!
• If you have a large laminated US map on the wall, use your dry-erase markers to map the explorer’s routes. Use different colors and make a key at the bottom!
• Use the Roanoke Colony as inspiration for some creative writing.  Use your creativity to explain ‘what happened’ to the lost colonists.  A lot of legends explain why something is the way it is, or what happened to someone. Let them be as crazy as they want! Who knows- maybe the colonist were eaten by hungry bears or abducted by aliens or decided to go to Japan to eat sushi… Your younger students can dictate a story for you to write down and then illustrate it.  Have your older students write their own story and ‘bind’ it with staples down the side!
• Are you looking for a great book recommendation?  Consider buying or borrowing “Under Drake’s Flag” by G. A. Henty.  Henty wrote many exciting historical fiction stories for young boys.  This particular one is about a fictional young boy named Ned, who sails with Francis Drake (not yet a Sir) across the Pacific and into battle with the Spanish Armada.  Henty is known for his attention to historical detail when writing his books.  Not only will you get an exciting adventure story, but Henty also uses his stories to impress virtues like honor, bravery, and loyalty into his young boy audience.  Since Henty has been around a while, check your local library for him, or consider adding this book to your own collection using the link below.  I’d recommend this book for some of your older students (3rd to 7th grade), as it’s a chapter book.  You could also consider reading this story aloud to your younger students.

Under Drakes Flag By G.A. Henty

(Using this Amazon link to purchase this book helps Catholic Schoolhouse continue its mission!)

This book is free for the Kindle version.

---

Geography

• This week students can learn that we have created a handy coordinate system using latitude and longitude, such that every location on Earth can be specified using two numbers.  To help them remember which is which, draw latitude and longitude lines on an orange for a snack! Then let your students decide which way they want their snack sliced.  Cut on the Longitude lines and you’ll have wedges.  Cut on the latitudes and you’ll have slices!  I know I learn best through my stomach!

---

Science

• Check out our CSH Animals Lapbook Post!

Animals Lapbook- Reptiles and Amphibians

• A Venn diagram is a neat way to explore and organize similarities and differences. You can make a Venn Diagram for Reptiles and Amphibians.  One large circle is for the reptile characteristics, the other is for amphibians.  The area where they overlap is for the similarities, or things they have in common.  Use a large dry-erase board, put them on the driveway in chalk, or print the Reptiles and Amphibians Printable below:

Reptiles and Amphibians Venn diagram– Printable

---

Did you miss Week 1? Check it out here!