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Catholic Schoolhouse Tour 1: Week 16

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Catholic Schoolhouse Tour 1: Week 16

Religion

  • Print out the Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini Fun Pack and read about Saint Frances this week!

Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini Funpack

Math

  • Learn about the Associative Property this week with this fun activity.  Draw some parentheses, plus sign, multiplication sign, and equals sign on note cards. Then find anything small you can count (noodles, legos, blocks, beads, or one family I know has these counting bears), and create equations that show the Associative Property.
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 We use these tiny ponies (I got a pack of 20 of them for $1 at Target), in our house it’s called ‘Pony math.’

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(2+1)+3=62+(1+3)=6

Language Arts

  • Play a synonym game!  Sit in a circle on the floor.  One student says a long sentence with several adjectives in it.  The next person has to repeat the sentence but switch out a word in it with a synonym.  The meaning of the sentence shouldn’t change!  See how far around the circle you can go.  If you want to add some fun to it, use a taboo timer (or kitchen timer), and don’t be the last person to say the sentence.  Take turns creating the sentence to be repeated.  Here are a couple examples:
    • I ran quickly to a big store to buy my nice mother several bananas. Synonyms that can be used in this sentence may be:
      • ran: trotted, bolted, raced
      • quickly: fast, expediently
      • big: large, huge, enormous
      • nice: kind, sweet, graceful
      • several: multiple, many, a bunch
    •  Lucy swept the dirty floor under the table and found many small crumbs.
    • Jake wrote a long and detailed essay about how sad war can be.
  • For your younger kids and preschoolers, I love the Leap Frog video: The Magnificent Museum of Opposite Words.  It covers synonyms and antonyms, so use this video this week and next week.  My preschooler always goes around for days repeating  “in other words.” You’ll understand when you watch it…

 
Leapfrog: Magnificent Museum of Opposite Words

(Using this affiliate link to make a purchase helps CSH continue its mission!)

Music

  • Have your students compare and contrast Sousa to Beethoven, who you may have studied last fall in Tour III.  (There should be plenty of contrast!)  Listen to Sousa’s Stars and Stripes and then Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.  Then ask some discussion questions to your younger students or have your older students write a short essay.  Can they hear some of the same instruments in the two songs?  What is the difference in how they are used?

History

  • Silent films had to convey a story using no sound!  Play charades this week, make sure you don’t use any noises or words of any kind!  Make it a review by putting history cards in the ‘hat,’ so they have to act out a historical event you’ve studied thus far.
  • Henry Ford revolutionized industrial manufacturing with the moving assembly line.  Do an assembly line experiment this week with lunch preparation.  Give each student a ‘station’ and a task to perform.  Maybe the first student gets a slice of bread and spreads mayo on it.  Pass it to the next student who adds a slice of meat, then the next student who add cheese, and the last student who adds the last slice of bread.  Adapt this to however many assembly line workers you have in your family (maybe you need a mustard station, lettuce, tomato, onion stations, or chips and side items station).  Do this for a couple of days this week, then switch to each student making their own entire meal.  Which was faster? Which did they prefer?
  • I guess I love teaching with food, so here’s another idea to tie history with your meals this week.  Learn about Woman’s suffrage, and then try this at home.  Have a vote for dinner tonight (it can be the meal, or maybe toppings for pizza), but ONLY allow the boys to vote.  Then vote again and allow both the boys AND girls to vote.  Then have a discussion to tie it to women’s suffrage. Did including the girls change the outcome?  How did the girls feel about not getting a say in planning dinner?  How did the boys feel about being the only ones to vote?  Can they relate to the men and women of the 1920s and prior?  If you don’t have enough boys and girls to make this interesting, invite some CSH friends over for pizza and a movie!  Then you can vote for both food and movie choices!
  • Teach your students about prohibition and then what the Catholic Church teaches about alcohol.  CCC 2290 states “The virtue of temperance disposes us to avoid every kind of excess: the abuse of food, alcohol, tobacco, or medicine. Those incur grave guilt who, by drunkenness or a love of speed, endanger their own and others’ safety on the road, at sea, or in the air. ”  A few biblical references to consider: 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, Ephesians 5:18, 1 Timothy 3:3-8. Have a discussion about this with the students you feel are mature enough.
  • Netflix has a documentary called The American Experience: Henry Ford, which would be good for one of those days it’s too cold to go outside.  I thought it was a good documentary about Henry Ford.  It covered much of his life, his business, and the growth of industrial America. Warning: there are two ‘bad’ words/curse words in this documentary, that are quotes from people.  Also, it does discuss Ford’s antisemitism briefly (which I never knew).  All in all, I still felt it was interesting and informative.
  • World War 1 has many facets you could focus on this week.  For your younger students just explain the cause of the war, the major players, and the outcome.  For your older students use this as an opportunity to explore something that may interest them like submarines and tanks. Suggest they find a part, person, machine or other specific to WW1 and research it.  If it is a machine they research make sure they include a labeled diagram.  If it is a person include a picture and timeline.  Worldwar1.com is a good resource (Note I have not read everything on this site or linked to by this site.  It is quite extensive.)
  • Eyewitness has a great book on World War 1.  It is packed with tons of pictures (warning not all are actual pictures some are recreations) of the people, machinery, uniforms, battle equipment, and more.  It is not a storybook, but rather a fun book with tons of info to read on your own.  Information is presented in a 2-page spread with lots of pictures, caption, and diagrams.

DK Eyewitness Books: World War I

(Using this affiliate link to make a purchase helps CSH continue its mission!)

It’s great if your student is the type who points at pictures and says “What’s this?” or “What are they doing” because those captions tell you.

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Geography

Science

  • I created a game for you all, Gasp!  That’s the name of it! Gasp!  Teach your kids about the respiratory system and then play this game for fun and as a review!  Adapt it to your younger students by giving them fewer choices in the multiple-choice questions.  Instructions are included in the printable! Let me know what you think!

 Gasp!- Printable Game!

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Thanks for reading!

Did you miss week 15? Check it out here!

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