Catholic Schoolhouse Tour 1: Week 21

Religion

Print out the fun pack about Saint Katharine Drexel. Complete the activities for Week 21!

Just how long is a mile really? Take your kids to a track this week and let them see how far it is to walk a mile. Or take them to a nature trail that has a known distance. When you get home calculate how many feet you walked.

Spelling City has a lot of great ideas to teach and practice your prefixes this week. They also have an everything suffixes page. Choose one activity that appeals to your students or fits their age group (don’t try to do it all). I personally love the crayon box activity!
In a group, you could play a prefix and suffix game. Split your group into two teams, and give each team a dry-erase board. You’ll need a timer (a kitchen timer, watch or phone anything will do) to time rounds. Show both teams a prefix or suffix, and then start the timer. Have each team write as many words that use that prefix or suffix as they can. At the end of the time, score it like boggle. Give each team 1 point for each word they have that the other team doesn’t have! Adjust the time for the age of your students (younger students need more time maybe 3 minutes, older students need less than 1 minute). Play until you reach 20 points, or whatever time allows. Here is a site with a list of words with prefixes and suffixes. (This list is not exhaustive, just a place to get started. Some answers students give may not be on this list- accept anything that is a real word.)

Listen to the best of Scott Joplin this week while you do your homeschooling. This Youtube video, shared by one of our CSH users Facebook, has some great Scott Joplin music, which could be great to listen to while doing quiet individual assignments, or while you’re teaching this week in the background. You can see the musician playing the piano from above, which is really pretty neat.

I know I love to recommend the Childhood of Famous Americans books, but this week I’m switching it up and recommending Who Was Ronald Reagan, by Joyce Milton. It is an easy chapter book, great for 2nd graders and up, or any students who are reading short chapter books. I love that it goes through his life but in a somewhat concise way. It is written for elementary school-age students, so be aware that it is not all-inclusive of his life, and some topics are described in a way for younger students to understand. We have it at our local library, but it is only around $4 on Amazon if you want to add it to your bookshelf.

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

Learn about Mount St. Helens by building your own ‘erupting’ volcano this week. Check out this post to see how!
If you have Amazon Prime, this video is free: Fire Mountain: The Eruption and Rebirth of Mount St. Helens. It shows video footage of the eruption, the aftermath, and interviews with people who lived through it. If you don’t have Amazon Prime, you can still watch it but it costs $1 to rent.
EWTN is awesome if you’ve never checked it out before. Their radio, programming, and website are full of great resources. Their website offers anything from daily mass readings, to live listening of the radio station. This week your kids can visit the EWTN kids site and explore, play, and learn. My daughter loves the games there!

Have a discussion about the internet (World wide web) this week. Does your family use it a lot or a little? Obviously, you use it some because you’re here! What are good ways to use the internet and what are bad ways to use the internet? Do your students know the difference? This may be a good week to discuss with your older students some of the dangers of internet usage, and boundaries they should have when online.
Here is a short 2 minute video of the attack on the World Trade Center that I found on the scholastic website. Scholastic has a long list of resources for teaching on 9/11 that you can check out here.

The Last part of the Pacific and Southwest States Lapbook is ready!
If you have Netflix, check out Moving Art: Deserts. It is a ‘movie’ that shows beautiful pictures of the Grand Canyon set to music. You could have it on as you discuss the southwestern features this week. Or if could be ‘school’ for your youngest ones. Let them watch it and answer some questions at the end.

If you’re looking to keep the kids entertained for a little while, but still stay on track this week, let them watch The Magic School Bus Season 2 Episode 10, The Magic School Bus Gets Energized. It’s available on Netflix!
This site has some great information and cute ‘games’ for learning about circuits.

Did you miss week 20? Check it out here!