Catholic Schoolhouse Tour 2: Week 24

Catholic Schoolhouse Tour 2: Week 24

It’s the last week of Tour 2! Are you excited or scared of a summer break?

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No matter how far you have (or haven’t) gone this year, you should be proud of yourself.  You’ve taught your children way more than they would’ve learned in a traditional school, and with more attention and love than any school could provide.  I’m proud of you, and one day (it may not be anytime soon), your kids will thank you.


Memory Work Idea

The last week is perfect for reviewing all the memory work of the year.  Pull out all your history cards and lay out sections of them (like 20 in a row) and see if your students can identify the history topic from the picture.  If they get it right let them flip that card over. You could make a game out of it by starting with the first 5, once they have those correct, flip them back to the pictures and add the next 5.  Keep going until you have the whole timeline laid out.  Can your students recite the whole year 2 timeline from just the pictures?


Religion

Keep going in your Saint Joan of Arc Fun Pack this week!

Saint Joan of Arc Fun Pack

  • Anointing of the sick used to be something that was only done when someone was really close to death, but lately it seems like priests are anointing the sick in more than just impending death circumstances.  When people are chronically ill, fighting cancer, or struggling through a difficult procedure or illness, priests are called for anointing to provide that strength that can only come through the Holy spirit. If you have a good relationship with your priest or a deacon at your church, have a conversation about the anointing of the sick.  Sometimes they have really powerful stories to share about this special sacrament.
  • I have an anointing of the sick coloring page at Drawn2BCreative.

Math

  • The math this week continues teaching about what coins add up to one dollar.  Have your students make a little poster board of this information. They can trace a penny 100 times, a nickle 20 times etc.  Or if you don’t mind sacrificing a little coinage, they could glue the correct amount to the poster.
  • Make some $1 artwork.  Give your students $1 in each kind of coin and see what sort of pictures they can make them on the table.  Have them make up a story to go with the pictures made of coins.

Language Arts

  • Write some letters this week! If this is the last week of meeting in your program, exchange some addresses with your friends and have a pen pal for the summer.  Help your students write their first letters correctly with a heading, body and closing.  It’s also a great time to practice writing your address and learning about postage.

Music

  • You can still use the Music Notebooking Page as you learn about the tuba!
  • Learn about the tuba with this video by the Philharmonia orchestra.
  • It’s hard to find much music that ‘features’ the tuba, as it is a really bass instrument.  You’ll find it plays an important role in a lot of classical music, but it’s really in the background rounding out the sound and making it that much more impressive sounding. Listen to some of your favorite classical composers and see if you can make out the tuba.

History

  • Make your own mini-printing press this week using some letter stamps.  First have your students write their names using the individual stamps. Then take the individual letter stamps, line them up to spell your student’s name and rubber-band them together. Now your student can pick up the whole block of letters and stamp their name at once.  This is a tiny example of how the printing press made printed publications so much easier and faster. Instead of just a name, they had entire pages of text laid out ready to press.
printing press activity
  • How long did the Hundred Years War last?  That’s always a fun fact for kids to learn, and they may or may not be surprised, it didn’t last 100 years!
  • Saint Joan of Arc is a great focus for learning about the Hundred Years War for your younger students.  You can read any stories you have of her, or check out these nice coloring pages at Catholic Heritage Curricula. Coloring Page 1 and Coloring Page 2.
  • If you have a CSH program, this epidemic simulation sounds like it could be a lot of fun and also show the severity of the Black Plague during the middle ages.
    •   If you aren’t part of a program, adapt this activity to do at home by using stuffed animals and dolls who can travel from ‘city’ to ‘city’ either surviving or dying off.
  • Here is a short video (3 minutes) about the fall of Constantinople on the History channel (you may wish to let the commercial go through before showing to your kids).
  • Review where Constantinople/Istanbul are on your world map.  Why was it such an important place for trade?
  • Kids discover has a free lesson plan on the Kingdoms of Ancient Africa.  You have to subscribe to be able to download it, but it would be a great way to plan teaching about the kingdoms of Africa.

Geography

  •  Finish up your Asia Lapbook!
  • Eat some Chinese or Japanese food this week! If you’ve never tried sushi but always wanted to, this is a good excuse to give it a try!  Don’t worry, there are plenty of cooked fish sushi to try if you’re weary of the raw fish.

Science

  • In today’s modern age, you can actually download apps for your smart phone that measure lumens and decibels (maybe not both in the same app).  Download a free app, and then go on an adventure around your house measuring light and sound.  If you have a rowdy group of students, you could even set up a decibel rule at your house- No getting over 60 decibels in the house! Use your light measuring app to measure different lightbulbs in the ceiling, or in lamps and flashlights.  Use the decibel meter to measure your TV’s volume, radio volume or even how loud your dishwasher is. Make a chart and keep track of the things you measure.  What’s the loudest thing in your house?

Did you miss Tour 2 Week 23? Check it out.

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