Catholic Schoolhouse Tour 3: Week 11
Here’s a great Isaac Newton quote to get you going this week.
Ask your students if there is any one thing that convinces them of God’s existence. There are so many things in the world around us that, to me, are impossible without God. It could be fun to see what perspective your students have on this topic.
Religion
Keep going in your Saint Margaret Mary Alaqcoque Fun pack!
Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque Fun Pack
The tenth commandment is one that all students should be able to understand-You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods. Have a discussion about a time when they were jealous of something someone else had. What were they jealous about? How did they feel? Did being jealous do anything good?
Print the last commandment triangle for your Ten Commandments Banner. You can leave it up as a decoration/reminder for the rest of the school year!
10-commandments-garland-10th-commandment
Math
- Here is a link to a free worksheet for identifying types of triangles.
- Search for buildings or architecture that incorporate triangles this week as you go about your errands. Often high-rise buildings in big cities, museums, bridges, railroad trusses, or even smaller ‘fancy’ buildings like banks will include triangles in their designs. If you don’t have time for that, take a trip to your attic and look at the triangular-shaped supports holding up your roof! Then ask your students to identify what kind of triangles they are.
- Design your own building or bridge on paper this week using triangles!
Language Arts
- I really like this idea of using paper clips with conjunctions to practice their use! Write or type your conjunctions on cardstock, hole punch, and put paper clips on either side. Then have your students write some sentences and see how you can connect them using conjunctions.
- Teach all the conjunctions to your older students (Coordinating conjunctions, subordinating conjunctions, correlative conjunctions). Teach just the coordinating conjunctions to your younger students. Use the Acronym “FANBOYS” to help them remember seven of the conjunctions: For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So.
- Listen to Schoolhouse Rock’s Conjunction Junction (one of their more famous ones!)
- Here’s a fun group activity for conjunctions: Give each student a sign (or sheet of paper) with a conjunction written on it. Then write two words, phrases, or clauses on the board, with a gap where a conjunction belongs. Have students take turns standing in the gap holding their conjunction sign. Then have your other students read the sentence, or phrase aloud. Switch out the conjunctions and see how it changes the meaning of the sentence! (Peanut butter AND jelly, Peanut butter OR jelly- which sandwich would you want? I ate a sandwich AND lunch. I ate a sandwich FOR lunch, etc. They don’t all have to be about sandwiches.)
- Have a conjunction race in a newspaper or magazine. Assign each student a conjunction (give the younger students the easier ones like ‘and’ and ‘but’). Start a timer and see how many they can find and circle in their section of the paper!
- Stretch your student’s writing skills by making them write a story and include all the coordinating conjunctions For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, and So.
- Check out the Tour 1 W11 post and the Tour 2 W11 post for some links and ideas for practicing your conjunctions.
Music
- Listening practice. Most of the time we listen to music in the background of doing something else, be it reading, driving, cleaning, or doing other school work. Have a listening activity that is solely for the purpose of listening. Have each student grab their own blanket and lay it out on the floor as their ‘space.’ Turn off the lights, remove other noises if possible, and have them lie down or sit and close their eyes.
Listen to Eine Kleine Nachtmusik or other Mozart music. Remember, no talking or giggling! Just listening. Then have a discussion about the experience- did they notice anything different by having distractions removed and their eyes closed? How did the music make them feel? Were they able to appreciate the different dynamics, tempos, and timbre?
Art
- As you continue studying Rembrandt, I found these great printable art cards over at Layers-of-Learning. Print them and read them, or print and use them as a matching game.
Latin
- Here’s this week’s Classical Roots flash cards! Print and enjoy!
Latin roots week 11 Printable Flash Cards
History – Timeline
- When teaching about the Great London Fire, many schools make a little model of London out of cardboard boxes (cereal boxes, tissue boxes etc), which I think is a pretty cool idea. If you have enough space for something like that, go for it! Or you could also just make several small paper houses (here’s a simple printable house). Decorate and label them to be common buildings you’d find in London, for example Pudding Lane Bakery. Glue some orange and yellow tissue paper to the tops to make them ‘on fire.’ If you’re really brave, set it up outside (in a clear area away from dead leaves/dry wood/flammable stuff like your house) and catch your London model on fire! Practice good fire safety and have a hose and fire extinguisher handy! (And discuss the dangers of fire with your students).
- The Great Fire of London might be the inspiration you need to have a fire safety discussion with your students. Do they know where the fire extinguishers are located? Do they know what to do in case of a fire? Do they know what sound a fire alarm makes? (Do your fire alarms have good batteries?!) Have a fire safety talk this week and discuss your family’s plan in case of a fire.
- Plan an experiment based on the Great Fire of London. In the 1600s, most buildings were made of wood with thatched roofs (think straw). When one building caught fire, the whole city was as risk, and most of it burned. When they rebuilt the city, they used a lot more stone! Your younger students might enjoy an experiment where you see how well a wooden ‘house’ burns compared to a stone house. Again, practice fire safety- have an extinguisher handy, and do the experiment somewhere safely away from your house or any flammable substances.
- The Palace at Versailles is still a beautifully maintained building and surrounding garden area. Check out this youtube tour of the gardens set to classical music, and this youtube video of the palace itself as described by Rick Steves. (each video is about 7 minutes)
- The Palace of Versailles was the epitome of elegance and luxury. What does luxury mean to your students? If they were a King with an unlimited amount of money, what sort of house would they design? Have them draw a ‘blue print’ or a picture of their own Palace. Would there be great pieces of art inside? Would it have a huge kitchen? Maybe a pool with a water slide? When I was a kid, I always thought it’d be awesome to have a house with a go-cart track inside it!
- Newton shows up in our timeline this week, and it’s a good opportunity to introduce Newton’s Laws. We study forces and motion in Q3 this year, so get a head start and memorize those laws! (Just look ahead in your Tour Guide, Weeks 17 and 18. Go ahead and preview those songs while you’re at it!)
- To read and learn more about Isaac Newton, borrow or get your own copy of Who Was Isaac Newton? I like a lot of these ‘Who was’ series- they’re biographies but written for the elementary-aged student, so not too complicated and they have pictures. Our library has a big collection of this series, so check there first!
- Check out all the great printables, the lesson plan, and links to games for learning about Isaac Newton at this homeschooling website.
- This site has a pretty good list of lesson plan ideas for teaching at Peter the Great of Russia. These seem to be more suited to your older students (4th-5th grade?). The discussion questions listed could work for any age group.
- Food is probably one of those things your students take for granted. You probably feed them every day! But life was not always so easy for people. Have a discussion about how before farming and the agricultural revolution- people depended on themselves to feed themselves! Do you have a garden? Chances are, even if you grow some of your own food, it’s not enough to feed your whole family year-round. Discuss how nice it is to go to a grocery store to buy food others have been able to mass-grow. If you live near a farm- take a field trip to see it. They may also let you check out some of their farming equipment 🙂
- Do an experiment with growing plants. Prior to the agricultural revolution, people did not recognize that plants needed specific minerals and nutrients to flourish. Learning to fertilize their soil was revolutionary. Either plant two seeds (or buy two small plants) and put them on the same windowsill of your house. Give one of them only the water and sun they need. Give the other one fertilizer. See which one grows faster and better!
Geography
- Keep going in your South America Lapbook! Add the matchbooks for the countries from this week and write in some of your own information. Consider having each student choose a country to research and find an interesting fact to write in the matchbook.
- Use the blank map in the lapbook to make a South America puzzle. Print on cardstock, color and label, laminate and then cut apart the countries. (You don’t have to cut out the individual countries, make blobs of several of them together!) If you have little magnet strips (and no small children who eat magnets), put magnet tape on the backs and use the puzzle on your fridge!
Science
- Here’s a free worksheet part 1 and here’s part 2 about minerals and their relative hardness.
- At Homeschoolden.com is a 26 page printable all about rocks and minerals. It’s aimed at the younger grammar age student, but I think all your students might have fun with it.
- Make sure you check out or get a copy of The Magic Schoolbus Inside the Earth. It fits perfectly with this week’s science! (This is an affiliate link)
- For lots of great pictures and facts, check out DK Eyewitness Books: Rocks and Minerals.
Did you miss Tour 3 Week 10? Check it out.
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