2017-01-11 16.00.13

Well, week 2 of 2nd semester is here! We’ve managed to get back on track and back into our schedule for the most part.  When you have one in challenge and one in Foundations/Essentials, you don’t get much of a choice! But that’s the thing I love about being part of Classical Conversations…the accountability and structure it gives me.

Note: Although these lesson plan posts are about our Foundations lessons, I try to make sure not to include any intellectual property from Classical Conversations Foundations program.  To follow along and do the Foundations program, you will need a Foundations Guide and be part of a CC Community! No actual “memory work” is included here.

History:

Day 1-4: Over the next couple weeks we will be learning about WWI, so this week we spent time looking at some of the leaders of the countries involved in WWI. I love to use a notebooking approach to learning, so we pulled up information about the different leaders and took some notes.  If you have a CC Connected subscription, you can use the History Highlights as a great place to start.  Then the girls used pictures of the people, the flags, the country names (all clip art from online) to decorate their pages. Basically each day we covered one person.

Science:

Resources used this week:

Day 1: Research acids and bases using What’s Science All About and take notes

Day 2:  After doing some reading from the What’s Science All About and taking some notes about acids, bases, the pH scale, etc.., we watched this really cool YouTube video about using a homemade indicator to test acids and bases.

Day 3: The girls were super excited when I told them they were going to do the same “magic trick” themselves to test acids and bases!!  They probably spent over an hour doing the science experiment! I tried not to look at the mess in the kitchen and just let them explore! They had so much fun seeing the indicator change colors and learning which things were bases and which were acids!  They set up their video camera and made a video of their own!

Jos: running to the room…. “Mom, did you know that hot sauce is an acid?!!!!”

me: “yep! That’s why it burns your tongue!”

Here is the video of the girls doing their science experiment after being inspired by the above YouTube video:

Day 4: Today they colored their Acids & Bases pH scale worksheet.  Then they spent time looking back over their video and filled in their pH scale with some of the examples they tested.

Geography:

I found a Geography course from Knowledge Quest on SchoolhouseTeachers.com.  I loved this because I would have never purchased this course at full price.  I just wouldn’t have used it all since I stick with CC’s topics.  I use other things as references and resources….not to go through them from cover to cover.  However, with my SchoolhouseTeachers.com subscription, I had access to this course and I could totally just pick and choose the topics that match our lessons!

Day 1: European Countries map activity

Day 2: Draw the world

Day 3: British Empire map/lessons

Day 4: Draw Europe and label all the countries they have learned so far

 

Literature & Language Arts:

Both the girls are in Essentials so each day they do their Task Sheets, Charts, and then work on their IEW papers. Right now they are learning to fuse outlines and work on a research paper about Knights.

Spelling is also done daily.  We use Rod & Staff Spelling (6th grade)

Literature: This week they are finishing up The Whipping Boy.  They have really loved this book!

Don’t forget about CC Review!

memory-card-graphic-small

These memory work system cards will help you review all your new and old memory work in a systematic way!! It takes about 15 min a day and you’ll see the difference.  Don’t take our word for it…..

I personally use these and recommend them. It’s a great resource to help you keep on track and rotating through memory work! – Debbie C

These led my little memory master to victory last year! – Ess B.

Read more…..

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