Welcome to Classical Conversations Cycle 2 Week 16 Lesson Plans!

Last time we were in Cycle 2, I made these plans for my daughter and niece who were both in Foundations at the time!  I’ve updated them to match the new CC Guide!  I now have a 4 year old in Foundations, so I’ll also put some ideas for preschoolers too!

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: This week we moved on to WWII for history. I’ve continued to use the Adam to Us history book for our daily readings (instead of Story of the World) and have loved it.  If you don’t have Adam to Us (or Story of the World), simply pull from ANY history encyclopedia or living book you might have.  I love the DK or USBORNE History Encyclopedias.  Either way, I always do the same thing:

Each day we read a portion from a history book about our topic (if you have Adam to Us you can read about WWII and discussed the review questions at the end of the week- pg. 924-931 which is lesson 136 “World War II”) I have been working on note-taking, so I have the older kids take notes while I read to them.  My oldest has a hard time with this and now that he’s in high school, it’s beginning to show!  I hope to help my younger ones learn this earlier!

We also completed the Adam to Us Map Book exercise for Lesson 136 for WWII and we also filled in the notes on the Lesson Review and Student Workbook as we read.  If you don’t have Adam to Us, simply pull a map for Europe and find the places on the map that are mentioned in our history sentence! Poland, Japan, Hiroshima, Nagasaki…and learn what is meant by the “Pacific Front.”

Younger Kids: Again, this history sentence is a bit long and a bit too deep for my 4 year old.  I play the song for him (or just sing it), but as far as digging into the content, I stick with the geography side of things.  I thought it would be visual to use a little toy tank (or just a clip art picture is fine) and have it move from Germany to Poland and then a toy boat (like hot wheels size – or a clip art) and have it over in Hawaii showing our armed forces there.  Then I cut out a bomb clip art and we put them on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  We did this while singing the song.  “When Hitler invaded Poland” – move tank into Poland. “helped the United States” – point to USA on map. “Pacific Front” – put boat/ship on Hawaii.  “Dropping atomic bombs….” – put bombs on Japan.

Science:

Resources used this week:

• What’s Science All About
• DK Encyclopedia of Science

Day 1: Read What’s Science All About pg. 206 – take notes on Newton’s First Law of Motion

Day 2:  Read DK page 114-115 – take notes on forces.  We used homemade slime and play dough to practice different ways you can put force on an object. We used the pictures on pg. 114

Day 3: Read DK page 120-121 – take notes on friction. We used a few items around us to push and pull over different surfaces to experience friction.

Day 4: Read DK page 122-123 – take notes on gravity and measuring forces.  We talked about the Newtonmeter and also Robert Hooke.

Geography:

Day 1: Draw and label parts on a Europe map.  I had a list of all the European places and features learning in Foundations (all cycles) and they tried to find them all on their maps (using an atlas when necessary)

Day 2: Draw the world

Day 3: Adam to Us Map Exercise on World War II

Day 4: Draw Europe from memory

Literature & Language Arts:

If you have kids in Essentials, each day they will 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.

Literature:  Last time through this cycle, we started reading the Usborne version of Diary of Anne Frank. This goes along with our WWII studies.

Math

Whichever Math you are using….. I have recently switched over to CTC Math for my older kids.  My little guys is doing Good and Beautiful K Math and some MUS Alpha!  I’ll do more about those programs later.

Don’t forget about CC Review!

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.