Cycle 1 Week 15

We did end up losing parts or entire posts in the technical issue from last week.  Those will not be able to be retrieved.  I do have all the lessons written in my notes and I may have some of the pictures/videos.  If you are looking for a particular activity please let me know and I will try to send you the information. 

The last couple of weeks have been frustrating on our Friday routine.  As many of you know we did end up closing early this past Friday.  We ere not able to complete all of our planned topics due to the change.  The Foundations tutors are discussing whether we will make up missed material or if we will simply focus on week 16 this coming Friday.  Here is a rundown of the topics that we were able to complete.

Geography

We located our map points using M&Ms.

Timeline

We learned a simplified version of the CC hand motions.

History

We talked about Prince Henry the Navigator conquering a city in Africa and the Portugese and the Ashanti working together to form the Slave Trade in Africa.  We acted this out by breaking up into groups of 3 and playing London Bridge while we listened to the memory work.  The two girls forming the "bridge" represented the Portugese and the Ashanti.  The girl walking under the bridge represented the Africans that they were trying to trap and sell for the slave trade.  At the end of the song the girls forming the bridge would drop their arms trying to trap the "Africans".   We repeated this three times so each girl was able to take part in the different roles.

English

We sang our Helping Verbs Song.  See previous weeks for video.

Latin

We used the same charts from weeks 3 and 4 to pratice our memory work.  The girls remembered it so well that several of them sang the memory work before I even turned on the music.  I love seeing our learning model at work!

Math

We had fun doing the Math Pokey again this week.  I did the same thing this week as last week and simply inserted this week's metric memory work in. (video available on week 14)  We used a pinkie for centimeters, an arm for meter and our whole body for kilometer. 

Science

The girls used clay to cover different sized cups turned upsidedown.   Once they finished we placed their mountains onto their respective continents.

Art

This week we studied Angelico.  We discussed his work on religious paintings and how he used gold paint to highlight or paint halos within his works.  We also viewed one of his paintings so that the girls could see his technique.  For our project the girls were instructed to draw a simple drawing with colored pencils.  I asked them to think about drawing a fish, flower, a person or something that they could later highlight some small part of with metallic paint.  The girls made some very beautiful pictures!  We ended up with a lot of flowers and butterflies and I believe we even had one mermaid.  If you did not pick up their paintings this past Friday they will be waiting for you this coming Friday.

Science Experiment

We were not able to complete out science experiment this week.  We were going to be working on creating fossils. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week!  I look forward to seeing each of your young ladies this coming Friday!

Cycle 1 Week 14

Sorry this is late.  Hope you are all having a wonderful week.  Here are the activities that we enjoyed this past Friday.

Geography

We studied Africa and it's map points.  We used dry erase markers to mark or traced the geographical features for the week.  We repeated the points several times both tracing and saying the names.

History

We listened to the memory work on the CD and then split into group of four.  Each group took a turn pretending to be Zimbabweans working as stone craftsmen building a wall (using cardboard buildings blocks).  The teams raced to build their wall before the History sentence was completed on the CD.

Science

I brought in  several samples of each type of rock this week.  The girls were able to pass them around and talk about the different features the they saw between the three types.  Their favorite seemed to be a rose quartz!  Then we practiced a song to help us remember the three types of rocks.  I couldn't help but set the memory work to We Will Rock You!

Math

 I introduced the girls to the Math Pokey this week.  This was as simple as it sounds.  We sung our linear measurements to the Hokey Pokey and had a fun time being goofy at the same time!

English

We practiced our helping verb song.  I was amazed at how much of the song they had mastered since last week. Here is a link of the song again:

Timeline

We continued to learn a simplified version of the hand motions for each card.  Due to copyright laws the videos I had linked for you on You Tube for the the hand motions are no longer public access. You can still link to the videos if you are a member of CC connected.  Simply log on and under the at home sharing tab select timeline  and search under "rafikipaka".  When you click on her upload you can open her document that has links to the different hand motions for each week through a protected area of You Tube.  These are still the official motions set forth by Classical Conversations for the new timeline.  These are the motions that I use a version of in the classroom as well.

Latin

Latin was the same as last week.  Love how the girls have mastered this!

Fine Arts

We studied Ghiberti this week.  We discussed his background and works and then worked on fashioning our own creations.  We drew simple designs on cardboard squares and then rolled out clay to place on the cardboard over our drawings.  Next, we covered the whole thing in aluminum foil and pressed around the design.  We painted the top in black paint and let them dry.  Once dry we use scrubby pads to rub the paint off of the tops of our designs creating creating our "bronze doors" just as Ghiberti created his masterpieces.

Experiment

We discussed ho scientists can use core samples to study our earth (honestly they use it outside the realm of our earth as well).  We used layered clay and straws to extract our own core samples.   We will be switching out one of this weeks science experiments with next weeks on Friday.


That's all for this week.  Please reach out with any questions!