Classical Conversations Cycle 3 Week 21

This week I'm substituting for a tutor, so that should be a fun experience!  I'm also going to be handling the afternoon class of 6-8 year olds for the next four weeks (We only have four weeks left! Crazy!), so I'll have a little extra planning to do!!

US Presidents: 
Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Adams, Jackson, Van Buren, Harrison, Tyler
I'm so excited!! I have been waiting and waiting to do this game with the kids for WEEKS since I saw it on Pinterest!! Presidential Guess Who? Yes, please!!
As far as a fun song, I hear that we're using the "short" CC song for this, but we're going to throw in the Animaniacs because the kids think they're hilarious :)

And, not to hate on the Classical Conversations songs....but....I mean, would it really kill us to kick it up a notch? Because since we're already the crazy public schoolers, I feel like my kids could really bring it with the Presidential Rap.

I found a few really cute printables, including a "President's Day" word making center where you make as many words as you can using the letters in "president's day" and then write a sentence using one of them.   I also found a lap book, and oh my gravy have we loved lap books, so I feel like this one will be a hit, too! 

History Sentence: Tell me about U.S. Astronauts

This week just couldn't get any cooler, could it?? 

We've got numerous books to read, of course, and I'll come back and report on the ones we like the best. NASA has both a video of the moon landing and some basic facts.  We're going to use the plaque from the moon landing as copy work.

In addition to our history sentence basics about the moon landing, we're going to take some time to talk about the phases of the moon.  

The Children's University of Manchester has a neat interactive on the phases of the moon

NASA also has a nice introduction to the phases of the moon

Visit to the Air and Space Museum? Well, duh, that's totally got to happen.  We've been to Udvar Hazy waaaay too many times for me to think about, so we're going to schlep into DC.

Latin: Cui Nomen Erat Iohannes

I have nothing interesting to report here.  We're going to keep working on our lap books and memorize this.  It's 4 words this week, so I don't really feel a whole lot of pressure to do something fun.  

English: Independent Clause

I have this idea for teaching independent clauses that involves a doll.  Since an independent clause can "stand" on its own and has both a subject and a verb, I'm thinking I should be able to have a "subject" leg and a "verb" leg.  When both are there, the clause (this doll may need to be Santa....you know, "Claus") can stand.  When they're not, he can't.  I'm still working on this concept, but it's 1am, so it's not happening now.  Riley has clause worksheets in his grammar book, and we'll do some more fun sentences mad-lib style.  We'll also do a game where we have two jars, one we'll fill with independent clauses, and one we fill with dependent clauses.  I think it'll be funny.

Science: Uniformitarianism

I'm going to be honest.  I don't really get this.  I get the definition, and I get the counterpoints, but I don't have fantastic examples.  I'm going to try to pick up a few books at the library to help....but right now I'm just wishing that I stole my technological earth science text in 9th grade.  

Also, we're studying the moon this week.  Soooo.....there.

Math: The Associative Laws

We're going to demonstrate these using M&Ms, which are, by far, the best math manipulative on earth.  If a is red m&ms and b is blue and c is green, we can show that we get the same number whether we add red and blue first or blue and green first.  Then we can eat them. Nom nom nom.  

Singapore math plugs on.  Logan is doing much better with place value and higher counting, although he consistently forgets 15.  What did 15 ever do to him?  Riley is going to be drilling multiplication facts this week in addition to his chapter on measurement.

Geography: Territories and Terrains

Coloring! Yay!  I love the giant pull-off maps that I bought at the teachers store and will probably cry next year if they don't have the same thing for our new maps.