Classical Conversations Cycle 2 Week 14
While there were some tough grammar areas, in my opinion, this week (English, History and Math were all just really long meaty!), I still really enjoyed it and we came up with some fun stuff to do with all of them!
History
Who else noticed this week that crazy, over-the-top mustaches must have been ALL the rage in Europe during WWI? I mean, SERIOUSLY the facial hair on these world leaders was crazy! There’s actually quite a bit of discussion on the internet about it, and I even read that David Lloyd George kept his specifically trimmed to a length that would not interfere with the seal on his gas mask. Crazy!
So, to have a little fun with what was otherwise just a long list of names and countries, we played a little dress-up! If you’d like to download some “glasses and ‘staches” of your own, you can do so here ( WW-I-Historical-Character-Dress-up.pdf (4855 downloads) ) or by clicking the image to the right. Have some fun and learn a little history! (I added a card for Austria-Hungary in case anyone would like to use these cards next week when we discuss Axis vs. Allies).
By the way, I asked my children to smile when I was taking their pictures wearing their “glasses and ‘staches” and my daughter (without changing the expression on her face or the tilt of her head) pointed to the photo of Wilson on the card in front of her and said “I can’t.” Apparently, if you’re going to wear the glasses (or ‘staches) you gotta’ wear the expression, too.
Horrible Histories has done several fun videos about World War I. I haven’t watched them all. This one is an overview of what caused WWI and how Britain came to get involved:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22nITSqkQM4
This is just an interesting one about the British forces in WWI and where they were from:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAA9ZVgZauA
This book looks great! It does a nice little summary of the causes of WWI, and then focuses on the Christmas Day truce, a topic that always fascinates me !
We checked this book out at Christmas and I loved it (totally made me cry . . . not that that is too hard to do). It’s definitely more about the Christmas Day truce than it is about all of the details of WWI, but it’s still a wonderful little book!
This is SUCH a neat concept for a book! Here’s a history of WWI where “you choose” your role as you explore the events that transpired. The excerpt from Amazon: “World War I has just exploded in Europe. The peace of the entire world is in danger. How will you help? Will you: Join the Belgian resistance movement? Fight as a British Army soldier? Serve as a volunteer with the American Field Service?” There are hardcopy versions of the book, as well as a Kindle version. Very cool! My daughter JUST finished earning the money she needed to buy her own Kindle. She’s going to love trying this book out on it!
Science
I didn’t find any great resources for reinforcing at, an elementary level, the difference between an acid and a base, this week. If you did, please leave me a note in the comments! I’d love to have something.
One thing that might be fun this week is just to explain to the kids what happens when you combine an acid and a base. They work to neutralize each other, and as a result, sometimes the reactions are really interesting! The classic example of this in your home is Baking Soda and Vinegar. There’s a fun example of a way to show this here.
Here’s some trivia that I didn’t know: Cabbage juice can be used as an indicator of whether something is an acid or a base. Apparently, this is interesting enough trivia that even Martha Stewart was willing to include it on her show (instructions at the link . . . or you can just watch the video from her show).
Fine Art
There’s also not a lot to say about this week’s “Artist” since he’s known better as a scientist than an artist! However, I want to take a moment and recommend this book. I was only able to find it used, but it’s a neat perspective on art appreciation and contains all of the artists we’re covering this semester except for Linnaeus. I was able to pick up a “Very Good” used copy from Amazon for about $5. The only real downside – my children have been fighting over it since it arrived.
Review Games
I made up a Jeopardy game board this week like the one found at this blog. Brilliant! The kids enjoyed it in class and my children loved playing today at home. Sometimes you just need to freshen things up and throw in something new and this worked perfectly! I’m so appreciative to all the other CC parents who share their ideas and creativity!
This post is linked to:
.jpg)
16 Comments
Katie
I love the cards for WWI! Above you mentioned that a card was added for Austria-Hungary…when I download the articles, that one is not there. Am I missing it?
Thank you so much!
Summer Stevens
Hi LB, I just noticed you linked to my website (thanks!) and I thought I’d stop in to check out your blog. Great ideas! My in-laws are doing classical conversations too. I’m homeschooling my kindergartner this year and trying to decide what to do for next year. Thanks for the post.
LB
Summer, thanks for the fun science experiment! 🙂 My youngest is a kindergartner this year. It’s such a fun age!
Pingback:
Stacey
And I just ran across this blog with an experiment for acids/bases:
http://raisingsparks.com/kids-science/acids-and-bases-for-kids/
Stacey
Hi! This is my first time visiting your blog…and I love all the great resources! Thanks so much for putting it together. I don’t usually get to all the CC material every week, and we’re just doing week 14 this week, so I’m happy that I can hit the highlights using your blog. I’m putting a link on my blog post for this week because I know others will want to use it, too.
Blessings,
Stacey
LB
Hi, Stacey, and welcome! I’m glad you found me. 🙂 Some weeks we spend a huge amount of time elaborating on our CC material, and sometimes we don’t manage to do much at all. You know how it goes! Thanks for putting a link on your blog (I’m heading over to check you blog out now!)! And I really like the illustration at that raisingsparks.com blog with the M&M’s. Easy and cute! And of course, my kids would be ecstatic if I could work some junk food into their studies. 😉
Brandy
Thank you for all of your great ideas for each week of CC, and for sharing them with our weekly link-up! I also shared a bit about your Week 13 and 14 posts on the January round-up of the CC Blog Carnival! Thanks again!
LB
Thanks, Brandy! You have an AWESOME blog! So many resources and ideas in one place! What a blessing to CC families. 🙂
Mary
I absolutely love the printable you have in this post! Thank you so much! We are doing all of Week 14 at home because our CC day today was cancelled due to snow… daddy is home tomorrow with us and this will be much fun. I’m so happy to have found your blog!
LB
Mary – I hope that you guys had a blast with the mustaches and eye glasses! We had so much fun with them, ourselves. 🙂 I’m SO jealous of your snow day! We have had all sorts of cold weather, but virtually no snow this year! It keeps going all around us. I long for one (just one!) good snow day! And then . . . it can just skip on to being Spring. 🙂 I love your blog, by the way! I really enjoyed your CC notebooking post a while back. I think we may start utilizing that approach next year. 🙂
Cindy Sparks
Thank you for taking the time to put this amazing info out there! It’s the little things that make learning exciting for my kids! We are in our very 1st year of homeschooling & CC….and loving it! Thanks again!!
LB
Thank you so much, Cindy! I’m so glad that you’re finding anything that I post helpful, and I love hearing that people are also enjoying CC! We enjoy it more EVERY year!
Emily
Thank you for all of the helpful CC ideas you put on your blog! I’m trying to think of a fun activity to help learn week 14’s math. What did you do for math on week 14?
LB
Hi Emily!
Skip counting the 14’s was tough! That’s the week I put together the first of my little practice booklets and we used that in class. I printed one for each of my kiddos and we folded them in class and then worked through them as we sang the skip counting song. I was surprised at their reaction to turning the paper into a booklet by folding it . . . . they were MUCH more impressed than I expected. 🙂 I tutor first and second graders. Some whizzed through quickly and understood it how to complete it, and other struggled a bit either because the memory work was harder for them or just because they’re still working on their writing skills. Either way, the little booklet kept us fully occupied while we were able to go over the memory work 7 (or more) times. The link to my post about that is here – https://myfavoritekindofcrazy.com/classical-conversations-cycle-2-week-8/ If you have abecedarians, I’d suggest something like turning the lights off and using a flashlight to point to the numbers on the board (or printed out larger on the wall), or maybe taking turns at a hopscotch grid made up of the 14’s while you all song the song together. I hope that helps!
LB
Well, Emily, I realize that it is WAY too late to be helpful to you for the week 14 Math, but I wanted to come back and apologize to you for misunderstanding your question in the first place. That’s what I get for replying when I’m sleep deprived. :-/ I hope you were able to find a fun way to present the linear equivalents. We used a visual for centimeters to inches, got under the table and wiggled our feet for inches to feet and marched our feet for feet to miles. It was a good little workout. 🙂