Classical Conversations Cycle 2 Week 5

Are you familiar with the 10-24-7 rule? It isn’t exactly the method that we employ with Classical Conversations, but it’s similar. It basically says that to move something new from your short-term to your long-term memory you need to review the information 10 minutes after you’ve first learned it, then 24 hours later, and then 7 days later.

If things were to go according to plan in a CC classroom, we’d introduce the new grammar information to the children earlier in class, then review it at the end of class (not exactly 10 minutes later, but within an hour or two). Then, outside of the classroom, the information is theoretically being reviewed again the next day (so approximately 24 hours later), possibly throughout the following week, and then again in the CC classroom during review time a week (or 7 days) later.  I think it’s interesting that CC fairly closely follows this model, and anecdotally, I’ll say that around my house, our memory review work seems to go much more smoothly and be more effective if we focus on reviewing the new grammar the day after our CC Community day.  So, this school year our schedule goes something like this:

 If we don’t get a day of review in there, I don’t sweat it too much, and then sometimes we review on Saturday, too.

English:

Last week we began a 5 week-long run of pronouns and adjectives. I decided to create a little file folder game help review these. You can download it to use at home by clicking on the image to the right.

 Science:

This week’s grammar items were Adaptation, Migration, and Hibernation.  Below are a few ways to expand on these topics.

Adapation

Here is a link to a fascinating video about how cephalopods (like the octopus) adapt via camouflage.

http://www.sciencefriday.com/video/08/05/2011/where-s-the-octopus.html

Interesting video about the adaptations of camels, giraffes, and penguins:

A quick little game about a few animal adaptations: http://www.ecokids.ca/pub/eco_info/topics/climate/adaptations/

Migration

A video about monarch butterfly migration: http://science.howstuffworks.com/zoology/28399-fooled-by-nature-monarch-butterfly-migration-video.htm

A video about the migration of Christmas Island crabs: http://science.howstuffworks.com/zoology/28371-fooled-by-nature-christmas-island-crab-migration-video.htm

Hibernation

10 Coolest Hibernating Animals: http://www.earthrangers.com/wildwire/top-10/top-ten-hibernating-animals/

History:

There are several videos put out by “Horrible Histories” on the BBC on Joan of Arc and the Bubonic Plague. They’re videos that you’ll probably want to preview before you show any of them to children, particularly younger children (they’re meant to be funny, in a dark humor sort of way, not particularly scary). Since some of the content probably isn’t appropriate for all viewers, I won’t post any links here; I’ll just leave that up to you. Anyone who has a dark sense of humor or a love of Monty Python will probably really love the Horrible Histories take on history!

A little background: This is our family’s fourth year to participate in a Classical Conversations (CC) community. We participate in the Foundations portion of the program, which is designed for children ages 4 to about 11. The Foundations program lasts for 24 weeks each year. Each week the children cover 7 different grammar subjects (Timeline, History, Math, Science, English, Latin, and Geography), do a short (2-3 minutes) presentation, participate in one or more Science experiments and cover some area of Fine Arts.  It’s a VERY busy morning!