Plans: Cycle 1 - Week 15

These are my 'extra plans' for Week 15. Now that Crecia at CCing it one day at a time has come up with some pretty awesome weekly lesson plans for CC (not just a list of resources like this, but actual PLANS for each day/subject!), I'll be using those and supplementing with a couple extras from my list (why reinvent the wheel, right?). She's also posting pictures of her suggested activities as she does them. Basically, these plans have ROCKED my world and brought some much-needed direction back to our school day!

These plans are on-fire right now in the CC blogosphere, in my opinion, so chances are you've already heard about them. If you haven't go check them out, and don't forget to join her site and like Crecia's Facebook page to get a discount on the plans!

Now, on to my little extras. . .   ;)

History

* Read SOTW2: Ch. 28 - Henry the Navigator (I'll definitely keep doing our SOTW read-alouds)

* Read a little about Prince Henry from this site

* Read a book or two:

(the book above is supposedly an Ashanti tale)

* If you really want to dig in to Explorers, check out this FREE lapbook from Living Life Intentionally:

It doesn't have too much for our explorer this week, but it looks like a great way to go deeper if this subject interests your children. I absolutely LOVE what she did while studying the Vikings (will probably use some of her ideas next year with Week 9's Timeline - Vikings Raid and Trade). She also has a preschool Explorer pack available for free.

Geography

* There's really so much you can do with this week's Geography, but in addition to using Crecia's Geography Cards from CCing it one day at a time, I think I'm just going to read the incredible story of God changing Jacob's name to Israel in Genesis 32:24-32 and 35:10-12.

Science

* We're going to use the Homeschool Curriculum Company's Earth Science Study Unit for the rest of the semester. Everything else listed here is just reinforcement and enrichment.

* Look at the views from the tallest mountains in the world:

 (Wow! That's Kilimanjaro in Africa.)

* Take a look at this picture to see how the mountains compare to each other:

Oh, see that itty-bitty triangle right in the middle on the bottom? That's the Pyramid of Giza!

* Mary and I will definitely check out this website:

It has pictures and information on all the highest mountains.

* Have you ever heard of Rex Pemberton? 

Yeah, me neither, until doing research for this week's Science. He has actually climbed ALL of these mountains that we're studying! And, he has videos of himself climbing 5 out of 7! YES! We will definitely watch these and talk about them. Click here to go to his site (he's a professional speaker now), and then scroll over Adventure at the top, and then Seven Summits. Again, WOW!

Wait. Think that's impressive? Yeah, try doing all that climbing BLIND! That's exactly what Erik Weihenmayer did when he climbed the Seven Summits from 1995-2008.

Click here to go to his website where he talks about each climb. Click here to see a quick documentary of how he sees with his tongue!

If you have older children or young adults, they may really enjoy reading his book. I think we'll definitely turn this into a read-aloud when the girls are older! Thanks, Leslie, for letting me know about this fascinating adventurer!

* Read a book:

My girls have really enjoyed the Step Into Reading books as read-alouds at night. This one tells the true tale of climbers conquering Mount Everest! (Oooh, and if you're a Les Mis geek, like me, Step Into Reading has it's own Les Miserables book! The girls have LOVED it, and it really helped me understand the musical better, since I'm ashamed to say, I have yet to read the real thing.)

* Do some mazes in our Mountain Mazes book:

This book turns our memory work mountains (all seven of them!) into challenging mazes!

* Here's a little flapbook to try:

So, I really don't know what to do with this little book; it's supposed to go on a free lapbook from the site linked above. But, if you have visual learners, it may be helpful to you. Or, they could do their own graphing - there's an idea! Personally, I won't use this little book, but the colors are pretty! ;)

* If my girls were older, I would so totally go for this insanely awesome mountain art project:

Oh, yes! I think the next time Cycle 1 comes around, we'll find some space on the wall for this (although maybe not quite so large)!

* If you really have your heart set on doing some sort of artsy thing for this week's Science (and you want it to be a lot more educational than a Martha Stewart project), check out Sola Gratia Mom's Week 15 Mountain Project:

How cool is that?!

Fine Arts

*Brandy at Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood has put together a wonderful list of resources for each artist for the rest of Cycle 1. Click here to check that out if you haven't already. 

Math

* Keep reviewing with our Math Review Book

* We'll use Suzanne's awesome printable for this week from Suzanne Shares:

We'll use this for our Memory Review Board, but I sure do wish I had this page in our Math Review Book, too (I may have to redo the review book this summer). Suzanne has other great (and free!) printables for Science and Latin this week. If you don't follow her blog yet, go check it out! She's got amazing ideas!

English

* Keep working on our Helping Verbs song to the tune of Jingle Bells (see Week 13's post)

Christian Missionary/Hero

* This week we'll read about Brother Andrew, God's smuggler:

Th, th, th, th, th, that's all, folks! Make it a great week! 

This post is being submitting to Brandy's Weekly Link-Up at Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood. Need more ideas for Week 15? You'll find 'em here!