Plans: Cycle 1 - Week 16

Mesoamerica - Part 1

History

* Read SOTW2: Ch. 32 - Mayans and Aztecs
* Read SOTW1: Ch. 26 - The Heads of the Olmecs

* Watch "Cracking the Mayan Code" free on Amazon Prime (also on Netflix Instant Que) or here on Youtube:

Disclaimer: Mayans participated in human sacrifice. I know, it's icky and terrible. So please, please, watch these videos first and decide if they're appropriate for your children or not. Anything I post for my plans are just things that I would like to do myself or plan on doing the next time Cycle 1 rolls around. Some of the stuff is too mature for my little preschooler, but I post it here so I can remember it later. I try to watch the videos I recommend, but I don't always get around to it - I do apologize for that. I have not watched all of these Mayan videos, but a sweet reader let me know that one of these has a little too much of the human sacrificing for her taste. Again, please watch before showing your kids. :)

* Watch "National Geographic: Dawn of the Maya" on Netflix Instant Que or here on Youtube:

* There are other videos listed on my Pinterest board for this week, so be sure to check them out if you're interested (Pinterest button can be found on the right sidebar).
* Read a book or two:

This book above received a bad review on Amazon, but also some good ones. My girls happen to like this series, so I don't think we'll have a problem, but, as always, find what works best for your family.

Geography

* We'll use Crecia's Geography Cards from CCing it one day at a time each week to review our memory work:

* I'd love to play this game, too, while we're studying Africa:

* And, of course, we'll keep reviewing with our Map Friends Review Book:

Science

* We'll do this week's lesson in our Earth Science Study Unit:

I love how this curriculum takes everything back to the Bible - just plain awesome!

* I'll have Mary do this page and then color it, which will be a big hit:

* This printable volcano model looks pretty interesting:

* Watch The Magic School Bus: Blows Its Top:

* This is a neat site with information about volcanoes:

* And of course, how can you study volcanoes without actually making one?! We're going to follow Spell Outloud's lead for our experiment:

Did you read her blog post about volcanoes with preschoolers? Too cute! I can't wait!!

UPDATE: We made one!!

* If you're really into cooking, which I am not (Shocker! I home school and I don't like cooking. Y'all, I don't even like to bake!), you can make a volcano dinner:

* Finally, we'll play the Escape the Volcano review game this week and next week:

We'll adapt this to review our memory work up to this point. It looks like so much fun!

Math

* Have you ever seen the Sir Cumference series? Well, they're really cute math story books, and since we're getting into Geometry now, we'll be checking them out of the library for the next few weeks:

Christian Missionary/Hero

* Rowland Bingham is our missionary this week. He served God faithfully in Africa, specifically in Sudan.

* And George Washington is our hero this week (goes with our Timeline memory work)

Click here for George Washington coloring pages. For my absolute favorite patriotic resources, including more Washington ideas, click here.

For my complete Cycle 1 schedule of Christian missionaries and heroes, click here.

If you haven't heard of Crecia's weekly lesson plans yet at CCing it one day at a time, go check them out! We're planning to use them each week and pick a few things from this planning list to supplement.

Need more ideas? Pinterest is FULL of them, just search 'Classical Conversations' and be amazed at all the great ideas out there. There are also plenty of great CC bloggers out there, too, who offer up wonderful resources and suggestions for making the memory work really come to life (check out the Weekly Link-Up button below)! And, if you're new to all of this, I highly recommend that you start at Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood and go from there. Brandy's resources are incredible! Whatever you decide to do for this week and beyond, have a great time learning with your kids!

Step with care and great tact.
And remember that life's a great balancing act.
~ Dr. Seuss



This post is being submitted for the Weekly Link-Up at Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood.