Plans: Cycle 1 - Week 19

The Anasazi People

(and the coolest History Sentence song on the CD!)

History

* Read this page about the Anasazi.
* This page is packed with information on the 'Ancient Ones.'
* Click here to see rock art from the Anasazi.
* Make an Anasazi-style plate:

* This video is really interesting, although it's over my 4-year-old's head. If you have older kiddos, or if you'd like to learn a little more about the Anasazi yourself, check out this 8-minute segment from The History Channel:

* And we'll read this book from our library:

Geography

* Read SOTW3: Chapters 22 and 23.
* This site has some great ideas for learning more about the differences between the New England, Middle, and Southern colonies. Be sure to scroll down to Week 4: Day 2 to get the good stuff for this week.

* This very quick video is fun to watch:

* I think I'm going to go ahead and teach Mary the names of all the 13 colonies. So we'll read this story together from Memory Joggers and draw little pictures (this looks like it will really work, by the way. I'm very excited about it!). Then we'll do this worksheet:

But since she can't write, I'll turn it into a Map Friends thing and put some Velcro stickies on it. She still thinks it's fun to put her little people on places, so maybe Tinkerbell will visit Delaware this week.

(I did have to join Education.com to access the file, but it's free, and I haven't gotten any spam from it - yet!) ;)

* Click here to see a hip-hop way to help your older student learn more about the 13 colonies. Pretty cool!
* This video is also good and really informative.

* Read some books:

* And then, of course, we'll watch some episodes of Liberty's Kids!

You can find episodes on Youtube and Netflix. Don't buy the series on Amazon right now; the price is outrageous! Wait until it gets down close to $30, which it has been in the past. These are EXCELLENT videos; our whole family loves them!

Science
* There are tons of ways to study the three ocean zones this week (just check Pinterest!), and I've chosen this awesome project by Sola Gratia Mom:

* We'll also read this week's section in our Earth Sciences Unit.

Math
* There are some neat videos on Youtube about finding the area of a circle:

This first one is not very exciting, but it helps explain why we use the formula we use. It's geared towards 7th and 8th graders.

The video above is a little more fun to watch.

* And if you have some kinesthetic learners, this math project from Our Fun Homeschool might be right up their alley:

We're definitely going to do this when Mary gets older!

Fine Arts (the Orchestra - YES!)

* We are a music-lovin' family, so I've been waiting and waiting for this fun week! The hubs plays in our church orchestra, and we already own a good amount of children's books on the subject. I'd love to share with you one of our favorites:

Farkle is a GREAT book about all the sections of the orchestra. My girls have loved this book!

Since the hubs plays the tuba, we'll have to check out this book and CD. When we were dating, I surprised him with an old VHS copy of Tubby the Tuba starring Dick Van Dyke. Good times. :)

* There are also a bunch of videos available online to help introduce the orchestra:

Click here to see Sesame Street's all-animal orchestra. This is a silly one, but it's good to show how hard the conductor works. Click here to see another one from Sesame Street that features a famous conductor and Elmo (this one is newer).

And this crazy little video we will watch numerous times, I have no doubt about it. It's cheesy as all get-out, and my girls will love it. Ha!

* This site has free downloadable coloring pages.
* DSO Kids is a great site to explore for this week. It has an interactive seating chart and online games!
* I'd love to get this Orchestra Toob for Mary:

Hobby Lobby carries this, so I can use my 40% off coupon!

* Mary is a little too young for these next resources, but they are definitely on my list of activities to look into again next year:

This first lapbook is the Composers Activity-Pak from Homeschool In The Woods. I LOVE this, and I really can't wait until Mary and I can make this together. Have you ever checked out Homeschool in the Woods? Wow, is it an awesome resource! They have an ahhh-mazing new Project Passport: Middle Ages that I'm looking into for next cycle. They also have tons of timeline resources. We haven't started a timeline yet, but that's certainly on my to-do list for the upcoming years.

This next lapbook is made to be used with Classical Conversations, so we'll also get this at some point:

The Cycle 1 Orchestra Study Guide with Lapbook from Wisdom and Righteousness looks absolutely fabulous, and I love how it's tailor-made to go along with the remaining weeks of CC! And, at under $5 for the instant download, it's very affordable.

* And finally, I absolutely want to make the Stand-Up Symphony:

How cool is this?! We can color a few at a time and put them all together at the end of the year!

Christian Missionary/Hero
* George Muller, Abraham Lincoln, and Harriet Tubman are the focus of this week; however, I'm sure we won't get to all of them at this point. It works best for Mary to focus on one person, but it's always good to have other options, right?

Click here for a good, brief children's biography of George Muller with questions at the end. Here's an idea: Before you introduce Muller to your kids, read this to them. Wow!

Mater Magistra's family made their own George Muller lapbook; too cool!

Click here for the full schedule of Cycle 1 Christian missionaries and heroes.

Well, that's it for this week! I hope your school year is wrapping up nicely; I really can't believe it's almost over (I know, I've been saying that a lot lately). Now, who's ready for the Summer practicums?! I never made it to one last year, but I plan to go this year. Can't wait! Have you been to one before? Is it totally awesome?

Want more ideas for Week 19? Head over to Brandy's Cycle 1 Weekly Link-Up at Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood and prepare to be amazed at all the planning goodness! ;)