Classical Conversations Cycle 3 Week 1 Tutor Plans

If you're a CC tutor and anything like me, you've spent your share of time searching the internet for new and creative ways to teach the new grammar each week.  I hope to share my tutor plans with you for each week in this cycle.

Here's Week 1.

Timeline-This year, we created a grid that is 7 x 6 for the students to fill in a space for each timeline card with a simple symbol or drawing to depict that event.  My hope is that this will give the students a better picture of the timeline in its fullness and greater ability to understand the years and their placement.

This week we drew:
Card 1-A cane to depict 'ancient'
Card 2-A world
Card 3-A boat and a tower
Card 4-Two rivers divided by a piece of land
Card 5-A pyramid
Card 6-A rough sketch of the country of India
Card 7-A bar of gold and a simple bull face

We wrote the numbers 3000 BC between card 5 and card 6.

History-I call this game, 'mmm mmm' replacement.  We sing the song through once and then sing it again and again, each time replacing a new noun with 'mmm mmm' instead.  Eventually all the nouns, common and proper are replaced and the song sounds like, 'In mmm mmm, mmm mmm made the first of four mmmm, to the mmmm, on three Spanish. mmm...'  Everyone has a great laugh and we get to sing the song many, many times.  The conscious effort to replace the noun helps the student reinforce the actual word.

Latin-We are using some of Missy Wilson's Latin chants found here.  We sang the Latin preposition song, using our right hand to motion for the English and our left hand for the Latin.  We made hand motions, sang the song and slowed it way down and then sped it way up.

English-I made up a simple rap for this definition and hope to do so for the following definitions.  I taught the rap and hand motions and we did it quieter and louder.

Math-We simply counted 1 to 12 and then for 2's, we quickly discussed all the pairs of things on our bodies and clapped the 2's using various voices (baby, giant, princess, and robot).

Science-Again, we will be using Missy Wilson's songs for science.  I used a scarf for tissue, a rubber band for connective, a handweight for muscle, a rough sponge for epithelial and a cord for nerve.  We stood in a circle and I gave these out in order.  We would repeat the question and answer with each individual raising their item and saying it in turn.  Then everyone would pass the items to the right and we would repeat.  We did this until all items had been touched by everyone in class.

Geography-I handed out parchment paper and the class traced the first five states.  We'll work on this parchment paper all semester until we've filled in all the states and capitals.

Fine Arts-We warmed up by making a zoo of animals made entirely of the specific elements.  We made an owl out of circles, a turtle out of dots, a fish out of angles, a giraffe out of lines and a snake (of course!) out of curves.  For our main project, I lead the class in drawing a house utilizing all elements of shape.  We drew straight lines for the walls, door and window, dots on the sidewalk and driveway, angles on the roof, curves over the doorway and in clouds and birds above the house, circles in vents in the roof and on bushes in front, etc.  The children really enjoyed it.

If you haven't had your first day of CC yet, I hope this is of help to you.  Or perhaps you're at home and ready to review.  If so, may this give you a bit of inspiration.  What did you plan for Week 1?