Sneak Peek: Classical Explorations Week 3

	Continuing with our African theme from the past two weeks, we’ll be using A Savanna Food Chain: A Who-Eats-What Adventure in Africa as our starting point to learn about food webs and chains. It’s a choose your own adventure book. Every kid will receive an animal picture and they get to choose who gets eaten next. By the end of the book we should be pretty thoroughly tangled up in a web of string but hopefully the interconnectedness of organisms will be a whole lot clearer.
	We’re making a whole army of Paper Soldiers of the Middle Ages: Vol 1: The Crusades. They’re supposed to be historically accurate so all of the paper clutter is for a good cause.
	I and You and Don't Forget Who: What Is a Pronoun? is a fun book that we’ll read during one of our multiple craft times.
	Each student will receive a coloring page of Richard I from Kings and Queens of England (Dover History Coloring Book).
	Snacks will be chessmen cookies, fruit, and cheese.

During our main activity (no picture. sorry.) we’ll merge math and medieval. Completing skip counting challenges will allow the kids to rise in status from page, to squire, to knight. When everyone is knighted we will make cardboard shields and then go on a quest in search of hidden scrolls. When they’re all found, we will put them in order and read part of the story of Richard I. I'll have some books on Knights from the library that the kids and I will look through together.

Sneak Peek: Classical Explorations Week 2

ART: Last week, the kids made a paper diorama of the savanna. This week we'll be populating it with standing paper animals and reinforcing our art concept of mirror images.

SCIENCE: Active games to get the kids thinking about the types of consumers and who eats what.

SNACK: Sticking with the animal theme of art and science, I’m serving up this little parade.

Savanna Snack

Photo from kraftrecipes.com

  

HISTORY
	We'll build a motte and bailey style castle and perhaps assault it  with marshmallow projectiles.
	Kids will receive coloring pages for both King Harold II and King William I.
	A search and find book with minimal text that follows life in a castle through a whole year.
	Pages six and seven contain a great image of an early castle like the ones built by the Normans shortly after they conquered the Saxons. Plus there are lots of images to find.
GRAMMAR:
	We'll be reading If you were a Pronoun by Nancy Loewen.