Sneak Peek: Classical Explorations Week 4

This week in Classical Explorations we will be learning about feudalism, Europe, the water cycle, and pronouns.

	The Europe Geo Puzzle is fairly complex. We have a small enough group that the kids should be able to work together to complete it. We’ll review country names and bodies of water.
	The Medieval Kingdom card game from Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational is a great way to help kids visualize feudalism and the layers of medieval society. If the game rules seem too complex we’ll modify them.
	We were supposed to read I And You And Don't Forget Who: What Is a Pronoun? (Words Are Categorical) last week but we ran out of time. We’ll read it this week. There is an accompanying coloring page.
	All the Water in the World and Water Dance are two fun poetic picture books that describe the water cycle.
	Water: Up, Down, and All Around describes the water cycle in prose with plenty of great illustrations. We’ll be doing an experiment to show how water evaporates, condenses, and falls as precipitation. .
	The Coloring page of King John from Kings and Queens of England (Dover History Coloring Book) will probably be a take home project.

I’m planning some fun outdoor games related to our science and skip counting. We’ll also be adding some free play time so the kids can enjoy just getting to know each other and running around. I know a couple of kids are really looking forward to making a sword and helmet to go with their shield. Unfortunately, I accidentally returned the book with those projects to the library. So we’ll have to start those projects next week.

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.