CC Cycle 1 Week 11 Plan for Abecedarian Tutors

Author:
Shannon
Updated:
Oct 23, 2024

Classical Conversations Cycle 1 Week 11 Abc Tutor Plan - Science Activity: Dissecting a Flower

This is the plan I used while tutoring a Classical Conversations Cycle 1 Week 11 abecederian class. I have included all the subjects including new grammar, tin whistle, presentations, science, and review game. I also added my weekly parent email. This is not an official tutor plan. It's simply what I did. I'm sharing it so other tutors can use it as a springboard from which to plan your own lessons that are tailored to best meet the needs of your own class.

Geography

(Class set of trivium maps, dry erase markers, and small pieces of paper towels will already be at each seat.)

-Have the children use their dry erase markers to trace around the border of Africa and then erase them.
-Have the children put the caps on their markers and lay them down.
• Point out the locations on my map one by one. (I say, “Eyes and pointer fingers up” each time before I introduce the next location.) Each time have the children find the location on their maps using their fingers. They say the location, and I confirm, “Yes, that is…”. Repeat.
• Show me/Tell me the locations using a dry erase marker.
-Show me where [location] is. Put a dot on it. [Repeat this for each location.]
-Put the caps back on the markers, but don’t erase anything yet!
• Go through the locations with me while erasing locations one by one using the piece of paper towel. (Do them out of order.)
***Mom/Dad Helper: Collect markers and maps and return to tutor bag. Throw away paper towel pieces.***

(*At home we’ll be learning the locations using the songs & hand motions by CCHappyMom.)

Math

Hear me sing and point to the Cubes.
Have children sing with me.
Popcorn: We all sit on the floor in front of the board. Each child gets a turn circling one number on the board. After each turn, we sing the song and jump up and sit back down whenever we get to a circled number.

History

Sing the history sentence while the children listen.
Allow children to each roll the music die* & sing the history song together using that dynamic: staccato, crescendo, diminuendo, legato, forte, & piano. (*I use a foam die from the Dollar Tree, put stickers on it [so I can change out the voices], & write on the stickers.)

English

I chant & do motions from thomandjody (shown below) while children listen.
Vary who says it: Have children chant it with me & do the motions. Girls say it with me while everyone does the motions. Boys say it with me while everyone does the motions. Right table says it with me while everyone does the motions. Left table says it with me while everyone does the motions. Everyone says it & does the motions.

Timeline

• Sing through the song one time, laying the cards in order, face up on the table.

• Allow each child a turn to use a fly swatter to swat the individual TL cards as we all sing the song together.

Latin

Use Llama Llama Latin Llama with a 5 birthday candle, llama puppet, a picture of a ribbon with an ace (a playing card) on it, and all the previous puppet friends. On Llama Llama Latin Llama’s 5th birthday, she invited all of the neighborhood animals over for a fun day of games. Each time someone won a game, they were given an Ace to wear as a prize! (An ace is a person who excels at a particular sport or other activity.) Ace helps us remember how the 5th declension noun endings sound! (This idea is based on the stories by CCC user rtseely.)
Go through song and motions once. When we do singular, we’ll use 5 fingers on one hand. When we do plural, we’ll use 5 fingers on both hands. I say and then kids repeat with song and motions after each one.

-es: like ace, so hold down one arm like you’re doing half an A shape
-ei: like the letters A E, so make the ASL signs for A and then E
-ei: like the letters A E, so make the ASL signs for A and then E ---start from beginning of singular
em: like M, so do ASL for M---start from beginning of singular
-e: like A, so do ASL for A ---start from beginning of singular
(3X and then sing “Singular Fifth Declension”)
-es: like ace, so hold down both arms like you’re doing half an A shape
-erum: like you’re blowing air on ‘em (them), so have both hands go out showing the air you’re blowing
-ebus: like you’re riding on a bus – bounce you hands and body like riding on a bouncy bus ---start from beginning of plural
-es: like ace, so hold down both arms like you’re doing half an A shape ---start from beginning of plural
-ebus: like you’re riding on a bus – bounce you hands and body like riding on a bouncy bus ---start from beginning of plural
(3X and then sing “Plural Fifth Declension)

Sing and do motions through the entire song.

Science

I chant while children listen.
Have children chant it with me 2 times.
Basketball: Give each child a half sheet of paper & have them crumple up the paper as you chant. After we finish, have them try to throw the paper ball into the trash can. Repeat 3 more times.

(*At home we are learning this sentence using the song and video by Home Video Variety Show, posted below.)

Scroll to Continue

i-was-able-to-dump-my-previous-trash-collection-service

wednesday-of-the-first-week-in-ordinary-time

Allow each child to play a "song" for us on their tin whistle.
Use Rhythm Pizza to review the length of notes. Hold up the notes and ask which one each one is.
Go through Rhythm chant and hand motions from the below video to review rhythm:

Rhythm, rhythm, rhythm. (Rolling arms around)
Long and Short Sounds. (Holding hands far out and then close together)
This is a whole note: ta-a-a-a. (Cup hands together to form a circle)
This is a half note: ta-ta (cup open L hand next to flat R hand)
This is a quarter note: ta-ta-ta-ta (fist of L hand next to flat R hand)
This is a pair of eighth notes: tee-tee-tee-tee-tee-tee-tee-tee (R hand over L hand to form a T or time-out sign)
Rhythm, rhythm, rhythm. (Rolling arms around)

Use the script from the Foundations Guide to continue discussing rhythm.
Note stems: Any notes up to the second space, the stem goes up (E for Every- A from FACE), and the line goes up 3 spaces. Is the line on the left or right side of the note? The right side! In the middle of the staff (B for Boy), the stem goes down. Now is the line on the left or right side of the note? The left side!
Compare a scale to stairs. Each note will be perfectly spaced from the next note. Sing a musical scale. Sing part of a different musical scale and have the children finish it.
I (not the students) play the D scale. If playing from high D to low D, it is almost the tune of “Joy to the World.”
If you sat on something sharp (pretend to sit on a sharp pencil), what would you do? You’d jump up! A sharp means you go up half a step. Who has ever been in a car that had a flat tire? What happened to the car? It went down, didn’t it? A flat means you go down half a step.
Time to Play! Review Rules: If you move or touch your tin whistle when you're not supposed to be, your tin whistle will go to tin whistle time out. [Point to tin whistle jail drawn on the board.]
Review notes for first measure of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star in chin position. Then I play it for them. Then they play it. Repeat with each measure. Play the entire line together. Then go through the entire second line of the song in chin position. I play it. The children play it.
Allow pairs of children to play the second line while the others listen, with their tin whistles on the floor.

Presentations

Have children collect presentation items from the basket/table.
Remind that when someone else is talking, children should: Stop, Look, Listen.
Remind about presentations:Volume: Speak at an appropriate volume. What is today’s focus? [Remember to raise your hand to answer.]
Each child gets 1 question token (a foam rectangle with their name written on it).
Have children go in alphabetical order. (Will rotate each week.)
Next week's skill to work on: Tempo & Pauses: Use appropriate pauses. Speak neither too fast nor too slow.
Return presentation items to backpacks.

Bathroom Break & Snack Time

Pray. Bathroom break. Get snacks from snack basket and have snack while listening to memory work CD.

Ask children to describe flowers. What do they look like? Smell like? Feel like? Taste like? What is your favorite flower?
Read “The Reason for a Flower” by Ruth Heller. (Skip the page or change the wording that says that magnolia flowers are the oldest flowers. They were created on Day 3 right along with all the other plants.)
Divide children into groups of 2. Give each group a flower and a piece of dark construction paper.
Ask, “What do you notice about the flower?”
(As we go through each of the below parts, I also had the children color in the picture of that part and then draw particular parts on the worksheets by CCC user bentkitchen.)
Attached to the stem and at the bottom of the flower is the green sepal, which surrounds the flower before it blooms (protecting it from insects that might try to eat it) and holds the flower parts in place after it blooms.
The petals attract insects, which help to spread pollen. In addition, petals help to protect the plant's reproductive organs.
The flower's male parts are men. The whole part that stays there is the stamen. The "stalk" that "fills" the bottom part is a filament. What is on a male deer's head? Antlers. The "head" of male flower stamens have anthers, with pollen on top. Have the children shake the flower's stamen onto a dark piece of construction paper or they can wipe the tip along the paper to see the pollen. Both stamen and filament have “men” in the word. They are then men/male parts.
The flower's female or lady part has an L for lady. The whole part is the pistil. (It's spelled differently than a gun, pistol.) In complete flowers it can usually be found in the center of flower, surrounded by the stamens. At the top is the mama. It's the stigma. She's a stylish mama. The tube is called a style. Down at the bottom is where you have the egg, called an ovule, surrounded by an ovary, which is "over" the egg. The ovary is where the egg cells are kept and fertilized. It turns into the fruit that we eat. This is also where the seeds are formed. The ovules become the seeds.
Pollen from one flower must reach the pistil from another flower in order for the egg to be fertilized, which will make a seed. The seed is needed for a new flower plant to grow. Ask, "What are some ways that the pollen from one flower can get to the pistil of another flower?"
If they find a sticky substance toward the bottom, ask them what they think it might be. It's nectar! I told them to feel it and smell it. Some of the children tasted it.
Have children open flower buds (I pulled them off a flowering bush growing in my yard). Identify the parts.

I did not create edible flowers with my CC class, but I have done it with students in other homeschool co-ops and with my own children. They loved it, of course! If you're in a CC community that would welcome an activity like this to fill in the time after you dissect your flowers, you can find the ingredients and directions for the edible flowers at my page Parts of a Flower Lesson .

Geography Fast Review: Hand out maps to each child. Divide up children among you & the helping moms so that you are able to each check specific child and what they are pointing at. Call out the geography locations from weeks 5-11. Have children tell me or show me locations using their fingers.
Hot Wheels Race: Have Child #1 select a subject (pulling one from slips of paper that have the subjects written on them). Each child recites the grammar from a different week (weeks 5-11). After finishing that subject, allow children to each select a Hot Wheels cars to race down a cardboard box “ramp” that is set against a table. Everyone collects their car & puts them back in the “garage bag.” Go through the next subject. Repeat with a new Hot Wheels car & race. Continue until you’ve finished all the subjects.

Can you believe that we are almost half way through the CC year?!? We have learned so much together! It is amazing to see how far everyone has come -- especially in presentations!

The children are doing a great job with their tin whistles! I think we all played the first line of the song in almost perfectly in unison today! We are going to try to play Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star for the community next week at the beginning of lunch, so it might help to have your child practice at home this week.

Would you like a little bit extra? Each week my family enjoys reading books, doing activities, and watching YouTube video clips related to our new grammar. Memorizing the CC grammar is completely sufficient, but if you’d like to add a bit more, here is what my family has enjoyed reading, doing, & watching related to the science sentence: Science Morning Basket & Activities: Parts of a Flower.

This week I will be praying for each of your children. My prayer is that through our time at CC, God will help them to always “be strong and courageous” in their character and in their actions and words. (Deuteronomy 31:6) Please let me know if there are any specific prayer needs I can join you in praying for. I am here to serve you in any way that I can. If you ever have questions, comments, or concerns, please let me know!