week 15 history memory work activities

Cycle 1 Week 15 At Home Activities for Classical Homeschooling

Looking for fun and engaging ways to practice the Cycle 1, Week 15 memory work at home? Read along as I share about activities, games, and books that have enriched our homeschooling week.

cycle 1 week 15 at home activities pinterest pin

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Last week we finished up Cycle 1 Week 14. My girls loved painting their Africa salt maps as we continued to learn about African geography and history. I also set up a “rock hunt” for them where I hid different pictures of sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous rocks around our living room and kitchen. Once they found them all, they stuck them onto a poster board I made in the corresponding rock column. We also played a trade in Africa dice game and practiced this week’s history sentence as we played. Read more about what we did at home during week 14 here. If you’re curious about what we did at home during the first semester of Cycle 1, read more here. You can also get a peek into our first couple of homeschool weeks here.

Tutor Ideas for Classical Homeschooling

If you are part of a Classical homeschooling community, are you tutoring? If you are, be sure to check out my posts with tutor ideas for the first sixteen weeks here.

Also, I have a youtube channel where I make videos with tutor and memory work ideas each week. Below is my tutor video for Cycle 1 Week 15. Visit my channel for tutor ideas for many other weeks and other videos with homeschooling tips and encouragement.

Cycle 1 Week 15 Tutor Ideas

Practicing the Memory Work At Home

In this post, I share with you about my weekly homeschool rhythms with my small children (ages five, three and one). I explain about the activities, games, and readings we do together to practice the Cycle 1 Week 15 memory work (new grammar) at home throughout the week.

cycle 1 week 15 memory work games

Morning Devotional Time

I begin each day with our morning devotional time. This is my favorite part of the day with my kids. It is also one of my favorite things about homeschooling. I love that we don’t have to rush out of the door in the morning. My kids get the sleep they need and we can linger over breakfast and read God’s word together.

I have learned some morning habits that help us all get down to breakfast at the same time. This helps me make the most of our morning time together. Read more about these habits here.

Once we are all sitting around the breakfast table and my kids start eating, I begin with our Bible study time. I read to them a small passage from my Bible and then the corresponding story in The Complete Illustrated Children’s Bible. (TCICB). This Bible has BEAUTIFUL illustrations and is very accurate to the truth of the actual Bible.  We follow along with the Bible readings and study that corresponds with the Bible memory work we are learning. 

week 15 bible and bible study materials

Bible Study

What Bible study am I doing you might ask? I love using the Foundations of The Bible study from @drivenbygrace. This Bible study goes along with Bible memory work. Lindsey, the author of the study, matches the stories from TCICB that go along with the Bible study and Bible memory work for that week.  If there aren’t enough Bible stories for each day of the week, then I find others that go along with the theme.   After I read, I try to ask my kids a few questions about it to see how much they understood.  My five year old is pretty sharp at this. 

If you’re curious about more of what I do in our morning devotional time, read my post about it here.

This week, I read Lesson 15 from the Foundations of the Bible study about Moses. The Bible stories from TCICB that I read each morning either correspond to the Bible study or part of this week’s memory work. See the end of this post for my PRINTABLE lesson plans with details of what I read each day.

bible study with children's bible opened up and coloring pages

The 24 Family Ways

As I read to my kids from the Bible Study Lesson, I have them either color their 24 Family Ways coloring book or one of the activity pages from the Foundations of the Bible study activity book. This works well because they can concentrate on coloring and listen to me read.

girl coloring 24 family way coloring page
24 family way coloring book opened to week 15

After I read the part of the Bible study lesson to them and we talk about it, I go over the Family Way (from Sally and Clay Clarkson’s 24 Family Ways) we are learning about this week. We also work on memorizing the Bible verse that goes with that Family Way. I write both the Family Way and the Bible verse on chalk boards that I have hanging up by our kitchen table so we can see them often. 

24 Family Ways and Bible verse written on chalkboards on the wall

I also have found songs that match with each Bible verse that I play after we eat breakfast.  The songs I use are mostly from Steve Green’s CDs. Songs are amazing for helping children memorize the Bible. Download my matchup of the 24 Family Ways with Bible verses and songs from my Resource Library.

24 Family Way Devotional plan and books.

Singing Hymns

Then comes my kids’ favorite part, SINGING HYMNS!  I stumbled over this gem of a book called My First Hymnal by Karyn Henley and it is AWESOME!  I let my kids each choose a hymn to sing and I sing it for them (sometimes they join in).  It’s great that they are learning hymns and the ones in this book are fabulous for kids. I also show my kids one of these Attributes of God letter cards from @drivenbygrace.

Lesson plans, kids hymnal, and letter card laying out on table

Math and Language Arts

Each day I try to do at least a little math and language arts with my oldest daughter. This year she is working through The Good and The Beautiful Level 1 math curriculum. Read here why I decided to switch from Saxon math to The Good and The Beautiful (TGATB). TGATB is very open and go and a good mix of lessons and activities. It’s beautiful too! I try to do a lesson with her after our morning devotional time. She is usually the freshest then and if I wait until later in the day to do it, I’m not as consistent.

The Good and the Beautiful math curriculum laying out on table.
girl working on math work

I also have this Handwriting without Tears for my oldest daughter and the first level for my younger daughter. Sometimes it works out to have my girls do some of this in the mornings. If we don’t have enough time the, I have my older daughter do a bit in the afternoon when it’s quiet time. I don’t do it every day with her, just a few times a week.

girl working on handwriting without tears book
child coloring in preschool handwriting without tears book

Weekly Memory work songs

I try to review as much of the weekly memory work with my kids as possible during the week with songs and games. Often when I’m cleaning up breakfast, I play this week’s playlist of memory work songs. We also listen to these songs in the car when driving. See my playlist of Cycle 1 Week 15 songs for English, Science, Math and Geography below.

Cycle 1 Week 15 English, Science, Math, and Geography songs

Daily Subject Focus

I like to dive deeper into one subject each day. I’ve found that focusing on just one subject each day is very manageable and doesn’t feel overwhelming. Here is our usual weekly schedule (you can download this template here):

Weekly subject focus schedule

Geography

This week in geography, we learn about the Middle East. First, I show my girls where Israel, the Sinai Peninsula, the Suez Canal, Cairo, and the Gaza Strip are on their placemats. We enjoy reading My Israel and Me by Alice Blumenthal McGinty. We also continue to read these picture books that we are loving about Africa:

Make sure you check out the entire Cycle 1 booklist I made for second semester! I have amazing picture books that relate to the memory work for each week in the second half of Cycle 1 (weeks 13-24).

cycle 1 week 15 geography materials spread out on table

My daughters and I play this Middle East dice game that I made. We switch off rolling a die and trying to name the location that matches the number rolled. You can get this Middle East dice game for free with my other Cycle 1 Week 15 Memory work activities at the end of this post. I also show my girls where the Sinai Peninsula is on our large Africa map on our wall. This helps them understand that these locations in the Middle East are to the northeast of the African continent.

playing geography dice game for middle east countries at kitchen table

We sing a song together to the tune of Do Your Ears Hang Low. This helps my girls remember these locations in the Middle East. See my video below.

Cycle 1 Week 15 Geography Song

Learning the Countries of Africa

We are LOVING learning the countries of Africa as part of the geography this second semester. I made this fun Africa map that we have on our wall by our kitchen table with all the countries made out of felt.

African countries made out of felt sorted into piles by color
African map with felt countries hung up on wall

My girls love taking the countries off and on as we learn their names and locations. Download a paper map of Africa with all the countries labeled here.

girl putting African countries up on large felt map on wall

I have the patterns for all the African countries, as well as a tutorial about how to make this kind of map in my Etsy shop. Also see my video for how to make this map with a few simple materials. You can find more information and links for these materials here.

We also made up a fun song to help us learn all of these African countries!

History

This week in history we learn about Prince Henry of Portugal. I read to my girls some from the books, The World Made New: Why the Age of Exploration Happened and How It Changed the World by Marc Aronson and John W. Glenn, and What Was the Age of Exploration? by Catherine Daly.

prince henry of portugal ship crafts and board game on kitchen table

Paper Towel Roll Ships

My girls love making these ships out of paper towel rolls and pipe cleaners! I cut out these ship templates for the girls to paint as we listen to the history song about Prince Henry of Portugal.

paper towel roll ships painted and sitting on the table

Then I poke a hole through both sides of the paper towel roll and stick the pipe cleaner through. I fold the ends of the pipe cleaners over and tape them to the bottom of the paper towel roll. Then I hot glue the painted sails, windows, and anchor on the ship once the paint has dried.

painting parts of paper towel roll ships for history
finished paper towel roll ships on table

Prince Henry of Portugal game

We also have a great time playing this Prince Henry of Portugal game that I made with a spinner and matching cards. My daughters and I alternate spinning the spinner and finding the matching picture on the game board that goes with part of this week’s history sentence. We collect the matching card and try to sing that part of the history sentence. Whoever gets to “You did it!” first wins!

cycle 1 week 15 history game and coloring page on kitchen table

I also have my oldest daughter try to put the cards in order and sing the entire history sentence. You can get this game for free with my other Cycle 1 Week 15 Memory work activities at the end of this post.

prince henry of portugal game with cards and spinner

Timeline Image Coloring Page

Each week I also give my kids the Timeline Image from Scribblers in ccconnected.com. My girls enjoy coloring a portrait of Prince Henry this week.

girls coloring history timeline coloring page at kitchen table

I like to laminate these each week and make a timeline of them on our wall as we go through the school year.

coloring prince henry coloring page

Science

This week in science we learn about each continent’s highest mountain. I read to my girls from several books we checked out from our library about these mountains. We especially enjoy To the Top! Climbing the World’s Highest Mountain by S. A. Kramer, Tenzing Norgay by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara, Two at the Top: A Shared Dream of Everest by Uma Krishnaswami, and How Does Chocolate Taste on Everest?: Explore Earth’s Most Extreme Places Through Sight, Sound, Smell, Touch and Taste by Leisa Stewart-Sharpe.

cycle 1 week 15 science activities and books on table

Highest Mountains Trekking Game

I had so much fun making this highest mountains trekking game. You get a few ticket cards that show routes between two of the highest mountains. Then you work on collecting colorful trekking cards and when you have enough of one color and the right ticket, you can complete a route from one mountain to another. This is such a fun way to learn about what each continent’s highest mountain is and where it is located in the continent. You can get this game for free with my other Cycle 1 Week 15 Memory work activities at the end of this post.

highest mountains trekking board game with cards on table

I also show my girls pictures of each of the mountains with a picture of the corresponding continent on the back of the card. I let them try to guess which mountain is on the card, using the picture of the continent as a hint. You can download these mountain cards from my Cycle 1 Week 15 tutor blog post.

pictures of mountains with the corresponding continent on the back

My daughter also colors the Science coloring page from Scribblers Cycle 1 Week 15 in ccconnected.com with all of the different mountains on it. We sing a song together to the tune of She’ll Be Comin Round the Mountain. This helps my girls remember these different mountains. See my video below.

Cycle 1 Week 15 Science Song

Lesson Plan Templates

Click here to download an EDITABLE template of my detailed lesson plans for Cycle 1 Week 15. Here is a blank template you can download too.

cycle 1 week 15 lesson plans template

Picture Books for Cycle 1 Week 15

Here are all the picture books we enjoy this week:

cycle 1 week 15 picture books
  1. My Israel and Me by Alice Blumenthal McGinty
  2. Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain by Verna Aardema
  3. We All Went on Safari by Laurie Krebs and Julia Cairns
  4. The World Made New: Why the Age of Exploration Happened and How It Changed the World (National Geographic Timelines) by Marc Aronson and John W. Glenn
  5. What Was the Age of Exploration? by Catherine Daly
  6. The Metric System by David A. Adler
  7. Mount Everest (Natural Wonders of the World by Lisa M. Bolt Simons
  8. Tenzing Norgay (Little People, BIG DREAMS) by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara
  9. Two at the Top: A Shared Dream of Everest by Uma Krishnaswami
  10. To the Top! Climbing the World’s Highest Mountain (Step-Into-Reading, Step 5) by S. A. Kramer
  11. How Does Chocolate Taste on Everest?: Explore Earth’s Most Extreme Places Through Sight, Sound, Smell, Touch and Taste by Leisa Stewart-Sharpe

You can see my ENTIRE Cycle 1 picture book list for weeks 13-24 here!

Cycle 1 Week 15 Memory Work Activities

Here are activities to help practice the remaining memory work. You can sign up below to receive these AND the activities I mentioned above for geography, history, and science.

  • Helping verbs cards
  • Latin noun endings BINGO game
  • Linear measurements dominoes game

How has homeschooling been going for you so far this winter? Comment below and share something you do to spice the homeschooling routine up especially when it’s really cold outside!

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