Cycle 1 Week 19 Tutor Plans for Classical Homeschooling

Looking for creative and fun tutor ideas for Cycle 1, Week 19 in classical homeschooling? Read along for fun ways to introduce the memory work. If you’re a couple weeks behind me, see my tutor ideas for Cycle 1, Week 13, Week 14, Week 15, Week 16, Week 17, or Week 18. You can also find my tutor plans from each of the twelve weeks of first semester here.

Please note, I am not affiliated with any Classical education organization; these are simply my own ideas and suggestions based on my experience as a tutor. I hope they inspire and support you as you plan for Cycle 1, Week 19.

This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. See my full disclosure here.

We love being part of our Classical homeschooling community. Read more about how God redirected our path from private education to homeschooling and Classical education here.

Are you new to the Classical model and want to know more about it? Keep reading below about how it’s organized, the different cycles, our community time, and MORE!

If you already know about the Classical homeschooling model and you are ready to jump to the actual tutor ideas, click here.

A Classical model of homeschooling

We are part of a Christ-centered homeschool program that follows the Classical model. The younger children, ages 4-12, focus on a memorization-based curriculum which acts as the groundwork of learning that is built upon in later years.

Children and their parents learn key facts across the core subject areas including history, science, English, mathematics, geography, and Latin. Tutors use fun activities, games, songs, and lots of energy to introduce the new material. The parents can then expand on that material at home throughout the week.

Cycle rotation

The material is divided into three cycles, which each last one year. The cycles continue to rotate every three years, so most children who start when they are kindergarten age, complete each cycle at least twice. This allows them to develop a deeper comprehension and grasp of the material through repetition.

Cycle 1 material

This year, in Cycle 1, we are learning about ancient world history, biology, earth science, Latin noun endings, and English prepositions and verbs.

The following ideas are what I’m planning to do with the group of kids I am tutoring this year (ages 4-6). You may use these ideas if you are also tutoring in a Classical homeschooling community, or if you’re a parent who is looking for memory work ideas to use at home.

Also, you don’t have to be part of any particular Classical homeschooling group to use these ideas! These are ideas to help children learn key concepts in the core subject areas. If you are a homeschooling parent, or just a parent who wants to supplement what your kids are currently learning in school, these ideas will be helpful for you.

Community group time

Our homeschooling community has been meeting on Tuesdays. Our leader starts off the morning with everyone together in a big group setting. She typically begins that time with a devotional reading and prayer, and then continues with some announcements, celebrating birthdays, the pledge of allegiance, and anything else she wants to cover with everyone.

After this time, we split off into our different groups based on age. The tutors lead their groups into different classrooms and begin the New Grammar part of the day. This is when the tutor introduces the memory work for each core subject. Check out my post and video about how to make your own tutor board!

Cycle 1 Week 19 Tutor and Memory Work Ideas

English

I like to start with English each week. I have purchased a lined notebook for each child in my class to use and I lay these out on the table before our class time begins. When the kids walk into the room, they find their notebook which shows them where to sit.

I love using these notebooks because I think it’s great for the kids to get some writing practice. During the summer, I decorate the front of each notebook with each child’s name and a fun biology design related to Cycle 1 (see below for picture). You can download a template of this biology themed notebook cover here and customize for your kids.

In these notebooks, I write each week’s English memory work on a blank page as large and neatly as I can. I use a light colored marker, so that the kids can trace my writing and easily see their own writing with their pencil.

I lay the notebooks out on the table before our class time begins. After English, I collect them and bring them back the following week. At the end of the school year, they will have all 24 weeks filled out and they can take their notebooks home with them.

Cycle 1 Week 19 English

In Cycle 1 Week 19, we learn the next three helping verbs: shall, will, can. I prep the notebooks with one of the helping verbs already written, one dotted helping verb that the children can trace, and a horizontal line where I will have the children write the last helping verb. See picture above. Depending on the ages of the kids in your class, you could adjust this to meet their level:

• Write two of the helping verbs and have the children write the last one.
• Write two of the helping verbs normally and then write the last one very lightly or with dots so the children can trace.
• Have the children write all three helping verbs on their own.
• Write out all the helping verbs, but leave spaces in place of the first letter of each word, and let the children fill in those letters.
• Write the first letter of each helping verb and let the children write the rest of each word.

As the children are writing, I sing the same song we sang last week beginning with the definition of a helping verb, and I continue singing with the addition this week’s helping verbs. This song is to the tune of This Old Man. See my video below. This is the last week we sing this song.

I love making little jingles to the memory work we are learning. Children memorize much quicker if it is to a song, and it’s more fun too! It’s also a great way to review the material throughout the week at home. It is so easy to play the week’s songs while you’re at home or in the car.

I hand out a sticker for each child to stick to the front of their notebook. It’s fun to find stickers that relate to some of the material we are learning about that week.

I also teach the children some simple hand motions for each of these helping verbs:

• shall: hold both hands in front of you, palms up, as if offering something (symbolizing a commitment or obligation)
• will: raise one fist in the air like you’re making a strong declaration (symbolizing confidence in doing something)
• can: flex your arm like you’re showing your muscles (symbolizing strength to be able to do something)

I have the children practice singing the song with me while doing the hand motions from the last four weeks and these new hand motions a few times. See the English sections from week 15, week 16, week 17, and week 18 for the hand motions for the previous helping verbs.

I also have a video singing all the helping verbs and doing the hand motions. See video below:

Then, I lead a game where the children pick a hand motion of any helping verb they have learned and show the class without saying anything. The other children try to guess which helping verb the hand motion is for. I give each child a chance to show a hand motion.

Prepositions Review

I also have the kids sing and do the hand motions to the entire preposition song that we worked on last semester. I plan to have them review this once each week for the remainder of the year. See my video of a slowed down version of the entire Preposition song (weeks 2-12) and the hand motions below:

Also, check out this handout for stick figure drawings of each of the hand motions for the ENTIRE Preposition song if you want a refresher.

Timeline

I like to follow English with Timeline. Each week, I use these Timeline Cards: Set 1 (Ancient World), Set 2 (Medieval World), Set 3 (New World), and Set 4 (Modern World) I highly recommend investing in them (you should get all four sets) whether you are a tutor or a parent. I consistently use them as a tutor and also at home with my kids.

Since I have the younger children, I like to tape the paper letter that the timeline event starts with at the top of the card. I have found these letters at my local Dollar Tree. Some of the children in my class can’t read yet, so this helps them identify the event I’m referring to.

Cycle 1 Week 19 Timeline

Before our class time begins, I tape the timeline cards to the wall using painters tape, and I put a few of the cards in the wrong order. When it’s time to start Timeline, I tell the children to look at the timeline cards on the wall as we sing this week’s part of the timeline song together. I sing it myself instead of playing the music so I can control the speed of the song. See my tutor video for the tune of this week’s timeline song. I do not mention to the children that a couple of the cards are out of order.

As we are singing this week’s part of the timeline song together, I see if any of the children notice that some of the cards are out of order. If no one notices, I give them a little hint. If a child does notice that something is wrong with the order of the cards, I let them go to the wall and fix the card that they noticed was in the wrong spot. Then we sing again until another child notices the other card that’s out of order. I let that child fix the card and we keep doing this until the cards are in the correct order on the wall.

After this I have the children come stand against the wall in front of the timeline cards and we go over the hand motions together. I put these spot markers against the wall in front of each timeline card so it’s clear where each child should stand. See my video below which includes the hand motions for this week in the timeline section:

We sing this week’s part of the timeline song together while doing the hand motions a few times.

Geography

Now for geography! The children are now sitting at the table which follows the timeline part well where the kids were standing. I like to try to alternate active parts with sitting to mix things up and keep the kids engaged.

During the week before our community day, I prepare these Mesoamerica maps. I used these last week as well instead of the trivium table maps that I usually use because they show the Mesoamerican regions much better. You can print these maps and put them in a dry erase pocket sleeve or you can laminate them. This is the printer and laminator I have and use all the time. I highlight the cities (and lake) we are discussing this week in dry erase marker, each in a different color.

Cycle 1 Week 19 Geography: Mesoamerica

This week we learn about Mesoamerica. Each child gets a prepared Mesoamerica map in a dry erase pocket sleeve with each of the cities (and lake) highlighted in a different color. I tell the children that we are going to go on a tour through these places and we will try some food in each spot! They each get a food eraser and I tell them to point to each city with their eraser as I tell them this story.

We start out in Mexico City and have some yummy Mexican food.  Then we have some hot coco to wash it down at Lake Texcoco.  Then we head to Chichen Itza for some chicken pizza.  Then we are ready for some breakfast food so we go to Mayapan and have some pancakes. After all this eating, we are SO full so we go to Oaxaca and rest because "Whoa...we are full!"

I teach the children a song to the tune of Skip to my Lou to help them learn these locations. See my video below:

As we sing the song together several times, I have the children point to each city as we sing it. Then I ask the kids, “let’s find the city where we at chicken pizza. Who remembers the name of that city? Now let’s find the lake where we drank hot coco. Who remembers what that lake is called?

Depending on time, I give each child a few different colored dry erase markers and let them color in some of the other places we have learned about so far this year. Or if you need to move on to the next subject because of time, you definitely don’t have to do this.

I have also found that it works best to review geography WHILE we are doing geography. The kids have their maps in front of them and it’s really easy to talk about places we have learned about previous weeks.

Countries of Africa Notebook!

I’m so excited to share with you all about this Countries of Africa Notebook that I made. There is a page for each of the 54 countries of Africa plus Western Sahara. Each day, the kids get to discover one or more countries as they learn about their location, capital, iconic animal, popular dish, flag, and a fun fact.

The kids can color the maps, animals, and flags for each country as they explore! At the end of the notebook, there is a complete reference of all the African flags. I have also included two labeled maps of Africa with all the countries marked (one in color and one in black and white). Plus, there are blank maps for your children to fill in as they learn about each country. A great book to read alongside this workbook is, J is for Jollof: An African Alphabet by Dr Gloria Fátúsìn. This book has great visuals and more information about some of the popular dishes in Africa.

Learning the Countries of Africa

I also want to share some of what I’m doing at home with my children this semester to help them learn the geography. We are LOVING learning the countries of Africa and I made this fun Africa map that we have on our wall by our kitchen table with all the countries made out of felt.

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.

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.

My daughter is also enjoying putting together this Africa puzzle. She absolutely loves puzzles and it’s a great way that I can spend some time with her while the younger kids nap. I especially love these Geo Puzzles because the pieces are the actual shapes of the countries. They have puzzles for the other parts of the world as well! We have also enjoyed putting together South America this year.

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

Cycle 1 Week 19 Math: Area of a Circle

This week in math we are learning about the area of a circle. I bring in a few hula hoops for the kids to use this week!

When it’s time for math, I first show the children my circle drawing on my tutor board and explain to them the area formula. Then, I teach them the beginning of our geometry song to help them remember this formula. See my video below:

We will continue to sing this song next week as well!

I spread the hula hoops out on the floor and divide the children into several groups. The children stand around the edge of the hula hoops and I have them do the following as we sing our geometry song together:

• Walk along the outside of the hula hoop.
• Tip toe along the outside of the hula hoop (without actually stepping on the hula hoop!!!)
• Hop on one foot along the outside of the hula hoop.
• Hop on the other foot along the outside of the hula hoop.
• Jump from the inside of the hula hoop to the outside.

History

We learn about the Anasazi this week. I say the history sentence once NORMALLY to the kids and tell them to listen very carefully. Then I say the history sentence again but with some “silly words” added in. I tell the kids that if they hear a silly word, to raise their hand and try to tell me what the correct word should be. Here is the correct version of the history sentence:

The Anasazi of the southwestern United States built adobe villages in caves and on the sides of cliffs from 500 BC to AD 1200.

Here is the history sentence with silly words:

The Pazzi of the southwestern United Gates built Moby villages in waves and on the sides of sniffs from 500 TV to AD 1200.

Each time I say a silly word and the kids catch it, I ask them to correct it. Then I say the history sentence from the beginning, correctly, until I get to the next silly word. This way the kids are hearing the history sentence correctly several times. I repeat this until I have said all the silly words and the whole history sentence correctly.

Then I have the children stand up and dance as we listen to the history song a few more times.

Latin

In Latin this week we are learning the 3rd Declension Noun Endings. See my tutor video for the tune we sing these to. I show the children the noun endings that I have written on my tutor board and sing the song as I point to each one. I have all the children stand up and we all put our right foot against our left knee and try to hold the pose as we sing the singular part of the song. Then I ask the children to give me another pose we can do as we sing the plural noun endings. I give each child a chance to give us a new pose to hold as we sing either the singular or plural part of the song. Here are some pose ideas:

• Downward Dog: Make a triangle shape with your body, like a stretching puppy
• Snake Pose: Lie on belly, push up wit hands, and hiss like a snake
• Tree Pose: Stand on one foot, place the other foot on your leg, and stretch arms up like tree branches
• Mountain Pose: Stand tall and strong with arms by your side
• Star Pose: Stand with legs apart and stretch arms wide like a bright star
• Flower Pose: Sit with feet together, hold angles, and open legs like petals blooming
• Bridge Pose: Lie on back, lift hips up, and make a strong bridge

You could also give each child a silly voice card and sing the whole Latin song in different silly voices. You can download these silly voice cards for FREE below.

Free Silly Voice and Movement Cards

You can also make these silly voice sticks. These are large popsicle sticks that I painted and wrote some silly voices on.

Here are the silly voices I wrote on these sticks:

• Loud to soft
• Slow like a sloth
• Close eyes
• Squeaky voice
• Super smiley
• Excited
• Whisper
• Crying
• Fish/pucker face
• Pouty
• Scared
• No teeth
• Quiet to loud
• Mad
• Hold your nose
• Tongue out
• Mouth closed

Science

This week in science we learn about some ocean zones. I teach the children the song to the tune of BINGO  to help them remember these.

As we sing the song, I tell the children to do the following as they sing each ocean zone:

• Epipelagic: Raise their arms up as high as they can
• Mesopelagic: Raise their fists up with their elbows bent
• Bathypelagic: Put their hands on their hips
• Abyssalpelagic: Put their hands on the ground

We sing the song several times together while doing these motions. I also love using these science cards to help me learn about our topic and explain it in a quick and simple way to the children. Then, of course, the parents can expand on it more at home.

For review time this week, I split the children into two groups and we play tic tac toe. I make a big tic tac toe board on a white board and I assign one group to be the “X’s” and one group to be the “O’s.” I ask the “X’s” a review question and anyone in the group can answer. If they get it correct, one of the team members comes up to the white board and marks an “X” on the space they choose. Then I ask another review question to the “O” team. If they get the answer correct, I have one of the team members come and write an “O” in the space they choose.

If a team doesn’t get the correct answer to a review question, they do not get to write an X or an O and I ask a question to the other team. The first team to get three “X’s” or three “O’s” in a row wins! We play this a few times depending on how much time we have.

I prefer to ask review questions on the fly instead of preparing them ahead of time. Here are some example questions I ask (remember I have the youngest children in my group):

1. Do you remember what 8 fluid ounces is equal to?
2. What is one part of the geosphere that you remember?
3. The Kush mined gold along what river?
4. What is a location in the Middle East that we learned about?
5. Do you remember the name of one of the places in Ancient Africa?
6. Do you remember any of the compound prepositions?
7. What is one of the helping verbs we have learned so far?
8. When we sing the noun cases song, what word comes after “nominative…”?

Printable and Editable Cycle 1 Week 19 Tutor Plans

Here is a printable EDITABLE template of these Cycle 1 Week 19 Tutor Plans. Here is a blank template too!

Cycle 1 Week 19 Memory Work Activities

Also check out the FREE activities and games that you can use at home to help your kids practice the memory work this week.

Blessings to you on this homeschooling journey!