Cycle 1 Week 20 Tutor Plans for Classical Homeschooling

Looking for fun and engaging tutor ideas for Cycle 1, Week 20 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, Week 18, or Week 19. 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 20.

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 20 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 20 English

In Cycle 1 Week 20, we learn the definition of a linking verb. I prep the notebooks with this definition and leave a blank horizontal line for the term, “linking verb.” The children will write this term on the horizontal line in their notebooks. See picture above. Depending on the ages of the kids in your class, you could adjust this to meet their level:

• Write the definition and write “linking verb” in dots for the children to trace.
• Write the term “linking verb” and let the children write the remainder of the definition.
• Write everything out except the first letters of the words “linking” and “verb.” Let the children fill in these letters.

As the children are writing, I start singing a new song we will learn with all of the linking verbs. This song is to the tune of The Ants Go Marching. See my video below. We will sing this song during weeks 22-24 as well.

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 have the children practice singing the song with me a few times. We also review the helping verbs song with the hand motions. See my video of this entire song with the hand motions below:

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 20 Timeline

Before our class time begins, I hide the cards around the room. I try to pick spots that aren’t too difficult to find, but also not too easy. Then when it’s time to start Timeline, I tell the children to look around the room and see if they can find one or two cards (depending on how many children are in my group).

I sing this week’s part of the timeline song as the children are searching for the cards. See my tutor video for the tune of this week’s timeline song.

Then I have everyone sit in a circle on the floor with the cards they found. I tell the kids to lay the cards FACE UP on the floor in the center of the circle.

I say this week’s first timeline event, “Australia Becomes a Commonwealth,” and I ask, “what letter does “Australia” start with?”

A child answers, “It starts with the letter “A.”

I say, “Correct! Who sees a card with the letter “A” on it?”

We find the card and go over the hand motion for that event. I put it back down on the floor and then pick the next card, until we have gone over all the hand motions.

I spread out the cards so everyone can see all of them. The kids close their eyes and I turn one of the cards over. I tell the kids to open their eyes and guess which card I turned over. Then we all practice the hand motion for that card. Repeat for the remainder of the cards. See my video below which includes the hand motions for this week in the timeline section:

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 Canada maps. I will use these next week as well instead of the trivium table maps that I usually use because they show these Canadian locations 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 outline the provinces we are discussing this week in dry erase marker, each in a different color.

Cycle 1 Week 20 Geography: Dominion of Canada

This week we learn about the Dominion of Canada. Each child gets a prepared Canada map in a dry erase pocket sleeve with each of the provinces outlined in a different color. I give each child a dry erase marker and have them write the first letter of each province inside the province on their map.

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

As we sing the song together several times, I have children point to each province as we sing it. Then I ask the kids, “let’s find the turquoise province with the “B.” Who remembers the name of that province? Now let’s find the purple province with the letter “N.” Who remembers what that province is called? After we do this for each province, I have the kids find each province again and we erase the letter. For example, I’ll say, “let’s find the red province with the letter “Q.” What is that province called? Now let’s erase the “Q” from Quebec.

After all the letters are erased, I repeat this and have the kids erase the province outlines as we go over each province again. We sing the song together a few more times and I challenge the kids to find the provinces with no outline this time (since we erased everything)!

Depending on time, I give each child a few different colored dry erase markers and let them color in these provinces. Or if you need to move on to the next subject because of time, you definitely don’t have to do this.

Countries of Africa Notebook!

I’m excited to share with you all about some ways we are learning about geography at home. My children have loved working through 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

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 20 Math: Circumference of a Circle

This week in math we are learning about the circumference of a circle. I bring back my hula hoops for the kids to use again 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 circumference formula and how this is different from finding the area. Then, we sing our entire geometry song that we’ve been singing for the past few weeks. See my video below:

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.

Also, when they hear the word “circumference” in the song, they all drop to the ground. I emphasize to them that we CANNOT go inside the hula hoop because we are learning about circumference this week which is the distance all the way around the circle. It’s like the fence around a playground or the edge of a big pizza!

History

We learn about the Mexican Revolution 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:

Circa 1910, during the Mexican Revolution, Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata fought the federales for "Land and Liberty."

Here is the history sentence with silly words:

Circa 1910, during the Pelican Revolution, Nacho Villa and Emiliano Piñata fought the tamales for "Land and Jittery."

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 continue to learn about 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 we sing the song together as I point to each one.

This week we are going to spice up our Latin by playing Limbo as we practice saying these noun endings. I will bring some rope in and have two parents hold each end. As each child takes a turn going under the limbo rope, they must sing the next noun ending. Every time the kids have all gone under, the parents will lower the limbo rope slightly and challenge them to go lower while keeping up with saying the noun endings. If they bump the rope, they must say a few more noun endings in order to keep playing. After a few rounds, then we will stop. My goal is to keep it fun so if a child bumps the rope and doesn’t remember how to say a few more noun endings, I’ll have some other kids chime in so they can keep playing.

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 parts of the atmosphere. I teach the children the song to the tune of The Farmer in the Dell to help them remember these.

I give each child a spot marker to stand on and spread them out so there is plenty of room between each child. As we sing each part of the atmosphere, I tell the children to move their arms out farther and farther from their body. When we sing “exosphere,” their arms should be spread out to each side of their body as far as possible.

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 this week, we play a game called Stinky Feet! This is such a simple review game that the children in your group will love!

Before community group, I cut out and laminate this stinky feet sign and stinky feet cards. You can download these for free! You can also just draw stinky feet on a white board and use sticky notes as the cards if you don’t want to print anything out.

The cards have little feet on the front and on the back are numbers -2o to +20 in increments of 5.

I split my class into teams. I ask the first child a review question from any subject and after they answer they get to pick a foot card off of the board. If they don’t know the correct answer, I let the rest of their team help. They turn the card over and see it’s a “stinky” foot or not. A “stinky” foot is a negative number.

Whatever point value is on the back of the card gets added or subtracted from the team’s score. I also like to have the child take off one of their shoes if they get a “stinky” card. You don’t have to do this part but it adds some excitement to the game.

The game ends when all the feet cards are gone! Whichever team ends up with the most points wins! Or you could switch it up and have the team with the least points win.

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. What is an ocean zone we learned about last week?
2. What is one part of a volcano?
3. What is a volcano called that is erupting?
4. What was one of the Mesoamerica regions we learned about?
5. Do you remember one of the African countries or rivers we learned?
6. Tell me the area of one of the shapes we learned recently?
7. What is one of the helping verbs we have learned so far?

Printable and Editable Cycle 1 Week 20 Tutor Plans

Here is a printable EDITABLE template of these Cycle 1 Week 20 Tutor Plans. Here is a blank template too!

Cycle 1 Week 20 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!