Cycle 1 Week 17 At Home Activities for Classical Homeschooling
Looking for creative and interactive ways to practice the Cycle 1, Week 17 memory work at home? Read along as I share about activities, games, and books that have enriched our homeschooling week.
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Last week we finished up Cycle 1 Week 16. My girls began exploring their new African Countries workbook, and we played an African Waters dice game to learn about some of the major rivers on the continent. We also learned about the Mesoamerican civilizations and my daughter enjoyed working on an “I Spy” where she looked for different Mayan, Aztec, and Olmec symbols. She also made her own Mesoamerican calendar out of clay! We played a “Build your own Volcano” game as we learned about four different types of volcanoes. Read more about what we did at home during week 16 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 seventeen 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 17. Visit my channel for tutor ideas for many other weeks and other videos with homeschooling tips and encouragement.
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 17 memory work (new grammar) at home throughout the week.
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.
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 17 from the Foundations of the Bible study about the first 5 plagues of Egypt. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 17 songs for English, Science, Math and Geography below.
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):
Geography
This week in geography, we learn about some African countries. First, I show my girls where Ethiopia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Madagascar are on their placemats. We enjoy reading these picture books about Africa:
- Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain by Verna Aardema
- We All Went on Safari by Laurie Krebs and Julia Cairns
- Living in . . . South Africa: Ready-to-Read Level 2 by Chloe Perkins
- South Africa: A Benjamin Blog and His Inquisitive Dog Guide by Anita Ganeri
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).
My daughters and I play this African countries dice game that I made. We switch off rolling several dice and trying to name the location that matches the sum rolled. This game also includes the other locations we have learned so far this semester, so it’s a great way to review! You can get this African countries dice game for free with my other Cycle 1 Week 17 Memory work activities at the end of this post.
We sing a song together to the tune of Oh Susanna. This helps my girls remember these African countries. See my video below.
Countries of Africa Notebook!
My girls also started coloring in their Countries of Africa Notebook this week. I really enjoyed making this book and I’m excited to share it with you all! 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. We also enjoy reading J is for Jollof: An African Alphabet by Dr Gloria Fátúsìn which 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 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.
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. 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 the Aztecs. I read to my girls some from the books, Discover the Mayans: A Child’s Journey Into the Ancient World (Civilizations) by Ethan Braxton, Ancient Civilizations: Aztecs, Maya, Incas! by Anita Yasuda, and Aztecs (All about Ancient Peoples) by Anita Ganeri.
Aztecs Pyramid Puzzle
My daughter enjoys putting together this Aztec pyramid puzzle that helps her review the history sentence. The different words of the history sentence are at the bottom of each strip of paper. After she puts the pyramid together, we read the entire history sentence and sing the song. You can get this Pyramid puzzle for free with my other Cycle 1 Week 17 Memory work activities at the end of this post.
Timeline Image Coloring Page
Each week I also give my kids the Timeline Image from Scribblers in ccconnected.com. My girls enjoy coloring the Aztec and Mayan creator god, Quetzalcoatl, this week. I like to laminate these each week and make a timeline of them on our wall as we go through the school year.
Science
This week in science we learn about some parts of a volcano. My girls and I enjoy reading from several books we checked out from our library about volcanoes: The Magic School Bus Blows Its Top: A Book About Volcanoes by Joanna Cole and Gail Herman, Oh, the Lavas That Flow! All About Volcanoes by Todd Tarpley, Volcanoes For kids by Samuel John, and Volcanoes by Gail Gibbons.
Build a Volcano game!
My girls and I have a great time playing this build a volcano game that I made. We also played it last week while we learned about different kinds of volcanoes. Each player gets a “volcano” starting piece and then adds or takes away parts of their volcano according to the letter landed on:
- D (Dormant): move backwards two spaces and do what the letter that you are now on instructs
- I (Intermittent): add a new part to your volcano
- E (Extinct): put one part of your volcano back
- A (Active): Your volcano erupted! Put all your volcano pieces back!
Whoever has the most parts on their volcano when the game ends, WINS! You can get this game for free with my other Cycle 1 Week 17 Memory work activities at the end of this post.
Playdough Volcano Experiment
We have a blast this week making our own volcano and watching it erupt! First, I make homemade playdough by mixing the following ingredients:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup salt
- 2 tbsp. avocado oil
- 1 tbsp. cream of tartar
- 2 cups warm water
I first mix the flour, salt, oil, and cream of tartar together in a large bowl. I boil the water in a saucepan and let it cool a bit. Then, I pour the water into the other ingredients and mix really well. We divide the playdough into 4 different parts and add different colors of food coloring to each part. Once the playdough is ready, I place a glass mason jar on a baking dish and my daughter molds the playdough around the glass jar to make her volcano.
Once her volcano is finished, we dump a few tablespoons of baking soda into the bottom of the glass jar. We add a little food coloring to some vinegar and pour the vinegar into the volcano. I recommend doing this part outside! When we pour the vinegar in and it reaches the baking soda, it becomes an active volcano! This is such a fun way to give your kids a visual of how a volcano erupts.
My daughter also colors the Science coloring page from Scribblers Cycle 1 Week 17 in ccconnected.com with the different parts of a volcano on it. We sing a song together to the tune of Michael Row Your Boat Ashore. This helps my girls remember the different parts of a volcano. See my video below.
Science Review Old Maid Game
As we get closer to the end of the quarter, I want to share with you this fun science review game you can play with your children. This is similar to the “Old Maid” game, but science themed!
This game reviews the science memory work from Cycle 1, Weeks 13-24. There are 28 different science themed cards + 4 different “Old Maid” options. Download it for FREE below!
Lesson Plan Templates
Click here to download an EDITABLE template of my detailed lesson plans for Cycle 1 Week 17. Here is a blank template you can download too.
Picture Books for Cycle 1 Week 17
Here are all the picture books we enjoy this week:
- Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain by Verna Aardema
- We All Went on Safari by Laurie Krebs and Julia Cairns
- Living in . . . South Africa: Ready-to-Read Level 2 by Chloe Perkins
- South Africa: A Benjamin Blog and His Inquisitive Dog Guide by Anita Ganeri
- Discover the Mayans: A Child’s Journey Into the Ancient World (Civilizations) by Ethan Braxton
- Ancient Civilizations: Aztecs, Maya, Incas!: With 25 Social Studies Projects for Kids by Anita Yasuda
- Aztecs (All about Ancient Peoples) by Anita Ganeri
- Circle, Square, Moose by Kelly Bingham
- The Magic School Bus Blows Its Top: A Book About Volcanoes by Joanna Cole and Gail Herman
- Volcanoes For kids: Educational science book for learning about volcanoes by Samuel John
- Oh, the Lavas That Flow! All About Volcanoes by Todd Tarpley
- Volcanoes by Gail Gibbons
You can see my ENTIRE Cycle 1 picture book list for weeks 13-24 here!
Cycle 1 Week 17 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
- Math shapes 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!
