Here is everything that I did with my Masters class for week 9 in cycle 2 of Classical Conversations!
Contents
CC Cycle 2 Week 9 Memory Work
CC Cycle 2 Week 9 Timeline
This week for timeline, I had my class play a game that I based off of the bomb game.
Instead of putting bombs on the back of some of the timeline cards, I place a “bad guy” of some sort. This week’s theme was reptile so we played Reptile Catcher.
So, I placed pictures of reptiles on the back of 6 cards and a reptile catcher on the back of 1 card. I get these photos from Canva.
Every week we play this game (well, a variation of it since I do barn animals, cats, dogs, etc.) I ask the class if they want the “bad guy” to be a “good guy” instead. I’ll explain both ways to play.
Playing the “bad guy” version:
Sing the timeline song together. Have one student pick a card. If it’s a reptile, the student “won” that round. Sing the timeline song again and then have the next student pick another card. Continue playing for 7 students/7 rounds. The object of the game is to not get the bad guy because we want to save as many reptiles as possible. If the class succeeds in not picking the bad guy, the class wins and the tutor loses.
Playing the “good guy” version:
Essentially, I tell the class that the catcher is needing to collect all the reptiles before something bad happens, like a storm is rolling in or something. Sing the timeline song together. Have one student pick a card. If it’s a reptile, the student “lost” that reptile to the storm. Sing the timeline song again and have the next student pick another card. Continue playing for 7 students/7 rounds. The object of the game is to get the catcher as soon as possible because every reptile that gets picked after the catcher is found is saved! *You can keep it uplifting at the end and say “good news, all the reptiles were found hiding under the deck anyway!” if you have a younger or more sensitive class.
This game is good for any age group but the Abecedarians may get confused if you give them the option of good guy or bad guy. I like giving the Masters this option because it keeps the game fresh each week.
If you have more than 7 students, you may want to skip this game since one student is left out. Or, have the 8th student be the one to flip over the cards to reveal, essentially leading the class.
Supplies needed to play Reptile Catcher:
- 7 Timeline cards pertaining to the week
- 1 photo of a reptile catcher and 6 photos of reptiles
- tape to tape the photos to the back of the cards
Make sure to prepare this before getting to class and then put the cards up before class starts so there are no cheaters!
Approximate time it takes to play Reptile Catcher: 4 minutes
CC Cycle 2 Week 9 Math
Yay for only one times table this week! Since I have the Masters class we say the entire equation.
This week, we played a version of Yahtzee.
This game works best for a class of seven students or less. If you have eight students, have the first two students go at the same time, then one student at a time after that so that there are only seven repetitions.
If you have less than seven students, do one for each student and then you can either just say the facts quickly for the remaining repetitions or hold competitions between the top competitors.
This game works best for the Masters class since the whole equation has to be said which gives more time to get a Yahtzee than skip counting does.
To play Yahtzee, give one student (or two, see note above) five dice. Have the rest of the class recite the math fact one time through. The student with the dice needs to see how many 5s (we did the number 5 for 15s) they can roll while the class recites. Whenever they roll a 5, they get to keep that on the table and pick up the remaining dice. Only roll the dice that are not 5s. If they get all 5 dice to show a 5, they get a Yahtzee. The person rolling does not do the recitation.
Continue playing with each student and see who can get a Yahtzee!
Supplies needed to play Yahtzee:
- five dice (again, double if you have a class of 8 students)
Approximate time it takes to play Yahtzee: 5 minutes
CC Cycle 2 Week 9 History
Okay so this week we actually didn’t play Hot or Cold, but we basically did.
Since we learned about dynamics last week in our Tin Whistle study, I decided to make it easy and have the class start singing in pp and work their way up to ff. We then did crescendo for the last round.
If there is an opportunity to review material, I like to take it!
So it went:
- Sing the history song in pp
- Sing in p
- Sing in mp – I told them this was basically regular volume but a touch on the quiet side.
- Sing in mf – I told them this was basically regular volume but a touch on the loud side.
- Sing in f
- Sing in ff
- Sing in crescendo – starting pp and ending ff.
The class was sad to abandon Hot or Cold for the week but they still had a fun time and, as expected, really got into the ff and crescendo rounds.
Supplies needed for History:
- none!
Approximate time it takes for History: 4 minutes
CC Cycle 2 Week 9 Latin
I informed the class that a way to remember the plu-perfect tense is with the sentence:
The engineers did not design a plu-perfect bridge, so they all gasped for air when they saw it falling down.
I also told them that plu-perfect sounds like Daffy Duck struggling to say perfect (and did my best impression) but of course, only the moms knew what I was talking about. I told them to pretend Daffy Duck was in the water watching the bridge fall.
Maybe next week I will print a photo of Daffy Duck to show the class I’m not entirely crazy.
We then sang the CC Latin song quickly seven times through, which starts with the Latin conjugation ending “eram” which is pronounced “air-um.”
The CC Latin song goes along to the tune of London Bridge is Falling Down.
I got this idea from Joys of a CC Mom on YouTube. Here is the video I referenced:
Supplies needed for Latin: None
Approximate time needed for Latin: 2 minutes
CC Cycle 2 Week 9 Science
This week I went with You Are My Sunshine for the parts of the sun. I found the song and hand motions from Julie Keller (song) and Stephanie Laughlin (hand motions) on YouTube.
Here is the order I presented science to get all seven repetitions in:
- Read the question and say the answer, making sure to say “Some parts of the sun are…”
- Read the question and have the class answer
- Introduce the song to the class
- Sing the song with the class
- Introduce the hand motions to the class
- Practice hand motions with the class
- Sing and do hand motions together
Here are the hand motions:
And here is the song:
Supplies needed for science: None
Approximate time needed for science: 4 minutes
CC Cycle 2 Week 9 English
We are still singing along to the Chicken Dance song on YouTube! This went so fast and was great so we had plenty of time for Yahtzee and Geography, both of which can take a bit more time.
Supplies needed for English: none
Approximate time needed for English – 1 minute!
CC Cycle 2 Week 9 Geography
This week we did geography last. I had a song, hand motions, and the maps out this week which kept things moving quickly and gave options for remembering.
I typically don’t do hand motions for geography but CC Happy Mom on YouTube had such excellent hand motions that it helped me remember where everything was. She also provided the song which was to the tune of La Cucaracha.
Here is what we did to get our seven repetitions in:
- I read the components of the Caribbean
- I read and had them trace the locations on their maps
- I introduced the hand motions and explained why they were helpful
- I introduced the song
- We sang the song together and pointed to the locations
- We sang the song together and erased the locations
- I asked them review questions to either say the name in the question or have them tell me the name in the answer
I only did one review question this week since I already had a lot going on for geography:
- What ocean are the islands of Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico on? (Atlantic)
I thought this was a super easy review question but I didn’t realize the class didn’t understand the box was a zoomed in look and they thought they were in the Pacific Ocean so that was a good learning opportunity!
Supplies needed for geography:
- dry erase map for each student
- dry erase marker for each student
- eraser for each student
Approximate time needed for geography: 5 minutes
CC Cycle 2 Week 9 Tin Whistle
While I have the masters class this year, half of the class is new to CC/homeschooling altogether. So, I make sure to take things slow.
Here is the order we did tin whistle in:
- Sing Mary Had a Little Lamb together. Ask the class if they noticed some notes lasting longer than others.
- Introduce the staff and explain how to draw it.
- Have the students draw a staff on their piece of paper.
- Explain the key signature and time signature including treble clef, bass clef, sharps/flats, and the time signature. I only explained these extra things because I have the Masters and because they want to perform a Christmas song at our Christmas party and the Christmas song has 3/4 time signature.
- Introduce the whole note, half note, quarter note, and eighth note (and pair of eighth notes) and have them draw their own on their staff. I clapped as I sang each note out rather than doing the ta-ah-ah-ah as that confuses me and I was in band for 5 years! So I clapped four times to start the song, then held a note for four claps and explained that it was a whole note. I did the same for the other notes, starting with four claps before singing a note.
- Rather than sing Mary Had a Little Lamb, I had them say the type of note, so for example quarter note , quarter note, quarter note, quarter note, quarter note, quarter note, half note for “ma-ry had a lit-tle lamb”
- Play Mary Had a Little Lamb on the tin whistle.
- Discuss our Christmas party Christmas song and practice it with the remaining time.
To explain the key signature, I simply asked if students knew what two clefs music was written in (treble and bass) and gave some examples of instruments for each clef. I explained that the tin whistle plays higher notes and is in the treble clef. I showed them how to draw a treble clef – start with a dot below the staff, create a J from the dot, draw a backwards S and then swirl to end it.
I explained the sharp symbol since the key of D tin whistle plays C# and F#. We talked about notes on the piano – the black keys are sharp and we talked about how those notes are slightly higher sounding than the regular note. I explained flats are slightly lower than the regular note.
I explained the number on the bottom of the time signature says how many beats a quarter note gets. So in standard 4/4 time measure, like in Mary Had a Little Lamb, the quarter note gets 1 beat. Same goes for 3/4 time signature since the 4 on the bottom is the same in 3/4 and 4/4 time.
I explained the top number means how many quarter note values need to be in each measure. I explained the measures are the vertical bars. So 4/4 means four quarter notes or the equivalent (2 half notes for example) and 3/4 means three quarter notes or the equivalent (a half note and a quarter note).
To have the students draw the notes, I first started with whole, then had them fill it in for half, then add a line for quarter, and then add a flag for eighth. I explained you can connect two flagged notes to make a pair of eighth notes.
The Masters class did so well with all of this but if you have a younger class, I advise just sticking to the CC guide. Again, I also introduced extra things because they want to play a 3/4 time signature Christmas song.
Supplies needed for week 8 tin whistle:
- each student needs to bring their tin whistle (give students a pencil to finger along if they forgot their whistle at home)
- paper and pencil to draw the staff and notes
CC Cycle 2 Week 9 Science
For science this week we did rockets! The kids had so much fun.
We did:
- balloon rockets as described in the CC guide
- hand rockets
- stomp rockets (outside)
I used the script in the Sandbox Ezine to explain the science behind rockets. I had one student decide to do an experiment to see if adding a weight (a large pebble) to one of the foam stomp rockets would help the rocket fly further. We didn’t notice a difference but it was cool to see how the classical model invites experimentation!
CC Cycle 2 Week 9 Review
For review this week, we played Give or Take. I got this game from Love, MsC on YouTube who is a great resource for Masters classes!
I’ll link her video where she explains the game but essentially, to play Give or Take you will need:
- 3 foam dice (she uses 2 so watch her video if you want that rendition)
- permanent marker to write on the dice
- paper and pencil (or whiteboard) to keep track of scoring.
I changed the game play a bit so here is what I did:
- Divide the class into two teams. This is a competitive game so try to divide with strong “memory masters” on each team.
- Tell the class that each team will take turns. The first team will say if they want to give or if they want to take. Give means that whatever they roll, the points are applied to the other team. If they take, whatever they roll, the points are applied to their team. They must say “give” or “take” before they roll any of the dice.
- On one die, have six subjects written out. (I made the mistake of using dry erase marker and I needed to use wet erase so I kept having to re-write it out.) I don’t put timeline into my review games because I have the students sing it from the beginning (since it’s not too long yet) during clean up. So, just history, geography, latin, english, math, and science. On another die, put two minus signs and four plus signs. Leave the third die as is – these will represent their number value but in the 100s so a “2” is really 200 points.
- Have the first person on the first team say “give” or “take”. Then roll and answer the question. If they give, that means whatever points (plus or minus and either 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, or 600) go to the other team. If they take, they get whatever points for their own team. So lets say they roll History, plus sign, 4. If giving, they gave the other team 400 points. If taking, they gave their own team 400 points.
- Rotate between the two teams and between all players on the team. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins.
The kids got into this game but it does take a long time. We didn’t end up getting through all of review but I think when we play it next it will be quicker. This time I had to explain how to play the game which does have a bit of a learning curve.
I also had students who were very indecisive if they were to give or take so keep that in mind. Next time I will probably count to 5 so they decide in 5 seconds or I choose for them.
Supplies needed for Give or Take (my adjusted version):
- 3 foam dice & permanent markers to write on 2 of them
- paper and pen to keep track of scores
Save These Masters Tutors Ideas for Later
If you have a masters class for Classical Conversations this year, make sure to save this plan to reference during your CC Cycle 2 Week 9 tutor planning!
