We read, we sang, we cut, pasted, and colored and hopefully absorbed and learned while doing all these fun things. In Religion we talked about God's House, the Church - some of the things we do in church and some of the things found inside and practiced the Sign of the Cross. One little boy - I absolutely remember who it was but don't know if it's appropriate to mention specific students on the site - shared with me several times during the Religion lesson "my dad told me that". Thumbs up for catechesis at home! In English we did a Picture Study and read a short dialogue from the Nature Readers on squirrels and the children seemed to enjoy that exercise quite a bit. We also worked on memorizing "Rain" for this week's Classically Catholic Memory (CCM)'s Great Words I for Week One.
During History, we read the story of Creation while working on a coloring page and then made a creation collage - another hit among the children. At this point they needed some time out of their chairs, so we headed out for a "nature walk" and called out everything we saw that God created and then named some things made instead by man. Back in the classroom we discussed living vs. nonliving things for Science and read a book/sang a song titled "Are You Living?" to the tune of "Are You Sleeping, Brother John?" Good effort was made by most to sing along and even do the motions, but the kids were pretty spent at this point. We did not get to the map work for Geography (CCM Week One is naming the continents), but hope and plan to do so in future weeks.As regards general classroom etiquette, they learned to raise their hand and wait to be called before speaking and to form a line - Beware those who say home schoolers don't know how !
All in all, a great start to the year. Three hours is a long time to stay attentive and tranquil for this age group, but they did beautifully. I imagine you have some sound sleepers at this hour :) I enjoyed getting to know your children and look forward to our next time together.
Kathryn Stocco
Thank you for the report! Yes, keep students' names a secret. ;) We look forward to hearing more in future! Blessings, Alecia
ReplyDeleteMy kids came home so excited and wanted to share everything in thier binders with me. It helped them recall thier day and was so neat to see them excited about school! I love that we do this on a monday and have all week to repeat and build off of what they have done.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kathryn! It really helps to know what they did in class. Sounds like a fun day! My kids can't wait to go back next week.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I have a feeling that I know who that little boy was... :)
Yes, thank you for such a thorough rundown of what you did with your class. I know mine was enjoying herself, or she would not have stayed in class so long! And I know she was listening because I went over "Rain" with her today and she said, "Don't say it. I already know it!" And then proceeded to recite it almost perfectly. Great work! :)
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