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Kathryn
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| Posted: April 25 2014 at 12:14pm | IP Logged
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I spent this past year teaching 5-6 year olds loosely based on Catholic Mosaic. That was the original name of the class but it became clear that so many of the titles are either unavailable and too lengthy for a 1 hour class read-aloud plus craft.
This coming year I'm looking to move up to an older grade and am looking for ideas. I don't want to repeat Catholic Mosaic or particularly be tied to the liturgical year. Any ideas for possibly a literature type class format? Maybe a geography class? Any other class ideas you have done or been involved in that have been successful? Would love minimal prep but that may not be possible.  One of the hardest with this 5-6 yr old class was finding a book at their level that wasn't too long and then a corresponding craft that wasn't too hard and then getting the craft prepped.
Another difficulty was the varying abilities among the kids.
Thanks for any ideas.
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Kathryn in TX
(dd 16, ds 15, dd 8, dd 5)
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jawgee
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| Posted: April 25 2014 at 12:55pm | IP Logged
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The only co-op type activities I've been involved in are:
-Classically Catholic Memory - we just completed our second year and we LOVE it;
-a book club with classes for each different level;
-a kids' club, where the group chooses a theme and meets once a month to do lessons, activities, and games. Some of the themes have been New Year, Not Back to School Day (at the beach), Cinco de Mayo, Olympics, etc. That's a lot of planning, though.
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Monica
C (12/2001), N (11/2005), M (5/2008), J (8/2009) and three angels
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Aagot
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| Posted: April 25 2014 at 1:00pm | IP Logged
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What about one of the Holling C Holling books You could do geography, science, art, map making, or lit.
IEW has a writing program based on the books
I would just do a few pages per lesson and change up the activity each time.
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SallyT
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| Posted: April 25 2014 at 1:17pm | IP Logged
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At 5-6, keeping it simple might be the way to go. Story hour with a simple craft to follow -- or just coloring or play with Lego?
A Holling book might be a lot of fun -- have a big map of, say, the Great Lakes, and do a page of Paddle-to-the-Sea each time? What if you had a little canoe on a magnet or something and could move him each time you read?
And then, rather than a craft, some Masterly Inactivity: paper and crayons, Lego, maybe a little wooden boat on a blue rug or something, to "play" Paddle-to-the-Sea with?
Something less directed might require less prep each time (gather the play materials at the beginning of the year, but don't worry about setting up a craft, which half of them might not be able/willing to do anyway at that age . . . ). And keeping the story time short, with some kind of visual like a map, to track what's going on, might help with keeping attention.
On my way out just now, but those are some random ideas!
Sally
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jawgee
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| Posted: April 25 2014 at 2:59pm | IP Logged
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Aagot wrote:
| What about one of the Holling C Holling books You could do geography, science, art, map making, or lit. |
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Oooh, that could be a lovely idea. Maybe combine with the maps and guide from Geography: A Literature Approach.
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Monica
C (12/2001), N (11/2005), M (5/2008), J (8/2009) and three angels
The Catholic Cup on Facebook
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: April 26 2014 at 6:31am | IP Logged
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My friend belomgs to this co-op, ahd they always seem to have to most creative classes.
What about a simple machines class? To minimize prep for you, you might be able to adapt the Knex kits for a group setting. A little class on electricity with Snap Circuits could be fun, too.
I also just came across a Lego book call Brick Shakespeare! How fun would it be to have a lego Shakespeare class where you read a children's Shakespeare (my boys can take or leave Nesbit and Lamb but LOVE the Bruce Colville adaptions) and then have the kids create scenes from the story with lego?
Other book ideas could be:
*David Macaulay The Way Things work or one of his City, Pyramid, Cathedral, etc...
*haven't read them yet, but I am hoping to utilize the Mikaya Press geography titles much like the Holling C. Holling books.
*Sassafrass Adventures science can be done in a class period, and since the are drawing in their notebooks, they can finish what the don't have time to do in class at home.
*Greek Myths or work your way through Famous Men of Greece or Rome or Plutarch or for little ones, Aesop
*Work your way through a good saint story collection like Once Upon a Time Saints
*We just read Elizabeth Enright's The Saturdays for fun, but I think it would make for a delightful unit study since each chapter centers around an event worthy of study in its own right. We only Got as far as one rabbit trail watching Siegfried on YouTube one afternoon, but going to an art exhibition, and the circus would be fun, too. You could even work in little basic units on personal finance/economics, home fire safety and health (why we have smoke and carbon monoxide detectors  ), and a bit about lighthouses at the end.
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
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[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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CrunchyMom
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| Posted: April 26 2014 at 6:41am | IP Logged
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Another idea, we recently got the Jean Francois illustrated Parables of
Jesus. Whether you used that particular book or not, it could be neat to study the parables.
It also seems like you should be able to modify some of the Jesse
Tree materials avaiable and do a class on salvation history with a figure or event featured each week. They could even make their own Jesse tree ornaments each week so by the end of class they had a collection for their home.
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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SallyT
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| Posted: April 26 2014 at 10:51am | IP Logged
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Oh, sorry, I was still thinking 5-6-year-olds, Kathryn! So disregard what I said as probably totally irrelevant to what you were asking!
Sally
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Kathryn
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| Posted: April 26 2014 at 2:32pm | IP Logged
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Thanks for the ideas...keep them coming. I'm pondering, pondering...
That's ok Sally, still good thoughts.
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Kathryn in TX
(dd 16, ds 15, dd 8, dd 5)
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Kathryn
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| Posted: April 28 2014 at 9:22pm | IP Logged
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Ok...I think I've settled on the 7-8 range and am going to try and incorporate Five in a Row. ???? Seems do-able since it's laid out and I can change from history or geography or art or language art or maybe even a little math!
Someone else is already doing Greek myths and science and this age they'll be having a Sacrament Prep class so hopefully this will work.
Thoughts...suggestions??
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Kathryn in TX
(dd 16, ds 15, dd 8, dd 5)
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mamaslearning
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| Posted: May 03 2014 at 1:40pm | IP Logged
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I am doing "Capitals, Presidents and Landmarks Oh My!" for our co-op this coming year. We will learn the state capitals, introduce presidents, and work on US landmarks through crafts and other mediums. Haven't ironed it all out yet, but it should be fun.
The other class for this age range 2nd/3rd is an anatomy/health class.
I love FIAR type of literature classes and there is so much you can do with crafts, experiments, language arts, cultural awareness, music, etc. Check out Homeschool Share - they took down much of their content but there are still some good resources to be had.
Skills vary so widely at this age, so I did not expect my class to write anything beyond copying a few words into worksheets sometimes. Plus, I did not assume that they could all read. Keep things with reading and writing to a minimum unless you are sending it home to be worked on with an adult or older sibling.
Large body movements are also good - short game or music movements keep them engaged about halfway through the class.
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Lara
DD 11, DS 8, DS 6, DS 4
St. Francis de Sales Homeschool
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Co-op ideas for 7-8 or 9-11 yr olds
