Classical Conversations Cycle 1 - Week 6

It's so easy to go crazy with all the fantastic ideas being pinned for Classical Conversations Cycle 1! I have to narrow it down. These plans are to give an idea of what one might do in one week without it being overwhelming, and while balancing all the other subjects one has to teach.  These are the plans I intend to follow for my 5 year old.




History:
The fall of Rome: Story of the World Volume 1 Chapter 39 - 42 (this covers the rise and fall of Rome). I'll be looking for books from this list at the library and may purchase a few for our personal library.  I haven't decided which yet.  I'd like for us to make a toga and have a little Roman party as our fun activity for Rome.  Here's a website about Rome for kids. I also found an online version of  You Wouldn't Want to Be a Roman Gladiator.

Art tie-in - mosaics. 

Science:

I recently purchased R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey Life for next year to help me along with Science and I want to note that there is a lesson on classification starting on page 107 that illustrates the difficulty in classifying life into their kingdoms.  We'll be doing that lesson in Week 1.  There are also lessons on a member of each of the animal groups and I will be doing the lessons about fish with a group of our CC kids and I will take the time to do the lessons for birds, mammals, amphibians, and reptiles with Bear and J-jo while we are on winter break from CC.

Animal Classification: This website has a description of each of the 5 major groups of vertebrates.  I plan on printing out each description and on making a board like over at Satori Smiles to sort our plastic animals, as well as animal pictures, into the different phyla.  There is also a classification game at the first link.  I like the classification cards that Jolanthe made to go with the animals found in the Before Five in a Row books, so I will print these out to use with our sorting board.  We also have a ton of plastic animals for sorting. 

Here is a song that summarizes the groups and this video might be an entertaining way of remembering the characteristics of the vertebrate groups. (I haven't watched the entire video, so please preview it to make sure it is okay for your family!)


Geography: 
Roman Empire: Trace the maps (found in the Foundations Guide) daily.


ETA: This blog has a post with other books about Rome.