Some quick thoughts about resources for learning this week's material.
History Sentence
A recently republished book called Kings and Queens by Eleanor Farjeon has fun one page rhymes (with an illustration on the facing page) for each of the monarchs of England; beginning with William the Conqueror. If you are local, our library has a bunch of copies. There is another book called Heroes and Heroines which includes more United States history (maybe next year!).
We actually found this book as we were listening through librivox to Our Island Story by H.E. Marshall (as recommended by Ambleside Online). The story of William the Conqueror is track 26. We liked hearing the full story from Marshall and then hearing the poem that summed it up nicely.
There is a piece of art called the Bayeux Tapestry which records the story of William the Conqueror. There are two ways you might want to view it. The first is through this animated video of the Tapestry which starts in the middle of the story. You can also use this site where it is explained scene by scene (it hints at some sexual indiscretion at one point - this one has covered up the 'offending' parts, it draws on a replica from the Victorian era). This site answers more "technical questions" like who made it and why. It also has a table that outlines the scenes on the tapestry (which is actually embroidery according to this website).
Grammar
Montessori grammar symbols might be a way to cement those 8 parts of speech. If you want some thoughts on how to actually present the symbols here is a great guide - she discusses why nouns are triangles and verbs are circles, etc. Yet another way to help kids get form and function of an abstract concept. If you want to make a set of symbols you might want to cut them out of appropriate colored felt or foam - of course you can always print and laminate as well.
Often once they learn the forms they use them to mark sentences (much like you might circle the nouns blue and the verbs read on your copywork). Sentences that might work for this can come from grammar books, KISS grammar or your own copywork.
You can also use the symbols to teach sentence patterns. Which, I understand is a big part of IEW writing. You might want to just create your own sentence strips with the grammar symbols that replicate the primary sentence structures or here. Students can analyze a sentence and then attempt to create sentences that correspond to a pattern. With symbols it cuts down on the words. I am also thinking about how this might be able to translate into Latin studies at some point.
Math
If you want examples of what a math recitation might have looked like in yesteryear try out Ray's Primary Arithmetic (multiplication starts on pg. 41). Plenty of simple, read aloud word problems for kids to work with. In fact, most older elementary math books methodically went through teaching how to you add, subtract, multiply and divide each number up to 20. Everyday Number Stories is another example. Emma Serl, of Primary Language Lessons fame, helped to write this book. Another plus of older books is their focus on measurements like pints and quarts early on.
Science
I wanted to link to a mom who has outlined how Montessori cards correspond with the science lessons for this year's cycle. This is one way to quickly help kids "see" what they are learning. They aren't free but very reasonably priced and bought as PDF's to download and use as you desire.
Have fun working through this week's material.
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