Our top tips for thriving in Classical Conversations Challenge A. Learn from our experience and make your year a bit easier!

I have seen so many great ideas for review games out there. I thought I would compile a list of my favorites to have as a resource. I figure if I could come up with 6 great games that work, I only have to use the same game 4 times in a year! 1. Zap! - This is my favorite game so far simply because the smartest group doesn't always win. It's kind of like Jeopardy, but with a curve ball - if you get the "Zapped" card, you lose all your points! Thanks for sharing, Mathtastrophe! Game instructions and printable here. Another take on this game is Bazinga by Simplifying Radicals. 2. Nerf Gun - Love this idea! Draw a bullseye on the board. Divide the kids into teams. Ask a team a review question. If they get the answer correct, they get to shoot at the board to see how many points they earn. So fun! 3. Jenga - I really like how Living Out His Love blog does this one. She writes with a sharpie marker directly onto the Jenga piece. And, she write a subject and week on both sides of each piece. Though, if done this way, it seems like you could only do this at the end of the semester (because if you have Sciene, week 7 written in sharpie and you're only at week 3, that wouldn't work!). Another idea is to tape the subject and week with clear packing tape and then re-do it as your progress along in the year. 4. Power Tower - Similar to Jenga, but with paper cups. Write the question on the cup. If the class answers correctly, they get to stack the cups. If the tower falls, they have to start over. via Mrs. Lewis' Learning Library 5. Mr Potato Head - For every question the class gets correct, they get to add a body part to Mr. Potato. I also like the idea on 2nd Grade Rocks! blog. She uses it as a behavior incentive. Every time the class has good behavior, they get to add a body part. When Mr. Potato is completely put together, they get to have an ice cream party! 6. Snowball Fight - Love this idea for Texas as this may be the only snow the children ever see. Write the review questions on a piece of paper. Divide the kids into 2 teams. If the kids get it correct, they get to crumble it up into a ball. After all the questions have been answered, they get to have a snowball fight using the paper balls! 7. Chair Tic-Tac-Toe - Put nine chairs in 3 rows of 3 to make a square. Divide the class into 2 teams. Ask a team a question. If they get it correctly, one of their players gets to sit in one of the chairs. The first team to have 3 players sitting in a row wins. 8. Memory Mogul - Awesome (and free!) printable game from Sola Gratia Mom blog. This one seems like it could take some time printing out the cards and possibly creating a game board. But, the game board and cards could last all year. Click here for instructions and printables. 9. Stinky Feet - My 7 year old son would love this one. Very simple with little prep time. Idea and instructions can be found here at Teaching in the Fast Lane blog. 10. Classroom Board Game - This game may require a little adapting, but it looks like fun. Turn the classroom into a life size game board. Great ideas for how to do this game here at Blessings for Bible School Teachers.

Our top tips for thriving in Classical Conversations Challenge A. Learn from our experience and make your year a bit easier!

Our top tips for thriving in Classical Conversations Challenge A. Learn from our experience and make your year a bit easier!

Our top tips for thriving in Classical Conversations Challenge A. Learn from our experience and make your year a bit easier!

We have kept super busy this year with 2 Challenge programs, a college student coming and going a job, or two, Directing Challenge A and a few other things- too much painting of offices, for sure. But, now that we winding up Challenge, I wanted to record some of the games, resources and schedule we used before I forget them all and so that I have a handy reference for training this summer. Here Goes: We started each Community Day with a short devotional and scripture reading. We sing the Doxology, say it in Latin or pray. Then we write 5 and 5 (5 Common Topics/ 5 Cannons of Rhetoric) Then we'd dive in to the 6 Seminars. Latin- the kids loved Latin Scrabble. I had two sets of tiles divided between 5 groups of two each. They could add in 2 vowels and 3 consonants as needed. They could use the Latin dictionary or other Latin words as long as they were used correctly and declined/ conjugated correctly. Often, the teams competed against each other, seeing how many sentences they could create in a limited time- they had to have their sentences checked by an adult. To change it up: They would have to create a question using Ubi, Ibi, Cur, Quis or Quid. They would get a point for every questions created. If we had time they would then have the group next to them form an answer to their question in Latin with their tiles - this created some hilarious results! Latin stations- several times I would put info we've studied on file cards- for instance: Latin declensions, conjugations, Grammar rules, translation from English to Latin or vice-versa - and tape them around the room. I relied heavily on the homework that we'd completed as well as Memoria Press Guides to Henle. I would intersperse the information with difficult and simple problems. The kids would go around the room in whatever order they wanted and try to solve/answer as many cards as possible in a given time. We also played Latin bingo with Personal Pronouns. We copied charts in class. Every Community Day we spent 10 minutes chanting Latin charts, which I purchased from Memoria Press. I highly recommend having them professionally laminated. We would race to see who could translate and diagram Latin sentences the fastest. Mold, Act, Draw. I just found this game but will be playing it this coming week- the kids LOVE clay! Make a simple spinner and put Mold on it twice, Act on it twice and Draw on it twice. Student picks a vocab word from a deck and spins the spinner. They have to either mold with clay, act it out like charades or draw it out like pictionary. Set timer for 60 seconds. Math We did student directed Math Discussion for every seminar and then I would introduce the Saxon lessons. I created a Math Discussion sheet based on the 5 Common Topics; starting with "Definitions." The kids had to thoroughly exhaust each section before they could. Board Slam was our best diversion - the kids continue to love it. One of our moms donated a huge bag of dice for the year and it included many different sided dice. To change it up, I'd allow the kids to pick different sided dice. We'd also set the timer for a minute and at the end of the timer the kids would have to trade their board with someone else and pick up where they'd left off. LTW I copied off the terms we'd learned in Lost Tools of Writing and cut them in to slips. Divide the kids into groups and they have to take the slips of paper, put them in order for a Persuasive Essay. Then, I would give the kids a topic- like the Burning Bush, or The Three Little Pigs and they would have 15 minutes to write a collaborative essay on the topic (usually only with 2 proofs for the sake of time). Dictionary Game- the kids loved this. I would take vocab words from the reading and say/spell the words to teams- between 10-25 words, depending on how much time we had. The teams would look up and define the terms. The team with the most correctly defined terms withing a specific time limit won. Extra points for making Latin connections. Rhetoric The biggest hit this year was Socratic Circles. At the beginning of the year, I would choose the topic but as the kids got more familiar with it, they would choose the topic. Great discussion! I would also assign the kids roles to play-act: God, Moses, Charles Darwin, etc and the "audience" would ask them questions. GREAT interaction about issues related to It Couldn't Just Happen. To review Fallacies the kids would randomly pick 3-5 fallacies/catechisms and have 10 minutes to come up with a skit that included them all. The rest of the class would try to guess what they had portrayed. This made for much hilarity. Have the kids search for fallacies in real life- they are everywhere! Whoever brings in the most, wins points! And, of course, we played Jeopardy. Science For Science, I printed off a list of things to include in their presentations as well as how to create a good presentation. The kids earned points for things like making eye-contact, introducing themselves and their topic, etc. For body systems- once we had a few under our belt, I printed off sheets for the systems and numbered them, but not in the same order. The kids had to draw and label them in the ordered number and had to complete the lesser numbers in order to earn the higher number points. They could strategize and have multiple people drawing at the same time, but I usually gave them between 10-15 minutes to draw up to all 9 systems. Debate We played "Around the World" often-the kids enjoyed this. We also played "Family Feud." I person from 2 teams would be at the front. I would give clues about a country, capital or feature and the first person to guess within 1 minute would get a point. We often played pictionary for geography terms. The kids loved it! My goal to end each Community Day was to go through "Collect, Connect, Compose" but I wasn't very consistent on it. Collect what they've learned that day, connect it to something they've already known and compose a poem, song, ditty, drawing, etc. about it. Great integration. Points- I had a simple point system based on Fabas (Latin for "bean.") Kids got points for completing all homework in each strand, for winning games, for integration of subject material, etc. We had a quart sized jar that the beans went into. Once the jar was full, I had an ice-cream party for the kids at lunch. The faba jar was super important to the kids until they earned an ice cream party and then it was important, but not something they thought about all of the time. In my mind, I think it was because they were internalizing how to manage the material, making connections automatically and understanding how to work the program. That's it. We didn't have a huge array of games to choose from, but the ones we had we used often and had a great time with. Perhaps this will spark some good games for you to do with your class or kids. If so, I'd love to hear about it! @Golden Grasses 2008-2013. All photographs, artwork and text are the property of the owner unless otherwise stated. Don't miss a thing! Subscribe to Golden Grasses and get our articles right to your inbox!

I'm in my fourth year of directing a Challenge program for Classical Conversations. I started off in Challenge A with my oldest, then moved up to Challenge B, and Challenge I with him. This year, I went back down to Challenge A again to tutor my daughter's class. My husband directed Challenge A last year,…

How to Make the Most of CC’s Challenge Program Welcome to our CC Challenge-Specific Page I’m dedicating a corner of my website (which is mostly about teaching art using the classical model of education) specifically to how we made CC’s community-based Challenge curriculum work in our family and community. On this page, I cover some...

Today, my classes completed the Cup Challenge! We loved it! The point of this was for students to practice their new lab team roles and develop some teamwork guidelines. Each team gets 6 cups, string, and rubber bands. Using just string and rubber bands, students must make a pyramid with the cups. No touching the ... Read more

Revised & Re-posted…. The first Geography adventure for Challenge A is to learn the geography of Canada. You would think …

As a Challenge Mom and Essentials Tutor, I am asked alot how to prepare for Challenge A Latin. Get stick in the sand advice for Challenge A Latin.

Here's another FREE Boomwhacker Chart for my visitors. This is a downloadable/printable JPEG file, or you can download a free (higher resolution) PDF from: http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Color-coded-C-Pentatonic-Scale-Poster-or-Resource-Page-for-Bells-or-Boomwhackers If you use Boomwhackers with your students or family, I invite you to check out some of my Color-Chord-inated Song Collections. Teachers tell me these materials save them a lot of time (and knowing how much time I put into them, I must agree!). They are great for end-of-school-year activities, summer programs, and easy-to-put-together performances. I am delighted to know that students and teachers are having great success with these materials!   http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-HOEDOWN-COLLECTION-of-Color-Chord-inated-Songs-for-Bells-or-Boomwhackers  http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-PATRIOTIC-COLLECTION-of-Color-Chord-inated-Songs-for-Bells-or-Boomwhackers   http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/50-Partner-Tunes-to-Sing-Bing-Boom

Fabtastic ancient Greek architecture STEM challenge & activities! Perfect for all ages: preschool, kindergarten, elementary, middle, high school, and adult!

I decided to take on my own challenge of incorporating a STEM activity every day for a week. It turned out to be a huge success where both my students and I had a blast. Here were the various …

I love teaching a split-grade class. I know this may not be a popular opinion in teaching, but there it is. In reality, many of us teach split-grade

STEM Challenges are the perfect way to demonstrate Newton's Laws of Motion. Here are 5 projects that are great for elementary students. Hands-on activities!

Here are some printable resources for Week 15: Latin First Declension Packet, Highest Mountains on Each Continent and Metric Equivalents. You can download the 3 .pdf files here: Highest Moun…

The Challenge I program in Classical Conversations generally matches up with a student's freshman year of highschool, but it is so much more!

The ten literature selections for the Classical Conversations Challenge A program were all chosen with the theme “Ownership” in mind, and I have loved almost all of them. I appreciate the variety of fiction and historical fiction (from Ancient Rome to World War II, and two based on the lives of real people) as well as the balance of male and female protagonists (usually around the age of Challenge A students when they face their greatest conflict). Number the Stars and Amos Fortune, Free Man were both first-time reads for me, and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed them. It seems as if I had heard some negative comments about The Door in the Wall, but it was one of my favorites and it led to great discussions when we were working on the ANI chart. We are discussing Crispin: The Cross of Lead this week, and I couldn’t put it down once I started reading. My book is all marked up. I hope to share some discussion notes next week. I immediately purchased the other two books in the trilogy, Crispin: At the Edge of the World and Crispin: The End of Time. The Bronze Bow, our last literature selection, is up next. I’m looking forward to re-reading and discussing. [I shared some thoughts about our discussion of The Secret Garden here and here and our essay outline here.] A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-32 was the book I struggled with the most. The writing felt forced or awkward, and I didn’t care for the journal-entry style writing (which contributed to the forced story-line). I also found it very difficult to come up with a large number of entries for our ANI chart without getting wildly inventive. It wasn’t awful, I just wasn’t particularly inspired to discuss the book. Levi and I worked on the essay together, however, and it turned out better than I expected so I am sharing here. We chose to argue a different side of the issue from what we normally do. As I shared yesterday, these basic persuasive essays are intended to be precise, reduced writing with correct structure that will allow for beautiful, high-quality, productive growth in the coming years. It’s not perfect (especially the support for proof 3), but we’re making progress. A Gathering of Days by Joan W. Blos Lost Tools of Writing Basic Persuasive Essay II Is it possible to do the wrong thing with good intentions? In A Gathering of Days Catherine had good intentions, but she should not have left the blanket and food for the “phantom” for three reasons. Catherine failed to protect herself and others from danger, she failed to obey the authorities over her, and she failed to respect the property of others. The first reason Catherine should not have left the blanket and food for the “phantom” was that she failed to protect herself and others from danger. Catherine, who was only a fourteen-year-old girl, knew that the “phantom” was a man by the size of his stride and footprints like craters in the ground. She did not know what kind of person he was or what his intentions were. Catherine also risked her friend’s life by asking her friend to accompany her on the mission. The second reason Catherine should not have left the blanket and food for the “phantom” was that she failed to obey the authorities over her. Catherine kept her actions secret from her father who thought indentured servants ought to be returned and was likely to advise against helping a probable run-away slave. Catherine did not ask for any adult’s help or advice within her community. Catherine’s government, the United States, considered her action illegal. Toward the end of her journal Catherine wrote, “Thus it now appears to me that trust, and not submission, defines obedience.” (p. 139) She should have trusted her authorities. The third reason Catherine should not have left the blanket and food for the “phantom” was that she failed to respect the property of others. The “phantom” legally belonged to someone else. He disrespected her property by stealing her book and writing in it. The quilt and food were not Catherine’s property to give away. Catherine should not have left the blanket and food for the “phantom” because she failed to protect herself and others, she failed to obey authority, and she failed to respect the property of others. Catherine’s actions mattered most to her father because his daughter was in danger, she was under his authority, and the property given was his.

The Latin 5th Declension Packet is ready! You can download it here: Latin Fifth Declension Packet Also, if you’ve missed my past posts with the other 4 declension packets, here they are: Firs…

Our protocol formal events, organized by Challenge communities, teach Classical Conversations students respectful, Christ-like behavior.

I have seen so many great ideas for review games out there. I thought I would compile a list of my favorites to have as a resource. I figure if I could come up with 6 great games that work, I only have to use the same game 4 times in a year! 1. Zap! - This is my favorite game so far simply because the smartest group doesn't always win. It's kind of like Jeopardy, but with a curve ball - if you get the "Zapped" card, you lose all your points! Thanks for sharing, Mathtastrophe! Game instructions and printable here. Another take on this game is Bazinga by Simplifying Radicals. 2. Nerf Gun - Love this idea! Draw a bullseye on the board. Divide the kids into teams. Ask a team a review question. If they get the answer correct, they get to shoot at the board to see how many points they earn. So fun! 3. Jenga - I really like how Living Out His Love blog does this one. She writes with a sharpie marker directly onto the Jenga piece. And, she write a subject and week on both sides of each piece. Though, if done this way, it seems like you could only do this at the end of the semester (because if you have Sciene, week 7 written in sharpie and you're only at week 3, that wouldn't work!). Another idea is to tape the subject and week with clear packing tape and then re-do it as your progress along in the year. 4. Power Tower - Similar to Jenga, but with paper cups. Write the question on the cup. If the class answers correctly, they get to stack the cups. If the tower falls, they have to start over. via Mrs. Lewis' Learning Library 5. Mr Potato Head - For every question the class gets correct, they get to add a body part to Mr. Potato. I also like the idea on 2nd Grade Rocks! blog. She uses it as a behavior incentive. Every time the class has good behavior, they get to add a body part. When Mr. Potato is completely put together, they get to have an ice cream party! 6. Snowball Fight - Love this idea for Texas as this may be the only snow the children ever see. Write the review questions on a piece of paper. Divide the kids into 2 teams. If the kids get it correct, they get to crumble it up into a ball. After all the questions have been answered, they get to have a snowball fight using the paper balls! 7. Chair Tic-Tac-Toe - Put nine chairs in 3 rows of 3 to make a square. Divide the class into 2 teams. Ask a team a question. If they get it correctly, one of their players gets to sit in one of the chairs. The first team to have 3 players sitting in a row wins. 8. Memory Mogul - Awesome (and free!) printable game from Sola Gratia Mom blog. This one seems like it could take some time printing out the cards and possibly creating a game board. But, the game board and cards could last all year. Click here for instructions and printables. 9. Stinky Feet - My 7 year old son would love this one. Very simple with little prep time. Idea and instructions can be found here at Teaching in the Fast Lane blog. 10. Classroom Board Game - This game may require a little adapting, but it looks like fun. Turn the classroom into a life size game board. Great ideas for how to do this game here at Blessings for Bible School Teachers.

Beowulf is a challenging text: it's long, dense, and old. With these strategies, you can make this text relevant for all students!

My kids and I have been struggling to find a way to successfully plan our week of Challenge work and accomplish all of our plans. We've tried basic planners, online planners, and everything in between. I finally decided that they needed not only to figure out how to plan their schedule, but also develop a…

Henry the Fifth is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays. I love medieval England and the premodern English monarchy, so its setting and themes are right

Here’s one of my kids’ and students’ absolute favorite STEM challenge: an egg drop challenge! In this post you’ll see some egg contraptions from this year’s egg drop project, as well as some free printable recording sheets to use in the classroom. Be sure to also check out the links to past egg drop challenges! Follow our …

Read our free guide to teaching Beowulf, an epic tale perfect for examining the traits of heroes and introducing students to Old English works.

Fun Empathy Activities for Kids + (Printable) KINDNESS Challenge. Emotional and Cognitive Empathy / Empathy for children

A large part of the Classical model is its method or the manner of teaching the content. The classical model employed at Bradford Academy recognizes that the ancient TRIVIUM aligns […]

Click for even more facts or download the worksheets & read about Hipparchus of Nicaea who was an astronomer, geographer, and mathematician.

I already wrote a post detailing how we prepared our son, our Dialectic Dyslexic, for entering Challenge A and I wanted to take a few minutes to recap the year. The best thing I did as a parent to …

This study guide and infographic for Unknown's Beowulf offer summary and analysis on themes, symbols, and other literary devices found in the text. Explore Course Hero's library of literature materials, including documents and Q&A pairs.

We have kept super busy this year with 2 Challenge programs, a college student coming and going a job, or two, Directing Challenge A and a few other things- too much painting of offices, for sure. But, now that we winding up Challenge, I wanted to record some of the games, resources and schedule we used before I forget them all and so that I have a handy reference for training this summer. Here Goes: We started each Community Day with a short devotional and scripture reading. We sing the Doxology, say it in Latin or pray. Then we write 5 and 5 (5 Common Topics/ 5 Cannons of Rhetoric) Then we'd dive in to the 6 Seminars. Latin- the kids loved Latin Scrabble. I had two sets of tiles divided between 5 groups of two each. They could add in 2 vowels and 3 consonants as needed. They could use the Latin dictionary or other Latin words as long as they were used correctly and declined/ conjugated correctly. Often, the teams competed against each other, seeing how many sentences they could create in a limited time- they had to have their sentences checked by an adult. To change it up: They would have to create a question using Ubi, Ibi, Cur, Quis or Quid. They would get a point for every questions created. If we had time they would then have the group next to them form an answer to their question in Latin with their tiles - this created some hilarious results! Latin stations- several times I would put info we've studied on file cards- for instance: Latin declensions, conjugations, Grammar rules, translation from English to Latin or vice-versa - and tape them around the room. I relied heavily on the homework that we'd completed as well as Memoria Press Guides to Henle. I would intersperse the information with difficult and simple problems. The kids would go around the room in whatever order they wanted and try to solve/answer as many cards as possible in a given time. We also played Latin bingo with Personal Pronouns. We copied charts in class. Every Community Day we spent 10 minutes chanting Latin charts, which I purchased from Memoria Press. I highly recommend having them professionally laminated. We would race to see who could translate and diagram Latin sentences the fastest. Mold, Act, Draw. I just found this game but will be playing it this coming week- the kids LOVE clay! Make a simple spinner and put Mold on it twice, Act on it twice and Draw on it twice. Student picks a vocab word from a deck and spins the spinner. They have to either mold with clay, act it out like charades or draw it out like pictionary. Set timer for 60 seconds. Math We did student directed Math Discussion for every seminar and then I would introduce the Saxon lessons. I created a Math Discussion sheet based on the 5 Common Topics; starting with "Definitions." The kids had to thoroughly exhaust each section before they could. Board Slam was our best diversion - the kids continue to love it. One of our moms donated a huge bag of dice for the year and it included many different sided dice. To change it up, I'd allow the kids to pick different sided dice. We'd also set the timer for a minute and at the end of the timer the kids would have to trade their board with someone else and pick up where they'd left off. LTW I copied off the terms we'd learned in Lost Tools of Writing and cut them in to slips. Divide the kids into groups and they have to take the slips of paper, put them in order for a Persuasive Essay. Then, I would give the kids a topic- like the Burning Bush, or The Three Little Pigs and they would have 15 minutes to write a collaborative essay on the topic (usually only with 2 proofs for the sake of time). Dictionary Game- the kids loved this. I would take vocab words from the reading and say/spell the words to teams- between 10-25 words, depending on how much time we had. The teams would look up and define the terms. The team with the most correctly defined terms withing a specific time limit won. Extra points for making Latin connections. Rhetoric The biggest hit this year was Socratic Circles. At the beginning of the year, I would choose the topic but as the kids got more familiar with it, they would choose the topic. Great discussion! I would also assign the kids roles to play-act: God, Moses, Charles Darwin, etc and the "audience" would ask them questions. GREAT interaction about issues related to It Couldn't Just Happen. To review Fallacies the kids would randomly pick 3-5 fallacies/catechisms and have 10 minutes to come up with a skit that included them all. The rest of the class would try to guess what they had portrayed. This made for much hilarity. Have the kids search for fallacies in real life- they are everywhere! Whoever brings in the most, wins points! And, of course, we played Jeopardy. Science For Science, I printed off a list of things to include in their presentations as well as how to create a good presentation. The kids earned points for things like making eye-contact, introducing themselves and their topic, etc. For body systems- once we had a few under our belt, I printed off sheets for the systems and numbered them, but not in the same order. The kids had to draw and label them in the ordered number and had to complete the lesser numbers in order to earn the higher number points. They could strategize and have multiple people drawing at the same time, but I usually gave them between 10-15 minutes to draw up to all 9 systems. Debate We played "Around the World" often-the kids enjoyed this. We also played "Family Feud." I person from 2 teams would be at the front. I would give clues about a country, capital or feature and the first person to guess within 1 minute would get a point. We often played pictionary for geography terms. The kids loved it! My goal to end each Community Day was to go through "Collect, Connect, Compose" but I wasn't very consistent on it. Collect what they've learned that day, connect it to something they've already known and compose a poem, song, ditty, drawing, etc. about it. Great integration. Points- I had a simple point system based on Fabas (Latin for "bean.") Kids got points for completing all homework in each strand, for winning games, for integration of subject material, etc. We had a quart sized jar that the beans went into. Once the jar was full, I had an ice-cream party for the kids at lunch. The faba jar was super important to the kids until they earned an ice cream party and then it was important, but not something they thought about all of the time. In my mind, I think it was because they were internalizing how to manage the material, making connections automatically and understanding how to work the program. That's it. We didn't have a huge array of games to choose from, but the ones we had we used often and had a great time with. Perhaps this will spark some good games for you to do with your class or kids. If so, I'd love to hear about it! @Golden Grasses 2008-2013. All photographs, artwork and text are the property of the owner unless otherwise stated. Don't miss a thing! Subscribe to Golden Grasses and get our articles right to your inbox!

Tutoring tips, ways to tutor, ideas for tutoring, how to tutor, CC tutoring, simple tutoring

The socratic questioning process as an infographic - I think this will be most useful #edchat #ukedchat #questioning