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Friday, August 2, 2013

Classical Conversations - Ideas for Memorization

Here are some ideas for introducing memory work.  

1. Funny Voices

2. Weird Positions

3. Funny Acronyms

4. Erase-a-word

Type out the grammar that needs to be memorized.  Fold up the sheets and put them in balloons.  Each child gets to take a turn popping a balloon and reading the grammar.

6. Everyone Who....Game (another from Children's Ministry Ideas)

a. Everyone who has a pet at home, stand up and say the new grammar.
b. Everyone who likes to play soccer, stand up and say the new grammar while kicking your foot.
c. Everyone who plays a musical instrument, stand up and say the new grammar while raising your arms in the air.
d. Everyone one who loves summer...
e. Everyone who loves to eat pizza, pat your tummy while saying...
f. Everyone who is wearing shoes, march in place while saying...

7. More Physical Movement Ideas
a. Jumping Jacks
b. Toe touches
c. Head, shoulders, knees, toes
d. Arm circles

8. Fun hand motions

9. Run under the table

10. Cards behind the back (works great for Timeline cards)

11. Jump on Cards (Works great for skip counting).  Could also be turned into Hop Scotch.  

12. Duck, Duck, Goose - this is good for introducing Latin or English Grammar.  Instead of saying, "Duck....duck...duck...goose," the child says the memory work while tapping ("o, s, t, mus, tis, nt!").  On the last word of the memory work, the child that is tapped gets up and chases the tapper.  This idea came from The Adventures of Bear blog.

13. Circle Game 
Have the children stand in a circle facing one another.  Each child says one word of the new grammar.  If a child gets a word wrong (or doesn't know it), he/she sits down.  The winner is the last child standing.  

14.  A Message from Our Sponsor/ Puppet Theater
This would be good for those kids who like to perform.  Have each child take a turn performing or announcing the new grammar to his peers.  You could have a DIY doorframe puppet theater set up.  You could bring in a box with a hole cut in it and pretend it is a tv and the child is a newscaster.  Or, you could just bring in a puppet and let the kids take turns making up voices for the puppet and reciting the new grammar to the other students.

15.  Limbo - Sing the history sentence while doing Limbo.  Use a pool noodle for the limbo stick.  Thanks to Sola Gratia Mom blog for this idea (and many more).  

16.  Musical Chairs - Play musical chairs while singing the history sentence.  When the music stops, the person without a chair is out.  He/she gets to become the conductor for the music for the next round.

17.  Skip Counting Ladder - great for math!  Cut up the numbers, then put them in the correct order to make a ladder!



18.  Stacking cups - Another great idea for Math memorization.  ABC and 123 does a great job of explaining this fun skip counting activity.  And, it is so simple!  Line up the cups, stack them, then make a race out of it!  



19.  Guess Who - This idea comes from Children's Church Ministry.  Have one child stand by the teacher, but with his back turned away from the memory work board.  The teacher secretly points to a word in the memory work (without allowing the child that is "it" to see).  Then, the class repeats the memory work, but instead of saying the chosen word, they *clap*.  The kid that is "it" has to guess which word was the chosen word.  

20. Raisin Geography - This is an idea for geography memory work.  Give each student a map and some raisins (or other special treat like m&ms).  Ask the students to show you where a particular location on the map is by placing their raisin on it.  After you've gone through the list of countries, cities, etc, you can go in reverse and say, "Now, eat the raisin that is on Baltic Sea..."

21.  Popsicle Skip Counting - even though this is meant to be a preschool activity, I could totally see this working for the CC class as well!  Put the skip counting numbers on the ends of the popsicle sticks.  Scramble the sticks and have the kids (or teams of 2) put the sticks in order in the play-doh.  

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