Classical Conversations Cycle 1 Tutor Plans

Here are my Classical Conversations Cycle 1 tutor plans for the 2024-2025 school year.  I have a mix of Abecedarians and Apprentice students (ages 5-7).

Note: this is a WORKING DOCUMENT…aka I am filling it in as I progress through the year.  While I have some plans already planned out at the beginning of the year, I don’t have the whole year planned.  So SAVE this post and come back to it periodically to see what I’ve added.

If you want to see what I’m doing week by week in video form, I’m sharing short recap videos on YouTube each week – you can see those HERE.

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The way my brain works is to plan by subject, not by week.  It makes more sense to me to pick a variety of ways to introduce math and fill those in for several weeks, then look at Latin and think about how I might want to approach that one, and so on. So rather than sharing “week 1” and all the things I’m doing for week 1, then doing the same with week 2, and so on, I’m going to share by subject.  I hope that works for your brain too!

If you want to see how I prepped for this year of tutoring (making my tutor board, classroom organization, my binder, etc.) check out this post and this video:

Resources

As I’ve been planning there have been several fantastic resources that I’ve referenced and used as inspiration.

General places to get ideas

• CC Connected (aka CCC).  Once you’re contracted to be a tutor you’ll have access in CCC to a tutor forum where people share tutor files.  That being said, there isn’t a whole lot of stuff there.  Some, but not tons.  There are quite a few resources in the regular CC parent shared forum though.  Everything I’ve found on CCC I’m linking here.
• CC official Cycle 1 Tutor Facebook group for 2024-2025.  This group has been a wealth of ideas.  The tutors in there share files and ideas, this is my go-to resource.
• Abecedarian Tutors Facebook group – Another group with lots of ideas specific to the youngest learners.
• Main CC FB group – There’s also lots of stuff for tutors in the main CC group so use the search functions there as well.

Lesson plans

I found two people on CC Connected who have generously shared files with their whole entire set of filled in lesson plans for Cycle 1 as well as a couple of bloggers/YouTubers who share their plans from each week. I have referenced all four of these often as I’ve been planning for this year.

• Filled in lesson plans #1
• Filled in lesson plans #2
• This blog shares her weekly tutor plans (here’s cycle 1 week 1 scroll to the end of the post to see links for the other weeks)
• Love, Mrs C. on YouTube shares video recaps of what she does each week in her class.
• Devoted to Littles has a blog and YouTube channel where she will be sharing what she’s doing each week.

Other resources

This document has a TON of great ideas of how to present new grammar and this document has a bunch of review games ideas (click “make a copy” to see them) (shared in the tutors group)

This file has jingles for most of the songs for Cycle 1.  I already have songs I use/like for most of the memory work but if you don’t have any yet this might be helpful to you.

My planner

Our director printed this planner for us; here is another option on CCC (editable doc here, pdf you can print and write on here) and an option on Canva.

I’m using the one our director printed to jot down an overview of what I’m doing and the editable word document linked above to type out more specific info (lyrics, hand motions, etc.)

(You can see what else is in my binder in my tutor prep post HERE)

New Grammar

Here is what I have planned for introducing new grammar each week.  I’ll keep updating this post as I plan more through the year.

Math

• Week 1: hop while doing the 1s, march in pairs while doing the 2s
• Week 2: high knees for the 3s, toe touches for the 4s
• Week 3: high fives (crossbody) for 5s, balance on one foot for 6s
• Week 4: reach high for 7s, speed skate for 8s; also used my 15×15 pop it and the kids took turns popping it while we sang the songs
• Week 5: change positions (lay down, sit, kneel, squat, stand, stretch high) for 9s, chant with shakers for 10s; also used the pop it again
• Week 6: hold a variety of silly poses (like statues) for 11s, do squats for 12s; we also hopped through the agility ladder
• Week 7: hopped through the agility ladder
• Week 8: do squats, punches, and calf raises as we listen/sing
• Week 9: do wall sits, lunges, and high knees as we listen/sing
• Week 10: make a large square with painters tape on the and have kids walk around it like a balance beam, walk backward, and crawl around it as we listen/sing
• Week 11: used cubes (I used linking cubes but you could use wooden cubes, dice, centimeter cubes, sugar cubes, etc.) and the kids tried to make as tall a stack as possible while we sang the song
• Week 12: Sing this song and use these cards to put the equations together correctly
• Week 13:
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History

• Week 1: sing song, use hand motions (similar to these), and put the visual cards in order
• Week 2: sing song, use hand motions (similar to these), and put the visual cards in order
• Week 3: sing song and use these hand motions (I did not find these cute Greek/Roman God matching cards until after our Week 3 was over but if I’d seen them before I would have used them too)
• Week 4: sing sing and use these hand motions
• Week 5: sing song and use these hand motions; also put the visual cards in order (from the same file linked in weeks 1 and 2)
• Week 6: sing song, use these hand motions, and also put the visual cards for Homer/Pythgoras/Socrates/Aristotle around the room and run to each one as we sang their names.
• Week 7: sing song, used these hand motions,
• Week 8: sing song, use these hand motions, and put the visual cards in order (from the same file linked in weeks 1 and 2)
• Week 9: sing song, use these hand motions, then put visual cards (linked above) around room and run to each one as we sing
• Week 10: sing song, use these hand motions, and put the visual cards in order (from the same file linked in weeks 1 and 2)
• Week 11: use shakers while we sing the song
• Week 12: sing song, use these hand motions, and put the visual cards in order (from the same file linked in weeks 1 and 2)
• Week 13:
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Timeline

• Week 1: sing/do motions, students take turns coming up to put the timeline cards in order
• Week 2: sing/do motions, take turns pointing to the cards with my pointer
• Week 3: hide cards around classroom, they find/line up; sing/do motions
• Week 4: played “Timeline Detective” (one child comes up and flips one card over while the other’s cover their eyes, then they look and see if they can figure out which card is turned over; then repeat)
• Week 5: play timeline bomb (put “bombs” on the back of the cards, kids take turns picking a card, turn over to see if they got a bomb – if they do then we count down 3…2…1…EXPLODE!)
• Week 6: play Duck Duck Goose while singing/listening to the song; the person who’s head is tapped when the song clip ends is the “goose”
• Week 7: scrambled up the cards then the kids put them in order
• Week 8: take turns pointing to the cards with my pointer
• Week 9: hide cards around classroom, they find/line up; sing/do motions
• Week 10: played “Timeline Detective” (one child comes up and flips one card over while the other’s cover their eyes, then they look and see if they can figure out which card is turned over; then repeat)
• Week 11: play timeline bomb (put “bombs” on the back of the cards, kids take turns picking a card, turn over to see if they got a bomb – if they do then we count down 3…2…1…EXPLODE!)
• Week 12: play “Jump the River” (use a jump rope in a U shape to make a skinny “river”, each time through the song make the river a little bit wider so they have to jump further to cross it)
• Week 13:
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Science

• Week 1: hop through an agility ladder while saying the classification of living things
• Week 2: hop through the agility ladder
• Week 3: hop through the agility ladder and sing to the tune of “How much is that doggie in the window” (found here)
• Week 4: Sang to the tune of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” (found here) – I had pictures of each item put up around the room and had one kid stand at each spot, when we got to their portion of the song they waved their hands
• Week 5: Sang to the tune of “It’s a Small World” (found here) and used hand motions (from here)
• Week 6: Sang to the tune of “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” (found here), used hand motions (from here); also put pictures of each category of vertebrate on a table and the kids tap with a flyswatter/pointer
• Week 7: used hand motions (from here) and then said them in silly voices (whisper, deep man voice, robot, crying)
• Week 8: use hand motions (from here) and then said in silly voices (hold nose, slow like a turtle, mad, underwater)
• Week 9: use hand motions (from here) and then said in silly voices (crescendo, decrescendo, pianissimo, and forte)
• Week 10: use hand motions (from here) and then used a large pointer to point at pictures of each leaf shape
• Week 11: use hand motions (from here) and then hop through the agility ladder
• Week 12: use hand motions (from here) and then said in silly voices (stick out tongue, super fast, with disgust, like royalty)
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Latin

• Week 1: use this song and motions; split the class in half – half says the Latin, half says the English, then switch
• Week 2: use same song/motions as last week, use Latin Lion puppet to say them
• Week 3: use Latin Lion and Latin Lamb puppets
• Week 4: Twirled like a ballerina and shot basketballs while we listened/sang
• Week 5: Latin Lion/Latin Lamb puppets
• Week 6: Did a variety of motions while we listened/sang (chomp like a crocodile, waddle like a penguin, flap like a chicken)
• Week 7: Latin Lion/Latin Lamb puppets
• Week 8: Did a variety of motions while we listened/sang (crawl like a baby, stand like a flamingo, fly like a bird)
• Week 9: Latin Lion/Latin Lamb puppets
• Week 10: Did “Ring Around the Rosie” while listening to the song
• Week 11: Latin Lion/Latin Lamb puppets
• Week 12: Limbo (using a jump rope) while listening to the song
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English

• Week 1: Sing this song while shaking shakers
• Week 2: Sing the preposition song and do hand motions (video here, stick figure motions here, written out motions here)
• Week 3: same as week 2
• Week 4: same as week 2
• Week 5: same as week 2
• Week 6: same as week 2
• Week 7: same as week 2
• Week 8: same as week 2
• Week 9: same as week 2
• Week 10: same as week 2
• Week 11: same as week 2
• Week 12: same as week 2
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Geography

• Week 1: CC Happy Mom song/motions, trace with dry erase then erase with q-tip, point with q-tip
• Week 2: use little animals to move from location to location, trace/erase
• Week 3: use little pointers on their maps, trace/erase
• Week 4: used my big pointer to point on my big map – part of the time I said a spot and they pointed, then I let them “be the teacher” and point and the rest of the class said what they were pointing at
• Week 5: Used googly eye finger rings to point at the locations on the map
• Week 6: Put M&Ms on locations on the map, took them off, put them back on, take them back off, etc., then eat :)
• Week 7: trace with dry erase then erase with q-tip, point with q-tip
• Week 8: use little pointers on their maps, trace/erase
• Week 9: use little animals to move from location to location, trace/erase
• Week 10: use googly eye finger rings to point at the locations on the map
• Week 11: use witch fingers to point to each location (because this week fell on Halloween)
• Week 12: use my big pointer to point on my big map
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Fine Arts

Drawing (weeks 1-6)

Week 1: OiLS

• Read: Ish
• Practice: OiLS using the practice worksheet from here
• Practice: draw a ladybug using oils using example from here
• Discuss: find oils in famous paintings (printouts here)
• Project: draw lotus and papyrus plants (instructions from Inside the Lines here)

Week 2: Mirror images

• Read: some pages from Mirror Mirror
• Review oils: let kids come to board and demonstrate
• Investigate line of symmetry with construction paper shapes
• Practice: drawing the other half of shapes (examples from Sandbox, etc.)
• Practice: finding lines of symmetry with their names (print off each student’s name in block letters)
• Project: Greek vases (instructions from Inside the Lines here)

Week 3: Upside down

• Read: Seven Blind Mice (alternative option Turn Around Upside Down ABC book)
• Review OiLS
• Practice: print off their names, have them flip over and try drawing upside down
• Project: Mayan glyphs (instructions from Inside the Lines here)
• If time: draw upside down dog

Week 4: Abstract

• Read: My Many Colored Days
• bring pictures of examples of abstract art (from here)
• Practice: Roll & Draw with OiLS
• Project: African masks (instructions from Inside the Lines here)

Week 5: Perspective

• Read: Harold and the Purple Crayon
• Practice: draw 3D shapes
• Project: Egyptian landscape (tutorial from Art with Allie here)
• If time: drawing name with perspective (example here) (probably too advanced for this age though)

Week 6: Review

• Read: Not a Box
• Final project: leaf abstract art (tutorial from Art with Allie here)

My example projects for the first 6 weeks:

Tin Whistle (weeks 7-12)

Here are a couple of resources that I’ve found very helpful in planning for the music theory/tin whistle unit:

• This is my favorite set of tin whistle lesson plans, but this one, this one, and this one are good too so check them 0ut and see what you like best
• These YouTube videos give ideas for each week and have been very helpful!
• This workbook and this workbook have some great worksheets/visuals/printables
• If you have an older class, this tin whistle karate looks so super fun!  I think it’s too far above my ABCers so I’m not using it but saving it as an idea if I tutor older kids in the future

These are my plans that are in addition to what’s in the CC Foundations Guide so please refer to the guide for the bulk of your lesson planning.  I’ll use it and the lesson plans I linked above for my lesson, these are just a few additional activities I’ll be doing for each week

Week 7: Parts of the Tin Whistle

• Visual aids: printed/laminated the tin whistle picture with the tin whistle song and picture of cacophony vs. unison (both from here) to put on my white board
• Song to teach the parts of the tin whistle and that matches the song on my printed poster can be found here (3 minutes in to the video)
• Activities: Simon Says with identifying the parts of the tin whistle (Simon Says show me the fipple, Simon Says touch the barrel, etc.) and Thumbs up, Thumbs down with positioning (I’ll hold my tin whistle either right or wrong and they’ll give me thumbs up or thumbs down)
• Put painters tape on their left hands to help them rememeber which hand goes on top

Week 8: Dynamics

• Visual Aid/Activity: Note cards (printed from here) with the various dynamics on them – used to introduce the concept and a game/activity for the kids to put in order on the white board
• Activity: make a list of examples (bomb exploding, feather falling from a bird. mom calling a child in from outside for dinner, etc.) and have kids identify what dynamic that would be

Week 9: Note Values and Staff

• Visual Aid: laminated picture of the types of notes (printed from here) and laminated/cut out large individual notes
• Activity: practice drawing a staff and notes using this method
• Activity: Make note flashcards/game cards (from here) for the kids to hold up as I ask “Show me a whole note, Show me a note that gets 1 beat”, etc.

Week 10: Rhythm 

• Visual Aid: Rhythm and bar line page (printed from here) to put on my white board
• Visual Aid: Note fraction chart to show relationships in the note lengths (could also be used for week 9)
• Worksheet: kids fill in note fraction chart to match mine (could also be used for week 9)

Week 11: Note Names and Scales

• Visual Aid: poster with note names and rhyme for remembering them (from here)
• Activity: Large notes/letters cut/laminated/magnetized for students to place on a large staff on the white board in the correct position (from here)

Week 12: Review

• Music Theory BINGO (our community brings all the classes together and does a tin whistle concert during our review on week 12 so I won’t have much, if any, time to review with my class…but if I did I would 100% use this Music Theory BINGO because it looks like such a fun way to review!  I may still use it anyway and squeeze it in for 5-10 minutes in the day.)

Hands on Science

Notes/scripts

There are several fantastic Cycle 1 Hands on Science scripts available on CCC.  They are all so good I couldn’t pick which one I liked best, so I printed all four options options for the first 2 weeks and then once I’ve used them for a few weeks and gotten a feel for what I prefer I’ll print more of the ones I like best for the rest of the year.

• Discussion guide here
• This one has an outline of the lesson, script, pictures, and Christ Connections for each week
• Another option for a script with pictures
• This one is just a Bible discussion guide to be used alongside the experiment(s)
• I also found this match up of the Indescribable and How Great is our God books that can be read alongside science

Science journal

I printed a very simple science “journal” (basically just a blank piece of paper with the title at the top) so my students can draw a picture of what they observed.

YouTube videos

There are a couple of places to watch videos about the experiments before you attempt to do them yourself in community.  I will be watching one (or more) of these each week as I prep.

• Classical Conversations of Mt. Pleasant on YouTube
• Emily the Homeschooler on YouTube
• The Learning Center on CCC has a video for each week too, you can find it under each week’s tab (here’s a direct link to week 1)

Review Games

These are not Cycle 1 specific and can be used for any cycle, but I thought I’d include them here anyway to help you as you’re planning.

My goal over the summer was to come up with 12 review games so I’d have a different game prepared for the whole first semester.  Then (theoretically) I’ll repeat them 2nd semester.  Obviously this is subject to change.  I may find that certain games are a flop with my class or others they love and beg to do over again.  Or I may see something I like better in the CC tutor FB group.  But this is a start.

• Week 1: Would you rather? (review will feel very long this week since there’s only one week to review, so we’ll ask/answer a would you rather question, then a review question, and back and forth to fill time and use as a “get to know you” game)
• Week 2: Wiggle Worm (if you want to buy on here is this one on Etsy, but I just took popsicle sticks and wrote a subject on each one then made 2 with worms on them)
• Week 3: Pom Pom Bomb
• Week 4: Beanbag toss (tape subjects on the ground, the closest one they toss their beanbag to is what they answer)
• Week 5: Stinky Feet
• Week 6: Ouch! (posted in the Tutor FB group so this link won’t work after this year)
• Week 7: Rocket Blast Off!
• Week 8: 4 corners (if you have my tutor bundle from Etsy this download is in there, otherwise just write 1, 2, 3, 4 on notecards)
• Week 9: Bug swat game
• Week 10: Bingo (There’s also a really cute Cycle 1 specific one in the CC tutor group but I wanted one I could use each year so I went with the one I’ve linked here that’s just colors that match the review cards)
• Week 11: Roll a Pumpkin
• Week 12: Hot Stew (posted in the Tutor FB group so this link won’t work after this year)

(Again, all subject to change and very, very flexible)

I also made a list of a couple of no/low prep games that if something happens (I forget part of that week’s game at home, the game is a flop, we finish way too soon, etc.) I can pull out one of these on the fly.

• Tic Tac Toe on the whiteboard
• Alien face/silly face (they get to add to the face on the whiteboard after each review question – you can let them just add whatever or you can have them roll dice to determine what they add)
• Mural (you start a picture on the whiteboard and they get to add something to it after each review question
• A tisket, a tasket (basically the same as pass the present above, just not seasonal specific)
• Say it like, while… (also a good one to use for new grammar)  or Animal Antics
• Dice (I have one dice with dry erase on each side from Dollar Tree and one dice with CC subjects; write actions or silly voices on the dry erase one, they roll both so one dice tells them the subject to review and the other tells how to say/do it)
• Sticker the tutor (they get a sticker to put on me after they answer a question)
• 4 corners

Other quiet activities (some tutors find that their students do better listening to the memory work while playing with a quiet activity during review time rather than doing games/activities.  If that turns out to be the case for my class I’ll try some of these):

• playdoh
• brainflakes
• coloring sheets (used code MYCHOCOLATEMOMENTS for 20% off anything in her shop)

I hope this is helpful as you plan for Cycle 1!

You might also like:

• Cycle 1 Foundations prep post
• Cycle 1 Essentials prep post