Classical Conversations Tutor Prep | Getting Ready for my First Year

I am so excited about my first year as a Classical Conversations tutor!  This is our 6th year with CC but my first time tutoring.  If you’ve been around awhile you know I do a CC prep video/blog post every year as I get ready for the year (see cycle 1 / cycle 3) so I thought I’d do one for tutor prep too!  So here’s my Classical Conversations tutor prep information for my first year of tutoring.

Much of this is generic and can be used year to year, some of this is cycle specific (cycle 1).  As I tutor through cycles 2 and 3 in future years I’ll make new posts or update this post with that info too (see my Cycle 1 specific post HERE).

For this year I have a mix of Abecedarians and Apprentices (ages 5-7).

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You can also see this in video form here:

In no particular order, here’s what I’ve prepped.  Let’s get in to it!

Resources

These have been my go-to resources as I’ve prepped for tutoring.  I’ve found lesson plans, hands on activities, ideas for review games, ideas for introducing new grammar, printables…all sorts of things!  I’m sharing my favorites with you in this post but there’s a wealth of helpful info so check these out.

• 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 Tutor Facebook group for 2024-2025.  This has been my go-to resource.  Make sure you check the files for all sorts of downloads.  There is a new group each year though so make sure you rejoin the new one each summer.
• Abecedarian Tutors Facebook group
• This blog shares her weekly tutor plans (here’s cycle 1 week 1)
• Love, Mrs C. on YouTube shares video recaps of what she does each week in her class.
• 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)

I have Cycle 1 specific planning resources (for example, two people who shared documents on CCC with their full, filled in lesson plans for cycle 1 – so helpful!) in my Cycle 1 Tutor Plans post here, so make sure you check that out also!

Classroom organization

I made a couple of things to help with classroom organization

• I made a moveable schedule for our day – I used velcro so I can change it if needed.  We typically follow the same schedule but sometimes things change (going outside for science, needing to share art or science materials, etc.) so I wanted the ability to update my schedule if needed
• A list of the students’ names for presentations – I also put velcro on this so I can rotate the order we present each week

I also made a few things for my tutor board (God with arrows for the middle, subject headers to go above the memory work.)

You can purchase a file that has all of these things (the schedule, student name list, subject headers, etc.) HERE.  The file also includes an editable Canva template so you can personalize it.

A couple of other things I found:

• I printed a scientific method poster (here is one option, there have also been several shared in the CC tutor group) to hang up during Hands on Science
• I printed out these cute, free food pair partner cards to help pair kids up for activities

New grammar

One thing I really wanted to get done over the summer and I’m so glad I did, was I wrote all the memory work out for the whole year.  It took a ton of time and my hand was so tired lol, but I know Future Caitlin is going to be so thankful!  I will use shop ticket sleeves and magnet clips to put my memory work up on the board each week. (These are some fun examples you can imitate if you’re artsy: cycle 1 / cycle 2 / cycle 3)

Some items I’ve gathered to use during new grammar:

• shakers (rice inside small containers from Dollar Tree, you could also use Easter eggs)
• q-tips (for erasing on maps)
• toothpicks/tiny popsicle sticks (for pointing to things on the maps)
• googly eyes/finger puppets (also for pointing to things on the maps)
• agility ladder (kids can jump through it while reciting the grammar) – I bought this one.  You could absolutely just make one with painters tape but I knew this would be easier and quicker for me when getting things ready in the morning so I bought one

We use our Yoto to listen to the memory work songs at home (see my tutorial about that here); I thought about bringing the Yoto to use as a speaker in class but instead decided to use a bluetooth speaker we have.

You can see what specifically I’m doing for New Grammar each week in my Cycle 1 tutor plans post HERE.

Fine Arts

I went ahead and planned my first six weeks of fine arts (drawing) so that I could let my director know what supplies I needed or worksheets I wanted printed.  I haven’t planned past that yet but I have all of my drawing lessons planned and I went ahead and made my example projects so those are done and I don’t have to worry about them each week.  My plan is to plan six weeks of fine arts at a time through the year.

Drawing Resources

I mostly used Inside the Lines and Art with Allie for my drawing projects, along with some pages from this drawing workbook and other things I found on CCC, in the Sandbox, Facebook groups, etc.

I have not planned anything for tin whistle, orchestra, or artists but will update this section once we get to those.

You can see what specifically I’m doing for Fine Arts each week, including links to as much as I can link, in my Cycle 1 tutor plans post HERE.

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.

I also 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

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’d 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.

Also, some people repeat way more often than this (some people will use the same game for 6 weeks at a time before changing and so only need 4 games for the whole year) so don’t feel like you need to do something different each week, I just prefer variety and wanted to be prepared even if I don’t use everything.

Here are the 12 I came up with:

• 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: Ouch! (posted in the Tutor FB group so this link won’t work after this year)
• Week 4: Pom Pom Bomb
• Week 5: Beanbag toss (tape subjects on the ground, the closest one they toss their beanbag to is what they answer)
• Week 6: Bug swat game
• Week 7: Mystery Bag (gather a bag of random stuff from my house, they answer a review question then draw something out of the bag and have to “act” like that item) (ended up doing Rocket Blast Off for week 7)
• Week 8: Stinky Feet
• Week 9: Target practice (draw a target on the board with subjects in each ring, shoot with a sticky dart gun)
• 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: Pass the present (will put my review flashcards in a Christmasy box and pass it around while playing Christmas music.  When the music stops, the person holding the box opens it and pulls out a card for the class to answer)

(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

Some others that I have written down to maybe use next semester if I don’t want to repeat all of these:

• Blind balloon grab
• Buried treasure
• Jeopardy
• If (posted in the tutor group)

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)

My planner/binder

Now that I’ve shown all these other plans I can tell you how I set up my binder and it’ll make sense!

Tip – If you’re using page protectors, get tabs that have a pocket on them.  Those stick out more than regular tabs and will stick out past your page protector (if that matters to you).  I used these.

• Front of my planner: our schedule, our class rosters, the timeline motions our community uses, and a 6 week overview of the memory work
• Tab 1: Tutor planner (You can see the Cycle 1 specific planner I’m using here)
• Tabs 2-7: each of these is a week, right now it’s weeks 1-6, after week 6 I’ll switch them to weeks 7-12, and so on.  Behind this tab I have my hands on science scripts/visuals, fine arts scripts/visuals, any memory work prompts I need (like hand motions, lyrics, etc.), and review game rules if needed
• Tab 8: Some random review things – rules to some of the future review games, some Would you Rather cards, and some silly voices/actions

In my bag

I’m still getting a feel for what all I need to bring each week.  Here’s what I currently have packed up and I’ll add/remove through the year as I get more in a groove.

• my tutor binder (see above)
• an accordian file folder that has printed worksheets/hand outs, my schedule/presentation list, and some review games
• pencil pouches with other small pieces (magnet headers for my white board, four corners cards, Say It Like, While…cards, etc.)
• painters tape
• sticky notes
• wet erase markers
• dry erase markers
• sticky tack
• scissors
• magnet clips
• review flashcards
• bluetooth speaker

I am also planning on getting a wagon to haul all this stuff in!  Between my tutor stuff, lunch, water bottles, my toddler’s things…I have a lot to carry in!

I hope this helps you as you’re planning and you have a fantastic CC year!

You might also like:

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