As you know we started Paths of Exploration by Trail Guide to Learning for our summer all-inclusive curriculum experiment. This post relates to Paths of Exploration Columbus Lesson 1 Part 3. If you missed lesson 1, part 1, you can find it here. and Lesson 1, Part 2 you can find here. Lesson 3 focuses heavily on map and globe work. We loved Part 3. So, lets jump into the lesson.
Section A. Copywork/Dictation. Focuses on “Language Skills. As in Part 1 and 2, it is from the original poem, A Journey of Adventure, written by the late Debbie Strayer. Today we had two areas the boys wanted to explore on the globe: Cathay and Venice. We never did find what Cathay, but they did find Venice! Both words ended up on their spelling list.
Section B: Reader. Focuses on “Language Skills”. There was more reading from our required books. Section B and Section C still seem very cumbersome and clumsy. These sections seem redundant to me. But, we will continue to do both through Columbus and re-evaluate before we hit Jamestown.
Meet Christopher Columbus
Section C: Read-Aloud and Discussion. Focuses on “Language Skills”. Today the boys discussed a section from our read aloud regarding what happened during a storm. This
Christopher Columbus
section asked for them to describe the storm. Our Institute for Excellence in Writing really prepared them well for this section. They are very familiar with “dressing up” a writing with descriptive adjectives. Again, There are two required reading books about Christopher Columbus. One is Meet Christopher Columbus and the other is Christopher Columbus.
Section D: Word Study. Focuses on “Spelling, Phonics and Vocabulary”. In this section, syllables were discussed. They discussed some of the tried and true ways of identifying each syllable in a word, like clapping them out. This is also how All About Spelling teaches syllable identification as well. For those that love using hands-on learning to teach a concept, here are some free cards to print from Montessori For Learning to divide up words by their number of syllables. Have your students clap out the word. I have to tell you, Paths of Exploration introduces a new way of teaching syllables to young students. I haven’t seen it recommended by any other organization so I won’t share this technique in this post (you need to buy the curriculum because I would consider this proprietary information 🙂 ), but let me assure you it is really smart and so simple!
In this section the boys also reviewed what “re” means. We discussed a section from our read aloud that used a “re” word and what the word meant.
Section E: Geography. Focusing on “History and Thinking Skills”. Today we discussed Marco Polo and traced his land route to China. We looked at the water routes to determine if the water routes were quicker or not to China. This was a great way to help them actually use the globe to think. We used it as an opportunity to discuss various ways of looking at routes and the various types of maps and globes. We will be making a Goode’s Interrupted Projection Map using an orange next week. Stayed tuned for that project, I will make a new post for it!
Section F: Writing with a focus on “Language Skills and Writing”. We discussed Journals and what journals are used for in relation to an explorer. As part of their study, they had to write a journal entry for today. I am actually thinking of adding this as a rest of the summer project. They used to journal when they were little (I would write what they dictated to me about their day). They still love going back and reading them. I think I have talked myself into it!
Section G: Independent Reading. As we discussed in parts 1 and 2, we modified this a bit so the boys will focus their reading on anything about Christopher Columbus for 30 minutes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Sundays. I wrote a post to share what our library resources are, you can find it here. I am adding our favorite map and globe books below. These books will be a part of what they will read during their independent reading times.
In this particular lesson POE did NOT teach some points that would have been very beneficial and go right along with this study, especially for young students. I’m going to list some items below that would be great to go with Part 3 since it is so Geography oriented with a focus on land and water. Pick and choose the works that work best for you and your homeschool. These are the activities that we added to Part three, although most of these are review. I’ll be creating a new post to show you how we used some of these:
- World Oceans Free 3 part cards from Montessori Etc (BEAUTIFUL)!!
- Continent and Hemisphere Study Free, also from Montessori Etc.
- Sailing Ship Vocabulary 3 part Cards Montessori Print Shop (Not free but very inexpensive)
- Types of Clouds 3 part Cards, again, from Montessori Etc. and Free
- Geometric Solids 3 part cards from Montessori Etc and Free.
- Land and Water Forms 3 Part Cards from the Helpful Garden and are Free. Here is the post about how we use this activity.
- Latitude and Longitude 3 part Cards from Montessori For Everyone and free.
I hope pulling these books and the hands-on lessons together for each part of the Paths of Exploration lessons are a blessing for you and your children! If so, please leave a comment of encouragement. Sometimes, us bloggers feel like we are writing and nobody is reading it! So, it is really so nice to get comments that let us know you are reading what we post. If you have other suggestions on activities that you are using for this lesson, please let me know that too!
Until next time…
Trish Corlew
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I am waiting to get our POE curriculum..it’s on backorder until August. I am enjoying your posts and getting excited to use it! Thanks for sharing the extra resources, they look great!
I think you will enjoy it Julie! I am so excited to hear of others that are using it too! We will only be a little ways in front of you guys, but far enough ahead that I will have already posted the resources for your lessons! How old are your children? Thank you so much for stopping by! Have you subscribed to the site too? If not, be sure to do that so you will know when a new post is up! And, if you start blogging about your POE lessons, let me know… I’m going to create a blog roll of all of us that are writing about POE and maybe even have a Blop linkup where we can link posts that go with each lesson. Nice to meet you!!
As always, thank you for sharing all of your wonderful ideas! I can’t tell you what a blessing it is to have so much of the work done for me. With my three boys being younger, it’s often difficult to find additional time to plan for extending our lessons…which can make a momma feel pretty low. So, you are cutting my planning time in half and ensuring that we make the most of POE. This is huge for us- THANK YOU!
Oh, we have a beach trip planned and will be using all your wonderful ideas for that too!
Fran, thank you so much for the feedback! You have no idea how much you have blessed me today, and on a day that I really needed to hear some encouragement! I can’t wait to hear how the beach trip goes and if you and your children enjoyed the activities! We sooo love the beach! I’m from the coast of NC and I guess I will always consider it home! Have a safe trip!
thanks for the links on mapping skills that is what we are working on this year to prepare for future history lessons. I figured the kids needed a firm grasp on the were before they could understand the why of the who. You know ….setting the stage.