UPDATE: I don’t know why, but this particular PDF file doesn’t seem to want to display properly when viewed in a browser window. Because of that, many people believe that they haven’t received the entire download when they can’t see all of the pages (color and black and white ones). After you download the PDF, please be sure to open it using Adobe’s free Acrobat Reader and you should find all of the pages there. Thank you!

Well, hello friends! I apologize for the abject neglect of my blog. I have only two words to offer in my defense: Challenge B (and I guess B isn’t really a word but you get my drift)! My CC community started back in mid-August of last year and I took on the role of Challenge B director for the first time. To say that it’s been a wild ride is a complete understatement. With one child in Challenge A, two in Foundations (one of those is also in Essentials), and myself in Challenge B, it’s been quite a challenge-ing year! 

One of the things I’ve missed is creating and sharing fun tools with my fellow teachers. This morning, as I was visiting various links shared with me in my role with Challenge B, I came across a wonderful free printable for Chemistry review.  I don’t know if I’ll be able to use it as printed since Chemistry in Challenge B is just an overview, but I know for sure I’ll be able to adapt it. And as I began to think about how I would do that, I realized that this grid idea was a perfect one to use for any type of review. Thus, these “Classical Connections” cards were born.

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The set includes 5 separate cards:

  • a color-coded one 
  • a blank one
  • one that contains the numbers 1-12
  • one that contains the numbers 13-24
  • one that contains the numbers 1-24

To use them, grab some pennies, Cheerios, M&Ms, or other small object and whatever materials you’d like to drill. Call out a random question to a player using either colors or numbers (or drawing out of a bowl for them). If they give a correct answer, they choose the corresponding circle to cover with their token. For example, if you were to use the numbered cards and called out a question from Week 15, they would cover the number 15. Once a person has connected the dots from the top row to the bottom (does not have to be in a straight line), they are the winner! Actually, if you wanted to designate whether the line goes up and down or side to side, you could do that before you begin. You could also set a limit to the number of tokens that could be used to make it even more challenging. Basically, it’s very much like Bingo except that the line doesn’t have to be straight.

Now, I’m sure as each of you starts looking at these, you’ll figure out your own way to use them but here are just a few of my ideas:

  • Use the color-coded ones with the 7 new grammar subjects that are covered in Foundations, assigning one of each of the following to a color: timeline, history, geography, science, math, English grammar, and Latin
  • Use the color-coded ones with whatever non-CC subjects you may be teaching your child. Idea: if you only have 6 subjects, use one color as the “wild card” and let your child choose!
  • Use the 1-12 card to study CC memory work from the first 12 weeks
  • Use the 1-12 card to drill multiplication tables
  • Use the 13-24 card to study CC memory work from the last 12 weeks
  • Use the 1-24 card to study for Memory Masters testing
  • Use the blank card for whatever you’d like to study!
  • Use the color-coded card and assign colors to each of the sentence patterns in Essentials. Place colored strips in a bowl or bag and have them draw a color, then diagram or parse a sentence for that pattern. 
  • Use the color-coded card and assign colors to each part of speech. Take a Sharpie and randomly connect dots from the top to the bottom, being sure to use various colors. Have students provide words for each part of speech to create a wacky sentence, which you then could diagram or parse.

As you can see, there are lots of possibilities and plenty I haven’t thought of.

I chose to laminate the blank card (color coded one on reverse side) so that we could use a Sharpie to write whatever we wanted to on the blank side. If you have an endless supply of paper or don’t have a laminator, you could also just print off however many you would need and then throw them away after you’ve used them.

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This photo shows how my kids customized the card this morning to study the weeks they’ve covered so far in CC this semester (13-17), along with how you win:

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 If you find this useful or fun, I’d love to hear your feedback and also your ideas! Enjoy. 🙂

Download here