Third Grade in Our Home :: The Morning Basket, Term 1

Just as in the past, I use the term "Morning Basket" to refer to all the work we do together as a family, with the littles. But even though I call it Morning Basket for organizational purposes, it is really broken up into two parts: that which is done over breakfast, and that which is done at the end of our Naptime School block.

(Our Morning Basket is still very much the same as we did it last year, so if you'd like to read more specifics about how it works for us, feel free to click over to read more.)

A look at our Morning Basket plans for this Term 1 of this year... 

Over Breakfast

Calendar Work - in English and Italian (daily)

Poetry - a poem daily from our poet for the term, William Blake (daily)

Short Reading - from one of the following:
:: Thomas Tapper's Music Talks for Children (one chapter per week)
:: the Kirbys' The World at Home (two chapers per week)
:: Benson's A Child's Rule of Life (one page per week)
:: Benson's An Alphabet of Saints (one page per week)

I chose these for our Morning Basket work rather scheduling them during Naptime School for several reasons: they're all short readings, have general appeal, and are not narrated.

Read-Aloud - with any breakfast time I have left before the babies start fussing, I read from one of our scheduled read-alouds: The Water Babies or At the Back of the North Wind.

In the Afternoon

Memory Work (daily) - includes review of that day's items from our memory "notebook" as well as our current selections:

:: Hymns - "Come Holy Ghost" and "Ave Verum Corpus"
:: Folk Song - "Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night" and "Dixie"
:: Bible - Psalm 42 and The Last Gospel (John 1:1-14)

:: Prayers - Saint Michael prayer in Latin and the Confiteor
:: Poetry - William Blake's "The Fly," "The Blossom," "The Lamb," "The Shepherd," and "The Tyger"

:: Bird Calls - American Robin, California Towhee, House Finch

We move on to a new selection once we have the previous selection memorized rather than on a regular schedule, so our plans are just that--plans.  We may end up doing more than just these.  I'll update our Memory Work index with the ones we cover.

And this year, we're combining Memory Work and Movement--so while we're reviewing our previous selections, the kids are doing jumping jacks, situps, pushups, burpees, and dancing. :)  It's been a happy marriage of activities for us so far--and it keeps the littles busy.

Italian Memory Work (daily) - The older three and I cover new concepts, games, and conversation at a different time of the day, but we do our Italian memory work with the littles:
:: Rhymes - "Capra capretta" and "Bim bum ba" from Filastrocche Italiane

:: Songs - "Avena e grano crescono,"Saptete voi piantare i fiori," "Reginella campagnola" from Teach Me Everyday Italian

:: Series - "I go on a nature adventure" and "I do something every day"

Picture Study on Claude Monet (once weekly) - two weeks for each piece, alternating between observation/narration and a picture sketch
:: Terrace at St. Adresse, 1866

:: La Grenouillére, 1869

:: Impression: Sunrise, 1872

:: Woman with a Parasol, 1886

:: Thinking about Light with the Rouen Cathedral series and Haystacks series - Haystack: End of the Summer, Morning, 1891 and Rouen Cathedral: Sunset, 1894

:: The Waterlily Pond, 1899

Music Study on Johann Sebastian Bach (once weekly) - two weeks for each piece, including attentive listening and discussion
:: Air on the G String
:: Brandenburg Concerto No. 2
:: Toccata ad Fugue in D Minor
:: Goldberg Variations
:: Minuet in G
:: St. Matthew's Passion