Week 71: Knowing and Doing (Norms & Nobility - 8C)
May 6, 2025
In this edition:
🎉🥳 Off-Center Celebrations! 🥳🎉
🎤Podcast - The Grammar of Classical Education 🎤
📚☀️ Quick Classroom Reviews ☀️📚
💖💖 Amazing Blessings 💖💖
☕️ 🫖 Enjoying the Reali-tea ☕️ 🫖
🎉 🥳 Let’s Celebrate! 🥳 🎉
Off-Center Celebrations - 2025
May - Week 2 (May 11 - 17)
National Etiquette Week
Minding Your Manners introduces students to basic manners and etiquette. [4 worksheets – Crossword Puzzle, Clue Sheet, Word Bank, and Key]
Using the Dining Etiquette worksheets, the students learn about table manners and are encouraged to enjoy a “semi-formal” meal during their lunch time. [4 worksheets – True or False Questions about dining etiquette w/ key, Semi-Formal Place Setting worksheet w/ key.]
The What Would You Do? worksheets allows the students to put their good manners and etiquette into practice in various settings. [2 worksheets]
Finally, there is a coloring page with the Bible Verse I Peter 3:8 as a reminder of WHY we practice good etiquette. [1 coloring sheet]
May - Week 1 (May 4 - 10)
National Pet Week
Using National Pet Week as a jumping off point, students are guided through planning and writing an organized, small paragraph about My Favorite Pet. [2 worksheets]
Taking the information they used in My Favorite Pet, the students can practice their hand at persuasive speaking by adding support and considering the opposition before they present The Best Pet. [3 worksheets]
In Pet Count, students are led through the steps of collecting information and turning that data into a bar graph. [2 worksheets]
Allowing students an artistic outlet to combine a little bit of research with some fun, the students will communicate information through a Pet Care Poster. [2 worksheets]
☺️ Please jump over to Classroom Collective, where you can use the “password” you received with your subscription (on EVERY level) to access many freebies like the Off-Center Celebrations (daily in 2024 and weekly in 2025).
🎤 Podcast - The Grammar of Classical Education 🎤
As we close out the first section of Norms and Nobility by David Hicks, we are looking what truly makes the classical Christian paideia truly Christian. Spoiler alert: it isn’t just the fact that we recognize the importance of Christ in the equation. While that is a foundational element, our differences run deep. We aren’t just saying Classical Christian education stands in opposition to modern education, while it does. We are saying that at its very core, it stands not just “against” other educational models but that it stands FOR a completely different mindset. One that can be summed up neatly in the simple goal of Knowing & Doing.
📚☀️ Quick Classroom Review ☀️📚
Time to Share
At this point in the year, it is nice to have routines in place to simplify the craziness of the end of the year. Hopefully, this method will allow you to quickly call for partner reviews, without discussions or having to pair students up!
Items Needed:
One copy of TIME TO SHARE for each student
Preparation:
Hand out a copy of TIME TO SHARE to each student.
Have the students sign each other’s clock faces - they must sign on time as each other. (Example: If Tony signs up for 2 o’clock on my clock, I must sign on 2 o’clock on his clock.) This is VERY IMPORTANT!
If you have 12 or fewer students, each student signs on an arrowed line. (It is okay if you don’t have every line signed.)
If you have more than 12 students, each student signs on an arrowed line OR between numbers. (It is okay if you don’t have every line or space signed.)
If you have more than 24 students, consider printing two clocks for each student, making them different colors. (Again, it is okay if you don’t have every line or space signed, but don’t go to the 2nd clock unless you have more than 24 students.)
Have the students double-check to be sure that they have ALL of the other students signed on their clocks.
Let the students know that if a time is called and they don’t have a partner in that time, you will let them know what to do:
You can have them review on their own.
You can have them join another time group.
Once this has been done, have the students put their paper in a place where they will be able to access it quickly when needed. (You may want to consider putting it in a page protector.)
Review / Sharing:
When you want to have the students break up to work or review with a partner, all you need to do is say “Time to Share" and then give a time.
If you say an hour, they get with the person signed on that hour.
If you say a half hour, they get with the person signed in the space between the numbers.
For more than 24 students, you will need to say a COLOR and a time.
You may want to keep track of the times that you have called so you can be sure you aren’t always calling the same time. (If you print a copy of the clock for yourself, you can put an X on a time when you have called it.)
Notes and Modifications:
This is great for quick little partner reviews because it removes all of the negotiations, leaving more time for actual reviewing!
Homeschool Adaptations:
This is going to look EXTREMELY different for a homeschool setting, but you can have the students write a subject in each hour slot. During your day, you can call out at a certain time, and you can stop the subject you are working on and do a short review of the subject in that slot. (Research proves that mixing reviews with different subjects actually improves retention!)
💖💖 Amazing Blessings 💖💖
An unnamed woman hears Christ is dining at the home of Simon the Pharisee, and she knows exactly what she needs to do. As was customary, outsiders were able to observe the dinner discussion without taking part in the meal. It was understood that they would be there only to listen - not to be heard. While customs and traditions were often held as laws, that did not stop this unnamed woman from using this opportunity to show her immense gratitude to the Savior for the forgiveness He had given.
Through the events that ensued, we are see yet again that God truly knows us, seeing our hearts and knowing our thoughts. We also are reminded that our understanding of forgiveness is inexplicitely linked to love of the Lord. If we see every sin as a one that Christ bore at the cross, we appreciate even more the forgiveness that we received.
This unnamed woman, who as all the others, was fully known by God, gives us a living reminder of the encouragement that comes from being fully known and the gratitude that should come from being fully forgiven.
☕️ 🫖 Enjoying the Real-i-TEA 🫖☕️
As you may know, my goal with Leading to Wonder is to strengthen and encourage teachers, whether in the classroom, at home, in person, or on Zoom. I want to meet you where you are and help you move toward becoming the best teacher you can be. To do this, I trust you will feel free to reach out via our Substack chats or by sending an email to Newsletter@LeadingtoWonder.com.
In the next couple of months, there will be a few live chats offered online to our Substack subscribers, and I would love to have you join us! Keep your eye out for information regarding these special times to discuss the real-i-TEA of teaching!
Let us seek to “bear one another’s burdens” and “encourage one another. . just as you are doing.” (Galatians 6:2 / I Thessalonians 5:11)1
Thank you so much for joining me at Leading to Wonder! I am honored that you have spent the time reading and possibly listening to my passion project. I do want to be as helpful as possible, so if you have any comments, suggestions, or questions, please use the button below, and I will try to address them in a timely fashion! Thank you again, and remember - “always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder!”2
English Standard Version Bible. (2001). ESV Online. https://www.esv.org
E.B. White