Classical Conversations in our Montessori School Room

We are entering our third week of Classical Conversations.  So far, the program has been as I expected or better.  Is it perfect?  Of course not, but I am pleased with the structure it has helped give to our day.  It was important to me that we did not lose our Montessori roots in our CC participation.  So far, that is not an issue.  I have more information on Classical Conversations here as well as why we chose it here.

Each week we review what was introduced during our community meeting.  We do this via our tri-fold board.  As you can see we review geography, history, Latin, English, math, science, Bible, fine arts and our timeline.  I know what you're thinking.  "Wow, that's a lot of memorization."  And yet, it hasn't seemed like it a all.  I am using the same circle time approach for teaching other facts such as days of the weeks or planets; music!  

Our tri-fold board.  The kids loves taking turns with pointers.

We have a song for ever subject.  The kids adore them.  All we do to review each day is sing them.  We tend to play them in the car as well.  What amazes me the most is that they already know most of the new week's information before community is over.  Then we simply review each area 4 times per day.  Generally, this only means going through a song twice since most repeat the facts.  The songs are extremely short.  We can easily breeze through our memory work in less than 15 minutes per class period.

Skip counting for math.

Some of our songs have hand motions.  Those are fun!  This is our history statement for the week.

Outside of the memory work I have been able to seamlessly work CC into our existing Montessori routines.  Our CC science subject dictates what is on the science shelves.  Honestly, it's the first time I've had them well organized.  

Science shelves setup for ecology.

Sorting animals onto biomes

There are a few other materials around the classroom that correspond, such as the straight line vs curved line sorting since we are studying fine art.  Our geography work is a great fit too.

Reviewing the European Waters

Naming the continents with the puzzle map

We've always read a book during story time.  Now our selection falls inline with our CC work for the week.  I also used CC themed traceables for Elora's writing work.  Having access to the full CC community is invaluable since I can access so many free support materials.

Normally she traces over dotted lines but today she wanted to try copying the work on another piece of paper.

 Math, reading, sensorial and practical life are all untouched for the most part.  Since we are learning skip counting, I do have Elora color in the hundred board to see the different pattern that each number creates.  I'd like to pull the short/long chains out next next. 

Coloring in the 3s.

While part of the work period is structured, there is still plenty of time to chose work independently each day.

I hope this gives you some idea of how we're integrating Classical Conversations while maintaining our Montessori classroom.