Donna Connolly

BA Philosophy

Donna Connolly taught for several years with LAUSD teaching ESL and with Burbank Unified School District as a substitute school teacher. As a substitute, she had the opportunity to teach many subjects and grade levels. After the birth of her first son, Donna left the workforce to become a full time mom. As a stay-at-home mom, she spent little time at home. For three years, Donna sat on the Scholarship Board at Mission College and worked briefly as the Executive Director and fundraiser. She has volunteered in the field of education and with community organizations, writing posts for education blogs and Letters to the Editor. Donna decided to pull her oldest child out of public school and homeschool. It's been an exciting and wonderful new adventure. As a homeschooler, Donna has taken her love of learning, teaching experience and passion for history and developed a course for HuckleBerry! She is a UCLA graduate with a degree in Philosophy, and believes the number one goal of any instructor is to instill a love of learning in the students he or she is honored to teach.

Story of the World I - The Ancients

Ages: 6-9

History is a fabulous story, so in this series of classes we will be listening to wonderful stories, coloring maps and engaging in projects everyday that will help us to learn the story of our own world. We'll learn about ancient people like the Egyptians, Sumerians, Assyrians, Babylonians. We'll learn about early writing, how laws came into being, and beautiful cities from all over the world! Greek and Roman mythology will come alive, and we'll learn about Hammarabi, Alexander the Great, Plato and more!

Ancient History is so much fun for kids to learn! Some of the projects we'll be doing in class include building pyramids, stone tables, practicing cuneiform and hieroglyphics and making their own mummies! Each day we'll do map work and coloring pages while we listen to our short story about Ancient Times. Our projects allow kids to really understand and remember the ideas and contributions from ancient civilizations. It also helps them understand the world as they engage in coloring maps about the places they are learning about, and comparing them to the globe so they can see where they are, and where all these other fascinating places are. Come join us as we travel around the ancient world and make history come alive!

FALL SESSION
Week 1: Prehistory ch1
Week 2: First Civilizations ch1
Week 3: Egyptians and the Nile ch2-3
Week 4: Old Kingdom of Egypt ch4
Week 5: Hammurabi and the Babylonians ch7-8
Week 6: First Cities of India ch9
Week 7 & 8: Ancient China ch10
Week 9 & 10: Ancient Africa ch11
Week 11 is a review class and party. We play games that reinforce all the lessons they learned
throughout the semester and eat treats.
I have listed below a few of the crafts the students will do this year.
Cave art painting
African Mask
Write Your Name in Hieroglyphs
Make a Pyramid
Sumerian Seal project made from clay
Paper Elephant, and many more.

WINTER SESSION
Week 1: The Phoenicians, ch 15
Week 2: Babylon takes over again, ch 17
Week 3: Life in Early Crete, ch 18
Week 4: The Early Greeks, ch 19
Week 5: Greece gets Civilized, ch 20
Week 6: Sparta and Athens. ch 22
Week 7: Greece Gods ch 23&24
Week 8: Alexander the Great
Week 9&10: The Americas
I have listed below a few of the crafts the students will do this year.
Make a labyrinth out of clay
Write Your Name in Greek Letters
Make a Greek vase
Build an Ancient Greek Temple and many more.

SPRING SESSION
Week 1: Rise of Rome, chap 27
Week 2: Rome’s War with Carthage, chap 28&29
Week 3: Aryans of India, chap. 30
Week 4: China, chap 32
Week 5: China cont.d, chap 33
Week 6: Rise of Julius Caesar, chap. 34
Week 7: Rome and the Christians, chap. 39
Week 8: The Fall, chap. 40&41
Week 9: Review
I have listed below a few of the crafts the students will do this year.
Roman Fasces Axe
Make a mosaic
Olympic torch
Discover Hidden lines with water colors.

Contact

Donna Connolly

dconnla@gmail.com