Revel Recap: Oct. 19 - 23, 2020
Spark Studio
Welcome to Session 2! We began our week discussing our time off and choosing something that we were thankful for over the break. We then wrote it down in our gratitude journal. Our colouring sessions this week focused on our Quest theme of weather. The Sparks are really taking their time during colouring and creating beautiful pictures. During yoga this week, we started with some gentle stretching and practiced our ‘snake breaths’. We then used our yoga spinner game, to select the poses we would be practicing. At the end, we found a comfortable spot on our mat and listened to a guided story meditation. The Sparks are doing such a good job calming their minds and bodies during these activities. On Friday, we went around the circle and shared a positive affirmation. We used a sentence starter of either “I am..” or “Today I will..” We wrote them down on post-it notes and placed them on our desks to remind ourselves throughout the day of our positive statements.
Our Quest theme this session is all about the weather! On Monday, we read Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and though the weather is unique in this story, the Sparks enjoyed relating the odd weather patterns in the book to what we experience. We then answered the question, “What is weather?” and completed an anchor chart. Using pictures and words, we discussed that weather is what we experience every day and that we observe wind, cloud coverage, temperature and precipitation to describe the weather. We then thought of all the different types of weather we have experienced and drew pictures of some of them. We also started our weather graphs. We will be recording the weather every day in this session so that we can collect the data and answer some questions at the end!
On Tuesday, we began talking about the weather and the seasons here in Canada. We learned about why the seasons change and what is typical weather for each season in Ottawa. We drew different trees for each season, discussed activities we can do during these seasons and what our favourite season is! We began working on some weather mobiles that we are excited to display in our studio!
Wednesday we began learning about some of the weather instruments that meteorologists use to study the weather. We talked about thermometers, rain gauges, anemometers and barometers and explored what they are used for. We have a thermometer and rain gauge that we are excited to use to help us keep track of the weather in this session!
On Thursday the Sparks were excited to work with the Discovery Rebels and make barometers! We also created our own weather spinners, which will help us when discussing our weather each morning.
This week in Quest, we also began working on a KWL chart (What I know, What I want to know, What I learned). The Sparks came up with some really fantastic questions that they want to research this session. So far the questions they have asked are:
Could a tornado come to Ottawa?
How can someone tell us what the weather will be every day?
Why does the weather change?
Why does it snow?
Why is lightning blue and yellow?
What is a weather instrument?
What makes a rainbow?
How can it be sunny and windy?
We are looking forward to answering these questions and more this session!
For French this week Sparks started learning a fun Halloween song called “C’est l’Halloween” and learned some fall and Halloween vocabulary through books and colouring. Once they were finished colouring we came together in a circle for them to show their pictures and say the new words in French.
The Sparks are excited about setting goals and working towards their badges and our morning work periods were so productive this week. It is exciting to see them come back from a break relaxed and ready to get back to work! During our group lessons, we began working with the Canada puzzle map. We identified our province of Ontario and also learned where Quebec was situated. We will continue working on learning the province names in this session. We also reviewed our golden beads. This material provides the learners with a concrete understanding of the difference between units, tens, hundreds and thousands. This work lays our foundation for working with large number equations. We also completed colour bead stairs, to help with our one to one correspondence. This week we began learning about sight words. We discussed how these are words that we are going to work on memorizing. Our sight word of the week was ‘the’.
Another favourite activity this week was exploring with our musical instruments. Each learner selected two instruments to try and we explored rhythms and patterns by going around the circle and making a pattern for the class to repeat. We also had fun trying to play along with a song played by an orchestra band! The Sparks also decided to challenge themselves to complete all the puzzles in the whole school! They made a good start this week completing so many that our whole floor was covered! On Wednesday, the Exploration ran a game of hide-and-seek throughout the school for the Sparks. It was so much fun! Lastly, for Fun Friday, the Sparks enjoyed exploring with marble runs and playing board games! We can’t wait for Week 2!
Another favourite activity this week was exploring with our musical instruments. Each learner selected two instruments to try and we explored rhythms and patterns by going around the circle and making a pattern for the class to repeat. We also had fun trying to play along with a song played by an orchestra band! The Sparks also decided to challenge themselves to complete all the puzzles in the whole school! They made a good start this week completing so many that our whole floor was covered! On Wednesday, the Exploration ran a game of hide-and-seek throughout the school for the Sparks. It was so much fun! Lastly, for Fun Friday, the Sparks enjoyed exploring with marble runs and playing board games! We can’t wait for Week 2!
Discovery Studio
Mindfulness
We began Session 2 with a Wellness Mandala exercise. Each Rebel was asked a series of questions about their physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, social, financial, and family health. Reflecting on their answers they coloured in the associated section with how they felt about each component. We then identified the areas in our life that we are feeling great about as well as the areas that we’d like to focus more energy on this session. We then thought about concrete ways that we could improve, and hope to revisit later in the year. Rebels continued to create some beautiful artwork during Tuesday and Thursday’s mindful colouring and zen doodling. Wednesday’s yoga was part 1 of a 2 part flow series focusing on Warrior poses. Warrior poses signify strength and empowerment with the purpose of starting off our day with our best foot forward. Friday’s morning flow was part 2 of this series. Before we began we set a mindful affirmation focusing on words like strength and power. Bringing our affirmations into our practice, we did one of our most challenging flows yet!
Launches
After watching a demonstration by Mrs. Erin using rocks, pebbles, sand, and water to illustrate how we spend our time, we realized that only when we put our “big rocks” in first do the rest fit. As it is a brand new session, Rebels took a few minutes to think about their big goals and priorities for the next 6 weeks and wrote them in their jar graphic organizer. We can’t wait to see the progress they make toward the goals they’ve identified as their most important!
On Tuesday we had another student-led launch by a Rebel who created a fantastic presentation about bees! The presentation highlighted the importance of the species as a whole, how bees are impacted by their environments and how humans affect those environments, and how we can work to protect these important pollinators going forward.
Wednesday’s launch Introduced the Zones of Regulation with the book The Color Monster: A Story About Emotions before going over what the different colours of the Zones of Regulation system represent. We then started identifying various feelings that go in each zone on our poster, often debating which zone we felt they fit within. Our goal is that with practice, our learners will be able to identify which zone they are in and therefore choose appropriate strategies to help them.
Thursday’s Current Events focused on one of the top stories in Canada this week - Lobster Fishing in Nova Scotia. Ms. Jenna reviewed the main points of the issue, discussing both sides of the argument and together with the Rebels explored photos, infographics, and captions from a few news sources in the country that are covering the story. One of the key takeaways we left with was thinking about the question “Is “fair” always “fair for all”? Why or why not?” The Rebels had so much to say, we needed to continue the discussion during Thursday’s DEAR Read Aloud and Rebels came up with things we can do when we want to support or act on our passions for issues like these, but live in another part of the country. We are so proud to see so much passion and critical thinking skills being expressed!
We ended our week’s launches with a conundrum where Rebels debated who should get to name a comet, a scientist who predicted it’s appearance a few days before, a student who took a picture the day after but thought it was a plane, or the astronaut who another day later saw and identified the comet?
Rebel Readers & Warrior Writers (Aim/Release and Draw/Anchor)
Both groups of Rebels started off Session 2 with a breakdown of their new Rebel Reader/Writer Badge on Journey Tracker. We discussed each element and the importance of checking in on the badge outline each week for any updates. Aim and Release Rebels discussed the breakdown of our newest novel study for this session, The Thief of Always by Clive Barker. A perfect blend of fantasy that follows a spooky plotline - an excellent way to tie in Halloween at the end of the month! We will be starting Chapter 4 on Monday, October 26th, so Rebels should make sure they’ve read chapters 1-3 if they haven’t completed them at school this week. Rebels started thinking and discussing the elements of a good Fantasy story, starting with settings and characters. Aim and Release spent the second half of their class working on adverbs and their latest Spelling List. Draw and Anchor reviewed their Spelling list that focuses on long Oo and long Aa words, the change of vowel sounds in do versus so, as well as ind and ing endings. Friday’s Reader Writer Mission was a mix of Ms. Jenna’s Preposterous Paragraphs, an “I Have...Who Has…” game of contractions, and a descriptive writing activity where Rebels created their own Silly Monsters using a variety of adjectives.
Math Lab
In our Draw and Anchor session, we introduced the rekenrek tool to help visualize facts that add up to 10. Four of our Rebels then used 10 frames to quickly identify the given numbers before playing a few games of Tens Go Fish. Two of the Rebels also worked on their x2 and x3 tables with some out loud facts practice and then played a series of games to solidify those tables. Each week our Draw and Anchor Rebels will be given a practice packet to complete and they were really excited to dive in at the end of our session! Our Aim and Release Rebels reviewed angles (right, acute, obtuse, complementary, and supplementary) and learned or reviewed how to use a protractor. After practicing finding various angles, Rebels wrote their name in capital letters and identified as many math terms as possible including angles, lines of symmetry, parallel and perpendicular lines, etc. We ended our class with “The Painted Cube” challenge and we will use our observations to create algebraic equations next week!
Civilization
We began our Civilizations class this week with a “What Do You Know About the History of Canada?” graphic organizer where we wrote down as many words as possible that illustrated our knowledge of Canadian history. We’re excited to compare this initial assessment to our final assessment in July! We then turned our attention to early trade with Indigenous groups and the positive and negative consequences of these interactions as well as the established trading exchanges. Due to the fashion trends in Europe, the fur trade intensified and we learned about the trading companies such as the Hudson Bay Company and later the Northwest Trading Company as well as the differences between the Coureurs de Bois and the Voyageurs. We ended our session learning about the competition between the French and the British and how Indigenous communities in the region each picked a side making it Great Britain and the Iroquois Tribes vs. France and the Huron Tribes.
Quest
Welcome to our Meteorology Quest! On Monday, after taking the time to identify what the definition of weather is, we completed a KW chart (What do you Know and What Would you like to Know) about the weather. Rebels then learned the difference between weather and climate before we went outside for a Weather Walk and made observations based on our preliminary understanding. We then came in and met with our Quest groups to come up with a Weather Station name and brainstorm the instruments we’d like to make over the next couple of weeks. Tuesday’s lesson focused on our atmosphere as well as the reason for seasons. We then completed an experiment to find out which liquid (oil, saltwater, pop, or vinegar) would melt an animal out of the ice the fastest. The groups did a really great job of working together to free their trapped animals! On Wednesday we learned how to read a thermometer before making a hypothesis about the temperature of three different glasses of water; room temperature, water that had been in the freezer for two hours, and water that had come out of the tea kettle. Once each member of the group had written down their predictions, they used thermometers to find the actual temperature and then graph their results. We ended with a discussion about our findings and with a comparison of Celsius and Fahrenheit. On Thursday we reviewed our lesson about the atmosphere and learned more about air pressure and barometers. After reviewing how the instrument shows air pressure changes, the Spark Rebels joined us to make barometers of our own. We were so impressed with how well the Discovery learners helped, coached, and included our younger friends in the process!
French
French was all about Les Temps et Les Vetements this week! We created a KWL (What we Know, What We Want to Know, and What We Learned) chart full of French clothing vocabulary. After studying the vocabulary more in-depth, we played several French games including “Qui porte...” (a modified version of “What Time is it Mr. Wolf”) based on Rebel clothing and colours, and an eye-spy with a disappearing mystery item of clothing. Several Rebels explored their potential future as models and modelled their outfit of the day while other members of the team described them using the French vocabulary we reviewed. We did a French read aloud on seasonal weather to tie in this session’s quest, and Rebels got some extra time to work on their Duolingo goals.
PE
Monday and Wednesday Rebels took part in one of the new optional P.E classes, Circuit! Circuit classes promote more dynamic movement, boosting heart rate and building strength. Rebels will be exploring various styles of exercise movements and equipment in Circuit over the next few weeks, with the goal of not just growing stronger bodies, but growing stronger minds and more self-confidence! Next week on Monday, the circuit will be a themed Spooky Circuit, full of fun Halloween exercises with a healthy snack to boost our energy and encourage healthy habits. The other option this week was a hike on Monday and a game of soccer on Wednesday.
Elective
Electives for Session 2 are off to a great start! We saw Rebels testing the pH of the Garden Tower, designing on TinkerCAD, playing chess or Dungeons and Dragons, building Rube Goldberg machines for the annual competition, helping the Sparks and Ms. Megan, and planning for a 2020/21 yearbook. Ms. Jenna also led an art lesson focused on Pumpkin Perspectives, using the elements of value and shape to create some awesome Pumpkin art pieces!
Fun Friday and Town Hall
After meeting with our Squad Leaders or Mentor Guides, our week ended with a great Screen-Free Fun Friday and Town Hall, where due to the stunning weather was held outside and we even managed to get in two rounds of Octopus! The one issue raised at Town Hall this week was whether or not we’d like to have Character Badges this year. Rebels were in favour and then voted for the following traits to award at the end of each session: Perseverance, Warm-Hearted, Tough-Minded, Bravery, and Going Above and Beyond. We ended our session with a round of Character Callouts and wow, we have gotten so much better at showing appreciation for others!
Exploration Studio
Launch
Most of the launches from this week focused on our Quest topic, Personal Finance. Our overarching question for this session is “What is your most valuable asset?” so on Monday we took part in a mindfulness guided script where we imagined different responses to what was our most valuable asset. Most learners left the discussion without a clear answer, but everyone followed up with this question for their weekly reflection on Friday. On Tuesday, we discussed the ongoing injustice in the Mi’kmaq community regarding the violence they’ve been facing. We read a great article that summarizes the matter here. We will likely be keeping close tabs on this matter as part of our reconciliation responsibility. On Wednesday, we created identity circles, a graphic where the learners state what individual traits are closest to defining who they are. Having a strong sense of identity is important for the career planning that we are going to be doing next week. Finally, on Thursday and Friday, every Exploration Rebel sent an email home to their parents inviting them to come in via Zoom for a quick interview regarding their career. Thank you to all parents who have responded, we look forward to having you in.
Big History
While Session 1 focused on a timescale of the whole universe, looking at its beginnings and significant events that followed, this session is working on a timescale of the history of the Earth. There will be two major milestones for this session: creating a model of Earth using styrofoam, modelling clay, and paint and planning and running a 15-minute lesson for the Sparks studio on a topic explaining something about the Earth.
French
In this session, Rebels will be focusing on everything related to shopping. Where to go to buy certain items, how to spend their money wisely, and how to budget to make sure they can buy everything on their list. They will expand their vocabulary on real-life situations and scenarios where they may need to buy things, whether it be in a shopping mall, the grocery store, or a farmer's market. This week we focused on locations and played some fun games to expand our vocabulary. Rebels also started working on scenarios to practice purchasing items in a store of their choice, while others worked on a script to help them if they were in a French town and needed to buy ingredients to invite guests to their home for dinner.
Investing Simulation - Personal Finance Lab
After reviewing the requirements for the Investment badge, Mrs. Erin introduced the Exploration Rebels to an S&P 500 Heat Map. They learned that the visual groups companies by their sector and industry, illustrates the size of the company, and that the colour of the box shows if the stock is up or down over the past 5 days. Lastly, we discussed the purpose or reasoning for using a Heat Map before Rebels continued their assignments and trading.
Math Lab
This week in Math Lab, the Exploration Rebels also reviewed angles (right, acute, obtuse, complementary, and supplementary) and learned or practiced how to use a protractor. After finding various angles, Rebels had the option to either write their name in capital letters and identify as many math terms as possible including angles, lines of symmetry, parallel and perpendicular lines or choose one letter to create a stained glass picture and use a protractor to find the various angles. Halfway through the session, we pivoted to work on the "Painted Cube” challenge. The learners were able to use sugar cubes in order to help them visualize the problem and a couple of the groups were able to begin postulating the algebraic equations for additional sided cubes.
Quest
The first week of our Personal Finance quest was splendid! Each Monday we will be playing a different personal finance game. This week, we played a game where we explored four different time periods: The Neolithic, Agricultural, Industrial, and Technological. Each learner had a different career in each era where they had tokens that represented what they had to offer in the market in order to get enough food, water, and shelter tokens to survive. Hilarity and learning ensued! On Tuesday, we were introduced to infographics and started to create an infographic of our own, which will be something we work on all throughout the session. Finally, we spent Wednesday and Thursday developing our Google Sheets/Excel skills. Many learners were fascinated by the auto-fill functions and graphing capabilities which will undoubtedly be helpful skills going forward.
PE
Monday and Wednesday Rebels took part in one of the new optional P.E classes, Circuit with Ms. Jenna! Circuit classes promote more dynamic movement, boosting heart rate and building strength. Rebels will be exploring various styles of exercise movements and equipment in Circuit over the next few weeks, with the goal of not just growing stronger bodies, but growing stronger minds and more self-confidence! The other option this week was a hike on Monday and a rousing game of soccer on Wednesday with Deagan.
Team Building:
On Tuesday, Deagan introduced the learners to a new team building game called “Two Rooms and a Boom.” Due to its popularity, we played the game again during the closing on Thursday!
Elective
Ask your learner what they’ve been working on for their elective. If they seem to be working on a different thing every week, try and encourage them to focus on one project they will be able to sustain for an entire session.
Potential Discussion Ideas or Questions to Ask your Rebel:
Exploration: Have a discussion as a group: What is your most valuable asset?
Discovery: What are your “Big Rock” goals for the session?
Discovery: What areas of your wellness do you feel you need to improve the most? (Physical, Emotional, Mental, Spiritual, Social, Financial, Family, or Intellectual)
Discovery: Would you rather have been a coureurs des bois (more money, but no permit so illegal) or a voyageur (legal but most of your money went to your boss)?
Spark: What was your positive affirmation that you wrote on your post-it note?
Spark: What was your sight word of the week? Can you find that word in one of your storybooks?
Upcoming Special Dates and Events:
Halloween Celebration: Friday, October 30th!