Revel Recap: Oct. 26 - 30, 2020
Spark Studio
We started off our week reading one of our power affirmation cards that spoke about love. It said, “Love is my power. I am love. I am compassionate, I am kind. I give love, I receive love. I embody love. I am love.” After reading our card, it posed two questions for us to discuss. “When did you give or receive love today?” and “How did you feel?” Many of the Sparks responded that they felt love from their family, with cuddles, hugs goodbye, or the yummy breakfasts they had made them this morning before school. The Sparks said their families make them feel loved and happy. We talked about how we could show love to our families, such as through our words (saying I love you, thank you, asking about their day) and through our actions (giving a hug, making food, or cleaning up). We will continue to introduce new affirmation cards throughout the year and look forward to more lovely discussions! We also enjoyed starting some of our mornings with Halloween themed colouring this week and on Wednesday we had fun with a Halloween themed yoga session. We turned on some spooky music and then told a story of all the things we might see on a Halloween night, incorporating our yoga poses. The poses included a moon, a ghost, a witch on a broomstick, a black cat, a spooky tree, a bat hanging upside down in its cave, a monster, a spider and a jack-o-lantern! We then relaxed onto our mats and listened to a meditation story about a journey to a castle made out of stars! The Sparks have really been enjoying these meditation stories and we love incorporating them into our week!
During Quest, we continued working on our weather chart and observing and recording the weather data each day. We also learned about three types of clouds; cirrus, stratus and cumulus. We looked at pictures of these types of clouds and learned a little bit about what they look like. We then made pictures of these clouds using cotton balls. We continued to observe the sky throughout the week, trying to identify the types of clouds we could see. We also did an experiment with some rain clouds in a jar using shaving cream for our clouds. We then added blue food colouring and discussed that when the clouds get really heavy with water, it rains. The learners were so excited when our shaving cream clouds started to get heavy with water and food colouring, and the rain started coming down into our jars! We had so much fun making it rain that we tried it again using a different colour. The Sparks then wanted to try stirring the shaving cream and water and remarked that it looked like fog inside our jars! We also began working on learning our weather song and coming up with the actions for it!
For French this week we practiced some new words related to fall and Halloween. We then played a game where Mme. Talina would say one of the words out loud and a Spark would come up and choose the correct picture. To wrap up we got our Bingo cards ready for our Halloween themed Bingo session we had on Thursday!
Our new sight word of the week was and. After completing an activity sheet, we practiced spelling it with wooden geometric shapes, used it in a sentence and pointed it out in the books we read. Keep a lookout for this new sight word when you are reading with your learner! We continued exploring patterns and designs by using geometric shapes to create pictures on our paper and then tracing them. It was hard to trace the smaller shapes, but the Sparks worked really hard to complete this activity! We also continued our creative play with loose parts. These are a variety of open-ended materials. They have no specific rules for how to be used, but encourage their imaginations and dramatic play!
This week we learned about the life cycle of the pumpkin. After reading the book, Pumpkin, Pumpkin, we sorted picture cards into the order of the pumpkin life cycle. We talked about how it starts as a seed, then sprout, vine, flower, green pumpkin and orange pumpkin and how this repeats. We then coloured and cut and pasted our own version of the pumpkin life cycle. Afterward, we enjoyed creating pumpkin pictures, using torn paper and shapes to create the face. After learning all about the life cycle, it was time to investigate a real pumpkin. The Sparks each were given a pumpkin that they needed to remove the pulp and seeds from. We used our hands and spoons to scrape out the inside. Some of the Sparks really enjoyed this activity, while others were very brave but said “Yuck, this feels slimy and cold.” After cleaning out the insides of our pumpkins, we continued our investigation. We estimated how many seeds we removed, used math cubes to calculate how tall the pumpkin was, and counted how many lines it had. We also removed the top piece of our pumpkin and predicted whether our pumpkin lid would sink or float. The Sparks then showed their creative sides, painting their pumpkins to take home!
On Friday we had a lot of fun showing off our costumes for the Halloween Parade. We enjoyed Trick-or-Treating, Halloween freeze dance and musical chairs, bowling, creating a puppet show with our Halloween finger puppets, playing “Hide the Pumpkin” and making rainbow foam dough out of shaving cream to play with. What a spooktacular way to end our fun week in the Spark studio!
Discovery Studio
Mindfulness
We began our week with a mindfulness activity called, “Pencil Feelings.” Rebels created four spaces labelled with four different feelings on a piece of paper. They then thought about a time they felt each feeling and then using a pencil scribbled in the space while holding on to the feeling. After they finished all four feelings they took time to observe the differences. Did they hold the pencil tighter or press harder for some feelings? What shape observations could they make, were some curvier while others were more jagged? We also learned how to clench, relax, and stretch our hands in order to be more mindful of holding stress in our hands while we work. Tuesday was a Mindful Colouring and Zen Doodle period, while Wednesday was an up-tempo Yoga Flow, focusing on heart-openers, 4-beat-breath practices, and Halloween-themed movements (Franken-Tip-Toe was a hit!).
Launches
On Monday, we talked about how taking shortcuts can often actually lead to a longer route. We related this theory to Khan and how just trying to guess, not watching the video, or trying to do the math completely in our head and not use pencil and paper, doesn’t help us to learn the concepts and therefore actually takes us longer. Tuesday’s launch was led by Ms. Jenna, and the Rebels discussed the concept of unconditional love. We watched and discussed the short animated film, The Present, and talked about how humans and animals express their feelings to each other. Key takeaways were reminding ourselves who loves us unconditionally, how lucky we are to have experienced that love and to be able to feel it for our family, pets, friends, etc. Reminding ourselves that we are loved was a great way to jump-start day! One of our Rebels led Launch on Wednesday on the topic of palm oil, and the importance of avoiding products that use the ingredient. We continued our Thursday Current Events mainly discussing creative non-contact ideas to make Halloween fun this year. Friday’s launch was our Halloween Catwalk! It was such a great way to start the day seeing Rebels support and cheer each other on as they modelled their fabulous Halloween costumes!
Rebel Readers & Warrior Writer
Aim and Release Rebels had an incredibly productive period with their first formal spelling test of Session 2 focusing on contractions. We followed our spelling test with a read-aloud of chapters 4-6 of Thief of Always. Rebels are sincerely enjoying the fantasy novel study and we discussed another important element of Fantasy: how the reader will often learn new things along with the main characters. Readers are starting to pick up more and more clues each chapter, even ahead of the main character, Harvey! We are heading into some of the more exciting chapters of the story, so Ms. Jenna is looking forward to reading more with the Rebels next week and starting to plan their Fantasy Story summaries.
Draw and Anchor Rebels completed their first formal spelling test of Session 2 focusing on long vowels Oo and Aa, and words with -ind, -ing endings. Rebels did very well and were very excited to take on their first test! We completed a grammar activity about nouns vs verbs, discussed the difference between common, proper, singular and plural nouns and then sorted out 2-word lists from a large mix of different vocabulary words to demonstrate a clear understanding. We spent the last part of our class working on Fantasy Read Alouds (Alice in Wonderland & Jack and the Beanstalk) and chose our settings for our team fantasy children’s book. Our focus for the next 2 classes will be creating characters and developing our plot for our team fantasy story.
Friday’s Reader Writer Mission was a special Halloween themed mission! The objective of the Rebels was to sell Ms. Jenna a haunted house, with monster roommates included! The Rebels were tasked with creating a Haunted House Listing, full of spooky selling features using a variety of spooky images and adjectives, and even building mini-models of the monsters I could expect as the new roommates! Rebels demonstrated some of the best teamwork we have seen in a mission so far and excellent time management strategies. Way to go, Rebels!
Math Lab
The Draw and Anchor Rebels began their class with a creative and visual exercise using four isosceles triangles and were asked to make as many shapes as possible using the rules provided. All of the Rebels worked really well together on this task and was great practice for decomposing larger shapes into smaller shapes or composing smaller shapes to make larger shapes! The Draw Rebels then continued working on their addition facts focusing on problems with sums less than 10 with the help of a couple of games. Meanwhile, Anchor Rebels reviewed their 3 times table and then got to work on the 4s with the help of the Math Facts That Stick game boards and practice pages.
Aim and Release Rebels revisited the Painted Cube challenge from last week. They began by helping to fill in a chart based on cubes of various sizes in order to identify the pattern which in turn could help us create algebraic expressions. We then shifted gears and learned about the Fibonacci sequence. Rebels identified the pattern with the numbers on the board; “1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21...” and then found the sequence within the Fibonacci spiral image. Rebels also learned about how the Fibonacci sequence can be found throughout nature and observed the pattern in pictures of sunflowers, cacti, and pinecones. We ended our class with some work on multi-digit multiplication problems.
French
This week Rebels reviewed the clothing vocabulary from last week through a variety of activities and games. They had to work together to place the clothing items in the right columns which described different weather patterns. They also started thinking about what kind of natural phenomenon they will be presenting in French. We watched a bunch of mini clips showing extraordinary things that have happened due to weather or the changing seasons. Rebels picked their groups and next week they will start writing their scripts for their mini video clips. Lastly, Rebels chose French books to read and will be tracking their reading through SMART goals this year.
Civilization
While listening to stories about early European settlement in Canada, Rebels kept their arms busy shaking heavy cream in jars. They were so excited when their cream finally separated into buttermilk and butter. After draining the buttermilk and rinsing their butter we enjoyed their creation on some freshly made bread and with some apple cider on the side.
Quest
Our Meteorology Quest on Monday focused on precipitation and humidity. We learned about the water that is in our air and reviewed the water cycle. Our groups then made rain gauges for our outdoor weather station and completed an experiment entitled “How is Water Stored in Clouds?” using sponges and pipettes to note what changes occur as our sponge becomes saturated. Using our observations we discussed the comparison of our sponges to clouds and at which point we get rain or another form of precipitation. We had our heads in the clouds on Tuesday as we pondered whether clouds really could help us predict the weather. After watching a cool Ted-Ed video, How Clouds Were Named, we read more about the different types of clouds and then constructed our very own Cloud ID windows. With our new tools in hand, we went outside to make our cloud observations on our Cloud Watcher handout. We also were able to make predictions about the upcoming weather based on what we had learned. On Wednesday we asked, what is wind and where does it come from? After reading an article on why the wind blows, we made anemometers and weather vanes which we then used on Thursday to test the direction and force of the wind up on Carlington Hill! It was a chilly afternoon, but groups made their way from the bottom to the middle, to the top of the hill testing both of their instruments. We ended our Quest period with a discussion on what we would alter about our prototypes if we were to make them again in order to make them more accurate weather instruments.
PE
Rebels participated in a fun Halloween-themed Circuit on Monday afternoon this week! Movements like “Push-Ups from the Grave”, “Zombie Sit-Ups”, & “Werewolf Walks” were all a part of the stations. We finished with a healthy and refreshing snack of honeycrisp apples to re-fuel! The remaining Rebels went on a hike in the crisp air! On Wednesday, Rebels got a great cardio workout through a Zumba session. We got to see some great dance moves and have some great song requests for next week's Zumba class. Those who didn’t join in Zumba went outside for a game of kickball with Mr. Deagan.
Elective
Art Club created a variety of Spooky Sunset canvases using watercolours, chalk pastels and acrylic black paint to create haunted house silhouettes! A couple of Rebels tested the Garden Tower and made food for Jack, our dwarf bearded dragon, while others played chess, designed online games, played Dungeons and Dragons, helped with the Sparks, practiced their ukulele or guitar, or drafted a contract for their Rube Goldberg machine team!
Halloween Fun Friday and Town Hall
We kicked off Friday with a Spook-tacular Fashion Show for Rebels who wanted to show off their costumes on the catwalk! After a very productive morning with Rebels finalizing their weekly goals in Core Skills and some Halloween themed Language Arts activities, we had an incredible afternoon full of Halloween fun! There were mini-pumpkin decorating stations, a “Contactless Candy Invention” building area, and Trick-or-Treating around the many doors of Revel! It was so wonderful to see Rebels participate in some great COVID-safe alternatives while celebrating Halloween this year. We hope everyone in our Revel community has a safe and very happy Halloween!
Exploration Studio
Launch
Our launches and closings this week were facilitated by our learners who had invited a parent to come into our studio (via Zoom) to speak about their work. The learners led our guest through three questions and the group through a discussion to consolidate the learning. Thank you so much to those who have “come in” so far, and thanks to those who have booked a time in the coming weeks! We also had a closing where we discussed what we want our Session 2 Exhibition to look like. The learners wanted more of a community feel where the Rebels were interacting with new people. More to come on that in the future weeks!
Big History
Starting next week, each learner is going to venture over to the Sparks studio and lead a Circle Time on a topic related to Big History. Many concepts are related to astronomy and geography and are all quite complicated theories. Our Exploration Rebels, therefore, have to really understand their concept in order to simplify it enough for our younger learners. Many Rebels have chosen to sing songs, read books, and play games with the Sparks to engage them. Teaching someone else is an incredible way to learn something yourself because in order to be effective you need to understand your material and find ways of engaging every learning style. Ask your learner what topic their Circle Time will cover and what their lesson plan will be! On Tuesday of next week, we will be running a mock Circle Time within the studio in order to test material and receive feedback from their peers. On Thursday, we will be moving on to creating our models of Earth!
French
This week Rebels got their boutiques set up and we did some shopping! Before the shopping began we talked about what kind of words or sentences would be helpful during this shopping experience. Rebels then had the chance to circulate and shop in French at each of the boutiques. As this is directly related to the Personal Finance Quest, not all Rebels had the same amount of money to spend so they had to shop strategically. We also played some games practicing new vocabulary about clothing items and tested our previous knowledge through a few guessing activities. Lastly, Rebels chose books to read in French and will be tracking their reading through SMART goals this year.
Math Lab
This Friday our Exploration Rebels picked up where they left off with a discussion on their “Painted Cube” findings. After creating a chart of our findings for various sided cubes we began to look for patterns in order to devise algebraic expression to test. After discovering one of the equations, we shifted gears and discussed the Fibonacci sequence before finding the pattern in the Fibonacci spiral! We spent the last half of the class working on manipulating algebraic expressions, mainly focusing on how to isolate the variable in order to find the answer to the equation. Groups then came up with an equation for the other groups to solve and with each problem confidence and speed increased.
Investing Simulation - Personal Finance Lab
This week Exploration Rebels had time to catch up on Personal Finance Lab assignments and checking their investments. Interested in your Rebel’s investment portfolios? Ask them about their decisions and check out their online portfolio!
Quest
Several topics were covered in Quest this week. Continuing our plan of dedicating Mondays to games, we played a game where each learner lived an entire life; paying for school, having a career, dealing and planning for unexpected changes, and making decisions about things to purchase. Ask your Rebel to tell you the story of their life in this game. While in this week’s game if a learner ran out of money from either being fired, having to pay for school, or overspending, they had to take a loan out from the bank, next week’s game will be in the Welfare State. Learners will be taxed, but will also get a pension when it is time to retire.
On Tuesday, we mapped out our Ikigai, otherwise known as "Life’s Purpose." Learners reflected on four aspects of work: what they like doing, what they’re good at, what they can be rewarded or paid for, and what the world needs. The cross-section of all of these elements is each person’s Ikigai. We believe it is incredibly valuable to think about our life’s purpose as many people can remember not thinking about that question until they were much older. The Rebels will have a stronger sense of identity and purpose after completing this activity. Most learners were able to easily identify each separate category and challenged themselves to see where there were overlapping consistencies.
We finished off the week with two different budgets. Each learner planned a trip that they would want to go on and broke down the financial aspects of each component of the trip. One learner decided he wanted to rent a luxury yacht and take a trip to the bottom of the Marianas Trench, while others planned simpler trips to visit relatives. The second budget we did was a food budget. Each learner planned the food they were going to eat for three days and noted the prices of everything to create a budget. Each learner rifled through grocery store flyers to find the foods they wanted to eat. Some interesting “meals'' included: Cool Whip and Cereal, Pizza Pops for lunch…every day, and a lot of meals of solely unseasoned meat, Bon Appetit!
PE
PE is becoming increasingly challenging for the learners with two options offered each day, something inside and something outside. Inside this week we had Circuit Training and a Zumba class. Outside, we went for a hike and played kickball. Inside, they are sweating and moving a lot while outside we are starting to freeze our buns off. Perseverance either way!
Team Building
For team building this week we played a game called “Back In The Bowl.” In this game, there are two teams and three rounds. The game starts with each learner writing down a word or phrase on a piece of paper and putting it in a bowl. For the first round, a team sends someone up to pick the paper out of a bowl and use words to describe it. When their team guesses the word correctly, the one team member tries to get through each piece of paper in the bowl in two minutes. If they fail, the other team then comes in to try and finish it off. The game then repeats with the same words but in the second round, there is no talking, only acting allowed. In the third round, you are only able to say one word to have your team guess what’s on the paper.
Halloween and Fun Friday
We kicked off Friday with a Spook-tacular Fashion Show for Rebels who wanted to show off their costumes on the catwalk! We were impressed with the various costumes and were thrilled to see our older Rebels still enjoying this holiday! There were stations set up in the afternoon for all of the Rebels to take part in some Halloween fun. There were mini-pumpkin decorating stations, a “Contactless Candy Invention” building area, and Trick-or-Treating around the many doors of Revel! Many of our Exploration Rebels helped out behind the doors before taking part in the Trick-or-Treating themselves! We hope everyone in our Revel community has a safe and very happy Halloween!
Potential Discussion Ideas or Questions to Ask your Rebel:
Exploration: What is your Ikigai?
Exploration: If you picked a topic to review or learn about in Math Lab, what would it be? (Please send your ideas to Mrs. Erin!)
Discovery: What goals are currently in your Challenge zone? Panic zone? Comfort zone?
Discovery: If you were to rebuild your anemometer, what would you do differently next time. How is your team working with one another? Anything that you could do to improve your productivity?
Spark: What part of learning about pumpkins did you enjoy the most? (Life cycle, scooping out the seeds and counting them, making your pumpkin measurements, or decorating?)
Spark: Can you show me your favourite Halloween yoga poses?
Upcoming Special Dates and Events:
Session 2 Exhibition: Each studio will be holding separate Exhibitions the week of November 23rd - November 25th. Dates and times will be announced this next week.
Sessional Break: November 26th and 27th
Session 3 Begins: November 30th
