Revel Recap: March 15 - 19, 2021
Spark Studio
Mindfulness & Launch
Our Monday in the Spark Studio began with an energy-boosting mindful moment, using our ‘1-2-3 Clap’ activity. We then each shared a favourite stretch for the group to try before getting really creative! We looked at how bicycles have changed since they were first invented. We discussed how inventions often change over time, as engineers make improvements to the design. The Sparks were challenged to design a bicycle for the future, featuring something new that their bike could do. They shared their big ideas in their story writing book and during circle time. On Tuesday we designed and coloured our own pictures for mindful colouring. We then read How To Catch a Leprechaun, to get ideas and start brainstorming for our own leprechaun traps. Wednesday was St. Patrick's Day, so we started our morning finding out more about the holiday. We located Ireland on the map, looked at their flag, and Ms. Megan shared some stories about her time living there (It really does rain, a lot!). The Sparks also enjoyed reading and laughing at the rhymes in There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Clover. We then completed a directed drawing of a leprechaun. The Sparks are amazing artists and created some wonderful drawings! On Thursday, we were challenged to design a stuffed animal carrier for our bikes. The carrier had to keep the stuffed animal dry if you went through a puddle, but the animal should also be able to see where the bike was going. After finishing a picture of their design, the Sparks shared how it worked during our circle. Friday morning we dreamed of the warmer weather ahead, while listening to a meditation story about the sun and flowers growing. We then spent time completing a page in our gratitude journal.
Quest
This week in Quest we explored all types of bridges! We read many books, looked at pictures of several examples, and explored by building and testing our own bridges. We started our conversation by sharing about all of the different kinds of bridges we have been on, what they looked like, how we crossed it (driving/walking/riding a bike), and what materials we thought it was made of. We asked the question, what makes bridges so strong? And our discussion led us to learn about the special materials such as iron and steel that make the bridge stronger. We began to explore different types of bridges, including a simple beam bridge. After looking at some examples, we set out to make our own beam bridges using wooden blocks and cardstock. The challenge was to build a bridge and then see how many gems the bridge could hold. After noticing that the bridge began to sag quite quickly in the middle, we determined that it needed more piers for support. We observed that the more support we added, the stronger the bridge became. The Sparks had so much fun designing and testing their bridges! We continued to learn about different types, including bridges that may need to be stronger in order to hold a lot of traffic or even trains. We learned about truss bridges and noticed that in the examples we saw the shape of a triangle is used. We learned that the triangle is a sturdy and stable shape to use, and set out to create a truss bridge using popsicle sticks. We were also interested to learn about suspension and drawbridges. A favourite challenge this week was to use our materials to create a bridge that could cross the paper water. Using Magnatiles, wooden blocks and lego, each learner created some very sturdy bridges that included ramps to get up, stairs for people and even a drawbridge! We all enjoyed looking at pictures of unique bridges from around the world. One particular bridge that was made just out of wood and rope, had the Sparks divided on whether they would cross it or not!
French
During French class this week we read Mon ballon by Mario Ramos and we practiced describing the colourful animals in the story. We like when the little girl sings “Promenons-nous dans les bois,” so we danced to the song. We also started coming up with choreography for “Joli Calao,” an African song about a bird that likes to dance! Finally, we practiced the letters of the alphabet with a matching game.
Additional Highlights
This week we were excited to celebrate another Spark birthday! The Sparks came up with the idea to hide under the tables and when our birthday friend walked in they all jumped up and said, “Happy Birthday!” It was a fun celebration! During our read-aloud this week, we read about Ireland and the celebration of St. Patrick’s Day. Our leprechaun trap building session was definitely a highlight! The Sparks worked in pairs or alone, to gather their materials and put their ideas into action. They were very crafty and creative! They reported back the next day that they didn’t catch any leprechauns but many are already redesigning their trap for next year! On the shelf, the learners worked with St. Patrick’s Day-themed activities such as shamrock mazes, pin pushing pictures and cutting exercises with an Irish theme! This week our outdoor time included a lot of play in the puddles and mud. There were many types of mud pies being made! We are excited about the warmer weather and all the new activities it brings with it! On Friday we discovered a new studio favourite song and dance, the Floor is Lava! It was a fun game to end our week!
Discovery Studio
Mindfulness
Monday, Wednesday and Friday’s yoga classes were all more upbeat this week and focused on energy-boosting yoga flows to help us beat the Daylight Savings Time morning cobwebs! Mindful colouring was very green this week, with a lot of beautiful St. Patrick’s Day-themed and spring-themed zen doodles.
Launches and Closings
On Monday, we gave ourselves a pep talk by discussing what words we need to hear right now and what words we think others might need to hear. We also came up with some “Four-Finger” mantras to use this week if we find ourselves in our panic zones. For Monday and Thursday’s closing activity, Rebels were able to showcase their problem-solving skills in a team-building logic puzzle. Tuesday morning’s launch was “Lucky to Be Me,” a St. Patrick's Day-themed activity. We discussed the concept of luck - is luck something that happens when the stars align or do we make our own? Rebels then filled in a four-leaf clover as they reflected on and wrote or drew things that they felt lucky to have in their lives. For Tuesday’s closing and Wednesday’s launch, Mme Marie showed us what the official and unofficial symbols of France are. We were surprised to learn that the rooster is an emblem of France! We discussed how much the Revolution impacted French identity and how freedom is represented by Marianne as seen in “La Liberté Guidant le Peuple” by Delacroix. We also listened to the French anthem sung by Mireille Mathieu and compared it to our more peaceful anthem. Current Events on Thursday highlighted the trending hashtag #StopAsianHate as we discussed the elevated incidents of Asian violence in North America and the world this past year. We watched and learned about an inspiring organization run by two Asian Americans that support Asian elders called Heart of Dinner. We also checked out some amazing images of snowflakes in high resolution by photographer Nathan Myhrvold. On Friday after our March Mammal Madness recap, one of our Rebels led our launch! He explored a variety of inspiring quotes and discussed what they meant with our Rebels. It was a very engaging and thoughtful launch - well done!
Rebel Readers & Warrior Writers
On Monday, Aim and Release Rebels had a very productive essay writing workshop. Rebels are working on body paragraphs, which describe their animal’s behavioural and physical adaptations more in-depth. We are focusing on using a variety of transition words as well as synonyms and antonyms to avoid repetitive vocabulary. Rebels are thoroughly enjoying Holes and our read-alouds have been extremely captivating as we approach the climax of the story.
On Wednesday, Draw and Anchor Rebels kicked off their work period with a St Patrick-themed writing activity about what they would do if they found the gold at the end of the rainbow. We completed a Spelling test on “oat”, “ong” and “all” vocabulary words and continued our novel study, Pugs of the Frozen North.
Friday’s Reader Writer period was a catch-up day. Aim and Release Rebels worked hard on their informative essays, with most completing the 2nd or 3rd body paragraphs. Draw and Anchor Rebels did a group read-aloud to finish their weekly chapter assignments for Pugs of the Frozen North and continued putting together their storyboard map with important symbols and images that represent key parts of the story. Great job this week, Rebels!
Math Lab and Civilizations
This week we used some of our usual Math Lab time for Civilizations in order to set time aside for Leprechaun Trap building! After reading about and discussing representation based on population, Confederation, the British North American Act (Constitution Act), and the Red River Rising led by Louis Riel, Rebels had time to work on their Math Facts that Stick, card games, and Khan goals.
Quest
On Monday, both Exploration and Discovery studios came together to present their Climate Change or Biomimicry project to one another. In small, mixed groups, Rebels asked one another clarifying questions and gave helpful feedback in order to strengthen ideas or improve the next iteration. It was an incredibly valuable experience for both studios! The next couple of Quest periods were then spent utilizing the feedback received on Monday, which for some meant starting back at the starting board. We often notice that learners want to show off all they can do when it comes to fonts, animations, colour and images which often leads to hard-to-read slides that are distracting. Therefore our Thursday workshop focused on what made a good slide versus a bad slide and what content should and should not be included. With the time remaining in Quest, Rebels got to work on their slides and if they had time shared them with another Rebel for feedback. This next week, Rebels will be working on their final prototype, tightening up their presentations and meeting one last time with other learners to find ways to further improve.
French
We started French class on Tuesday with a game called “Tu préfères ça...ou ça?” (Would you rather…). We then watched two episodes of Les Minijusticiers: Supertic and Superpeurdunoir. On Thursday, we solved the Charade du Jour and practiced the vocabulary of personal qualities and flaws which will come in handy as we finish up our superhero descriptions!
PE
Monday’s Rebel-Led Circuit was a huge hit! Thank you to our two Rebels for running such a fun and challenging class! We wrapped up the last 10 minutes of Monday’s circuit with our Freeze Jam running activity. Meanwhile, the outdoor group returned to the forest for some hill sledding and hiking. Wednesday’s Dance class learned an awesome Tik Tok to the ever-so-catchy Savage Love by Jason Derulo. The Rebels had an awesome time learning and recreating the dance! The rest of the Rebels went to the hill for a game of kickball and tree climbing!
Additional Highlights
In anticipation of leprechauns visiting our homes, our Rebels designed and created their own unique Leprechaun Traps! While we did not hear of any leprechauns being caught this year, there are already plans for next year's traps in the works!
Exploration Studio
Launches and Closings
During Monday’s launch, we listened to a short NPR podcast episode about rock’n’roll in Latin America. We then listened to two songs by Peruvian bands Los Saicos (the Grandpas of Punk) and Los Datsuns. At closing, we watched The Blue Comet Conundrum and debated who should get to name the comet and why. Tuesday morning we tackled consciousness after watching this clip from Westworld. Exploration Rebels debated whether they agreed with the owner or whether they thought that awareness, intelligence, memory, emotion or something else most constitutes consciousness before also debating the statement that some say we are always hallucinating, but when we all agree about the hallucinations, that is called reality. Is reality different for each person, a universal truth, or a complete myth? With Mr. Deagan out for the rest of the week, we discussed our plan and how this is the perfect challenge to prove that we are truly a learner-led studio! Rebels rose to the challenge and at closing met to divvy up roles and responsibilities for the remainder of the week. Thursday morning we posed the question, Should violence and death be a form of entertainment? Roman gladiators, boxing, video games, and movies, were all brought up as examples of how our culture has used death as a crowd-pleaser throughout history. It was brought up that we often joke about death as a coping mechanism to deal with the harsh inevitability. We also questioned whether it was morally different to shoot “non-human” entities in a videogame vs. humans. After our March Mammal Madness recap on Friday, we made a game plan and got right to work on our last core skill session of the week.
Quest
This was the week that the learners had the most amount of time to work on their Climate Change projects. On Monday, the learners shared how they were progressing on their projects with the other studios. The Discovery learners provided feedback to the Exploration studio and also shared their projects. On Tuesday, the learners felt they needed more feedback so they shared their projects with their huddle groups and then were off to work, with 5 days remaining to finish their projects. Next week will be spent finishing projects, receiving more feedback, and preparing for the Session 5 Exhibition!
Big History
In Big History this week, we focused on our “March Phanerozoic Madness!” On Tuesday, each of the learners contributed to making a timeline of significant events over the past 500 million years. The learners were able to place the March Phanerozoic Madness animal of their choice on the timeline and see what significant events were occurring during that time. Rebels then got together in pairs on Thursday to begin writing their potential battle scenes!
French
This week in French class we earned our green stripe for L’amitié. We watched a short animation by French artist Kekeflipnote about two animal friends enjoying a dance session. They were adorable and we were impressed with how smooth the animation was. We talked about what friendship means to us and how being with our friends makes us feel. On Wednesday we completed our “Fleur de l’amitié” and we practiced the vocabulary of weeks 1-3: Le Courage, La Curiosité et La Créativité.
Math Lab
This week in Math Lab, Exploration Rebels were given a backstory, blueprints for two separate homes, a list of each family member’s priorities, and a price list for different levels of finishes and potential add-ons. They then had to use all of the given information to choose which home the family should build as well as what finishes and add-ons could be purchased with the budget provided. All of the Rebels did an awesome job justifying their choices by providing mathematical evidence for their decisions.
PE
Monday’s Rebel-Led Circuit was a huge hit! Thank you to our two Rebels for running such a fun and challenging class! We wrapped up the last 10 minutes of Monday’s circuit with our Freeze Jam running activity. Meanwhile, the outdoor group returned to the forest for some hill sledding and hiking. Wednesday’s Dance class learned an awesome Tik Tok to the ever-so-catchy Savage Love by Jason Derulo. The Rebels had an awesome time learning and recreating the dance! The rest of the Rebels went to the hill for a game of kickball and tree climbing!
Potential Discussion Ideas or Questions to Ask your Rebel:
Exploration: Which March Phanerozoic Madness animal did you choose and what storyline have you come up with for your battle?
Exploration: When building a home, would you prioritize the level of finishes or the add-ons?
Discovery: Do you feel you will be able to finish your project for Quest this next week? If not, what can be done to support you?
Discovery: Is your champion still in contention for March Mammal Madness?
Spark: How many gems did your beam bridge hold? How did you make your bridge stronger? What changes did you make?
Spark: What new feature did you design for your bicycle?
Upcoming Events & Special Dates:
Session 5 Discovery Exhibition: Wednesday, March 31st at 1:30 pm
Session 5 Exploration Exhibition: Tuesday, March 30th at 1:30 pm
Exploration Field Trip: Thursday, April 1st
Last Day of Session 5: Thursday, April 1st
Session 6 Begins: Monday, April 12th