Revel Recap: April 12 - 16, 2021
Spark Studio
This week we began our Botany Quest! To activate our prior knowledge, we began filling in our KWL chart (know/wonder/learned). The Sparks discussed that they knew plants start as seeds, that they grow in soil, they need water and the sun to grow, that we can eat some plants, and that plants help us breathe. They then brainstormed some things they wonder about such as, “What is inside a leaf?” They are also very curious to learn more about insects such as butterflies, bees, worms, slugs, and ants. We recalled how a lifecycle is the stages living things go through, like when we learned about the chicken life cycle. Plants have life cycles, too! We learned how first a seed begins its life in the soil. Then, the seed begins to sprout. Next, the seedling emerges from the soil. Finally, the seedling blooms into a plant! We then coloured and cut out some flipbooks to remind us of this cycle and read The Lifecycle of Plants to learn even more! Next, we started an experiment with some celery and water with food colouring in it. We reminded ourselves that a prediction is a really good guess, and we guessed what we thought was going to happen. The next day, we observed how the celery had absorbed the water through the stem, kind of like a straw. The leaves had changed to red, blue and green from the food colouring! This is the same way water travels from the roots up to the stem and finally reaches the leaves. We also cut up the celery stalk to notice the tubes that carry the water through the plant. The next day, we discussed the different things a plant needs to grow; water, sun, healthy soil and clean air. After watching a funny video by Grover on what a plant needs to grow, we enjoyed the story of The Tiny Seed. We then placed three sunflower seeds in a Ziploc bag with a moist paper towel. We have placed them in our windows and are excited to see if our seeds will sprout!
As we moved to remote learning this week, the Sparks did a wonderful job participating. We shared some mindful moments and Ms. Megan was really proud of them for all trying the finger tracing exercise with their breathing. She was also very impressed with their memory matching skills and spotting the differences in pictures! We enjoyed playing the Floor is Lava, a read-aloud with our friend from another studio, and of course Show and Tell was a lot of fun!
We also have a pen pal update! The Ignite Studio at the Infinity School received the mail we sent and we are told they “had an absolute blast looking through all of it!” They loved the stickers we sent, and coincidentally they lined up with their most recent Quest about Space and their upcoming one on Gardening! They are putting together another package to send to us in a few weeks. We will begin brainstorming what we would like to send back soon.
French
On Monday in French class, we talked about the way that we feel using picture charts, and on Tuesday we had a lot of fun playing Zingo. On Wednesday we had a dance party and we made cards for Mme Megan’s birthday! We also sang “Joyeux Anniversaire” altogether. On Thursday, our first day of online school for this session, we went over the colours of the rainbow and we read “Pat le Chat - Cinq petits canards.”
Discovery Studio
Mindfulness
Monday, Wednesday and Friday yoga classes emphasized breathing techniques to help us work through anxious thoughts or feelings. We focused on body awareness in our back, neck and shoulders with heart-opening poses with upbeat playlists! Rebels worked on a variety of mindful activities like colouring, journaling, reading, and breathing on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.
Launches and Closings
Monday morning we welcomed our newest Rebel to the Discovery Studio and celebrated another Rebel as he moved up to the Exploration Studio! We also took time to review our COVID-19 protocols and learn about using the Mood Meter to describe how we are feeling. During Monday’s Closing, we learned about a French celebrity named Édith Piaf, a singer whose tragic life and beautiful voice have moved people from all around the world. We watched a video of her singing “La Vie en Rose” and we talked about things that make us feel happy (les choses qui nous font voir la vie en rose). On Tuesday, we reviewed the recent updates and changes to our schedule due to COVID and school closures. We discussed how the announcement made us feel and opened up the floor to Rebels to express their thoughts and concerns as we embark on another online learning journey. While we all agree that we will miss learning in person, we emphasized the importance of the fact that we have been here before and have overcome these challenges. We brainstormed some strategies that would help us through the ebbs and flows of online learning and to work together even while we are apart! Tuesday’s Closing highlighted a beautiful poem about the environment and how words can impact the world. With our move to remote learning, we decided to hold a mini-celebration in person Wednesday to honour the Rebels who won our inaugural Fantasy Hockey league, our third annual March Mammal Madness competition, and the official ceremony for our learner moving up studios!
Rebel Readers & Warrior Writers
This week we introduced our theme for this session, Poetry! For an introductory lesson, Aim and Release Rebels reviewed some of the key poetic devices such as stanzas, lines, metaphors and similes that we will be exploring as we unpack a variety of poems this session. We read and annotated our first team poem, “The Rose That Grew From Concrete,” by Tupac Shakur. The Rebels loved the metaphor of roses as people who still follow their dreams despite the obstacles in their lives. On Wednesday, Draw and Anchor Rebels outlined their poetry badge together and reviewed what we would be doing online over the next several weeks. We read aloud the story, “Seeds and Trees” as we introduced the first two elements of poetry for this session, alliteration and rhyme.
Quest
We kicked off our Process Drama Quest for Session 6 with quite a bang! Rebels participated in a variety of drama games to help them warm up to the concept of role-playing, acting in front of each other, and using verbal and nonverbal communication strategies in partners and small groups. The objective for this week is to familiarize ourselves with some practices that will help us moving forward. We played “10 Second Freeze Frame,” a small group (teams of 4-5) drama game where Rebels were given an object or scenario and they had to come up with a freeze-frame in 10 seconds or less. (We tried counting to 20 several times as a full studio but are still working on that goal! Ask your Rebel how hard counting to 20 in a group can be!) We also explored non-communication strategies (charades) as we read through the short play, “The King’s Sentence.” Rebels found it extra challenging to communicate without words due to masks covering facial expressions! On Wednesday, we put our non-verbal communication skills to the test and put on short skits of fairy tales. Groups had 20 minutes to create the skit using nothing but gestures while the rest of the teams had to try and guess which fairy tale they recreated. We had so much fun this week and we look forward to developing our “Powerful People” and Wax Museum concept as Quest unfolds over the next few weeks. On Thursday, Rebels met as a group online to warm-up with a couple of drama games including “Positive/Negative” before getting to work on one of the Drama BINGO challenges! Puppet shows, book trailers, and practicing songs from musicals were only a few of the projects Rebels chose.
Math Lab
In this session, Draw and Anchor Rebels will become the manager of their very own pet store! For their first challenge, they were given a budget and then chose which animals they wanted to purchase. There was some intense decision-making being done! The next step was to measure each animal in order to figure out how large their pens would need to be in their new store. Next week we will use those measurements to discuss area and perimeter as they block off and organize their space.
Aim and Release Rebels have been challenged to create a model of their dream treehouse this session! After an introduction of the project, using a given budget Rebels chose the most important priorities to include in their design. They then were asked to categorize their elements into safety, equipment, and supplies and make a bar graph to discover where the majority of their budget was going. Over the next five weeks, they will begin designing, building, and accessorizing their structures and we can’t wait to see everyone’s finished projects at the end of Session 6.
Civilization
This week we began our study of World War 1 learning about the assassination of the Archduke of Austria and the division of countries into two groups the Central Power and the Allies. We then read about Canadian life during the war for, both that of the soldiers as well as the changes women saw in their roles. We then read about the Canadian troops who were sent to Ypres to protect Belgium from the German forces and the inspiration for John McCrae’s poem “In Flanders Fields.”
French
In this session’s French class, we are learning about spring, weather, and poetry! After using a picture chart to describe how we felt on Tuesday, we read the poem “J’ai crié ‘Avril’!” by Maurice Carême, yelling the word “Avril” together and clapping our hands when we heard rhyming words. Then, we watched two episodes of Drôles de Petites Bêtes. On Thursday we learned about different types of weather and some activities that are associated with them. We then wrote about what activities we like to do and completed some practice exercises on Live Worksheets. Next week our schedule will be a bit different, so don’t forget to check the Bulletin Board on Journey Tracker!
PE
On Monday we all ventured outside where we split into two groups, one who went for a hike in the woods and another who played a fun game of kickball. The weather was gorgeous and the Rebels enjoyed their time in the sun. Going forward we’re asking Rebels to continue using their PE time to head outdoors and get some exercise. There is also a Spring Fitness Challenge posted on Journey Tracker for those who are interested!
ADDITIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
With the understanding that we may be learning online for more than a couple of weeks, Discovery Rebels requested that we spend the last hour of our day on Wednesday playing together as a community. Walking around the studio you could see card and board games in action, mini-sticks, and role-playing. We are really going to miss being in the studios but we are so confident that the Rebels will rise once again to the challenge of learning remotely!
Exploration Studio
Launches and Closings
During Monday’s Launch, we learned about a French celebrity named Édith Piaf, a singer whose tragic life and beautiful voice have moved people from all around the world. We listened to her songs called “La Vie en Rose” and “Non, je ne regrette rien.” Monday at Closing we played the Irrational Game, a thought-provoking game, where learners predict decisions people will make in unique situations due to human nature. On Tuesday, a learner showed us an awesome video where someone built an incredible instrument out of PVC pipes and played it incredibly well. (We’re keeping our fingers crossed that a Rebel will make one!) With our move to remote learning, we decided to hold a mini-celebration in person Wednesday to honour the Rebels who won our inaugural Fantasy Hockey league, our third annual March Mammal Madness competition, and the official ceremony for our learner moving up studios! With our move to online, we kept the energy light and fun! On Thursday we utilized Balderdash cards to learn about some extremely ridiculous laws around the world and on Friday we played Skribbl.io all together.
Big History
In Big History this session, we are preparing Museum Exhibits to display at the Session 6 Exhibition. Learners will be studying a culture from the past and creating a set of artifacts that they think represents what it was like to live in that culture. This week, we spoke about how we can go about choosing the culture we are wishing to study. Next week, we will be continuing our preliminary research and developing our list of artifacts we are interested in making. Some learners are choosing to study the same culture from Quest and will use those artifacts to aid in the monologue of the historical figure of their choice. We’re strong believers that history has something of interest for everyone, whether it is art, engineering, sports, technology, social progress, or stories of adventure.
Math Lab
Welcome to the Great Paper Roller Coaster Challenge! In this session, Exploration Rebels will be putting their design skills to use as they build a paper roller coaster! After checking out a gallery of other people’s designs and watching a video with an enormous version, Rebels got right to work reading the challenge requirements and watching instructional videos in order to start building their base with columns and beams. Many Rebels chose to stay online and talk as they folded, taped and erected their bases. We can’t wait to see the roller coasters come together over the next few weeks!
French
In this session’s French class, we are learning about Maghreb, a region of North Africa composed of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. We started on Monday with a Kahoot! about the francophone world. Then, we each filled out a map of one of the three countries by doing some research on the internet. On Wednesday, we started the class with a short talk about Ramadan, which started earlier this week and will last until May 13th. We also finished our maps and created three to four questions to ask other Rebels.
Quest
In Quest this session, we are preparing for our Exhibition’s Wax Museum. Each learner will be choosing a figure from the past that to portray through the dramatic process. Over the next five weeks, the learners will be creating a script, costume, and ultimately immersing themselves in the lives and time of someone from the past. This quest is also unique because the learners will be running the entire show! On Monday we planned the skills and steps required to perform a monologue and how we are going to develop those skills. Each learner is in charge of at least one day of Quest, making sure we are progressing toward our ultimate goal. Some learners are also in charge of more big picture and continuity planning, making sure people who are absent know what they are missing, making sure the integrity of the quest is upheld, etc. We are also looking forward to our workshop with the Ottawa Children’s Theatre on Thursday where they will take us through the fundamentals of drama.
PE
On Monday we all ventured outside where we split into two groups, one who went for a hike in the woods and another who played a fun game of kickball. The weather was gorgeous and the Rebels enjoyed their time in the sun. Going forward we’re asking Rebels to continue using their PE time to head outdoors and get some exercise. There is also a Spring Fitness Challenge posted on Journey Tracker for those who are interested!
Potential Discussion Ideas or Questions to Ask your Rebel:
Exploration: What was it like to live like your figure?
Exploration: What part of the learner-run quest are you responsible for?
Exploration French: Which map did you fill out? What things have you learned about that country (Morocco, Algeria or Tunisia) through your geographical research? Did you find out anything surprising? En français: Quelle carte as-tu complétée? Qu’as-tu appris grâce à tes recherches? As-tu appris quelque chose de surprenant?
Discovery: What was your favourite drama activity from this week?
Discovery: In what ways can we support you during this time of remote learning?
Discovery French: What is your favourite type of spring weather, and how do you say it in French? Which bug was your favourite in the cartoon you watched in class? What was their name? (En français: Quelle est ta météo préférée? Qu’est-ce que tu aimes faire quand il pleut? Quel insecte était ton préféré dans le dessin animé? Quel était son nom?)
Spark: Do you think all three of your sunflower seeds will sprout? Where would you like to plant them once they have sprouted?
Spark: How did you feel after you tried the ‘take five’ finger tracing exercise? When do you think would be a good time to use this?
Spark French: How do you say the name of your favourite colour in French? Can you sing the alphabet song in French? (En français: (pointing at an object) C’est de quelle couleur?)