Revel Recap: June 21 - 25, 2021
Spark Studio
This week we began many of our calls with some great conversation starter activities. Playing Would You Rather, we had fun seeing what choices we all made and noticed that we agreed on a lot of our answers! We also answered some questions of the day, such as “What do you like to do in the summer?” “What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up this morning?” and “If you could be invisible for a day, what would you do?” The learners all mentioned eating some kind of treat ALL day long! We continued our chair yoga practice and stretching. We also showed our creative side by acting out scenarios such as being a firefighter, a squirrel burying an acorn, a bunny dancing, a penguin walking, playing with a yo-yo, doing the dishes, and making and eating pizza!
In French class this week we focused on a small and adorable forest animal, the squirrel! On Monday we went looking for three green objects around the house and we compared their sizes. Then, we read P’tit Loup va chez papi et mamie, in which a little wolf visits his grandparents for the weekend. We read another book about “papi et mamie” on Tuesday called Quel radis dis-donc!. Spark Rebels also practiced their spelling and drawing skills by writing SOURIS and POULE on their whiteboards and drawing a mouse and a hen. We started class on Wednesday with a Show-and-Tell of our baby dolls. In French, a doll is called “poupée.” We had a lot of things to say about our babies! When we were finished, we put them down for a nap and read Je t’ai vu! before singing “Dans la forêt lointaine” together. In that last book of the week, we saw “un écureuil,” a squirrel so we drew our very own squirrel on Thursday after a pleasant chat!
The Sparks practiced counting by 5s using our 5-bead-chain bars to help us count the beads and place the tickets. We also ordered objects from shortest to longest and used dice to help us complete a group of addition facts! Games that we enjoyed included a phonics beach-themed “I Spy” and another which combined various exercises once you had found all the hidden items! We also listened to some riddles and guessed the animals. Our call on Friday was focused on the upcoming Canada Day holiday. We talked about what the day is and how we can celebrate. We read, Why I Love Canada and watched a video on some animals found here. We then drew an iconic Canadian animal, the beaver!
Quest this week was all about real-life superheroes. We thought about some heroes in our neighbourhoods and set out to answer some questions. Who are they? What do they do? What is a community? We discussed how there are people who help to keep our communities safe, healthy, and happy. Looking through pictures we identified who the helper was, what they do, and where they work. We then read Hooray for Heroes and listened to the song Heroes in Your Neighbourhood which helped us to compare superhero qualities to a real-life hero's qualities. On Tuesday, we read about Curious George visiting a fire station and then went on a virtual field trip to a Toronto Fire Station. It was interesting to learn about all the gear they have to wear and carry and of course see the truck! On Wednesday, we read a funny book called Officer Buckle and Gloria, which introduced us to our next helper, police officers. We watched two videos with police officers explaining more about the job they do and we discussed the number to call if there is ever an emergency. We also completed a directed drawing of a police officer and shared our wonderful illustrations. On Thursday, we read Thank You, Helpers, which talked about thanking all the heroes we have been learning about this week. In our kit, there is a letter that learners can write if they would like to thank a helper in their community! We ended our Quest week going on another virtual trip, this time to the dentist!
We are really looking forward to seeing the Sparks in person for our camp weeks!
Discovery Studio
Mindfulness
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday's yoga classes had Rebels exploring some new balancing poses and breathing techniques. Tuesday and Thursday, Rebels chose their own mindfulness activities before kicking off our launches!
Launch
To celebrate Indigenous People’s Day, the book Go Show the World; A Celebration of Indigenous Heroes and a story about medicine wheels. The Rebels also brought up their time with Kokum Brenda last year and the stories she told as she helped them to make their own medicine wheels. During Tuesday’s Launch, Rebels revisited the word “Grit” and reflected on their internal levels of motivation as we persevered through the final week of online learning. Rebels agreed there is a lot working against them right now including learning online for another week, summer weather tempting us outside, friends and family members being on summer break and getting ready for camps. All of these circumstances are making it harder and harder to stay focused on their goals. Rebels listened to the story, Ronnie and His Grit by Leslie Harter to remind them that their “inner rumble” is still there and that Grit is their biggest fan, helping them push through and give their all in these last few weeks. During Wednesday’s Launch, Rebels learned about French actress and comedian Mimie Mathy. She was France’s 3rd favourite female celebrity in 2020, and she has been playing the main role in the daytime TV show Joséphine Ange Gardien since 1997! She is also a member of the band “Les Enfoirés,” whose profits go to a major food charity. To complete our launch, we used example sentences to figure out the meaning of the word “discours” without using a dictionary. Thursday’s Current Events Launch put a spotlight on two special lizards that were believed to be extinct, The Whorltail Iguana and Orces Blue Whiptail had not been seen in the wild since 1899 (Whorltail) and 1959 (Orces). We highlighted another amazing Pride Month story of the week, Carl Nassib from the NFL who came out this week and is the first NFL player on an active roster to do so. Michael Jordan’s brand has started a much-needed cultural shift and now includes WNBA players this week! As always, capping off the launch with a fun reel of quotes from our favourite blog, “Live From Snack Time!” Friday’s launch focused on the developing story of more unmarked graves at a former residential school site, this time in Cowessess, Saskatchewan. This latest news has left some Canadians questioning whether an annual event honouring Canada should be celebrated this year. Rebels discussed the latest debate to cancel Canada Day and discussed different ways they thought the government could show solidarity with our Indigenous brothers and sisters and brainstormed ways to utilize the federal holiday in a meaningful way.
Civilizations
In our last Civilizations class of the year, Rebels completed a “Show What You Know” activity to demonstrate how much they learned about Canadian history over the duration of the year. They then had time to complete their statue or monument designs for a hero(ine) of their choice!
Math Lab
Draw and Anchor Rebels warmed up for Math Lab with a couple of rounds of Money BINGO! The task was quite difficult as each square was made up of multiple coins that needed to be counted to find the right amount. Learners then took the remaining class time to work on their Khan or Reflex goals, followed by Prodigy or a challenging financial literacy assignment if they had time! Aim and Release Rebels met on Zoom to begin their “Running a Restaurant” Financial Literacy activity. Each learner needed to complete a variety of questions to find the total sales, costs, and profit of their restaurant on the first day of business. This required Rebels to count coin and bill values to find the sum, add and subtract amounts, add more than four numbers with decimals, make change, and find wages. Next week we’ll finish up the task, calculating our total earnings, total expenses, and our profit before building a budget.
French
To start off our first class of the week, Rebels participated in another fun round of “Dessine un mot qui commence par…!” All groups then began completing the vocabulary exercises in their week 4 and 5 packet. Learners in Groups 2 and 3 used their research and deduction skills to identify and label the parts of a castle and a knight’s armour. We also took some time to practice ordering food at the restaurant in alignment with this session’s Quest. Meanwhile, Group 1 read two books about kings! The first one was “Le tout petit roi” by Taro Miura, and the second one was “Le slip du roi” by Mathias Malingrëy. We also learned about the meaning behind coats of arms in the Middle Ages.
Rebel Readers & Warrior Writers
This week in Reader Writer, Aim and Release Rebels took a deep dive into understanding the impact of the Jim Crow Laws and discussed more historical events that contributed to racism in South Carolina post-Civil War. We discussed how some Jim Crow laws were connected to our novel’s plot and discussed another example of how history tends to highlight only certain perspectives through the telling of American War Heroes' stories. Aim and Release Rebels explored their feelings around Jim Crow Laws and how they would feel or react to signs and establishments that prevented access or use based on skin colour. Draw and Anchor Rebels had a busy period on Wednesday with spelling words that focused on “ng, nk, th and sh” ending blends. Our novel study, The Secret Lake, uses a lot of traditional English vocabulary. Rebels explored some of these extensive vocabulary words more in-depth from the novel and discovered various examples of synonyms and antonyms for words like “astonished.” “descended,” “trotted,” “thicket,” and “surveyed.” We capped off a busy word work period by reading aloud Chapter 10 of The Secret Lake. Friday’s Reader Writer Challenge had Rebels working on a new Ten Minute Tale with another team-selected group of images and on their novels and comprehension questions in virtual read alouds to ensure everyone is caught up and ready to go for our return next week!
Quest
This week in Quest, Rebels put their math skills to the ultimate test as they calculated variable, fixed period and sunk investment costs for their Food Trucks. In their teams, Rebels researched elements of their budget that tend to be overlooked when starting a business and factored those costs into the pitch they will be presenting to investors later this session. Rebels made lists and researched the costs of different food items, non-food items, considered things like employee wages, fees and licenses, uniforms, gas costs, bills, etc. and then calculated totals to gain a better understanding of what overall operation costs would look like. We look forward to getting everyone back into the studios next week for our final set of challenges and prep our Food Truck teams for their “Dragon’s Den” investor pitches! We can’t wait to see you all at our Enrichment Camp on Monday!
Exploration Studio
Launch
Monday’s Launch was dedicated to Mimie Mathy, a beloved French actress and comedian who has been playing the main role in the daytime TV show Joséphine Ange Gardien since 1997! She is also a member of the band “Les Enfoirés”, whose concert and album profits go to a major food charity created in 1985 by Coluche. We also worked together to infer the meaning of the word “discours,” using context. Tuesday, we reviewed the stages of the Hero’s Journey and took time to identify what stage we are currently at in this part of the school year. Many said they felt they were entering the cave as there were multiple goals they wanted to achieve, while others felt like they were on the road home after a challenging, but rewarding year. To end on a lighter note, we played a Kahoot based on different Hero's Journey stages seen in Disney films. If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? Instead of saying someone's life was saved, should we be saying someone’s death was postponed? Is water wet? These were just a few of the questions we pondered on Wednesday morning, helping us to get warmed up for a great period of core skills. Thursday we completed a series of “What am I” riddles and we were greatly impressed with how quickly the Rebels were able to come up with multiple answers that fit all of the clues! On Friday, we took time to listen and learn about the horrors of the 751 unmarked graves at the site of the Marieval residential school in Saskatchewan. Rebels discussed the role of the Prime Minister, the current progress of the 94 Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, actions that should be taken in light of the news, and ways to stand with the Indigenous at this time.
Quest
This was model week in Quest, where many learners chose to make physical or digital models of their dream food trucks. There were many different mediums that the learners used, including Minecraft and cardboard. Other learners chose to forgo making a model and rather continued projects they were working on in previous weeks. Many learners cooked, coded, or crafted their menus and showed off their work to the group. Next week we will be playing a cooking and service game where each of the learners will be simulating running their food trucks using paper ingredients and fake money.
Math Lab
For our last week of Math Lab in the Exploration Studio, Rebels had time to complete last week’s statistical Skittle assignment, put the finishing touches on their roller coasters, work on their Khan goal, or complete a fun order of operations online Escape Room!
French
This week, Exploration Rebels looked into what jobs people might have in the future. First, we each learned about a 21st-century profession through a listening and reading comprehension exercise. We found out details such as the degree required for the job, as well as some of its advantages and disadvantages. Rebels also imagined what being a cook or a nurse would look like in the future. Then, they made up their own jobs of the future and described them in an interview-style video!
Big History
In Big History this week we continued our study of the cuisines of the world. A few learners gave their presentations about how the food and history of an area or people are intertwined.
Launchpad
This week in Launchpad, our Rebel continued to work on branding as they learned how to use a graphic design program to make their social media presence cohesive and attractive to potential customers of their subscription box. While time-consuming, they enjoyed the process and could see these skills coming in handy for multiple projects down the road.
During their Embracing Life and Facing Death Genre, our Launchpad read Chapter VII of The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy. Using the piece as inspiration, our Rebel had to then write and describe a future scene where they take care of someone who is dying. They also continued working on a poem to be read at their funeral and began brainstorming questions to ask someone for a Stars and Stepping Stones interview.
Potential Discussion Ideas or Questions to Ask your Rebel:
Spark: Which community superhero has helped you before? Would you like to be one of the helpers we talked about this week?
Spark: What number do you call if there is an emergency?
Spark: What is something you are hoping to do during the camp weeks?
Spark French: Who are “papi et mamie?” Which story was your favourite this week?
Discovery: What is the most difficult part of Quest; coming up with creative ideas, putting the ideas into action, focusing on the task at hand, or working in a team?
Discovery: Who did you choose for your Civilizations statue/monument? Why did you pick that person?
Discovery French Group 1: How do you say “king” in French?
Discovery French Group 2 & 3: Why did knights paint on their shields?
Exploration: What are you most looking forward to upon your return to the studios?
Exploration French: What job of the future did you choose to talk about in your video?
Launchpad: Would you fight with every ounce of energy and all experimental medical care until the very end in a hospital or would you retreat home or to hospice to accept death with dignity?