Revel Recap: January 17 - 21, 2022
Spark Studio
Mindfulness
We started our snowy Monday with a mindfulness warm-up. We imagined that we were holding a cup of hot chocolate in our hands, but it was too hot to drink! We took a few big breaths in and out, blowing on our hot chocolate to cool it off. We then took a few tiny sips and made an “mmm” sound, which we tried to hold for as long as possible. Tuesday and Thursday, we enjoyed some relaxing colouring of winter scenes and our studio favourite, cats! On Wednesday, we followed along to a Frozen-themed yoga sequence. Friday, we reread The Grateful Book to remind us about the practice of gratitude and then completed our gratitude journals, sharing what we are thankful for during winter.
Quest
This week in Quest, our focus was on force and motion. We started by investigating how living and nonliving things move differently. We thought about how non-living things need help to move and have to be put in motion by an outside force. Motion was a vocabulary focus word for us this week, and we learned that it is the movement from one place or position to another. We then collected items around the studio and experimented with different ways to move non-living objects. We tried movements like pushing, pulling, throwing, rolling, sliding, twisting, and spinning. Next, we talked about force and how we can push or pull an object to get it to move or change its position. We tested our understanding by identifying whether things were being pushed or pulled in pictures and drew photos of ourselves pushing and pulling something. On Thursday, we learned about simple machines that can help us make moving things more manageable. We learned about the six primary simple machines: lever, pulley, inclined plane (ramp), wedge, wheel and axle and screw. After reading, I Use Simple Machines, and watching our new favourite song on simple machines by Scratch Garden, we looked at pictures of real-world examples, identifying which simple machine we were seeing! Next up, we were challenged to create our simple machines. We all started by making ramps and testing the incline to see how it could change the movement of our marbles. We also created levers and pulleys. Friday found us looking at how magnets can move things using their force. Can they push or pull all things? We went on a hunt around the studio to discover items attracted to magnets and had fun making predictions and experimenting! We ended the week with a collaborative art project. We used wheels and axles on an inclined plane to create Force and Motion Art!
French
On Wednesday, the Sparks learned five words beginning with la lettre Q: quille, quatre, question, queue and qui. We used the word qui to ask questions such as “Qui porte un t-shirt bleu?” and noticed that it means who. We completed our letter Q worksheet on Wednesday. Then, on Thursday, we read Qui est le plus mignon? where we compared different animals’ features. The Sparks used context clues to understand the meaning of the questions in the book and named the various animals. Finally, we played a few rounds of Zingo, and each got a sticker!
Additional Highlights
With all the snow this week, we have been exploring more about winter. We asked questions such as, What are our favourite things to do in the winter? Where do snowflakes come from? What do animals do in the winter? We followed a directed drawing to create simple snowflakes and started painting some to decorate the studio.
The biggest highlight of our week was back together in the studio! The Sparks were so happy to see their friends, and the studio was full of conversation and laughter. We made extra time this week to be together, reading stories, playing, and having fun! We enjoyed our time with our Reading Buddies and ended our week sharing Character Callouts!
Discovery Studio
Mindfulness
Bright and early on the snowiest Monday we’ve seen in a while, the Rebels started their week by making affirmations and discussing the idea of self-talk. They shared how important it is to reframe negative comments we make toward ourselves, the power of believing and, being patient and non-judgmental with ourselves through perceived failure. Tuesday’s yoga practice was a swift routine, including lots of sun salutations with Warrior 2 and Humble Warrior, featuring the mantra “I am strong.” On Wednesday, we introduced a Studio Cube Mural project inspired by an artist that has come to be known as Thank You X. This artist uses an isometric drawing of a cube as a template and leaves one face of the “cube” blank to create a cool three-dimensional effect. On Thursday, we had another amazing yoga session led by one of our Discovery Rebels - what a beautiful practice!
Launches
We have officially launched KHANtest 2.0! Rebels are working towards a studio goal of 45 percent each week, totalling 225% for this session. Every Khan percentage, Beast Academy lesson, or Singapore page completed, counts toward our goal. We recalled all the strategies we know of to help when math feels challenging: keep a growth mindset, use problem-solving skills like brain crossings, and talk it out with another Rebel to get things started. Upon our return to in-person learning on Tuesday, the Rebels discussed what we could do to make sure we stay as healthy as possible and revisited our regular ROEs. We agreed that ensuring there is proper distance between us while we are eating is one of the best things we can do to stop the spread of germs. Wednesday morning, the Rebels practiced setting SMART goals in Journey Tracker to earn points towards Rebel Bucks. Rebels can set goals and earn points for every Core Skill they work on - let’s see how motivating this can be! On Thursday, Ms. Mel gave the Rebels a challenge for the day: she wore headphones as a symbol that she was in observation mode and not available to answer any questions. The Rebels responded well, turning to their peers and focusing on their resources for support. Friday’s Current Events report was Rebel-led and featured updates on Quebec’s potential health tax for the unvaccinated, the James Webb Space Telescope launch, Jonathan the tortoise celebrating their 190th birthday, and a FOV - fish-operated vehicle?!
French
On Tuesday, Rebels logged into Nearpod to talk about different types of figurative art such as portraits, landscapes, and still life paintings. We played some games to learn words related to painting and geometric shapes. Then, we challenged ourselves with some grammar practice, picking the proper form for adjectives of colour. On Thursday, Rebels were hard at work creating their second work of art for the session. The challenge was to draw a landscape or still life from ten randomly-picked geometric shapes! Finally, Rebels used Flipgrid to practice their speaking skills and describe the shapes used in their artwork.
Reader/Writer
Aim and Release Rebels listened to Martin Luther King Jr.’s I Have a Dream speech to start our Reader/Writer session on Monday. After discussing his influence, we then worked on our second poem for our collection by writing either an Autobiography or “I Am” poem. On Wednesday, the Draw and Anchor Rebels launched a project all about perspective! After reading an adaptation of The Wizard of Oz, the Rebels used the SOMEBODY - WANTED - BUT - SO - THEN framework to practice retelling the most important aspects of the story. Over the next few weeks, they will work on retelling the same story from the point of view of a different character.
Math Lab
On Monday, the Draw and Anchor Rebels continued to work on their Be A Farmer project. This week they needed to purchase enough chicken feed to run their chicken coop and compare pricing based on buying in different quantities. Additionally, the Rebels in this group had to estimate weights around the farm using kilograms. Since we were working remotely that day, we used household items to get a sense of appropriate units: a bag of flour might have a mass of 1 kg, while a taller bag of granola also has a mass of 1kg. One of the Rebels explained this using the concept of density!
On Wednesday, the Aim and Release Rebels fine-tuned their approximated budgets for their Agricultural Conference project. Acting as accountants, there were many calculations to be carried out to determine the estimated expenses for the venue, thank-you gifts, advertising, promotional materials like programs, and the food services offered on-site.
Civilizations
This week’s story took us on an adventure through Phoenicia and the Phoenician settlements. We mapped these in relation to the cities of Tyre and Carthage and the Mediterranean Sea (which is how these sailors were able to trade and expand). The Rebels had a great conversation about whether they would rather find mastery in hunting, sailing, or fighting, with some arguing the importance of being able to provide for oneself, an excellent link back to our discussion of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Quest
This week the Rebels became media constructors! On Monday, we explored different forms of media and how each medium has a unique form and advantages or disadvantages in terms of connecting with diverse audiences. With their squads, Rebels started to plan which health and wellness messages are most important to them, and which media form will be best for the publication project. On Tuesday, the Rebels had to create two posters for their fellow Rebels to persuade or inform their school community about healthy and safe decision-making during Activity Break, especially regarding screen time. Wednesday’s Writer Workshop focused on revising drafts using the acronym ARMS. Using the Venus flytrap drafts from last week, the Rebels tried to Add details, Remove unnecessary parts, Move ideas if needed to evoke flow in the paragraph and Swap words with more specific or “juicy” alternatives.
Physical Development
We hope our Rebels enjoyed their time outside in the snow during our usual PE time on Monday! Wednesday, Rebels had the option to go to the hill and toboggan with Mr. Deagan or play extreme octopus in the gym with Ms. Mel. The Explorations Rebels guided both activities. Great job, we had so much fun!
Additional Highlights
On Thursday during Quest (and for the next couple of weeks), the Rebels participated in Body Talk Workshops. A big theme that guided the conversation in both groups was body appreciation. We led with the essential idea that every BODY is different and grows differently, which is great! The Draw and Anchor Rebels wondered about how the brain is connected to and controls the rest of our body, like our heart pumping blood, muscle memory, and speech development, as well as how babies grow before they are born, how you get taller, and why some people refer to certain parts of the body as private. They voted on all the raised topics and want to dig deeper next week into ideas of how your body changes as you grow and the importance of consent. The Aim and Release Rebels are also curious about the brain and how it processes information and different ways of processing like dyslexia, ADHD and OCD. They also wonder how other body parts work together like the stomach and intestines for digestion and excretion of waste. These Rebels also brought up how hormones relate to puberty, asking how long puberty is and when it starts, what changes and how it might make us feel. Next week, we will continue these fantastic discussions - way to show up, Rebels!
Exploration Studio
Launches
On Monday, we prepared for our interview with Mayor Jim Watson with a video summarizing his years in politics. We then created a Google doc with all of the questions we wanted to ask later that day. On Tuesday, we decided that our launches this session would help increase our knowledge of cities due to our current Quest focus. Deagan ran a launch on statues, where the learners discussed whether anyone is good enough to be immortalized in stone before the learners created sculptures. On Wednesday, we reviewed two articles discussing the pros and cons of working amongst clutter, something we have a lot of in our studio. On Thursday, a learner ran an excellent launch on geometric shapes in architecture and then the learners created individual pieces. Finally, another learner ran a launch that quizzed us on our knowledge of Asian capital cities on Friday.
French
On Monday, Rebels logged into Nearpod to talk about different types of figurative art such as portraits, landscapes and still life paintings. We learned some words related to painting and geometric shapes through games. Then, we challenged ourselves with some grammar practice, picking the proper form for adjectives of colour. The Rebels created their second work of art for the session on Thursday. The challenge was to draw a landscape or still life from ten randomly-picked geometric shapes! Finally, Rebels used Flipgrid to practice their speaking skills and describe the shapes used in their artwork.
Math Lab
We reviewed the mean, median, mode, range, and interquartile range this week. After going over the meaning of each term, Rebels had time to practice analyzing a series of data sets. While we started with number data sets, learners quickly moved on to reading charts and graphs using the same statistical analysis tools.
Quest
This week in Quest was about getting back on track transitioning to in-person learning. After one final day of online learning on Monday, the learners spent Tuesday figuring out how to pivot their projects back to the studio. Wednesday, six activities were set up in stations around the studio: lego building, tourist map creation, interviews, tourism videos, descriptive writing, and mural making. The learners were exposed to these different avenues to work on during Quest so that on Thursday, they could make a plan for the next two weeks. We spent most of Thursday creating Gantt charts, a visual representation of time and how tasks will fill each timeslot. We started by making an example Gantt chart as a studio before the learners went off and created their charts for their projects. In the following weeks, the learners will use this tool as a guide and accountability tool.
Documentary
The learners were very excited to be back in the studio for our documentary sessions, as many of them were filming scenes in groups. One group finished the first draft of their documentary, which we watched on Friday. The group received feedback from the learners and will now put the critique to good use as they create their next draft.
Additional Highlights
Major thanks to Your Worship, Mayor Jim Watson, for answering our questions about Ottawa and what it’s like to be mayor on Monday!
Launchpad
Together again! After two weeks of remote learning and a snow day on Monday, we were happy to be reunited in the Launchpad studio. We began with Deepak Chopra's Go-To 3-Minute Meditation To Stay Focused. We then reviewed the schedule for the week before making a list of our priorities and highlighting areas we needed support.
Chemistry - Science & Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to Soft Matter Science
What is cooking? Our second module, entitled Energy, Temperature, and Heat, aims to help us better understand the macroscopic level of heat and its role in cooking. We all appreciated Dave Arnold's demonstration of how a temperature difference of only 1˚C results in eggs with different textures! We learned about chemical energy and combustion, the differences of cooking with wood vs. ovens, the temperature at the molecular level and practiced specific heat equations. We also reviewed calories and learned about the 4:4:9 Rule using nutrition labels. We ended our week with the realization that you can also cook by removing heat, i.e. by freezing. Liquid nitrogen, anyone?!
Canadian History
What consequences did Canada's participation in the First World War have for Canadian society and its status as a nation? After reading about the events that occurred between 1914 and 1918, learners added more events to our timeline, including the assassination of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, Canada's entry into the war, and women's suffrage in Canada. After viewing a few examples, Rebels interpreted political cartoons and posted their analysis of an image of their choosing. We also discussed the Schlieffen Plan and why its failure resulted in a stalemate on the Western Front. Learners were also incredibly disappointed that gas as a weapon was outlawed by the 1907 Hague Convention yet continued to be utilized. Our last session of the week, Rebels read about Billy Bishop and his diary, a personal account of his kills. Was Billy Bishop a war hero or cold-blooded killer? The Launchpad learners evaluated the diary as a historical source and tried to account for the conflicting feelings demonstrated within the pages. Naturally, our discussion turned to PTSD and the role it continues to play in the lives of soldiers today.
Accounting
After reading our chapter on Liquidating, Rebels were tasked with answering a series of questions. We discussed if we were to sell our business, whether we would rather liquidate the assets or keep them and if that decision would change if we put the company on stand-by. We also looked at what happens if you sell a fixed asset for more or less than its book value and how it should be reflected on the balance sheet.
Additional Highlights
One Rebel spent time this week writing a poem for the Narrative High School poetry writing contest on Blind Spots. Feeling inspired, they quickly wrote their first draft which will be edited next week before submitting. Another learner led the Exploration Studio’s Current Events closing and made some incredible gains in their math course.
These learners should feel very proud of their accomplishments while learning from home and back in the studio. They have been able to stay on track with minimal oversight and numerous distractions. Way to go, Launchpad!
Potential Discussion Ideas or Questions to Ask your Rebel:
Spark:
Can you tell us about simple machines? What are they called? Do you see any examples around our house?
What does motion mean?
What is your favourite thing to do in the winter?
French: What are some of the words on the Zingo boards?
Discovery:
Have you paid attention to your self-talk this week? What kind of thoughts arise?
Which SMART goals did you set in Journey Tracker, and how many points did you earn this week?
Which messages about safety and screen-time did you and your partner include in your Activity Break posters for Quest?
How might we shift our family screen time in 2022? See Choice Board Challenge!
How is Elective going for you this session? What challenges are you working toward?
French: Did you draw a landscape or a still-life? What do you call it in French? How did you prepare for your Flipgrid video? How did you check your pronunciation?
Exploration:
What did you learn about Mayor Jim Watson?
How will you work on your quest project for the next two weeks?
What will you be working on for Elective in the coming weeks?
French: Did you draw a landscape or a still-life? What do you call it in French? How did you prepare for your Flipgrid video? How did you check your pronunciation?
Launchpad:
Based on Dave Arnold’s “Perfect Egg” tutorial, what temperature egg do you think is cooked to perfection?
If you were to sell your business, which would be the most difficult to determine its value; equipment, inventory or fixed assets?
Are there times when killing is not justified in the heat of battle?
Dates of Interest
February 17, 2022 - Return The Revel Family Screen Time Choice Boards for a PRIZE!!!