Revel Recap: November 7 - 11, 2022
Spark Studio
Mindfulness
The Sparks shared what they did with the last warm fall weather this past weekend. Many went on hikes, had water balloon fun, and went to the park! We then used the I heard Your Feelings conservation cards to ease our minds and bodies. The picture on Monday morning's card was of Pig standing beside Dog, whose facial and body language shows Dog in the blue zone. The Sparks answered the questions, "How does Dog feel?" "How do you know?" "Is Pig trying to make Dog feel better?" and "What kind of friend is Pig?" These cards work on developing empathy and analytical skills while examining an image. The Sparks all came up with great reasons and scenarios. On Tuesday, the learners listen to the podcast "Pugsley the Quiet Pufferfish" by Josephine Chadwick. It was about a shy, quiet fish who likes to keep to himself and transforms once he faces his fears. We used the yoga spinner on Wednesday and followed along with the given poses. In the studio, during mindfulness, we try to stay peaceful and quiet, but this activity brought lots of connections and laughter with one another. Many Sparks were "accidently spinning" the partner poses each time! They tried their best to make each pose together, which turned out so well! On Thursday, we switched up our colouring for a fine motor craft. A Spark shared scissor skill activity books with the studio, and each learner had the opportunity to pick from various pages. This activity is important for our learners as it develops their hand-eye coordination, scissor safety, and fine motor skills. As Friday approached, the Sparks agreed to draw and write a sentence about which ocean creature they were most grateful for.
Quest
Did you know sharks can be found in all five of Earth's oceans, as well as some freshwater lakes and rivers? Sharks were the first animal we studied during our Ocean week. We started our conversation by speaking about what we already knew, and then we listened to a video about the first three zones of the ocean and went back to our diorama for a visual. We used a piece of paper and a flashlight to demonstrate the different zones of the ocean and how the more you add, the deeper you get into the sea, and less light makes it to the bottom. Crabs were our next sea animal of interest, and the Sparks labelled an image of a crab and wrote a sentence about what they learned from a book we read by Deanna Jump. They followed that by drawing their own picture. Seahorses were next on the list, and Sparks watched a National Geographic Kids video on this incredible animal. The Sparks learned about the function of their snout, who carries the eggs, how many eggs are laid, and what their tails and fins are used for. Our last animal of study this week was a sea star (starfish). The Sparks worked on a STEM activity using three simple ingredients and shaped them into stars. The following day they painted their starfish based on the one they drew.
To end our week, we talked about the density of water. We experimented using different ingredients from the kitchen, followed by dropping jewels inside each cup. The Sparks enjoyed this activity but asked their guides to grab vinegar. You probably know what happened then: an explosion from one of the cups! Next week we will continue to talk about the ocean but which animals hibernate, and how it works on land as well.
French
On Monday, we drew a monster's head to learn the parts of the face in French. Tuesday, we played games in the gym, including a round of Colours (Bouledogue), a game of What Time is it Mr. Wolf?, and a game of Jean dit (Simon says) to review our colours, clothing, numbers, and body parts. We also played "It's Me" with the Exploration Rebels to get to know each other since the older learners will write the Sparks a story in the next session.
We built a paper house on Wednesday to learn about words like windows, roof, and door, and on Thursday, we listened to a video about the rooms and furniture in the house. We ended our week reading a book about a frog with a big mouth to begin learning about animals in insects in French!
Math
Number recognition from 1-20 using our sandpaper numbers is how Group 1 began their math workshop this week. We worked as a group to count and create teen numbers using the number 10. Meanwhile, Group 2 worked on their understanding of place value by looking at the categories of tens and ones. We worked on identifying tens and ones, looking at our concrete bead materials to understand each digit's value. We reviewed how for example, five tens are the same as 50. We then worked on counting in groups of ten and writing down the corresponding number.
Geography
Oceans and seas were the Sparks' source of inspiration this week. It felt right to focus our workshop on oceans as we have already been learning about sea creatures in each zone. We listened to a song by Hopscotch called "The Five Oceans." It explains that 70% of Earth's surface is the ocean, and the Sparks learned that the Pacific Ocean is one-third of the Earth's surface overall, whereas the Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest. We also discussed that seas are smaller than oceans and are found closer to where land and ocean meet. We can't wait to learn more about this area in geography!
Art
From crabs, seahorses, and starfish, we have been diving deep into our art this week! The learners have been creating many masterpieces. They used templates to make crabs, cut out seahorses covered in tissue paper, and made starfish with salt dough. To design their crabs, they used googly eyes and coloured pencils. They even realized their crabs needed eight back legs and two pincers. When creating their starfish, they thought they only had to make a star and colour it, but they also painted the ones they baked.
Additional highlights
Building connections in our school environment is very important to us. The Sparks had the opportunity to play games with the Exploration Rebels, allowing each learner to work on their French and enjoy one another's company. The Exploration Rebels work so well with the Sparks! The Guides have also introduced more books about kindness and friendship in the studio. We are working hard to model and encourage how we can spread kindness and work to understand others' emotions in any situation.
We have now started getting the Sparks to do read-alouds in the studio to build strength and confidence in their reading skills. Those who shared this week did a spectacular job!
Discovery Studio
Mindfulness
We started the week's mindfulness with a story called "The Secret Words." Rija, an aye-aye from Madagascar, doesn't believe in herself when it comes to climbing high in the trees, playing tennis, or completing challenging school work. One day, her younger sister falls high from the tree tops, and suddenly, Rija can leap further than ever to save Avana! "I can do this" became her magical, secret mantra. Whether it be a bike race, an IOWA test, or getting to Fun Friday, the Rebels tried out the secret words this week. Tuesday morning's Talk It Out topics were: what are you most proud of? What is your favourite part about the Revel family? For Wonder Wednesday, we took care to continue our Canada puzzle. On Thankful Thursday, we again added to our gratitude tree - it is so fulfilling to see these longer-term projects come together. For Feel-Good Friday, we played two more Boomwhackers songs to soothe our souls with music!
Launches
Monday, the focus was on EQUIP - we once again practised setting SMART goals in Journey Tracker to start the week with intention and direction and earn Rebel Bucks for all of our hard work. On Tuesday morning, we met to repeat this process, reflecting on the points earned the day before and how to adjust our day-to-day plans when needed. Did you meet, not complete, or exceed yesterday's targets? Wednesday's inspire-themed launch explored the concept of remembrance, and the Rebels shared about family members who serve or served in the military. We read the story Bunny The Brave Warhorse on Thursday to extend our conversation about Remembrance Day and Canada's involvement in World War I. Friday's Current Events report included a video about this week's lunar eclipse, and a Kids News Explains segment about the poppy's history.
Reader/Writer
Rebel Readers: What is a voracious reader? When you read books that are too hard for you, you cannot develop fluency because you have to spend a lot of energy sounding out words and trying to figure out what they mean. Fluent readers can read smoothly and with expression. The key to reading fluently goes back to the "good-fit" book strategy. Voracious readers have been found to develop fluency simply because of the amount of time they spend reading or listening to reading every day!
Warrior Writers: This week, the Rebels met to share their rock sample catalogue drafts with an added twist, the Rockhound ID challenge! Every Warrior Writer could earn one point from every other Rebel, up to a maximum of 12 points, based on if they could identify the correct rock sample from a group of pictures using the details provided by the writer. After reading each description aloud, the other Rebels provided feedback about the writing details that were missing, misleading, or too vague. We used the ARMS acronym to help us revise - A for add details, R for remove parts, M for move details around, and S for switch words.
French
To continue to work on our conversational skills, we played our Questions-Ballon game, where Madame Marianne threw the ball to a learner, and they answered her question in French. We then listened to a video about the furniture before beginning to build a model of our houses in teams of two. For our French Cooking Workshop, we made pizza!
Math Lab
This week's Math Lab was a Mass Lab! The Rebels played a KnowledgeHook Gameshow using digital manipulatives to model, compare and order various masses of everyday items. We had good Rebel-led discussions while we played about how to use algebraic reasoning to equate the masses of different groups of objects using a scale and how to make Metric conversions using factors of 10, 100, or 1000. The Rebels are also developing a great understanding of when it is appropriate to use milligrams, grams or kilograms!
Quest
With the Geoscience Conference and precious gem auction only weeks away, the Geologist Teams switched their focus to the two key deliverables for Exhibition: a research lapbook and expert presentation and the creation of five unique auction items. On Monday, the four teams shared their significant takeaways from research conducted last week and narrowed their inquiry topics to what they are most excited to present at the conference. They also started planning which items they wanted to offer at the auction. The hook lies in the competition for the Geoscience Conference Prize - the team that raises the most money selling their auction items will win! The presentations will be their most significant opportunity to convince guests of the value of their auction items. The teams divided the work into presentations or auction items on Tuesday and Wednesday. Then all the presentation people came together to design slide templates for their lapbooks and organize content. Similarly, the auction item developers played with materials and created models of major geological artifacts.
Civilizations
This week's continuing read-aloud featured the stories of "barbarian" tribes like the Huns, Visigoths and Vandals. The Rebels heard about Attila the Hun and how the Roman Empire, split into the Eastern and Western parts, was weakened further by these attacking tribes. They mapped the routes the tribes would have taken south towards the capital city of Rome and learned how, after 800 years as an empire, Rome fell.
Physical Development
On Monday, the Rebels played games in the gym with Mme. Marianne. Wednesday, the Rebels played team Tic-tac-toe and Space Race. They had to communicate strategy and collaborate well in both games to win. With Space Race, they manipulated two gym mats around the space to travel safely and track down "space fuel." The team with the most at the end of the race won!
Additional Highlights
With IOWA testing completed in the Discovery Studio, all the Rebels met on Thursday afternoon to celebrate. The participating Rebels worked hard to manage their Core Skills goals and completed a series of challenging tests on reading, spelling, punctuation, mathematics concepts, and computation skills. The Rebels who did not take the testing had to manage Core Skills more independently without the assistance of their Squad Leaders and older mentors. In other words, everyone showed determination and grit during this time, so we enjoyed the "Kuzco," "Olaf," and "Mirabel" episodes from the Disney series Sketchbook with some vegan popcorn and candies!
The Rebels gathered on Friday to commemorate Remembrance Day by making their own poppies, reading John McRae's poem "In Flanders Fields," and laying wreaths at the base of our gratitude tree after listening to the "Last Post" and holding a moment of silence.
Exploration Studio
Mindfulness
Is there a better way to start a week than with laughter? Monday, we read a series of awful Dad jokes, and while all of them didn't hit, a few gems had us giggling. On Tuesday, we joined Ms. Mel in the gym for yoga, and on Wednesday, we took part in an exercise routine to get the blood pumping more oxygen to our brains. We took it easy on Thursday, with time set aside to work with Rubik's Cubes, Lego, puzzles, and diamond dot creations. We used the first fifteen minutes of our day to work on a Remembrance Day colouring activity on Friday.
Launch
Is capitalism actually broken? On Monday, we watched a Ted-Ed video that explored the different types of capitalism, how they operate, and how they impact issues like climate change and rising inequality. Tuesday, we honoured Indigenous Remembrance Day by learning more about forgotten contributions. Wednesday, we discussed an article about how a few small coins and pieces of art have been found that illustrate inflation was a significant reason the Roman empire fell. "Canadians are polite, reserved, and say sorry … A lot. We certainly don't start wars — we try to prevent them. After all, Canada is a nation of peacekeepers… Right? Well, yes… and no. Actually, it's complicated." We learned more about Canada's role in conflict throughout its history and our continued contributions worldwide today. On Friday, two Rebels ran our Current Events launch, including news stories and a Remembrance Day-themed Kahoot!
Reader/Writer
This week, learners read Edgar Allan Poe's "Tale-Tell Heart" and Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery." Both stories had the readers on edge and ready to discuss on Friday! The groups presenting did a great job of pointing out various literary devices and asking questions to enhance our conversation!
Investment Quest
After learning about ten of the top corporate scandals, the learners who needed to be fully invested or had positions that were over 10% of their portfolio by last Friday had to spin the Wheel of Doom. Various consequences were doled out before this week's trading began. We completed Day 3 of our stock watchlist, and then Rebels learned about investment risks. We read about and researched personal emergencies, company-specific risks, preferences, investment manias, agency risks, fraud, misalignment of incentives, fees, concentration risks, inflation risks, and behavioural traps, and identified which risks we felt we needed to be most aware of for our future.
Few influences in investing will destroy more value than behavioural biases. Rebels read about loss aversion, herd mentality, mental accounting, the illusion of control, confirmation, recency, and hindsight bias. Most learners identified that loss aversion and mental accounting were likely the biases they needed to avoid based on how they felt watching their portfolios rise and fall. Rebels then reviewed the myth of Odysseus, making connections to investing while devising ways to "lash themselves to the mast" so that they will not succumb to behavioural bias temptation in the future. We went to Yahoo Finance on Wednesday to investigate after watching their portfolios go into the red. We discovered that some earnings were subpar, US politics played a role, and Bitcoin lost 10% and was at its lowest since November 2020. It was also the perfect time to learn more about diversification. Rebels learned about seven different diversification strategies, including; determining correlation, diversifying across asset classes, within asset classes, and locations, exploring alternative investments, rebalancing our portfolio regularly and considering our risk tolerance. Rebels spent Thursday's Quest period updating their watchlists, analyzing their portfolio's weekly performance, and catching up on any missing work before playing Cashflow.
Math Lab
What can go wrong in the Math Lab? This week we launched our workshop by considering error analysis. After many great examples were offered by the Rebels, such as choosing the wrong numbers or operation for a "word problem," forgetting a negative symbol when evaluating with integers, misusing an inequality symbol or misclicking in Khan, we discussed the idea that there are two main types of errors: computational and conceptual. After working on the extension questions for the Gas Guzzler task from last week's lab, the Math Squads presented their solutions at Congress with the other teams aiming to give error analysis feedback.
Civilizations
After completing last week's Clan Simulation, Rebels were ready to learn more through a Case Study on Scottish Clans. Once the research was completed, we watched a couple of videos on the Highland Games and the history of Scotland. Two Rebels then led our discussion on what we discovered, and the learners debated a series of questions to gain further insight. Our Civ session ended by rating the Scottish Clan system on a scale of 1-5 on a series of indicators such as; collaboration, resource abundance, coercion, corruption, treatment of minorities, and ability to handle complexity and amend rules.
Phys Ed and Healthy Living
On Monday, the Exploration Rebels ventured to the Dulude ice rink to watch the Nepean vs. Woodroffe high school hockey game. For some learners, it was their first hockey game, so a few of our Rebels rapidly explained all the rules and the various reasons for the whistles. On Wednesday, there was a football game, a hike, and fun in the gym with Discovery!
Service Project
We had a special visit from Gavin of the Boom! Savings! Charity Club on Thursday! He spoke with us about marketing, sales, psychology, and how to stretch a dollar while serving those in need and helping the environment! We're sure the Rebels will be much more aware of deals in the future!
We also had the opportunity to stuff holiday campaign envelopes for the Ottawa River Keeper. It has been awesome witnessing the Rebels jump at opportunities to help others!
French
On Monday, we played the interview game where the Rebels had to hire classmates for positions within their company. We also played the Questions-Ballon game to continue our conversational exposure. We finished our worksheets about our businesses and played North-South in the gym to learn Thanksgiving and fall vocabulary on Wednesday. For our French Story Workshop, we played "It's Me" and other get-to-know-you games with the Sparks in preparation for being paired up next week!
Additional Highlights
This week our Geography Club split into groups for each continent to match up the flags with their countries, and in Math Club, learners reviewed their Caribou contest solutions on the problems they missed. On Tuesday and Friday, we continued to read Amari and the Great Game, and we cannot wait for next week's read-aloud as it is getting exhilarating!
Launchpad
Investment Quest
On Monday, Rebels completed a deep dive into their three favourite stocks that they've been trading. Using news articles or the company's financial reports, they then answered a series of questions regarding volatility, predictions they could make, and what they should be aware of that could drastically change the stock price (mergers, politics, market conditions, etc.).
Inflation was the buzzword for Tuesday's Quest. Rebels created a spreadsheet to help them visualize the concept using a cup of coffee as their marker. It was an eye-opening experience and hit home why the interest rate hike is a tool to help slow down the economy and, in turn, inflation. We also discussed real return bonds and investing in real estate or gold to help protect against inflation.
Can you tell whether the stock market is in an expensive bubble or not? The Price to Earnings (PE) ratio measures a stock's price relative to a company's profits. If a company made $1 million in earnings (profits) and its PE ratio was 15, it would be worth $15 million (assuming no debt). Rebels learned that when interest rates are low, people earn less money in savings accounts, so they tend to be willing to pay more for the cash flow from a company. Using charts, learners answered questions about the average PE ratio in different timeframes. They answered questions about their beliefs regarding interest rates and their correlation with stock market performance.
One big decision you'll face as an investor is whether to "put all of your eggs in one basket" or diversify. Some experts say, "pick something, become an expert and focus your attention and investments for the long haul." Others say, "be sure to spread the risks." Some say: "it depends." Launchpad rebels learned that Index Funds are a low-cost, low-fee way to "buy every stock in the market." Using what they learned, they had to decide which they felt mattered most; balancing between "liquid investments" like cash for emergencies and long-term investments, balancing between stocks, bonds, and cash within a portfolio, or diversifying between big and small company stocks, domestic and international stocks, or simply buying an index fund to "own an average in a market?"
Investor and author Nassim Taleb believes that the most important risks are Black Swans. These are those impossible-to-predict circumstances, like the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centers in New York City or the Great Depression, events so extreme and unpredictable they sweep away all traditional risk management techniques and present tremendous opportunity. Launchpad Rebels learned about the Barbell Approach on Thursday to learn if this strategy would be an approach they would want to use. On the "safe side" of the barbell is the super-safe investments designed to ensure you will never go broke. In the middle of the investment barbell are the investments most managers would suggest – traditional stocks and bonds. At the end of the barbell would be extremely risky investments – either investments designed to perform well during a Black Swan event or investing in real estate. Rebels then had to answer a series of questions, including; at age 45, what percentage of your investments do you plan to have in each of the following: cash and liquid investments, traditional stocks and bonds, high risk-high return investments, speculation or gambling, and a house (equity and a mortgage).
On Friday, before the markets closed, learners reported on how their online investment strategy was coming along and reflected on any changes they may want to make.
Literature and Communication
This week, Launchpad learners read Edgar Allan Poe's "Tale-Tell Heart" and Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery." Both stories elicited great discussions, and their presentations helped illustrate the literary devices in each clearly for the Exploration Rebels.
Now in their second week of NaNoWriMo, Launchpad Rebels are deep into their novel writing. There have been days full of inspiration and others where the words won't come, but the daily practice has been a positive experience.
Civilizations
After completing last week's Clan Simulation, Rebels were ready to learn more through a Case Study on Scottish Clans. Once the research was completed, we watched a couple of videos on the Highland Games and the history of Scotland. Two Rebels then led our discussion on what we discovered, and the learners debated a series of questions to gain further insight. Our Civ session ended by rating the Scottish Clan system on a scale of 1-5 on a series of indicators such as; collaboration, resource abundance, coercion, corruption, treatment of minorities, and ability to handle complexity and amend rules.
Service Project
We had a special visit from Gavin of the Boom! Savings! Charity Club on Thursday! He spoke with us about marketing, sales, psychology, and how to stretch a dollar while serving those in need and helping the environment! We're sure the Rebels will be much more aware of deals in the future!
We also had the opportunity to stuff holiday campaign envelopes for the Ottawa River Keeper. It has been awesome witnessing the Rebels jump at opportunities to help others!
Spanish
This week was about learning the proper vocabulary around town, including names of buildings, businesses, and typical city amenities. The grammar focus was on estar with prepositions, and Venezuela was the country covered in the cultural portion of the class.
French
Our learner continued reading their French Deep book, read a French newspaper, and discussed the readings with Mme. Marianne. They also helped the Discovery Rebels in their French Cooking class make pizza!
Potential Discussion Ideas or Questions to Ask your Rebel:
Spark
What are the first three zones of the ocean?
What happened to the jewels when you mixed salt and water compared to baking soda and water?
French: What colour was the house you made in French? Can you say that colour in French?
Discovery
Are you working on a lapbook presentation for Quest or developing items for the auction?
Which units should we use to measure the mass of _____?
What is one thing you are really proud of this week and one thing you would like to improve on next week?
French: What material do you use to build your model house? How many rooms does your dream house have?
Exploration
Math Lab: Which type of error are you more prone to in the Math Lab; computational or conceptual errors? What can you do to troubleshoot this?
Civ: One of the problems and reasons that the Campbells were able to murder the MacGregors and take their land was that there was no legal system to protect private property in 13th-century Scotland. On a scale of 1-10, how important are property laws are to a peaceful society? Back up with examples.
Quest: Which do you consider to be the best strategy to diversify your portfolio?
French: What is your business model for french?
Launchpad
Before investing in other securities, how much cash will you amass in a savings account?
French: What do you think of the book you have to read in French? Are you excited about the book club next Thursday?
Dates of Interest
Session 2 Exhibitions
Exploration and Launchpad: Monday, November 21st
Discovery: Tuesday, November 22nd
Spark: Wednesday, November 23rd
Sessional Break and Camp: Thursday, November 24th and Friday, November 25th
EXHIBITION CHANGE - Sparks and Discovery would like to combine for the Session 3 Exhibition on Wednesday, December 21st, for a family celebration with food and games before the holidays!