Revel Recap: February 28 - March 4
Spark Studio
Mindfulness
Monday morning was buzzing with excitement, and the Sparks were happy to share what they did over the break. To help us focus our energy, we practised our belly breathing, mindful of our posture and breathing technique. We imagined a balloon in our belly that we needed to fill with our air. We talked about times when we could use this breathwork. The learners suggested when they are angry, hurt, having trouble sleeping, or about to start their work. Tuesday, we showed off our artistic skills with a directed hot chocolate drawing, and on Wednesday, we enjoyed a yoga story about My Little Pony. Thursday, we thought about our character traits that would help us to start a business. We drew a picture of what it looks like to be kind, helpful, honest, etc. and how it would apply to our company. As we spoke a lot about goods and services this week, we focused our gratitude journal on this topic. We each shared one thing we are thankful for that we can purchase at the store.
French
W, X, Y… The Sparks have almost reached the end of the alphabet! This week, we followed our usual letter routine with three more letters of the alphabet. There aren’t a lot of French words beginning with W, X or Y! Many of them are also English words, like wagon, wallaby, webcam, xylophone, yak, yacht and yo-yo. Next week, we will learn about french words beginning with the letter Z and put the finishing touches on our alphabet books!
Quest
Session 5 is all about Entrepreneurship! We introduced this topic by starting our week discussing wants versus needs. We talked about how our needs are required to live, while our wants are things we would like. We read Lily Learns About Wants and Needs and paused throughout to discuss questions such as; What is something you want but don’t need? Are things that cost the most always the best choice? What do you need to survive? We then played a game, deciding if specific images were wants or needs. A couple of the images led to some pondering. Do we need a car? Do we need a hamburger? We each took the time to draw three things we need to live and three things we want. We presented our drawings to the group when we finished. Next, we began talking about goods and services. To help our investigation, we read What Do We Buy? A Look at Goods and Services. It told us that goods are things we can touch and use money to buy, for example, food, toys and clothes. Services are jobs people do for others, such as a teacher, a plumber, or a restaurant server. We then looked at several images, deciding if they were a good or service. Together we brainstormed five examples of goods our family has purchased and five services.
We followed our learning up with a book called What Does it Mean To Be an Entrepreneur? This book discusses how being an entrepreneur means seeing a problem or a need, thinking differently, and coming up with a unique solution to solve that problem. It means following your dream, even when it’s hard, or someone tells you no. After this inspiring story, we brainstormed some ideas for a business to start as a studio. First, we thought about whether we would like to provide a good or service. We voted on making goods that we could sell. Each learner came up with an idea to pitch to the class. These ideas included; making books, clothes, keychains, jewellery, soap, candles, plants, and more! Stay tuned to hear what the Sparks decide! We learned about two businesses started by child entrepreneurs to be inspired to create our own company. We watched videos about a cookie and lemonade business and received advice from these business owners not much older than us! We noticed that their companies had names and logos, which got us thinking and planning for our start-up. We then used pastels to draw a picture of our dream business. We had many food businesses, with hot dog stands, lemonade and orange juice shops, bakeries and a donut shop where a robot makes the food. We also had a race track and a turtle pet shop. Keep on dreaming big, Sparks! We know they will change the world with all of their great ideas!
Additional Highlights
This week we introduced the Sparks to March Mammal Madness! We learned a little about this event and started researching some of the animals to begin making our bracket picks! It’s been so interesting to hear the Sparks make guesses about who would win in a battle and their reasoning behind their picks! We’ve also been enjoying learning some fun facts about these animals.
As we head into Session 5, we plan and set goals for badges we would like to work towards for the end of the year. This week, learners were busy focusing on alphabet sounds, numbers to ten, sight words, maps, writing, reading, and more!
We ended our week with a special treat. Each Spark was given ten dollars and headed over to the Exploration Studio to buy hot chocolate and treats. They took their time to visit the different booths and select what they wanted to purchase.
Discovery Studio
Mindfulness
Welcome to Session 5! We began Monday morning with a gratitude practice, and many Rebels shared highlights from their vacation, for which they were extra thankful! We also repeated a series of affirmations, and some even made up their own, like, "I have grit and perseverance!" Tuesday's yoga practice featured a classic Warrior 1-2 flow, adding Triangle pose to challenge the Rebels' balance and stamina. Wednesday, we had our first Rebel-led workshop, with our Rebel Mindfulness Coach leading us to colour while listening to a violin playlist. Thursday and Friday's yoga practice built on the Warrior flow from earlier in the week, adding on Humble Warrior and Warrior 3!
Launches
It's finally time for March Mammal Madness!!! Monday morning, new learners were introduced to the annual tournament that pits animals against one another in simulated battles. Once they have finished their research, learners (and their families if interested) will complete a bracket to see if they can determine the winners and ultimately the champion! During Tuesday's launch, the Rebels utilized their French vocabulary to share what they did and where they went over the break. Wednesday morning, the Rebels considered three monsters they may encounter on their Hero's Journey: resistance, distraction and victimhood. Right now, in our studio, we feel that distraction is the most challenging monster to battle and the Rebels shared great strategies like using the pod rooms for a quiet workspace and taking short body breaks and mindful breaths to reframe and keep on track! Thursday, we had a Launchpad Rebel share details about the upcoming Ottawa Children's Business Fair! The fair will take place on Sunday, May 15th, in the Horticulture Building at Lansdowne. Rebels are responsible for promoting, setting up, and running their business at this one-day marketplace. Applications will close to the general public next week; however, Rebels have a few extra weeks to complete their applications but are not guaranteed a booth as it is a city-wide event. Friday's Current Events report was led by a new team of Rebels, reporting this week on Fritzi the raccoon, making the world in Minecraft, and the discovery of the first-ever flying creature!
French
Revel Rebels will create their own clothing stores in this session! We will draft our storefront, pick a name and a slogan, design and price clothes and accessories, and set store hours. On Tuesday, we went over the schedule for the session and began working on our first deliverable: the store name, slogan and design. Together we played "J'ai…Qui a?" on Thursday before putting the finishing touches on our storefronts. They're all looking fantastique!
Reader/Writer
Our goal this session in both groups is to become more confident and comfortable public speakers. With the help of drama games and improv challenges, we will work on our articulation, projection, posture, intonation, pauses, and speed culminating in an Elevator Pitch presentation!
After going over the requirements for the session, Rebels worked on their articulation with a series of tongue twisters. After repeating one another's silly sentences, learners then pulled improv cards out of a jar. Getting up in front of the group, Rebels then read their card aloud and continued to ad-lib for at least thirty seconds. With the time remaining, we began researching the 65 combatants for March Mammal Madness and learned how to fill in our brackets. We reviewed key vocabulary terms, and we were fascinated by the (mostly) animals' adaptations and unique capabilities!
Math Lab
Financial Literacy is the focus of the Math Lab this session!
Draw and Anchor Rebels will be running their own grocery store and honing skills like skip-counting by 2s, 5s and 10s, adding, subtracting, tallying and multiplying whole numbers, telling and representing time on analog clocks, reporting wholesale prices and mark-ups using decimals to hundredths, and running the cash register to provide proper change - all the skills a business owner and manager might need to stay on top of orders, employees and company relations!
Aim and Release will have the opportunity to work at guided stations for budget planning, balancing debit transactions, and applying simple and compound interest throughout the session. They are also tasked with running a fast food restaurant and will practice processing supply deliveries, interpreting advertising costs, making menu adjustments, tallying orders, forecasting sales, and monitoring daily revenue.
Civilizations
In this session, the Rebels will trace the development and rise of the Roman Empire! However, starting in the first week, Rebels heard stories of the civilizations in the Americas going back to about 1200 BCE. Learning about the Nazca drawings, Olmec heads, and the native North American story, "Rabbit Shoots the Sun," we started to explore the oral histories of North, Central and South America. We discussed how learning from drawings and other artifacts differs from the recorded accounts previously explored from the Egyptians, Babylonians, Assyrians and Greeks.
Quest
Welcome to Revel City! At the end of the six weeks, we will host an episode of Dragon's Den where our young Rebel business owners will showcase their understanding of entrepreneurship and soft launch their businesses in advance of the Ottawa Children's Business Fair. In this first week of Quest, Rebels banded together to form Business Improvement Areas (BIAs), which they will maintain throughout the Quest for support as they establish their business image, explore their market, and consumers, and determine costs and risks. Forming their BIA was all about understanding one's strengths, and the first task was to assign roles and responsibilities such as manager, customer support, lawyer, bookkeeper and accountant. On Tuesday, the teams worked through a series of imagined ethical dilemmas and developed their BIA's promise and mission statement. The following steps included exploring three business owner archetypes (the bootstrap tortoise, asset fox and MBA hare) and surveying various successful young business owners to better understand their philosophies. This week's final activity was to budget some of the BIA's cash flow for a duct tape wallet design challenge. Next week, we will further develop ideas and brand content for our very own businesses!
Physical Development
For Monday's Physical Development, Rebels chose a Rebel-led stretch and Octopus or outside play. Wednesday, Rebels had the option to play Smaug's Jewels in the gym. Rebels took turns being Smaug, the dragon who has to protect the jewels in a central location. The other Rebels start around the gym's perimeter and take turns advancing to try and capture the treasure. Smaug must tag the invaders before stealing or giving up control of the mountain! There was also an outdoor hike or snow play option.
Additional Highlights
Congratulations to our winning team from Session 4's Health and Wellness Expo! The participants received an overall score of 4.67 out of 5 for their innovation, knowledge, dialogue, editing, credits, and share-worthiness. They plan to use their cash grant to provide Discovery Rebels with new books, plants, and a Squishmallow, as they feel these will touch on several aspects of health and wellness.
Rebel/Grown-Up/Guide meetings commence on Monday, March 7th and run all week. To those who signed up, we look forward to seeing you and sharing our goals for the end of the year!
Our KHANtest Pizza Party Celebration is scheduled for next Friday, March 11th. We will order Domino's (voted on by the Rebels) and enjoy the delicious taste of success!
Exploration Studio
Launches
During Monday's launch, the Rebels gathered their French vocabulary to share what they did and where they went over the break. On Tuesday, our launch introduced the feedback the learners gave each other for 360 reviews at the end of the last session. Deagan asked a volunteer to go up to the whiteboard to instruct them to draw a picture. He started by giving very vague and unhelpful prompts like "You need to draw the picture," and "That's not what the picture looks like," obviously, the learner drawing the picture was unclear about what they were supposed to do. The next learner that volunteered to draw was given crystal clear instructions and feedback like "You are drawing a picture of a train" and "make the back wheel larger." We did this activity because many of the learners' comments for their reviews were more similar to the first set of instructions: "You are a hard worker" or "You could be cleaner." We talked about how we could make our feedback more specific and then applied that when we gave feedback on each other's documentaries. On Wednesday, our launch focused on preparing for our visit to the Morning Owl cafe by generating a list of questions we would like to ask. The shop owner, Geoff, was very interested in sharing his learning and experience as an entrepreneur with the learners. There were also two learner run launches, where each learner ran a Kahoot. The first launch was about famous buildings, a carryover from our previous Quest, and the second one was about recycling, an issue we have been struggling with in our studio.
Mindfulness
Our mindfulness period began with each learner explaining how they know they are being mindful. Many adjectives such as calm and focused came to mind, and learners shared when they were mindful during the day. Deagan introduced them to a quote he came across in his mindfulness course "the measure of success in mindfulness is if we can feel peace and love during difficult situations." After reviewing challenging situations we find ourselves in (most learners said rooms with loud people and feelings of frustration), he introduced another potentially hard situation, the cold. Deagan asked the learners to go outside for a brief period to notice our mind and body's reaction to the change in temperature. There is so much to observe in a novel and stimulating environment. Learners spent a few minutes in the cold before heading back inside our comfortable studios.
Math Lab
In this session in Math Lab, we will focus on personal and entrepreneurial finance. For our first lesson, we began watching a special webisode of "Math Meets Entrepreneurship" featuring the cast of Shark Tank. We reviewed the definitions of initial cost, profit, and the break-even point before Rebels figured out how many wristbands a business would need to sell to break even, given the startup costs, cost to make each band and the selling price. Rebels continued working on these skills by choosing between three products to sell and three offices to rent. Once those decisions were made, they had to figure out how many items they would need to sell to break even each month. This required learners to use quantitative reasoning, think through multi-step word problems, correctly use order of operations, and add, subtract, multiply and divide decimals to the hundredths.
Our Problem of the Week reviewed Debit Card transactions and introduced what occurs when there are insufficient funds. In the remaining weeks, we will review budget planning, simple and compound interest, as well as income statements. While these challenges are not required, they are highly encouraged to give each learner extra practice! The Bonus?! Learners earn Rebel Bucks and the chance to win the Golden Dumpling for the week!
French
Revel Rebels will create their own clothing stores in this session! We will draft our storefront, pick a name and a slogan, design and price clothes and accessories, and set store hours. On Tuesday, we went over the schedule for the session and began working on our first deliverable: the store name, slogan and design. Together we played "J'ai…Qui a?" on Thursday before putting the finishing touches on our storefronts. They're all looking fantastique!
Quest
Welcome to Entrepreneurship! This week, we learned many of the aspects necessary to start a business with the help of a Hot Chocolate Stand-Off. Groups had to fill out a business plan developing their ideas on budgeting, marketing, price lists, re-investment strategies, rental spaces, values, and priorities with budgets to make their business successful. The week culminated in a marketplace where the learners operated their hot chocolate stands for the Discovery and Sparks studios. On Monday, we will reflect on the experience, dissect our decisions, and discuss what we learned.
For some learners, a highlight of the week was our visit with Geoff at Morning Owl. Geoff was generous with his time, answers, and hot chocolate for the ten learners who visited his shop. The ten learners who didn't have a chance to see his shop will go on Monday.
Next week, we will explore different businesses, how they are structured, and their purposes. Ultimately the learners will create their own business in the final weeks of the session. They will also have the opportunity to sell at the Ottawa Children's Business Fair should they apply and be accepted.
Documentary
The learners showcased their documentary progress this week. During three different periods of the week, the learners were divided into small groups in which they took the time to update and share how their works are progressing. Each group is at a different stage in their production, with most groups almost finished with the initial filming stages and are now transitioning into an editing phase.
Additional Highlights
It's finally time for March Mammal Madness!!! New learners were introduced to this annual tournament that pits animals against one another in simulated battles. Once they have finished their research, learners (and their families if interested) will complete a bracket to see if they can determine the winners and ultimately the champion!
Thursday, a Launchpad Rebel shared the upcoming Ottawa Children's Business Fair details! The fair will take place on Sunday, May 15th, in the Horticulture Building at Lansdowne. Rebels are responsible for promoting, setting up, and running their business at this one-day marketplace. Applications will close to the general public next week; however, Rebels have a few extra weeks to complete their applications but are not guaranteed a booth as it is a city-wide event.
This week we began our weekly discussions on sexual health. Please feel free to send us topics that you would like to see covered this session.
Launchpad
Science & Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to Soft Matter Science
This week we reached the final module in our Harvard edX course. On Monday, we learned more about the solubility of sugar and how it is affected by temperature. We then watched demonstrations by Joanne Chang about the stages of sugar and how she uses caramel to make the dessert Croquembouche. Bill Yosses showed how he makes lemon sorbet with hibiscus sauce, and Enric Rovira demonstrated how he tempers chocolate and why working with chocolate can be a challenge. Learners then began to plan out their culminating project in which they will need to analyze a recipe and try to learn more about it using the scientific method. Whether they vary the amount of a particular ingredient, explore substitutions for a specific ingredient, vary time or temperature, or change an aspect of the preparation, learners had to consider the experimental question they would like to study and develop a hypothesis. Rebels also needed to plan how they will perform the experiment and measure and evaluate the results. Next week they will experiment and write up their final lab report.
Shakespeare Study
Next week we will begin a choral reading of Much Ado About Nothing! In preparation, we learned about the characters this week and divided up the roles amongst the guide and learners. Each week we will read and discuss one act of the play while learning more about Shakespearean language, themes, symbolism, and love during Shakespeare's time.
Canadian History
This week in history, we began looking at Canada between 1929 and 1939. Rebels started by choosing a few events to further research and add to our timeline, including; Black Tuesday, the 1930 Dust Bowl, the founding of the CBC, and the invasion of Poland by Germany. After learning more about the causes of the Great Depression, we studied how Canadians worked to make ends meet and the response to economic decline.
Ottawa Children's Business Fair
One of our Launchpad learners is this year's Children's Business Fair coordinator! As the event is coming up in May, the learner reached out to potential sponsors this week and learned how to create an invoice. She also made presentations to both our Discovery and Exploration studios about the event details, application process and deadlines and answered their questions regarding the event.
Independent Projects
Another learner has chosen an independent project to work on over the next few weeks. As they are intensely interested in 1860s women's fashion, they developed a project outline complete with deadlines and deliverables to research and design multiple dresses based on the class and situation of the wearer. Once the plan was approved, they got right to work on their research and began a sketch of one dress model.
Additional Highlights
Next week we will begin our pilot with WorkspaceSky! After picking out the courses that interested us, we met some of the other teens participating and took a full tour of the GatherTown site where we will be meeting.
Potential Discussion Ideas or Questions to Ask your Rebel:
Spark:
Can you show us your belly breathing technique?
What business do you think the Spark Studio should start?
How did you decide which booth to buy your hot chocolate?
What is an example of a need? What about a want?
French: Why do you think that many French words beginning with W, X or Y are also the same in English?
Discovery:
What is the Children's Business Fair, and do you plan to apply?
For your business in Quest, are you more of a Bootstrap Tortoise, Asset Fox or MBA Hare?
Do you think history is better told through oral stories, drawings and artifacts, or written records?
French: What is the theme of your clothing store? What did you name it?
Exploration:
What makes a business successful?
Does running a food business in the future sound exciting to you?
French: What is the theme of your clothing store? What did you name it?
Launchpad:
What recipe have you chosen for your culminating project in Chemistry? What variable will be the focus of your experiment?
What are you most excited to spend your time on this session; your independent project, WorkspaceSky courses, finishing the Harvard edX class, reading Much Ado About Nothing, learning about World War 2, or something else?
Dates of Interest
March 7th-11th: Second round of Discovery Rebel/Grown-Up/Guide meetings
March 11th: Discovery Studio Pizza Party lunch
March 13th: Official deadline for Ottawa Children's Business Fair applications
March 14th - March Mammal Madness brackets are due