Revel Recap: April 25 - 29, 2022
Spark Studio
Mindfulness
On Monday, we reviewed affirmations. We talked about how they are positive words we say to ourselves to encourage and inspire us. Since this week is all about sports and being active, we repeated affirmations that can inspire us, including; “I am an amazing athlete. I am strong. I am a fast runner. I can try new sports. I can do hard things. I am a good teammate. Every day my skills will become stronger. I will practise. I won’t give up. I will always do my best. I will have fun!” We used a candle to help us focus our energy and the flicker of the light to bring us back to the words we were saying if we started to feel distracted. We then each chose our favourite affirmation, shared it with the group, and repeated it. Tuesday was a directed drawing of a basketball, and Thursday, we coloured sports-themed pages. On Wednesday, we talked about the importance of stretching to keep our muscles flexible and completed a 10-minute stretching routine. We ended our week listening to the story When Grandma Gives You a Lemon Tree. We then coloured in pictures of a heart and wrote three things for which we are grateful.
Quest
Wow, what a fun week of sports and fitness! We started by playing a guessing game of various sports to get the discussion started on all the different activities. We then picked our favourite sport and acted it out for the group to guess. Each day this week was dedicated to a different sport. Each afternoon, we would start our Quest by learning a bit about the sport, such as where it is played, how many players are required, the positions, necessary equipment, important rules/terms, and how to win!
Monday, we headed into the gym for some fast-paced four-on-four hockey! We practised face-offs to begin plays and encouraged passing to teammates. It was a great game that ended in a 2-2 tie! Tuesday was all about baseball and tee-ball! After learning about the sport, we ran the bases to warm up. We practised catching with our gloves and throwing in partners. We then split into two teams, and each side got a chance at bat and out in the field. Being up to bat was very exciting for the Sparks, and there were a lot of great hits! Wednesday, we were back in the gym for some five and ten pin bowling. There were a lot of strikes and spares in our games! Way to go, bowlers! Thursday was all about soccer. Many Sparks knew a lot about this sport and happily shared what they remembered with the group. When we headed outside, we completed two soccer drills. We practised passing to our partner and dribbled the ball between pylons before shooting on the nets. We increased the challenge of scoring a goal by adding two guides as goalies! We then had an action-packed game! On Friday, we practised our running and enjoyed some friendly races.
This week we also came up with a team cheer. Before each sport, we huddled together and shouted our chant excitedly. Go, Sparks! We reviewed the importance of stretching and warming up before playing so that we do not get hurt. We posed another essential question to the group, “What does it mean to be a good teammate?” Ask your learner what it means to them. It was such a fun, active week, and as the weather continues to warm up, we look forward to practising these sports and more!
French
This week, the Sparks counted up to sixty! We played “1, 2, 3, soleil” in the gym and practised making short sentences about animals using a noun, a verb and an adjective. We noticed that “c’est” and “est” are similar. On Wednesday, the Sparks filled in animal silhouettes using ripped-up tissue paper in a colour of their choice. We traced and completed a sentence to describe our animal, such as “Le lapin est bleu.” or “Le cheval est orange.” Then, the Sparks each read their sentence out loud.
Additional Highlights
The Sparks have been working so hard on decoding the words we read. This week we focused on the ‘ee’ sound. Can your learner share a word that has ‘ee’ in it?! We also spent some time working with the North America puzzle map. Using a song, we learned the names of the North American countries and focused on Canada, The United States of America and Mexico this week!
As we get ready for some outdoor spring planting, we have planted sunflower seeds in the studio. We have some in small pots and others in plastic bags in the window. We are eagerly checking and waiting for some sprouts!
Recess with our Discovery friends continues to be a studio favourite this week. We have enjoyed connecting with them and playing catch, basketball, tag and having fun on the playground.
Discovery Studio
Mindfulness
We started the week with a mindful colour by numbers activity - with a twist! The colouring legend changed depending on personal preferences for learning or individual strengths. This resulted in a beautiful school of multi-coloured seahorses! On Tuesday, the yogi Rebels worked on whole-body balance in bird dog pose and ended with a deep hip and lower back stretch in pigeon pose. Wednesday morning, our Rebel Mindfulness Coach led us through a guided meditation with soft music. Thursday and Friday’s yoga flows focused on quiet relaxation in balasana and savasana.
Launches
On Monday morning, we tried to debunk the terrible monster of resistance. The Rebels reflected what this might sound like on their Hero’s Journey, sharing examples from their year, including, “I’ll do it later, it’s not worth it, can I just skip it?” When battling this monster, the Rebels know they can find their grit and persevere, ask each other for help and support and come back to their goals and motivators. On Tuesday, we played “Tu préfères ça…ou ça?” Wednesday’s and Thursday’s Rebel launches both featured interactive Kahoot! quizzes about dogs and general trivia about Revel. Friday’s Current Events report featured Ontario student-led triumph for a new Black History course, Elon Musk’s Twitter deal, and rising gas prices.
Math Lab
Knights of the Round Table? Not quite. But the fantastic collective of Draw and Anchor Rebels met on Monday to launch our session on Procedural Fluency. They noticed how the title words break down to remind us of pro = bring good at something or procedure = the steps to something. With fluency, they connected to our work with fact fluency and how we aim to understand math facts and not just memorize them. After that, these young mathematicians got right down to business, solving the problems they were interested in, sometimes using helpful tools like play money, Base Ten blocks, or rulers. Some initiated meetings in smaller groups to compare strategies (building flexible thinking) and solutions (getting more accurate answers).
Aim and Release unpacked strategies vs. models this week, noting how a strategy is a way of doing something and a model is a representation of this strategy. For example, when the Rebels were trying to solve how three brothers could split a taxi fare home from the airport, they tried using Base Ten blocks to represent the dollars and regroup them differently.
Reader/Writer
After creating our essay skeletons last week, Rebels learned how to write an introduction complete with a hook, transition, and thesis statement. Once completed, they then had time to start their first body paragraph. Using the first reason from their thesis statement, they came up with a topic sentence and evidence and then connected the section back to the claim. While the learners are not used to writing in this style, they are working hard and already have two paragraphs of their five written!
Quest
Week two brought another series of STEM challenges for the Rebel Physicists to conquer! Before we moved into new concepts, we took time on Monday to review our reflection work from last week and get our peers to approve it. We watched this TEDEd video about Newton’s Laws of Motion and considered how each of the laws may have impacted the performance of our car prototypes. Then, the Rebels had to begin research on how to build a boat that would float. On Tuesday, we thought about how to design a rubber band rope, testing it for elasticity with different amounts of weight and developing a Performance Guide. Last but not least, the Rebels had to create a net on Wednesday that would safely land an egg dropped from as high up as possible. We put all of these designs to the test in an epic contest on Thursday! In the buoyancy and displacement category, the Green team’s boat held seven play-doh balls (the most weight) before sinking. The Red team’s thorough Performance Guide helped them stretch their rope to a length of 22 3/4 inches when the target was 23 inches during the elasticity category. Both the Yellow and Green team’s nets landed an egg from 1.75m above the ground! Well done, all Rebels!
French
Did you know that over 500 French words come from Arabic? This week, Discovery Rebels matched French words derived from Arabic with their description to find a secret word. Here’s a clue: it’s a delicious dish from North Africa. On Thursday, we worked on two folk tales; an Algerian story about a king who learns embroidery and a tale from Tunisia about a lady named Ommi Sissi.
Physical Development
The Rebels played Dragon’s Treasure in the gym on Monday after five Rebel-led stretches. The other group went outside for our first Revel baseball session! We started by warming up our arms before breaking into two teams to play a scrimmage. Coach Alex and Erin were impressed with the Rebels’ sportsmanship and willingness to try something new! On Wednesday, the Rebels had the option of an outdoor track meet to practice relay skills and develop endurance for the upcoming Kids’ Marathon or attend their third round of Mayhem Boot Camp. In Boot Camp, the Rebels completed three strength, cardio, and core circuits.
Civilizations
This week we learned about the massive Mauryan Empire in India and how King Asoka united many smaller kingdoms together. Listening to the way this king changed after the many wars (following the practices of the Buddha, developing hospitals for people, and helping animals), the Rebels discussed whether or not they would forgive him for his violent past. The second story we read was called “The Jakata Tales,” where the hare, otter, jackal, and monkey characters responded to the call of generosity and sacrifice and were tested by the god Sakka. The Rebels discussed what impact sharing these stories may have on how people behave.
Additional Highlights
The 100 Green Light Challenge continues! This week the Rebels earned another 21 green lights for a sessional total of 35. Only 65 more to go, Rebels, keep practising your math facts!
Three of our Discovery Rebels were interviewed for Kindness in Action with Lindsey about the Ottawa Children’s Business Fair! They were so brave to jump in without any preparation and did a fantastic job speaking about their businesses!
On Friday, Aim and Release Rebels learned about menstruation and spermatogenesis in their most recent Body Talk. The Rebels did a fantastic job engaging in conversation, even when it felt awkward. This workshop aimed to help them better identify the proper terms for vital organs and hormones involved in these processes and how human bodies develop and prepare for reproduction as a part of puberty.
Exploration Studio
Mindfulness
This week each small group completed a controlled breath painting exercise. After practising our breathwork (inhale for 4, hold for 3, and exhale for 7), we used straws to blow watercolour paint across our paper on our exhales. It was a peaceful way to start the day while also creating beautiful works of art!
Launches
We began our week with an audit of our studios using our network’s “You Know You’re at an Acton When…” checklist. Rebels split into pairs to hunt for evidence of the Hero’s Journey, self-governance and self-management systems, feedback processes, the year’s Overarching Question, etc. We then met to discuss how we felt Revel was holding up to the expectations and ways that we could improve. Inspired by Brené Brown, we spoke about the importance of surrounding ourselves with people who allow us to shine brightly and be ourselves. Using a candle for a visual, we discussed that people often put others down or “blow out their light” to make themselves feel better. Sometimes we dim ourselves so as not to stand out. We agreed to do our best to let everyone around us shine brightly while working to shine our light as well. We closed our launch by passing around a candle and giving ourselves a Character Callout, which we discovered can be more challenging than complimenting someone else. At Wednesday’s Launch, Mme Marie began a read-aloud of “Capitaine Bobette,” or Captain Underpants in English! Is there always a right answer? We opened Thursday morning pondering whether every problem has a correct solution and how we discover which one is, in fact, the best. We connected this back to our Quest and how research is helpful, but sometimes you have to dive in and experiment with trial and error. For Friday’s Launch, we reviewed the schedule for the day and planned next week’s ReconciliAction sessions.
Quest
We continued our exploration of chemistry and rocket science this week! Our two groups from Friday switched stations on Monday, with one group completing their Mentos experiment and the other using the AltiTrack to find the altitude of various items. They both then had time to create graphs of the Mentos experiment results and make conclusions regarding the ideal recipe for the highest eruption based on the complete class results! Rebels also used the measurements collected from their AltiTrak activity to find the altitude using the baseline distance x tangent of the angle equation. Learners were then challenged to balance a series of chemical equations. After watching a couple of introductory videos, they used this simulation to practice and felt more confident in their ability to balance equations afterward. On Wednesday, it was time to start experimenting with rocket fuel! One of the most challenging decisions learners had to make was whether to work on the chemistry theory or immediately begin experimenting. Each team had a budget for their supplies, and purchasing decisions needed to be made with care, especially as each transaction required an additional handling cost. Groups are also responsible for tracking their purchases and earnings throughout the Quest to ensure they stay on budget and aren’t disqualified from the final launch due to lack of funding. Teams then experimented with different formulations of rocket fuel to launch the highest rocket with a delay of precisely ten seconds. After trial and error, many teams were able to hit the ceiling on Thursday with varying degrees of success on the delay component. On Friday, we headed outside for this week’s launch competition. Due to the wind, each team could only launch once; however, many were incredibly successful! Next week an additional twist will be added to the challenge that will require teams to rethink their current fuel recipe.
Genre - 5 Paragraph Essay
After creating our essay skeletons last week, Rebels learned how to write an introduction complete with a hook, transition, and thesis statement on Tuesday. On Thursday, they had time to write their first body paragraph. Using the first reason from their thesis statement, they came up with a topic sentence, evidence, and then backed up their claim. While many learners are not used to writing in this way, they are working hard and already have two paragraphs of their five written!
French
This week, Exploration Rebels researched some geopolitical information about Mali, Senegal, and Benin. We looked at how to make comparisons using “plus que” and “moins que” and completed some practise exercises, which we corrected as a group on Wednesday. Finally, the Rebels recorded short messages for their French penpals.
Health
We learned more about the male and female reproductive systems this week before making sperm and uterus models. We also learned about ovulation, menstruation, and pregnancy, including the different methods for collecting menstrual fluid, such as a menstruation pad, tampon, and menstrual cup. Layal will return next week to cover contraception and the importance of consent and respect for personal and family belief systems.
The Rebels played Dragon’s Treasure in the gym on Monday after five Rebel-led stretches. The other group went outside for our first Revel baseball session! We started by warming up our arms before breaking into two teams to play a scrimmage. Coach Alex and Erin were impressed with the Rebels’ sportsmanship and willingness to try something new! On Wednesday, the Rebels had the option of an outdoor track meet to practice relay skills and develop endurance for the upcoming Kids’ Marathon or attend their third round of Mayhem Boot Camp. In Boot Camp, the Rebels completed three strength, cardio, and core circuits.
Additional Highlights
We have been ending each day with Team Building! On Monday, we played a game of “Pick a Card,” where each learner received a playing card associated with a specific question to answer. It was a fun game where we learned some new facts about all of our studio mates. Tuesday through Thursday, Rebels led our sessions, choosing to play Flashlight Wax Museum, Empire, and 20 Questions! At Town Hall, we mainly discussed if and how we could earn the Boardroom door back over the next few weeks, and while the Rebels haven’t come up with a solution yet, we’re looking forward to a more intentional studio next week.
Launchpad
Rocket Science
On Monday, Launchpad Rebels completed their data analysis for the Mentos experiment before heading out with a tennis ball and AltiTrack to test the altitude of a moving object. Rebels then worked through multiple challenges to hone their skills in balancing chemical equations and Stoichiometry. After all, when making rocket fuel, they will need to know how much of each element or molecule to mix to get the reaction they want. They completed the balancing simulation, reviewed moles, worked through a series of Stoichiometry problems, and wrote a balanced equation with a clay model showing the molecules of the reactants and products. On Wednesday, it was time to start experimenting with rocket fuel! One of the most challenging decisions learners had to make was whether to work on the chemistry theory or immediately begin experimenting. After dividing up the materials, Launchpad Rebels completed about 20 minutes of research before diving into experimentation. They were careful with their purchasing decisions to protect a large portion of their budget for later in the week. They then experimented with different formulations of rocket fuel to launch the highest rocket with a delay of precisely ten seconds. Due to their research, they also discovered a chemical that may help them in next week’s challenge. On Friday, we headed outside for this week’s launch competition. Launchpad Rebels added fins to their rocket; however, their projectile did not have as straight of a trajectory due to the wind.
Canadian History
Our learners began their week reading about the changing face of politics in Canada from Mackenzie King’s retirement in 1948. King was followed by Louis St. Laurent, also known as “Uncle Louis,” and John Diefenbaker, Canada’s first prime minister whose father wasn’t of English or French descent. We also learned about Newfoundland’s referendum and eventual joining of the Confederation, Maurice Duplessis, and Quebec nationalism. On Wednesday, we read more about how the Second World War had transformed Canadian society. We learned how new industries and resources created boom towns and infrastructure megaprojects such as the Trans-Canada Highway, Trans-Canada Pipeline, and St. Lawrence Seaway. Naturally, we also discussed American investment and the Labour movement in Canada during this period. Our sessions ended with a look at the Cold War and Post-War diplomacy, with the learners assessing, Was the “Red Menace” real?
WorkspaceSky Pilot
This week, one of our learners led our Socratic discussion with teens from California and Texas on modern art. They were well prepared, complete with a series of building questions, pieces of art for demonstration, and a knowledge of the art world. Way to go!
Our learners also took part in their weekly classes, including Voice Acting, Minecraft Governance, and Attention.
World Building
Plants! This week one of our learners dove into botany creation for their world. Aesthetics, texture and taste of the fruit, where they grow, and how they attract pollinators were all considered as they designed, drew, and named these new plant species. They took their sketches and used watercolours to bring them to life by the end of the week.
Additional Highlights
One of our Launchpad Rebels was interviewed for Kindness in Action with Lindsey regarding their role as coordinator in the Ottawa Children’s Business Fair! We are consistently impressed with the willingness to take themselves out of their comfort zone to grow.
On Thursday, we went to our favourite coffee shop, Morning Owl, to grab a sandwich and some coffee. It was so lovely to get out for a walk, catch up with the owner, and have time to hang out with these incredible teens.
Potential Discussion Ideas or Questions to Ask your Rebel:
Spark:
What was your favourite sport you tried this week?
Can you tell us the Spark cheer?
How can you be a good teammate?
French: Which animal and colour did you pick for this week’s craft?
Discovery:
What does it mean to have procedural fluency in Math, and what are some ways you are working towards this?
Which was the hardest to make in Quest - a boat that floats, a rope that stretches or a net that could land an egg? How did your team conquer this challenge?
French: What secret word did you learn from this week’s activity? What was the moral of the story about the Algerian king?
Exploration:
How well did your Quest group work together? Did you divide and conquer or work together through each challenge? What could you as a teammate do better next week?
What is the greater feat, sending a rocket to previously unexplored parts of space once every few years? Or sending monthly missions to closer areas for much more thorough exploration and sampling?
Family Character Callout Time! Can you give a Character Callout for each member of our family INCLUDING yourself?
French: What was the most challenging part of recording the video for your penpal?
Launchpad:
As we get closer to the end of the year, what are your biggest priorities to focus on; core skills (Math, Deep Books, Second Languages), Quest, History, World Building, or Apprenticeship/Job preparation?
Reflecting on your rocket’s performance, what are you going to keep the same and what are you going to change for future launches?
How can you “package” your World Building efforts to exhibit at the end of the year?
Dates of Interest
Mother’s Day Celebration - Friday, May 6th at 3:30 pm
Session 6 Exhibitions
Spark: Wednesday, May 18th at 4:15 pm
Discovery: Tuesday, May 17th at 4:30 pm
Exploration: Thursday, May 19th at 4:30 pm
Launchpad: Thursday, May 19th at 4:30 pm
Exploration Track Meet: Wednesday, May 18th 9:00 am - 2:00 pm