Revel Recap: May 30 - June 3, 2022

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Spark Studio

Mindfulness

It is wonderful to be back and recharged with all of the Sparks! To start our week, the learners sat around the circle and listened to one another’s adventures they had during the session break. So many Sparks shared how they visited family, spent time outside, and compared stories of how the storm affected their week. Mindfulness colouring utilized Rangoli art and helped us relate to our World Art Quest. The Sparks enjoyed yoga and taking time to connect with their bodies and their minds, and on Friday, we continued with our gratitude journal routine.

Quest

Welcome to World Art! To start the week, the Sparks landed in Canada! (What a coincidence, eh!) Many Spark families brought in rocks which were greatly appreciated, but they probably wondered why we needed rocks for Quest. An Inukshuk is a big part of Canadian art, and the Sparks committed to making their own using stones and painting a water-colour piece. As a studio, we read the story called, Make your Own Inuksuk by Mary Wallace. The book explains how Indigenous people would use an Inukshuk as a method to find their way around the land. After our stay in Canada, the learners boarded their plane and left Canada to for a trip to India.

In India, the Sparks worked on Rangoli art and learned about the Festival of Colour, Holi. The learners worked together to make four Rangoli art pieces using black paper and chalk. Their work turned out beautifully. The Sparks learned that if you see a Rangoli out front of someone’s home, it symbolizes happiness and positivity in your day. After a day of travelling through Delhi, Sparks hopped on their private jet to France. We then learned about Medieval times and stained glass. The Sparks heard about how people worked hard for what they needed to survive in that period of history. As a studio, we spoke about the long process of making stained glass. The Sparks used tissue paper and construction paper to cover a design, and we placed them in our window! After their time in France, it was time to go to China!

In China, the Sparks went to Huairou District, where the Great Wall of China was built. The Sparks learned about the history of the wall and worked together to rebuild it using their imaginations and various blocks. The learners added temples and lookouts to their wall as well. Their pilot decided to retire and flew them back to Revel. Their adventure was one to remember, and we hope the Sparks get over their jetlag before a fun second week in Session 7!

French

During this session, the Sparks will be learning all about the house, la maison. We began the session with a house colouring worksheet that allowed us to review the names of four different shapes: le cercle, le triangle, le carré and le rectangle. On Tuesday, we read Autour de la table by Peter H. Reynolds. The book is about a young girl who feels lonely at home because her family spends time on screens instead of gathering together around the dinner table. The big dinner table shrinks day by day - until it’s gone. The girl then asks her family to help her build a new one, and they reconnect with each other. On Wednesday, we watched a video about the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We talked about the different pieces of furniture in the story and matched the right size items with the right size bears. Finally, on Thursday, we learned the names of the house rooms and played Jean Dit, the French equivalent of Simon Says.

Additional Highlights

With our last session focused on arts, the guides thought introducing primary and secondary colours to the Sparks would be a great idea. The Sparks listened to a story called, The Wonders of the Colour Wheel written by Charles Ghigna, followed by colouring their own colour wheel. As the year comes close to an end, many learners will visit the Discovery Studio in preparation for fall. They have been driven to meet their goals and work alongside the Discovery Rebels. Our phonic of the week was ‘er,’ and the Sparks came up with many words. They used their whiteboards and sounded out words that ended with ‘er.’ This week, we had a birthday celebration for one Spark with cupcakes! The Rebels loved them! We have been spending more time outside with nicer weather and new materials added to our outdoor area. We enjoyed time with the Discovery Rebels for Reading Buddies and shared our Show and Tell items to end the week!

Discovery Studio

Mindfulness

Welcome to the last session of the year, Discovery! We started the week with our Monday mantras and some fun cube pattern colouring. A few Sparks were visiting our studios, too, and it was nice to share our favourite affirmations with them and hear the ones they liked - “I am perfect just the way I am!” Tuesday morning’s yoga was pure relaxation as the Rebels were already tired from the early morning heat - we listened to songs from Chillhop’s Essential Summer 2017 Mix and focused on calm breathing. Wednesday and Friday, we played Ship’s Ahoy to stretch and move our bodies, focus on our listening skills, and then meditated by visualizing ourselves floating on the calm sea.

Launches

What does intentionality look like? Sound like? We launched our first week of the session, discussing our Freedom Levels and the hard work required to earn them. As we have some of the Sparks joining us for Core Skills this session, we are focused on modelling the setup and strategies we rely on for success. On Tuesday, the Rebels played “Tu préfères ça…ou ça?”. Wednesday morning, we discussed what makes an excellent Rebel-led launch and opened the call to any visiting Spark or Discovery Rebel to lead an inspirational launch or closing. The Rebels shared that the best launches either A) teach us something, B) make us think outside the box, C) create something, or D) test our knowledge in a fun way. They also agreed that the Rebel has to prepare and work hard on it to be excellent! Thursday, we had a new learner visiting the studio for the day, so we played a mnemonic name game to get better acquainted! Friday’s Rebel-led Current Events featured a story about a young boy from Ontario who helped organize 440 backpacks worth of supplies to be sent to Poland for transfer to Ukrainian refugees and an update on a real-life endangered species featured in Minecraft, axolotls (pronounced ACK-suh-LAH-tuhls). There was also another edition of Who Is Cuter: Giant Panda or Red Panda? The Red Panda won!

Reader/Writer

Warrior Writers: In this session, the Draw and Anchor and Aim and Release Rebels have joined forces to build a portfolio of excellent writing and explore behind the scenes of Treasure Island. The Rebels started with a rapid-write activity using a Writer’s Choice Board. They had to write as much as they could in ten minutes and will repeat this routine each week, culminating in a Writer’s Café to celebrate at the end of the session! Many chose the thriller genre prompt this first week, starting a creative piece. Several others selected to write personal narratives featuring their sessional break adventures. One Rebel started a news report on the storm, another persuaded us about environmental change, and one shared a recipe for simple red potatoes. Way to build your stamina, Warrior Writers!

Rebel Readers: We then took time to explore the difference between a synopsis and a trailer or teaser based on the plot of our play Treasure Island, as adapted by Kathryn Schultz Miller. We read a detailed summary of our play together and then used the Plot Mountain song as a guide to help us capture all major plot points for our synopses. Next week, we will learn more about Robert Louis Stevenson, the author of the 1883 novel version of our story and develop our actor bios.

Math Lab

Like Reader/Writer, the Rebels have merged into one large group to tackle this session’s challenge! They will be putting on a Math Carnival featuring probability activities and games of chance for the Sparks in Week 5. The Rebel Mathematicians played a KnowledgeHook Gameshow to warm up this week to explore and visualize critical concepts for surveys and graphs. After our game, the Rebels took the time to create their survey questions to gather their data. Their question should help them plan their carnival based on the preferences and interests of their clientele. Once they conducted their survey, they had to graph the results to share with the rest of the planning committee.