Revel Recap: March 20 - 24, 2023
Spark Studio
Mindfulness
We welcomed the first day of spring on Monday morning by reading Goodbye Winter, Hello Spring. We discussed the changes we would see in the coming weeks with the start of this new season. The Sparks are looking forward to warmer days ahead and the flowers starting to grow. Knowing that there will be a lot of rain coming our way, we completed a directed drawing of an umbrella. We listened to some calming rain sounds on Tuesday while colouring in beautiful spring pictures. On Wednesday, we read Yoga Friends: A Pose-by-Pose Partner Adventure for Kids and completed the partner yoga poses as we followed along with the story. Afterwards, we came up with our own partner poses and showed them to each other. There were some very interesting moves, and the laughter was contagious! Thursday morning, we continued our practice with the Boomwhackers. We are getting excited about our upcoming performance at the Exhibition! On Friday, we read Spring Stinks, a story about a bear named Bruce who is not happy about the arrival of spring and is having a hard time seeing the positive side of the season. We then reflected in our journals about one thing we are looking forward to about the change in season. We also viewed the March Mammal Madness Rodent Recap on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings with the entire school.
Quest
What a fun-filled week of board games! On Monday, we started by going around the group and sharing our favourite board games. Then we read Splat the Cat: The Name of the Game. We noticed in this book that Splat's sister wasn't being very kind when she won and was making Splat feel bad about losing. We discussed how the most important thing when playing board games is having fun. We acknowledged that it could be hard to lose and what we could do if we felt sad about it. We also discussed what we could say at the end of a game, whether we win or lose. For instance, "Good game, thank you for playing with me. Would you like to play again? Do you want to play a different game?" A few times this week, a conflict arose during the games, and we were proud to see the Sparks talk it through with each other and see the game through to the end! Everyone showed outstanding sportsmanship.
We started each afternoon off this week with a circle game. We played Doggy, Doggy, Who's Got Your Bone?, Broken Telephone, Rock, Paper, Scissors, Categories and Handwriting." Throughout the week, we then rotated through various board games. The learners did a great job explaining the rules to each other. Some of the games we played this week were; Twister, Suspend, Snakes and Ladders, Jenga, HeadBands, CandyLand, Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel, Turtle Hatch, Labyrinth Junior, Sequence, Chess, Hi-Ho Cherry-O, Sorry and Connect Four! At the end of the week, we began our special group project of making our very own board game. The Sparks have called it Sparks' Rainbow Trivia and have some really great ideas for the rules and how to play it. We have started the board and will be working on completing it next week.
Geography
To start our geography workshop this week, each Spark received two pieces of a puzzle and had to work as a team to assemble the puzzle. In the end, the picture revealed that it was a map of the continents. With one of our Spark friends away on an adventure in Asia, we used this continent as our next passport destination! We watched a video highlighting some of the amazing sights and different things you can do when visiting Asia. We then split into three groups and used the Waseca reading materials to learn more about the animals found on this continent, and each group presented their findings. We heard about dancing cranes, baby pandas, camels, and more!
Math
For Math this week, both groups read How Big is a Million. This book is about a penguin curious about how big a million is. This book is an excellent introduction to large numbers and place value. Numbers can be so abstract, which is why we love the math materials in our studio. During the book, we also reviewed our Golden Bead materials. When Pipkin the penguin counted ten fish, we counted our ten bead bar. We followed along, looking at our 100 and 1000 bead material and the corresponding number cards, observing how many zeros were in each number. At the end of the book, there was a special envelope, and inside there was a massive poster with one million stars! The Sparks were amazed to see this large number illustrated and curious about numbers beyond one million!
French
On Monday to celebrate the first day of spring, we coloured tulips to decorate the studio. The Rebels practiced asking for each colour and making complete sentences including S'il-vous-plaît and Merci ! On Tuesday, we played Quelle heure est-il Monsieur Leloup? in the gym to learn our numbers and the colour game. We also started playing a vegetable game. Madame Marianne says the names of the vegetables in French, and if the Rebel is wearing the colour of that vegetable, they have to run to the other side of the gym without getting caught. On Wednesday, we worked hard on a dessert and bread search and find game, and on Thursday, we read « Mouffie la mouffette va à la cabane à sucre » to prepare for our field trip to the Sugar Shack next week. Friday during DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) we read the book « Le loup qui voulait faire le tour du monde ».
Art
With the arrival of spring and the rainy weather, we talked about how sometimes we can see a rainbow! This beautiful sign of spring was our inspiration this week. After reviewing the rainbow's colours, we cut construction paper strips to form mosaic rainbows. Some learners added their own personal artistic touches, complete with pots of gold, clouds, rain and suns!
Additional Highlights
This week as mentioned, we talked a lot about spring. We completed a Listen Up activity where learners took turns reading the directions, and as a group, they completed a picture based on each instruction. We also read The Little Rabbit Who Liked to Moo, which had baby farm animals. We discussed what happens on the farm in spring and then set off in groups to create our own spring stories. There was a lot of imagination and creativity!
The learners also enjoyed an exciting new water bead station! They enjoyed the sensorial experience of the beads in their hands. We ended the week enjoying the sunny weather with our first trip back to the park in quite a while! We can't wait for more fun days on the playground to come!
Prepare for your next adventure, Sparks; on Monday, you will be a contestant on The Amazing Race!
Discovery Studio
Mindfulness
For Mantra Monday, the Rebels got out their journals and reflected on their weekends. They shared things they were grateful for and what they would be working toward this week. They came up with excellent mantras such as "I can do it!" or "I am ready to…" and "Never give up!" The Rebels soaked up the spring sun beaming through the studio windows and listened to some music while colouring on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings! Thursday's rainy weather inspired a cozy reading/puzzle session, with Rebels pulling bean bag chairs and books into the launch space while we listened to this lovely sound bowl mix! Feel-Good Friday, the Rebels continued their musical Boomwhacker puzzle from last week. They had to play along with a short clip and then guess the corresponding movie soundtrack.
Launches
We kicked off our Monday morning with a super fun Rebel-Led Launch - a school-wide scavenger hunt! Rebels connected with other teammates they don't usually work with or aren't in Squads with and worked together to solve a series of clues. We saw Round 1 of the Animal Engineers for March Mammal Madness on Tuesday! Wednesday morning the Rebels met with their Squads for a quick check-in to monitor progress towards weekly goals and the Fantastic Flow of Fun Friday rewards! Squad Leaders focused on the following path of questioning: "What goals have you already finished this week?" "Which goal(s) are you most worried about as you get closer to Friday?" "What will you do to ensure you complete your hardest goal?" Thursday and Friday's March Mammal Madness update included outcomes for Round 1 of the Itty Bitty Comeback City and Round 2 of the Mighty Stripes vs. Dad Bods.
French
This week we learned how to talk about the weather in French. We also packed our suitcases for a trip (name the clothes we bring in French) and filled out our passports. For our Restaurant Workshop, we completed writing and illustrating our menu!
Math Lab
Rebels continued to build their familiarity with Canadian currency this week, completing more challenges related to tallying, comparing and representing money amounts using coins and bills. During the guided station, each group engaged in deep conversations about related strategies for these tasks, whether skip-counting by 5s, 10s or 25s or combining like terms and writing expressions for the amounts algebraically. They continue to do a phenomenal job of sharing their own Rebel-generated strategies and reasoning with others to correct errors. This week's word problems put Rebels in the position of a consumer and cashier, making totals, finding change, applying discounts and including sales tax.
Reader/Writer
Rebels began our workshop this week with a Word Cline challenge for an image of an Enchanted Forest. Using words like "majestic," "spectacular," "dazzling," and "illuminating" to describe a setting. Rebels then began their very own screenplays for a 2-minute scene! Spanning 1-2 pages at most, Rebels focused on story-telling while being mindful of the formatting a script requires. After questioning and discussing essential elements of a story, such as a plot, setting, conflict and resolution, Rebels set off to complete story maps as a draft before beginning to type them out. Seeing so many fantastic ideas flowing through the studio as Rebels created plots for their scripts was amazing!
Civilizations
The Rebels learned about the kings of the Frankish Empire this week, Charles Martel (aka Charles the Hammer) and his grandson Charles the Great (aka Charles Magnus or Charlemagne). In fact, Charlemagne was not only king, but by the end of his reign, the Pope crowned him as the Emperor - all the citizens hoped that he would bring great peace to the Franks, similar to the way the leaders like Augustus Caesar brought peace to the Roman Empire centuries earlier.
Quest
This week in Quest, we focused on Costume and Set Design! Our first Mentor Musical for this week was Broadway's The Lion King, as Director, Julie Taymor, won the Tony Award for Best Costumes in 1998. We began our first set of workshops by discussing the importance of a costume when bringing a character to life on stage. Rebels followed the same design process Julie Taymor created when directing and collaborating with design elements for the show: "Inspiration - Imagination - Execution." Rebels created a plan for bringing a Lion King character to life by creating their own masks and then executed the design on paper mache masks that will be displayed at Exhibition! For days 3 and 4, Rebels were inspired by our next Mentor Musical, Wicked. We discussed the importance of technical directors and scenic design collaborators when it comes to a production. Using shoe boxes and items from the Maker Space, Rebels recreated what sets might look like if their favourite story or movie scene came to life on a stage. Next week, we begin brainstorming and creating our mini-workshops in preparation for Exhibition in just a few short weeks!
Exploration Studio
Mindfulness and Launches
We began our week with a calming mindfulness to prepare for our Reefs Alive workshop with the Smithsonian. Tuesday's yoga featured a bird-dog flow to target the core and focus on balance. We then met as a whole school to watch March Mammal Madness Rodent Recap. On Wednesday, our artists got to work creating signs for our friend visiting from Hungary or working on paper mache sea creatures. After Thursday's yoga, we watched the Rodent Recap and discussed our studio dynamics. The learners expressed that they felt Exploration has a strong culture; we are more productive and kinder, with a good balance of fun throughout the day. Friday morning after the Rodent Recap for Round 2 (Dad Bods and Mighty Stripes), we met to go over the schedule for our field trip to the Canadian Nature Museum before hopping on the bus!
Math Lab
This week's Three Act Task was called Rising Water! Rebels investigated how to find and use initial values in patterns and rates of change in these patterns using the context of the height of melting glaciers compared to sea level. They worked with tables of values and tried to develop visual models and abstract equations to predict further down the pattern. Rebels also put their critical thinking caps on and considered the physics of melting sea ice or ice in a standard glass of water. There was a rigorous debate about whether the water level rises, lowers or stays the same when floating ice melts!
French
This week we listened to a short video to celebrate Francophonie Day! After completing our diction exercises, we learned to ask for directions in French. The rest of the classes were spent working on our presentation about our assigned French-speaking countries.
This week in our French workshop, we finished writing our menu and voted for the official menu of our restaurant!
Reader/Writer
This week in Reader/Writer, we continued to explore ocean currents. Our fourth lab report examines the effects of temperature on deep water currents. Rebels discussed a Ted-Ed video about currents and hypothesized what food colouring would do when dropped into 3-5 different cups of water, all at different temperatures. Rebels even attempted to simulate water near the poles of the Earth by dropping an ice cube into one of their cold water cups. Creating their own Data/Analysis log of observations for this lab, Rebels recorded the movement of the food colouring to the best of their ability. We revisited our lab reports on Thursday afternoon to complete our Procedure, Results/Conclusion and Reflection. Rebels concluded this week's Reader/Writer lab by questioning the effects of global temperature on our oceans and what would happen if the ocean's currents continued to slow down due to rising water temperatures.
Complexity of Water Quest
On Monday, the Rebels took part in the Reefs Unleashed online program, allowing them to explore coral reef biodiversity using the same methods as Smithsonian scientists. We practiced the scientific skills of observing, classifying, and quantifying organisms living on coral reefs using actual data collected by field scientists with Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS). The Rebels enjoyed sorting the organisms and were surprised by some classifications. We also discussed how biodiversity relates to ecosystem resilience and how humans impact these vital ocean habitats.
Since the Rebels enjoyed learning about the ARMS units the day before, we turned to freshwater stream monitoring using leaf packs on Tuesday! Due to the weather, we utilized a virtual stream to collect data on the habitat, macroinvertebrates present, and water chemistry to determine the health of four different streams. Using a key for the various macroinvertebrates initially took time, but many Rebels could quickly tell damselflies from mayflies by the fourth stream! (We hope to put leaf packs in at some learners' cottages and Ottawa streams to assess in Session 7 and perform several of the same tests!)
With Exhibition approaching, it was time to review the requirements and expectations for the final displays, experiments, and research studies. Rebels were all given access to a sheet complete with instructions and sample images to help them as they strive for excellence. They were also given a template with appropriate headings that they would likely need to ensure their project was robust enough for our Water Museum. Rebels then got to work researching, collecting data, and experimenting!
On Friday, we had the opportunity to explore the Canadian Nature Museum for a couple of hours before participating in the hands-on Discovery Tank experience. Learning about their incredible adaptations, Rebels could touch sea urchins, anemones, sea cucumbers, hermit crabs, scallops, and starfish.
Launchpad
Complexity of Water Quest
On Monday, the Rebels took part in the Reefs Unleashed online program, allowing them to explore coral reef biodiversity using the same methods as Smithsonian scientists. We practiced the scientific skills of observing, classifying, and quantifying organisms living on coral reefs using actual data collected by field scientists with Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS). The Rebels enjoyed sorting the organisms and were surprised by some classifications. We also discussed how biodiversity relates to ecosystem resilience and how humans impact these vital ocean habitats.
Since the Rebels enjoyed learning about the ARMS units the day before, we turned to freshwater stream monitoring using leaf packs on Tuesday! Due to the weather, we utilized a virtual stream to collect data on the habitat, macroinvertebrates present, and water chemistry to determine the health of four different streams. Using a key for the various macroinvertebrates initially took time, but many Rebels could quickly tell damselflies from mayflies by the fourth stream! (We hope to put leaf packs in at some learners' cottages and Ottawa streams to assess in Session 7 and perform several of the same tests!)
With Exhibition approaching, it was time to review the requirements and expectations for the final displays, experiments, and research studies. Rebels were all given access to a sheet complete with instructions and sample images to help them as they strive for excellence. They were also given a template with appropriate headings that they would likely need to ensure their project was robust enough for our Water Museum. Rebels then got to work researching, collecting data, and experimenting!
On Friday, we had the opportunity to explore the Canadian Nature Museum for a couple of hours before participating in the hands-on Discovery Tank experience. Learning about their incredible adaptations, Rebels could touch sea urchins, anemones, sea cucumbers, hermit crabs, scallops, and starfish.
Tale of Two Cities
This week learners read Chapters 20 to 24 in Book 2 of a Tale of Two Cities before reviewing chapter summaries and analyzing themes, motifs, symbols, character traits, and other literary devices throughout the chapters read. As we near the end of the novel, learners begin to make some predictions about the remaining chapters.
Independent Projects
This week, the Co-Coordinators of the Ottawa Children's Business Fair collaborated to review a hundred applications for this year's event! They had to make incredibly tough decisions to choose only 50 booths to represent the young entrepreneurs of Ottawa.
Spanish
This week we covered comparatives and superlatives in the grammar section of our classes before working on our travel terminology and the culture of Belize! As we near the end of the course, our learner is looking for ways to increase her conversational skills in preparation for an exchange next year!
Additional Highlights
Our friend from the Acton Academy in Békéscsaba, Hungary, has arrived! We are excited to show him Ottawa over the next few weeks. Has your learner thought about an exchange?
Potential Discussion Ideas or Questions to Ask your Rebel:
Spark
What was your favourite board game to play this week? Can you explain the rules?
What are you most looking forward to with the arrival of Spring?
What can you say to your opponent at the end of a board game?
French: How do you say maple syrup in French? (sirop d’érable)
Discovery
What character mask did you create from the Lion King?
Why are costume and set design important when creating a musical?
What is your screenplay going to be about from Reader/Writer?
If you buy ___, what combination of coins and bills would you need to cover the cost? How much change should you receive?
French: What is a passport? What is written in yours?
Exploration
During your Reader/Writer lab, what did you notice about the food colouring in different water temperatures?
What happens when ice floating in a glass melts?
French: When is La Journée de la Francophonie (the day of the Francophonie)? (March 20th)
Launchpad
What was your favourite gallery at the Museum of Nature?
What is your prediction for the end of Tale of Two Cities? Are you enjoying Dicken's writing style?
Dates of Interest
Thursday, March 30th: Proulx Farm MapleFest Field Trip for Spark & Discovery Studios
Dr. Matt's Visit: Learners 3:30 to 4:30, Parents 4:30 - 5:30
Session 5 Exhibitions
Tuesday, April 4th
Wednesday, April 5th
Thursday, April 6th
We are full for our Sessional Break Art Camp (Tuesday, April 11th - Friday, April 14th!) Payment is due by April 3rd!
Spark Family Meetings coming in Session Six: Stay tuned for sign-up dates!