Revel Recap: September 18 - 22, 2023
Spark Studio
Mindfulness
We started our Monday morning with three short mindfulness activities from our Breathe Like a Bear book. These challenges encourage us to focus on our breath and heart rate while stretching to wake up our bodies and start the day. We then enjoyed following along with a directed drawing to create our own unicorns; each picture had a unique flair! Tuesday was a rainy, cold morning. The Sparks were cozy inside, listening to relaxing jazz music while completing fall-themed colouring pages. Wednesday, we had two Spark leaders run our yoga session. They used the yoga spinner to decide on the poses and then demonstrated for their peers to follow along. Thursday marked the introduction of the Boomwhackers to our studio. It was lovely to fill our room with music to start the day. Friday brought us back to our reflections on gratitude. We began by reading the book Bear Says Thanks. We then repeated this positive affirmation; "I am grateful. I am happy. I am blessed. I inhale love, exhale gratitude and give thanks for all of my blessings." Our journal prompt for the morning was "In the fall, I like…" Many of the Rebels wrote about the changing leaves and celebrating Halloween.
Quest
Our focus this week for Quest was all about our emotions. We launched our discussion on Tuesday, asking the learners to name as many emotions as possible. We then enjoyed learning more about different feelings with the StoryBots. From there, we read Ruby Finds A Worry. After reflecting on this story, we created our own emotion wheels. Once they were ready to use, we went through scenarios where the Sparks had to decide what emotion they thought the person in the situation was feeling and put their spinner on that emotion.
We read The Colour Monster on Wednesday, introducing the Zones of Regulation. After the book, we looked at the different coloured zones and what emotions we might feel in each one. We discussed how all feelings are valid and then reflected on some tools we could use to return to the Green Zone. Each learner created a toolbox of three things that can help them if they are feeling emotions such as sadness, anger or exhaustion. They then shared what they put in their toolbox at the circle.
Thursday, we started by reading The Boy with Big, Big Feelings and talked about some situations that might give us big feelings at school. We were then introduced to our mindfulness corner, a space full of tools and strategies we can use. We looked through the basket and learned about the breathing ball, bubbler, exercise dice, pop-its and mindfulness cards. The Sparks had some suggestions for things they would like to add to our area. Two examples were squishy balls they can squeeze and a Spark Worry Box into which we can place our worries. We then went through two mindfulness exercises we can utilize without any tools. First was the Five Senses exercise. We noticed five things we could see, four things we could touch, three things we could hear, two things we could smell and one thing we could taste. This is a wonderful grounding technique that can help us stay present. We also practised our "Take 5" breathing exercise. With this one, we open our hand and use the pointer finger on our other hand to trace up and down our fingers. As we trace up, we breathe in and down, we breathe out. We talked about times when we could use these two tools. Lastly, we noticed all the positive affirmations hanging in our mindfulness area. After reading a few and discussing the power of positive self-talk, we set off to decorate a card and write affirmations. Check out BAND to see what some Sparks chose for their words!
Geography
During Geography this week, we continued to learn more about the continents. We read a book called This is My Continent about a boy going around the seven continents and sharing some fun facts about them. We then got back to work on our maps from week one. We coloured and labelled the remaining continents and celebrated by listening to the Sparks' favourite continent song.
Reader/Writer Workshops
At the beginning of the week, we played a round of Name That Letter. The learners had to identify the letter in the sentence and state the letter sound. This phonemic awareness is essential as we work on building our reading skills. On Friday, we all met to work on our writing. We followed the Quest theme by writing, "Today I feel _____ (emotion) because..." We focused on the size of our letters, using the lines on the paper as a guideline. We also practised using our index finger to leave a space between the words. To finish our activity, the learners drew a picture of their feelings.
Math
Our math workshop was all about 2D shapes. After listening to a fun Hopscotch song to introduce some figures and their names, we got out our geometry cabinet. We selected five shapes to learn about chevron, ellipse, pentagon, trapezoid and quatrefoil. We went around the circle, each learner tracing the wooden shape and repeating its name. We then started a shape booklet, where we traced the outline onto paper, jotted down the number of sides it had and wrote the name of it. We will keep exploring more shapes in the coming weeks!
French
This week, we played with Monsieur Patate (Mr. Potato) to review body parts in French! The Rebels loved the game, and the room was filled with giggles for the whole lesson. It's so much more fun to learn French while laughing!
Art
With the new season approaching this weekend, we dedicated our art time to creating a fall-themed creation. The learners traced their hands to make their own tree and then used tissue paper and glue to create a beautiful autumn scene. Look for their work at our Exhibition!
Discovery Studio
Mindfulness
Monday's mantra was "I ground myself using my five senses." The Rebels met with small groups and had a mindful conversation, trying to notice everything they could see, hear, smell, taste and touch. During Tuesday's mindfulness block, Rebels listened to classical music and coloured in their Challenge Donut avatars as they reflected on and discussed where their donuts would go on our Studio map. On Wonder Wednesday, the Rebels tried making 3D shapes from various nets. For Thankful Thursday, the Rebels continued to develop their personal gratitude recipe, choosing some form of journaling with many, including things they were thankful for, manifesting for the day or simply a calming free doodle. Feel-Good Friday, the Rebels tried a new challenging tune, adding new notes to their ensemble!
Launches
To kick off the week, Rebels discussed HABITS. We are all heroes on a journey to find our calling at Revel. We considered the quote: "Clear thinking leads to good decisions, Good decisions lead to the right habits, The right habits lead to character, and character becomes destiny." Then, Rebels listed some habits they want to try over the coming weeks in their Journey Planners. Tuesday's Rebel-led launch brought small teams back together to work on problem-solving and bomb defusal! For Wednesday, Rebels checked in with their Leadership Teams to review goals they've worked on and ones they still need to work on to earn Fun Friday. Using Post-It notes again this week, Rebels manifested and wrote down which goal they would accomplish during Core Skills and checked back in with their Leadership partner before Activity Break to see how the work period went. Thursday morning's launch equipped the Rebels by reviewing badge plans - what exactly do they need to progress through the Discovery Journey Map? Friday's Current Events report featured plans for Rebel reporters to take over this weekly segment, a new fun guess-that-Rebel game, an overview of some of Canada's Children's Rights, and a discussion about the nationwide protests and counter-protests earlier this week.
Reader/Writer
This week in Reader Writer, Rebels began with a 10-minute editing challenge. Rebels teamed up in pairs to review and edit Ms. Jenna's gratitude letter she wrote to Ms. Mel. Rebels returned to debrief and found all of the mistakes (spelling, grammar and punctuation) in her rough copy. Keeping with the theme of Rebel-Editing, Rebels finalized their rough copies of their gratitude letter and began to review and approve each other's so they could create their final copies to submit. Those who finished early were able to get a head start on their "Draw a Line in the Sand" script that we will be working on for the remainder of the session. Next week, Rebels will select the piece they are most proud of that they would like to display for Exhibition.
Civilizations
This week's story swept the Rebels away to the first kings of England! They went on a journey to hide in the countryside as Alfred the Great and learned the strategies of other kings like William the Conqueror. Throughout the many Viking invasions, we paused to think about whether a great king alone would be enough to deter the Vikings. They imagined what they would do if they were a Celt during an invasion: accept defeat, fight ferociously, or try to flee. The Rebels worked on fantastic artwork while they listened and completed a map showing important locations like Wessex and Hastings.
Math Lab
On Wednesday, we had our first workshop guided by the fabulous Ms. Kaitlin! The Rebels celebrated the next Golden Gopher winner based on her solution to the Problem of the Week - excellent job using a combination of drawings, numbers, symbols and words to display your thinking! Then, Ms. Kailtin showed the Rebels a new "How Many?" visual prompt, and the Rebels developed a question string. The Rebels practised giving feedback to one another about how to organize their questions by level and switch out words for more specific mathematical terms. Next week, they will share their progress with fellow Rebels and work toward peer approval before the Exhibition!
French
This week, we played a ball game (which we can't wait to show you at Exhibition) that allows us to practice numbers from 0 to 100 in French. Then we continued practicing everyday French phrases and questions such as: What's your name? I don't understand, can you speak more slowly?, etc.
Quest
Quest this week concluded a series of introductory systems we use in Revel each year to help our community and studios reach their full potential. For some, this was brand-new information; for others, it was an opportunity to review some of our systems and think critically about how we could make them even stronger this year. On Monday, Rebels explored The Challenge Donut, created new donut avatars for our poster, and played a fun team-building game called Human Knot-So-Fast in the Gym. Rebels began planning this session's Exhibition in more detail as they discussed and planned around a series of questions in small groups. Tuesday and Wednesday focused on how each Revel system is built to challenge the Rebels every single day - and how our mindset can affect the outcome. Rebels took a deep dive into Growth Mindset concepts and deliberated questions such as: When is it hardest to dig deep and use a growth mindset? When looking at our Discovery Studio schedule, which part of the day/during which activities do we find ourselves in a fixed mindset? On Thursday, in preparation for our sessional Exhibition, Rebels began creating their Growth Mindest canvases, which will be displayed in a couple of weeks! Rebels continued working on the Exhibition outline, and some planned out the schedule to ensure we would have time to cover everything we wanted to showcase.
Physical Development
For P.E., we continued practising our soccer skills to prepare for the next week's tournaments. We worked on passing and dribbling between cones and reviewed some of the key rules of the game. We then broke off into two teams for a game where we rotated through different positions to give them all a try.
Exploration and Launchpad Studios
Mindfulness and Launch
Monday morning, we began by hearing the story of Sadako and the Paper Cranes before watching a tutorial and attempting to fold our own cranes. While frustrating, the Rebels stuck with it and hope to create one thousand by the end of the year! Tuesday's yoga practice flowed through seated side-body and hamstring stretching and ended with a low bridge pose and savasana relaxation sequence. "Habits are at first cobwebs, then cables." - Proverb After yoga on Tuesday, the learners brainstormed their bad habits as individuals and as a studio. We then watched a TED-Ed video that explored the psychology behind how good and bad habits are formed and learned some strategies to manage our behaviours. Wednesday, we took time to create an art piece by creating a looping scribble and then colouring each section with different colours. After Thursday's yoga, the Triads got together to check one another's progress and strategize how to complete their goals by the end of the week. During Free Choice Friday, many Rebels chose to work on new Lego builds or artistic creations, followed by our first Revel-led Current Events of the year!
Quest - Astronomy
On Monday we began our mini-unit on Astronomy! Since we learned about the Big Bang in our Civilizations classes over the past two weeks, we started our Quest to learn about galaxies this week. Learners used a slideshow to complete a set of notes on how galaxies form, what they are composed of and the four different types. We learned that the Milky Way is a barred spiral galaxy and that our Sun is 30,000 billion light years away from the galaxy's centre. We used pastels and black paper to create art pieces of the four galaxy types. We studied stars more in-depth on Tuesday, learning how stars are formed, what they are made of at each of the various layers, and what happens when they run out of fuel. How do astronomers determine a star's brightness, mass, distance, and age? A couple of Launchpad Rebels dove into Hertzsprung-Russell diagrams and completed a graphing activity to solidify their understanding on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Exploration and a few Launchpad Rebels self-organized into groups of two to three learners and rotated through a series of activities. There was an Information station where groups read a passage and answered a few comprehension questions, an Observation table where they used what they'd learned so far to analyze a series of pictures, an Investigation area where learners followed an experimental procedure, collected data, and communicated their results, a Calculation station where learners used a mathematical equation to calculate their age on different planets, a Creation activity where they had to create a landing craft for an "eggstronaut" and lastly an Imagination area to design a new habitat on Mars. The Rebels collaborated incredibly well and were very productive! Thursday, the learners launched their Quest period with a Kahoot to review what we covered during the week before taking 20 minutes to put the final touches on their landing craft, which we then tested outside. The learners noticed that the most successful designs stabilized the passenger while slowing the descent by increasing drag with the help of a parachute and providing a cushion for the landing. Great work!
NGA - Launchpad
Long ago, ancient Greeks spun tales of glorious heroes. Flawed but courageous, these heroes left their ordinary worlds, overcame obstacles, and emerged victorious. Heroes grace our modern times, too - heroes who expand our idea of what is possible and lead the way. Launchpad learners began the second week of the NGA Quest 1 "Relationships are Key" by identifying their heroes. After thinking about who they look up to and what character traits they admire, they began creating a Hero Collage. Some Launchpad learners then started the next challenge on Guiding Wisdom, where they were asked to identify five to eight role models they could realistically connect with soon.
Reader/Writer - Exploration
Ever wonder how the Last Tryus came to be? Just ask the Exploration Rebels, who were tasked to come up with a hook for an imaginary myth! With many of our Rebels well on their way to drafting their tales, we focused a portion of our workshop on hook writing. Capturing the attention of your audience/readers is one of the most challenging aspects of writing, so we took a deep dive into hook creation and explored the various ways one can start a story. From onomatopoeias to famous quotes, Rebels applied their opening exercise to their own stories as they continued drafting their myths.
French
This week, we've been practising the masculine and feminine forms of trades/jobs and the plurals of these words in French.
Civilization
On Tuesday, Rebels gathered to hear about Big History's 2nd and 3rd Thresholds. We learned that the early Universe was dark and cold until a few hydrogen and helium atoms got together, creating a star. We then learned what happens when large stars die and explode into massive supernovae. This scattering of all the periodic table elements throughout the Universe results in the third threshold of complexity -- the creation of chemical elements. Learners then participated in a Socratic discussion where they contemplated the skill that contributed most to Mendeleev's development of the Periodic Table and the money we spend on space exploration vs. our planet.
Math Lab
The Rebels gained a lot of ground in their dome design this week! They started with a video from a company that makes and sells geodesic dome frames to better visualize how the 3v or 3-frequency design they voted on last week will take shape. They voted between a ⅜ or ⅝ style dome, learning that odd-frequency domes can not be split at their natural equator. Based on time and resources, the Rebels decided to move forward with a ⅜ style even though it won't be as tall overall. Then, they started guessing and checking possible diameters and comparing this with our cardboard reserves using a chord factor calculator. Once they decided that 250cm was a conservative length to move forward with, they were ready to get into the nitty gritty of their triangle templates. They organized themselves into small teams and used the side lengths from our calculator to try to construct precise templates, breaking down the tesselation pattern into two isosceles triangles we're calling the AAB and the CCB. Next week, the template teams will get together to check side lengths and angle measurements so we can finalize our templates and work on construction!
Additional Highlights
We completed our Session 1 Mentor Meetings and will be meeting and sharing our Goal Trackers with families shortly! (See sign-ups on BAND)
On Tuesday, We spent time planning our upcoming overnight trip to Camp Bonnenfant in Dunrobin. A packing list and itinerary will be sent to Exploration and Launchpad families early this week.
Potential Discussion Ideas or Questions to Ask Your Rebel:
Spark
What tools did you place in your toolbox to help you feel better when you are sad, angry, or frustrated?
Can you show me what "Take 5" breathing is?
French: Comment était ton monsieur patate? Est-ce qu’il avait un nez, des yeux, des oreilles? (What was your Mr. Potato Head like? Did he have a nose, eyes, ears?)
Scenario to talk through with your learner practising I feel statements: "Lyla didn't like when her friend said she didn't want to play. What could she say?" (Encourage your learners to use I feel ____when ______ statements.)
Discovery
Have you had a mentor meeting with one of the guides yet? What are you looking forward to most this year?
Which promise do you want me to make to you as a part of my Guardian Covenants?
French: To what number can you count up to in French? How do you say ___ (a number between 0 and 50)?
Exploration
Who knows more: Those with the right answers or those with the right questions?
Why is it good that our Sun is 30,000 light years away from the centre of the galaxy?
R/W: What was your favourite hook that was written for The Last Tryus? How is your myth coming along?
Math Lab: what do you know about triangles, or not yet know, that is needed to help build your geodesic dome?
French: How's your French presentation coming along?
Dates of Interest
Grade 2 & 3 Soccer Jamboree - Wednesday, September 27th
Rebel Guardian Onboarding - Accountability Systems Wednesday, September 27th at 6:00 pm (for guardians of learners in Discovery, Exploration, and Launchpad)
Orange Shirt Day - Thursday, September 28th
Grade 4 - 6 Soccer Jamboree - Friday, September 29th
Exploration and Launchpad Overnight Camping Trip - Monday, October 2nd to Wednesday, October 4th (more information to come!)
Session 1 Exhibitions
Discovery Studio - Tuesday, October 3rd, 4:15 pm - 5:30 pm
Spark Studio - Thursday, October 5th, 4:15 pm - 5:30 pm
Exploration and Launchpad Studios - Thursday, October 5th, 4:15 pm - 5:30 pm
Launchpad Family Meeting - Thursday, October 5th at 5:30 pm
Pumpkin Run (Grade 4+) - October 17th
Saunders Farm Field Trip (Sparks and Discovery) - Wednesday, October 18th
Rebel Guardian Onboarding - Self-Driven Child Book Club Thursday, October 26th at 7:00 pm - The Self-Driven Child: The Science and Sense of Giving Your Kids More Control Over Their Lives Book Club (Read the book in advance and come ready to discuss.)