Revel Recap: Nov. 4 - 8, 2024
Spark Studio
Mindfulness and Launch
To start our inquiry into construction sites and vehicles, the learners completed a directed drawing of a front-end loader construction truck. This activity had several steps, and the Sparks patiently followed along. We are always amazed at their artistic talents! On Tuesday, we read Rosie Revere, Engineer. This book was our inspiration for our Launches the rest of the week. We completed a variety of activities using Rosie Revere's Big Project Book for Bold Engineers, a companion project book that goes along with the New York Times Bestseller. Our first task encouraged the learners to design and draw a stuffed animal carrier for their bike that keeps the stuffed animals dry if they hit a puddle but also lets them see the road ahead. On Wednesday, we read a quick story about inventors having to be persistent and not give up. It talked about Sir Joseph Wilson Swan and Thomas Edison, who were both responsible for the invention of the light bulb. Some reports say that Thomas Edison tested a thousand filaments to find the best choice. Some even say up to ten thousand! We thought about what it must have been like to keep trying something repeatedly and shared times we have been persistent in our lives. We then imagined what would have happened if these inventors had given up and never completed the lightbulb. We challenged the learners to draw a picture of how their lives would differ without this critical innovation. On Thursday, we read Rosie Revere's Rules for Working as a Team, and then each Spark drew a picture of their dream engineering team. They presented this to the studio and shared what they would like to build with their team. To end the week, we worked on reinventing the wheel. We looked at how Rosie Revere had improved and changed her bicycle. We thought about our favourite invention and imagined how we could redesign it to make it even better! Throughout the week, the Rebels showed us what creative engineers they are! Keep on dreaming big, Sparks!
French
On Monday, the two French groups played Object BINGO to learn about everyday objects such as erasers, whiteboards and desks in French. We played a Seek-and-Find game on Tuesday and Wednesday to learn or review the questions: How? How much? and Which? Thursday, we played in the gym with mats to learn how to say on, under, in front of, behind, next to ___, left, and right.
Reader/Writer
Group One was introduced to the letter C this week. After learning the sound it makes, the learners shared words they already knew that begin with this letter sound. After listening to an upbeat song about the letter C, learners got a whiteboard, and we practiced writing various CVC words formed from the letters we had been working with. Together, we sounded out the individual letters in words such as sat, cat, net, map, pin, and mat. Under each letter we wrote, we drew a circle, which the learners used to tap and sound out the individual sound in the word. Then, we worked on blending the sounds to read the word smoothly. This was an exciting lesson, as the Sparks were both spelling and reading!
Meanwhile, Group Two dove right into their book study. Together, we re-read the story and completed three pages in their booklets. On Tuesday, the Sparks were asked, "What if some seeds (book characters) came to your door to Trick-or-Treat, what would you do?" Many Sparks explained they would hand out candy, say "Trick-or-Treat and compliment their costumes. On Friday, the Sparks were given a list of eight words from the story that had to be organized alphabetically. Next week, we will finish our book study and vote on a new book for the next session. Group Two also explored their UFLI documents and completed a page during work periods.
Quest
On Monday, we shared our construction vehicles or building toys we brought from home. Then, we played a round of construction vehicle Bingo to help familiarize ourselves with all the different options that can be found on a job site. In the afternoon, we read an informative text called Build it Strong, which walked us through building development from the blueprint stage to completion. It showed us the steps to complete a building and the various trades involved. We then watched a video from the series "Can You Imagine That?" about what life is like in the construction industry. From here, the learners shared all their knowledge by working together to create an anchor chart filled with information on everything construction workers can do, what they need for their jobs, and what they can build. Check out our learning on the poster we created at Exhibition.
During the rest of the week, we learned all about simple machines! We started by reading I Use Simple Machines by Buffy Silverman and listening to a simple machine song by Scratch Garden. These resources provided us with a quick overview and examples of the machines we will explore throughout the week. On Tuesday, our focus was on inclined planes. Using our digital Epic library, we learned some key facts about this simple machine and completed a quiz to test our knowledge. The learners then joined their engineering teams to build inclined planes. The learners had various materials available, such as wood, floor planks, and cardboard. Once they were done testing, they entered their final product into a competition. We measured the length the cars went after leaving the inclined plane. Some ramps moved the cars faster than others, so we thought about what could cause that. Was it the materials we used, the slope, or the length of the inclined plane? Many of the learners adjusted their ramps to see if they could make the cars go further and faster.
We used two resources on Wednesday and Thursday to learn more about wheels, axles, and levers. Jessi and Squeaks from the series SciShow Kids and our Epic library provided a lot of background information on these two simple machines and how they are used in everyday life. Learners then broke off into groups to use various materials to engineer, build, and test wheels and axles and design a catapult. A real highlight was watching the learners test their catapult by seeing how high they could make a pom-pom fly! There was a real excited buzz in the studio all week as they enjoyed these hands-on projects!
Art
With Remembrance Day next week, we centred our Art Workshop on peace. We read The Peace Book by Todd Parr and then shared what peace means to us. Learners discussed peace as being kind, calm, relaxing, and feeling happy. They also said it can be inviting friends, giving them gifts, helping others, not littering, and not being mean to others. It was such a powerful conversation. The Sparks then created their symbols of peace using paper plates, tape, and paint sticks. The results are so colourful!
Math Lab
Group One continued their exploration of addition through a virtual game called Marble Drop Addition on ABCYA. The learners worked to catch two marbles that added to the target number. They then worked independently on a math addition with a construction tools handout. Lastly, learners worked in pairs, reviewing some of the materials we have introduced, including the Addition Board, the Addition Snake game, and writing equations utilizing a whiteboard and loose parts.
Group Two continued working on patterns. To start, they played a game called "before and after." They were presented with numbers between 100-500 and had to discover the number before and after. They noticed there was always a pattern when they were presented with numbers above 100. "You always restart counting, but add the two before it," a learner explained as if they were counting within the 200 frames. Following this, we used skip counting as a form of pattern recognition. The Sparks were tasked with counting by 3s, 5s and 10s. The challenge behind this activity was that the pattern didn't simply start at 0 or 10; it would start with 21 or 34, etc. The learners found that by using a number line, they could find the next number more quickly.
Geography
Geography this week took us to the continent of Europe to look at a famous building that many of the Sparks are interested in, the Eiffel Tower. First, we looked at an Usborne Flap Book, which compared the Eiffel Tower's size to other buildings around the world and showed the Sparks how much taller this building is than a two-story home. It also told us some fun facts. For instance, did you know the tower is repainted every 7 years and grows a few inches every summer as the metal expands in the sun? After a virtual tour of this iconic structure, the learners set off in groups to recreate it using plastic cups! There were some really accurate designs!
Additional Highlights
Congratulations to one of our Spark artists - the Rebels school-wide voted their design to be the back cover of this year's Yearbook!
Discovery Studio
Mindfulness and Launch
To start our Monday off right, we began discussing being intentional in the studio. We discussed that being intentional is choosing what you pay attention to and making choices that benefit you now and in the future. We talked about how Rebel Bucks help keep us all accountable in the studio and how we need to be taking Rebel Bucks when other learners are off task and distracting others.
What is service? If you ask the Discovery Rebels, they might say it means helping someone else or lightening someone else's load. Monday's Launch, also included a discussion on the new Let Grow theme and November's challenge: to help out in new ways around the house!
As the weather gets colder, the Rebels have become increasingly resistant to going outside for Mindful walks. Some learners brought up the idea of switching up our forms of mindfulness at Town Hall, and the vote went through. The Rebels voted and decided to do one Mindful walk per week and Mindful Colouring instead on Tuesdays. We discussed that Mindful Colouring should be quiet, calm, and focused. We all created a swirl pattern and then coloured in the holes in different colours.
A Rebel then ran her first Launch, which was all about cheer! She is on the Cheer Sport Sharks team in Ottawa, and she taught us some moves and told us about the Chomp Down competition that she will be participating in shortly!
Wednesday's edition of the NYT puzzles was a great challenge for the Rebels this week. We solved the Wordle in four guesses, we were able to get all four Connections categories with two lives to spare, and we were able to solve the Mini crossword in just a few minutes! For Launch, we continued working on our Joy workbook. We ensured that our first couple of pages were complete to the best of our abilities and discussed our Joy Recipe with another learner to get suggestions about new things we could try.
On Thursday, we enjoyed the beautiful sunshine during our Mindfulness Walk. We talked about the beautiful warmth and leaves in preparation for the snow. Mme Marianne then presented the first launch of a series on how to navigate friendships. Starting with the quote: "Is it true; is it kind, or is it necessary?" we talked about the three questions to ask yourself when talking to a friend: Is it true? Everything we say should be trustworthy. Yet, we also don't need to say every thought we have about people. Is it useful? Sometimes, speaking our truth is not helpful to the other person. It could unnecessarily tear them down and serve no purpose. Is it kind in tone, kind in intent, and kind in approach?
Friday's Feel-Good Boomwhackers activity was quite jaunty as the Rebels tried a rendition of "Wellerman" by Nathan Evans. The Current Events report featured a video about the record-breaking height of the Florida Gators' Canadian recruit Oliver Rioux and a discussion about the poppy and why we'll take some time on Monday to commemorate Remembrance Day.
Math Lab
On Monday, Aim and Release Rebels worked on a series of prompts to activate multiplicative reasoning and make connections between multiplication facts, arrays and area. Then, they applied these ideas to finding the area of compound shapes and ultimately worked towards writing rules or formulas for finding the area of squares, rectangles and parallelograms.
The focus of Wednesday's lab with Draw and Anchor Rebels was a mathematical story called Spaghetti and Meatballs for All. In the story, the Comfort family is planning a reunion dinner and trying to find a way for all 32 guests to sit at eight tables. Rebels worked with their teams to explore the different ways to arrange the tables and how this impacts the number of chairs you can seat, either by modelling with square tiles or drawing sketches.
French
This week, the Rebels created activity sheets to learn lots of French adjectives before starting to write down the characteristics of the monster we drew last week. We're also continuing to read the book "Le grand livre des monstres - secrets et légendes" to practice reading comprehension and draw inspiration from the monster descriptions to write our own!
Reader/Writer
Draw and Anchor Rebels: This week, some of the Rebels finished up their script, and they created an invitation to invite the parents to their Journey Meeting. Next week, we will be role-playing to practice our Journey Meetings.
Aim/Release Rebels: This week, the Rebels were challenged to finish their progress report, script, and an invitation to invite the parents to their Journey Meeting. Some learners even role-played to practice our Journey Meetings.
Civilizations
Rebels learned about the spread of slavery and "green gold" through this week's read-aloud. With more and more settlements in North America, the demand for labourers increased as more people were needed to tend to crops like tobacco, rice and cotton. Europeans would sail to Africa, take prisoners, bring them to South, Central or North America and trade them (people!) for other goods. On our maps, we traced this route, showing how it made a triangle between Europe, Africa, and the West Indies - hence, it was known as "triangular trade." After the story, we spent a lot of time discussing the impact of tobacco. Rebels were split on who should have received the profits after the European settlers learned the recipe from Indigenous communities and began trading it. Some said no one should profit because the effects of smoking are harmful; others said it should be split 50-50 between the Indigenous and the settlers, while some argued that the settlers farmed it, so they were entitled to the profits. We then talked about land claims, tobacco tax, the moral responsibility of governments, the addictive ingredients in e-cigarettes and public vs. private healthcare as a result! Rebels, we were so impressed by your critical thinking this week!
Quest
On Monday, we started Quest with a video about what labels and doubts we place on ourselves that stop us from pushing ourselves forward. Then we discussed how the initial drawings of our schools were going, and the Rebels were challengedto create an accurate and to-scale floor plan of their school. On Tuesday, Janine, an Associate Professor from the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism at Carleton University, visited us. She took us through a photo gallery of her favourite architects and buildings she loved. (Public City-Winnipeg, Atelier Big City from Montreal, Guggenheim Museum in New York, Hadmark Museum, Musee Guimet, Paris, Le Diamant Theatre, Quebec City, Art and Architecture of New York, Pakau newton library, Glass Chapel, Rural Studio South Carolina, Douglas Cardinal, Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health Ottawa and the Canadian Museum of War) Janine made us think deeply about our school blueprints. As architects, we need to think about the city and public spaces, such as bike racks, accessibility, colour, and storage rooms, all while creating a WOW factor. On Wednesday and Thursday, we continued working on our floorplans and elevation plans, ensuring we met the building codes, drew straight lines, and labelled our drawings with all our measurements and to scale.
Physical Development
On Tuesday, some learners continued to practice their Badminton skills while another group headed outside for games. Our warm-up was Who's the Leader? In this game, the detective has three chances to guess who the leader is. The leader changes movements without being caught! We then played The Number Game. The learners moved around the field, and when a number was called, they needed to quickly form a group with that number of people in it. If they did not make it into a group, they completed an exercise of their choice. We then took some time to enjoy the fall weather. The learners gathered leaves and had fun jumping into their piles!
On Thursday, the Cooperative Games outdoor group participated in two games. The first game was called "Pizza Party". They branched into three teams and had to decorate the pizza (hula hoop) with toppings (beanbags). The team with the most toppings would win, as that's what their Guide liked the most about her pizza. We did three rounds of this to warm up. Following this game, they played Hula Hoop Twister. This game was a combination of Twister and Freeze Dance. The learners made a playlist of their song choices and listened to the Guide call out either left or right arm/hand. As the time went on, the game got more challenging. Only 2-4 learners could be in a hula hoop at once, and hula hoops were slowly being removed. Everyone showed great enjoyment by dancing and fully participating. Way to go, Rebels!
Additional Highlights
Congratulations to one of our Discovery artists - your Canva design was voted by the Rebels school-wide to be the front cover of this year's Yearbook!
Reminder: Journey Meetings will be happening next week and will be led by your own learner. Please confirm your time on BAND or your learner's invitation. We are so excited to see your learner run their own Journey Meeting!
Exploration Studio
Mindfulness and Launch
On Monday, we began our day using our powers of observation in an artistic endeavour. Rebels either chose a natural specimen such as a seastar, shell, insect, or plant to draw or used an online drawing tutorial to draw a realistic animal.
Tuesday's Mindful Walk was overcast but relatively warm, with some very light rain at one point. We discussed what we might do if the weather is too cold or wet to go outside and agreed we would all be prepared for snowy walks, and if the weather is too extreme, we'll do an indoor meditation instead. On the walk, Rebels chatted about whether they prefer urban or rural living and where they would buy a house if they could!
On Wednesday, two of our past learners joined us for "Bring Your Kid to Work Day!" We introduced ourselves and then played and made additions to the slime, noting the texture, smell, and how we felt when we played with the slime. We also discussed our thoughts on the US Election results and strategies to move forward when a vote doesn't go your way.
Thursday's blended yoga/pilates flow began with the box breathing technique. After settling in, Rebels worked through seated side-body stretches, wall "angels," and a sun salutation ending in a mountain pose. We ended with reclined "legs up the wall" and then a one-minute stillness challenge in a position of their choice. During Launch, we learned about the mechanisms of evolution. How is it possible for primitive life forms to spawn the millions of different creatures that exist today? By using visualizations, infographics and appealing characters, we learned more about this complex process.
On Friday, the learners won Wordle quickly in 4 guesses, but then we struggled with Connections, The Mini, and Letterbox. Our Current Events team then ran our Launch, ending with a great "Live From Snack Time" update!
Reader/Writer
This week in our Journalism Workshop, we learned about the Elements of Persuasion: Ethos (Appeals to Authority), Pathos (Appeal to Emotion), and Logos (Appeal to Logic). We also reviewed the 5 Ws (Who, What, Where, When, and Why) before looking for the elements and 5 Ws in five different writing samples.
French
This week, the Rebels learned the rules for conjugating irregular adjectives. We then began writing and drawing the characteristics of our monster in preparation for writing their legend next week. The Rebels had a choice: draw their monster first and then describe it (for more challenge) or describe a monster and then create the illustration.
Math Lab
This week's team note-making warm-up had the Rebels working to find the best deal on glue sticks for a project and writing full sentences to themselves about how to find a unit rate. We then moved into our first task: Rebels completed a percent benchmark chart for the number 1,000, looking for patterns in finding friendly percentages like 50, 25, 10, 5, or 1. Then, they solved for less friendly percentages like 26, 99 or 105 using their chart. After this, Rebels tackled various scenarios like tipping on a restaurant bill, finding a discount on jeans, calculating shipping charges, or determining discounts based on the difference between the list price and sale price of items on Amazon.
Civilizations
Known as the father of medicine, Hippocrates laid the foundation of medical procedures and ethics, and despite being formed 2,500 years ago, Hippocrates is still at the center of many healthcare decisions today. After learning more about Hippocrates, we compared and contrasted the classic and a modern version of the Hippocratic Oath. Learners then put themselves in the shoes of Hippocrates and discussed if a patient they've seen for years lost all motor function and pleaded for you to assist his suicide. Would they hasten his death because it is his choice and he is in extreme pain, or refuse his request because they will "do no harm," regardless of what other harm already exists? They also debated whether Hippocrates' greater accomplishment was removing medicine from the "shackles" of magic, superstition, and the supernatural or laying out a code of conduct for all medical professionals.
Physical Development
As it was raining on Monday, learners all met in the gym to play a game called Survival Tag, which blended our learning from Quest with PD perfectly! Rebels were given either a predator or prey card with varying instructions that included specific prey the predators had to tag, adaptations the prey may have to get away, potential consequences such as injury, and relationships where learners could work together to capture their prey. With the time remaining, Rebels played indoor soccer, Spike ball, and other versions of tag.
Wednesday, one group learned badminton rules and practiced for the OISAA tournament in a couple of weeks. The other Rebels chose to climb trees and play a game of soccer.
Quest
This week in our Cells to Biosphere Quest, we focused on animals! After brainstorming what we know about animals, we listed as many terminology words as possible regarding their classification, structures and relationships. They then chose any animal species of their choice to research and complete a Guided Research Animal Taxonomy handout. On Tuesday, we focused on classification and taxonomy. After hearing about the Phylogenetic Tree, Carl Linnaeus, analogous and homoplastic traits, taxa and Binomial Nomenclature, we turned to the domains and kingdoms of the animal world. It was then time for the learners to complete as many challenges as possible, beginning with a digital Escape Room. There was also a Kingdom Card Sort, an Invertebrate Classification Chart, and online Animal Classification, Vertebrate Trait, and "Mission Taxonomy" games. Wednesday, we began by reviewing food chains, food webs, energy pyramids, and the importance of biodiversity. The Rebels then took on a food chain challenge where they had to find the different food chains on either the Arctic tundra, savanna, or woodland and write down at least one in their science notebook. It was then time to learn about the various Ecological Relationships. We discussed predation, competition, and symbiotic relationships (parasitism, mutualism, and commensalism). Science teams then broke off to complete a card-matching game in which they had to sort into the various ecological relationships. Great teamwork, Rebels! Our last Quest period of the week was spent learning about barn owls and dissecting owl pellets! As we took the owl pellets apart, we discussed how they were created and identified the prey bones found in each sample. Lastly, Rebels began planning how they want to demonstrate what they've learned at this session's Exhibition!
Launchpad Studio
It was another productive week in the Launchpad Studio! One learner learned how to apply directional and radial colour gradients and also learned how to put code comments in both HTML and CSS, which would be overlooked by the system when the code was run. Meanwhile, another Rebel spent significant time dedicated to their mathematics course, noting that they really enjoyed Khan's self-paced nature. Learners also read and discussed Chapters 11 - 16 in Frankenstein this week.
AP Language and Composition
Last week's reflection on the Unit 3 Free Response Question was put into play again for revision in AP Language. This week's new Free Response Question was a rhetorical essay on a provided speech by Maria W. Stewart given at the New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1832.
AP Literature and Composition
This week, our learner explored 18th and 20th-century poetry, To His Coy Mistress and My Last Duchess, culminating in an essay comparing and contrasting the forms of misogyny in either poem. They also examined the symbolism in William Blake's The Lamb, culminating in an essay discussing the importance of Christianity to the imagery and allusions of Blake's work.
Canadian and International Law
Our Rebel finished drafting the two-thousand-word narrative portion of their essay on Hostage Justice, which chronicles the depressing, almost-yearlong stay of three (two by the end of their case) older men in Japanese detention centres for crimes fabricated by the MPD (Metropolitan Police Department).
AP Biology
This week, our learner launched into the study of Genetics, beginning with Mendel's Laws of Inheritance and how Mendel determined patterns of inheritance. She also studied how genetic information stored in DNA is transcribed and translated into proteins and that the information from DNA determines the structure of proteins responsible for organisms' heritable physical characteristics. There was a test along with a peer-reviewed 2-2-2-2 task for the conclusions of their lowest-graded lab report.
LEADERSHIP, PEDAGOGY, AND JOURNALISM
Our Launchpad Rebel enjoyed reading the Exploration learners' Journalism commentary in their free-write notebooks this week. We have been impressed with this high schooler's thoughtfulness, advanced preparation, and willingness to seek out and accept feedback on how to improve. (See above for what they covered this week!)
Potential Discussion Ideas or Questions to Ask Your Rebel:
Spark Studio
Can you name the six types of simple machines? (Simple Machine Song)
Which was your favourite simple machine to build? (Lever, inclined plane, or wheels and axles) Did you and your engineering team have different opinions on how to make your machine?
What does peace mean to you?
Which famous building did you learn about this week? (Eiffel Tower) Would you like to visit it someday? Was your group able to recreate the tower using cups?
French: How do you say « to the side » in French? (à côté de)
Discovery Studio
Math Lab: How do you find the perimeter of something? How do you find the area of something? What formulas are there for finding the area of specific shapes?
CIV: As smoking has been proven very unhealthy in recent decades, taxes have been raised on them. Should governments have the right to charge more tax on things that are not healthy? Why or why not?
French: How do you say "claw" in French? (Griffe)
Exploration Studio
One study estimated that due to poor medical practices and decisions, the practice of medicine did not add to the quality of our lives until after 1931. If true, does this make Hippocrates more or less important?
Math Lab: A video game regularly costs $96, but the price was reduced by $24. What discount was applied?
French: Did you learn any new adjectives by reading «le grand livre des monstres»? If so, which ones?
Launchpad Studio
Which narrator do you enjoy reading more, Victor or his "monster"?
If you were Frankenstein, what would your answer be to the Creature's demands? What are the pros and cons of each decision?
What are you most proud of accomplishing this week?
What will you do next week to set yourself up for a great end to the session?
Important Upcoming Dates
Spark and Discovery Rebels trip to the Science and Tech Museum Friday, November 15th - The bus leaves promptly at 9:30, so please be on time!
Session 2 Exhibitions
Spark: Wednesday, November 20th at 4:15 pm
Discovery: Tuesday, November 19th at 4:15 pm
Exploration (DATE CHANGE): Wednesday, November 20th at 4:15 pm
Sessional Break and Camp: November 22nd & 23rd
School Pictures with Carpe Diem: Tuesday, November 26th
On this day, the Yearbook Committee will also take a whole school photo for the front cover of our 24-25 Yearbook! If you do not wish your learner to be photographed/included in the yearbook please let Meg or Mel know (spark@revelacdemy.ca or discovery@revelacademy.ca)