Revel Recap: March 11 - 15, 2024
Spark Studio
Mindfulness
Welcome to Week 3! On Monday, we read the book Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andreae. The Sparks followed along with Gerald the Giraffe's journey as he discovers his rhythm and learns to dance! Afterwards, we enjoyed playing a few rounds of Freeze Dance and showing off our own unique dance moves! It was a fun, upbeat way to start our week! On Tuesday, we designed our piggy banks and wrote how much money we wished was inside it! We used our beloved Yoga Spinner game to guide us through a yoga sequence on Wednesday. Ask your Spark to show you some of their yoga moves; they know many poses! On Thursday, we prepared for St. Patrick's Day by following along with a directed drawing of a leprechaun. On Friday, we read Gratitude Is My Superpower. Each learner then completed an entry in their gratitude journal, drawing a picture of their happy place! The learners shared the pool, their homes and bedrooms, the park, Revel Academy, and the forest as places that bring them joy and happiness!
Quest
Our primary focus in Quest this week was learning about Canadian money. We started with an informative video by Canada Crew, which introduced us to the different coins and told us how the coins are made at the Canadian Mint. Afterwards, we discussed if we had piggy banks at home and had any of these coins in them. Then we took out our play money kit and looked closely at each coin and bill, taking note of how much they were worth and the pictures on them. The rest of the week, we became even more familiar with money. In one activity, the learners received a big pile of coins and then sorted them by groups into nickels, dimes, quarters, loonies and toonies onto labelled mats. They also completed a grab and graph activity. They grabbed a handful of coins and worked with a partner to graph which coins they had picked up. They also completed a colour-by-coin picture. Perhaps their favourite part of the week was when we set up a toy store. They had so much fun taking turns being the customer and the cashier! The Sparks are ready to count your money when you buy from them at our Exhibition!
On Thursday, we welcomed a young entrepreneur from the Discovery Studio, who came to talk to us about their melted bead business. Thank you so much for sharing your expertise! This experience led us to begin discussing how to price our products. We have decided on $2.00 for small/medium designs and $4.00 for a larger design! The Sparks then discussed how they would like to spend the money they make. Some ideas are a class pet, a party, and donating the money to a charity. We will be voting next week!
We also continued to work on making more Perler bead products to sell. We have had learners who have taken on elaborate designs, such as a big fox and unicorn! Everyone is working so hard to help contribute to our studio business. As we prepare for you to come and shop with us, please try to bring small change on the day!
Art
Many of the Sparks eagerly await spring's arrival and wish for warmer days ahead. As we head into this new season, we discussed some weather changes we might encounter. Often, during the spring season, we have a lot of rainy days, which inspired our art project this week. We followed along with a directed drawing and a lesson about the colour wheel. First, we reviewed the primary and secondary colours. Then, we started by drawing a big circle on our page and dividing it into six parts. We turned this circle into a colour wheel. From there, we followed along to add a person in the rain suit, so the colour wheel looked like someone standing under an umbrella! Once again, amazing drawings from our Spark artists!
Math
You might hear your learner singing a part of this catchy song we listened to during our Math Workshop this week. "Estimate, estimate, I take my best guess, and then I estimate!" Together, we defined estimating as making a really smart guess. That means looking at what you have to compare or what you already know, and then you make your best guess. The Sparks practiced by estimating how many books are in our studio library and how many jumping jacks they can do in one minute! They realized they could do way more than they guessed! Next, we played a game on ABCYA called How Many Marbles? The learners looked at the marbles in the jar, made their estimates and then using the answer, checked our accuracy. At the end of our Math Workshop, one Spark said, "That was more fun than free time!"
Readers’ Workshop
This week, we continued working on activities for our book Creepy Carrots. On Monday, we reflected and completed our story clues page. The learners selected and illustrated four places where Jasper the rabbit thought he saw creepy carrots in the book. For the rest of the week, we focused on opinion writing. First, the Sparks worked on compiling a list of six things they feel are creepy. There was a wide variety of answers, such as spider webs, Halloween, various types of insects, the dark, basements, clowns, and stuffed animals. Throughout the book, Jasper is very afraid of the creepy carrots he thinks are following him. So, the next writing page invited the learners to talk about a time when they were scared of something. The learners shared their fear of spiders, wasps, cobras, riding bikes, and more.
French
On Monday and Tuesday, we coloured and completed the job cards for cooks, mechanics, and lawyers. Then, on Wednesday, we began learning the Passe-Partout song about trades. Sparks played games in the gym on Thursday in order to review our numbers, colours, and professions.
Additional Highlights
On Friday, we read the book How to Catch a Leprechaun. With this book as our inspiration, we met with the other studios and worked on creating leprechaun traps out of recycled materials. We observed so much creativity, teamwork, and fun! Don't forget to put your traps out this weekend and see if you have any luck! This week's Rhyme Time Show and Tell had more unique items! We had chess/dress and car/jar! We are looking forward to one more week of this fun guessing game!
The Sparks also enjoyed visiting the Exploration Studio this week to watch the March Mammal Madness recaps. First up, the Sparklemuffin Peacock Spider took the victory in the Wildcard Round, which was our pick! We watched the Rodent Recaps for Round 1 of the Epic Animals and the Connoisseur Critters Division on Thursday and Friday. The learners loved the videos and were excited to see some of our choices win the battles!
Discovery Studio
Mindfulness
The Rebels took the time to gather together, listen to music and colour mandalas peacefully on Monday morning. Conversations about their weekend and singing could be heard throughout the studio; what a beautiful community. On Tuesday, the Rebels dove into the last part of their March Mammal Madness. They wanted to complete their brackets before the kick-off of the Wild Card Round. Whoever voted for the Sparklemuffin Peacock Spider to win, you are in the lead! Wednesday, the Rebels played Wordle and Connections. Thursday marked the third month and the fourteenth day, which symbolizes Pi Day! The Rebels used their creative minds to design a city using the first several digits of pi to decide the skyscrapers' heights. On Feel-Good Friday, the Rebels used Boomwhackers to play Irish folk songs in honour of St. Patrick's Day. Rebels asked for a challenge: speed up the video!
Launches
As traditions vary for all Rebels, we discussed how Easter gets its date each year. Why is it either in March or April? From sharing personal traditions such as easter egg hunts, family gatherings, and pomlázka, Rebels celebrate in their own unique way. The Rebels then discovered Easter is the first Sunday after the full moon on or after the spring equinox. If the full moon falls on a Sunday, Easter is the following Sunday. On Tuesday, the Rebels watched a clip from the movie Seabiscuit to help us reflect on failures and successes. Seabiscuit was a champion Thoroughbred racehorse in the United States, which had an inauspicious start to his racing career. He became an unlikely champion and a symbol of hope to many Americans during the Great Depression. The Rebels shared their thoughts: Do you learn more from failing or succeeding? Are you motivated more by the fear of failing or the desire to succeed? What is a recent failure or success that you learned a lot from? Wednesday Squad Chickens pulled slips out of a hat, which had a mystery goal they had to work on that day during core skills. If the learner accomplished their goal, they were given a Rebel Buck! We ventured to the Exploration studio on Thursday for an intriguing round of March Mammal Madness battles. Then, we learned about the history of Pi Day and celebrated it with a song! Friday, the Rebels met in the Exploration Studio to watch the March Mammal Madness battles before heading into their last core skills period of the week!
Reader/Writer
This week, the Rebels played a matching game to get into the groove of biography writing. As the Rebels had picked a god, they were keen to answer for the god they knew the most about! Following this, Draw and Anchor learners headed to DS1 to work on a good copy of their biography. They were to write their answers in sentence format and correct any errors. Aim and Release Rebels reviewed Zeus' biography and highlighted the mandatory information based on their checklist. They needed to make sure the biography had information about appearance, physical traits, symbols, powers/abilities, strengths/weaknesses, friends, enemies, siblings, children, and what he is passionate about. Once they highlighted their findings, they reviewed their rough draft to ensure they followed the biography formatting checklist. Rebels will swap biographies next week to edit one another's for peer approvals.
French
This week, we played games in French to learn and review our human body vocabulary. Then, on Thursday, we played BINGO - Body Edition and Body Pictionary, where Madame Marianne named body parts, and the Rebels had to colour them in.
Math Lab
Draw and Anchor Rebels worked with another slow reveal graph to determine, "What's the story?" Rebels looked carefully at the features of the graph as they were gradually shown, practicing how to read scales on the y-axis, comparing different categories of data on the x-axis, and making inferences about how these things are all connected. Inspired by the graph in its entirety, they were off to collect their own data! Next week, they will turn their survey results into a graph. Meanwhile, Aim and Release were also on the run to collect their survey data! They worked on their excellent copies of graphs using the material they gathered. Plotting their information in line and plot graphs was their main priority. They then took time to analyze their graph. What is your graph's story, what question may someone ask you at Exhibition, and what can you explain about your graph? Next week, the Rebels must get peer-reviewed and have their graphs ready for exhibition.
Civilizations
From the Mayans of Central America to the marvellous city of Tenochtitlan, we explored the vibrant civilizations of the American kingdoms. We learned about the advanced societies the Indigenous peoples built, highlighting their architecture, agriculture, and social organization achievements. From the majestic pyramids and elaborate city-states of the Mayans to the inspiring city of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec Empire, the Rebels learned about the rich cultural heritage of Mesoamerica. We also discussed the impact of European exploration and colonization, particularly the arrival of Spanish conquistadors, which ultimately led to the downfall of these magnificent civilizations.
Physical Development
On Tuesday, the Rebel leaders ran a warm-up that consisted of running activities. Their main event game was Floor Is Lava, and they tried two variations of the game before agreeing that they enjoyed the original format. Everyone stretched and dressed a pizza with many toppings to cool down. We took full advantage of the weather on Thursday and went outside to play soccer and enjoy imaginative play.
Quest
It was another week of mythical stories and imaginative writing! The Rebels are working on Part 3 of the Hero's Journey template: Transformation. We read another chapter of Zeus and the Thunderbolt of Doom to start the week. The Rebels discovered that he had the half-giants following him during his approach, and they got close when he was hiding under the table. Learning this about Zeus gave the Rebels an idea of their approach for their story. What will prepare them for a significant challenge in their new or unique world, and what might that feel like for their hero? Tuesday, we went into an instant team challenge! This challenge was related to The Lion King narrative, a story most learners know. They were given a blank Hero Journey's Map with a summary of the story cut up and mixed like a puzzle. After watching the trailer, the squads got right to work organizing the flow of the story compared to each part of the Hero's Journey. Following this, Rebels watched an awesome TEDEd video by Matt Kaplan entitled The Science Behind the Myth: Homer's Odyssey. Rebels reviewed how often the "Ordeal" portion of myths relates to things of the natural world that the author didn't fully understand. Rebels worked furiously on their drafts on Wednesday, adding these new elements to their story. Each squad then elected one person to share their draft aloud as a "featured author." Rebels gave excellent feedback to one another, reflecting on content and style and offering strategies to try if a writer was feeling stuck. On Thursday, we read Chapter 9 of Zeus's story. Rebels were on the edge of their seat as the story's hero dangled above Cronos' mouth, barely evading certain death. Rebels used their time well to ensure that their hero characters would face such a riveting and thrilling challenge! Next week, the Road Back!
Exploration & Launchpad Studios
Mindfulness and Launch
On Monday morning, Rebels listened to another thirty-minute installment of Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science. Rebels learned how Phineas' case, his head trauma, behaviour afterward, and his exhumed skull have allowed researchers to more and more closely investigate and identify control areas of the brain, such as listening, speaking, and beyond. Tuesday's Pilates practice blended stretching, core work, and relaxation. Rebels spent most of the time low to the floor, alternating between ab exercises and rest cycles. The entire school then met in the Exploration Studio for the kick-off of March Mammal Madness with the Wild Card battle between the Rainbow Grasshopper and the Sparklemuffin Peacock Spider. We love this annual tradition and time to gather as a community!
On Wednesday, this week's mindful Connections puzzle saw some familiar word groups and taught the Rebels about different gemstone cuts! We then had a great learner-led Current Events presentation. Thursday yoga was a spinal series flow focusing on opening our back and chest muscles.
After watching the Rodent Recap for Round 1 of the Epic Animals division, it was time to celebrate Pi Day! We reviewed that the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter is always the same: 3.14159… and on and on (literally!) forever. This irrational number, pi, has infinite digits, so we'll never figure out its exact value, no matter how close we seem to get. We read the humorous story, That's What Leprechauns Do, to celebrate St. Patrick's Day before gathering for Round 1 of the Conneseuir Critters division of March Mammal Madness. There were some big upsets, causing cheers and tears!
Quest
This week in Quest, Rebels finalized their journal entries and deep dives into topics that would help us better understand the hysteria of The Red Scare and its influence on trial outcomes. A primary focus this week was learning about the McCarthy-Army hearings, which led to McCarthy's demise and loss of status in the media when he accused the American Army of being infiltrated with Communist Party members and sympathizers. Rebels listened to another American Scandals podcast that retold the key events and completed another active listening activity to pull out what they thought would be the most significant information from the hearings. The second half of the week had Rebels thinking about our Exhibition and what our reenactment of the trials would be like. With the end in mind, Exhibition began to take shape with the Rebels voting on The Rosenbergs Trial and the McCarthy Army hearings as the two trials they will attempt to recreate in Week 5. Rebels will spend Week 4 studying their characters and the events in these trials more in-depth to build testimony and create new lines of questioning in an attempt to rewrite history. Will they convince jury members (their families) to change the outcome of the trials, or will history repeat itself?
French
This week, we continued building our Museum Exhibits! The Rebels had to finish all the documents on their artifact and check with each other to ensure everything was in French. Then we did a Kahoot on sentence construction in French and learned what a «déterminant» is and why they are so important in writing.
Math Lab
This week's team challenge was Splat! Rebels were challenged to use letters and symbols to represent visual puzzles algebraically, where some dots (value = 1) are shown, and some are covered up by splats. Before jumping in, we reviewed some key concepts, namely, how to write equations and use them to isolate variables. Rebels could work at this to their challenge level, from representational solutions of equal sharing under the splats up to and including abstract solutions for multiple variables using substitution. Each puzzle was also more challenging than the last, adding multiple colours and other numerical constraints, with some puzzles having the additional challenge of finding all possible solutions and graphing the inequalities.
Reader/Writer
For our third workshop, Rebels stepped into the shoes of roles for a practice mock trial activity inspired by the Grimm Brothers version of Cinderella. In this version, Cinderella's stepsisters are suing Cinderella for negligence and battery (the punishment for the Stepsisters' evil deeds in the Grimm Brothers version was having their eyes pecked out by birds at Cinderella's wedding). Rebels read or listened to the audiobook of the original 1819 version of the fairytale and picked a role on Cinderella's Legal Team or The Evil Stepsisters Legal Team. This activity will challenge Rebels to start thinking of creating backstories and lines of questions, inventing alibis for characters using elements from the story, and ultimately, strengthening their skills to develop truths for both sides.
CivilizationS
The British Empire controlled India for over a century before Mahatma Gandhi achieved international fame for his efforts to reform discrimination, taxes, representation, and economic imperialism in India. While campaigning for independence from Britain, Gandhi also managed tensions and conflicts between the Hindus and Muslims who wanted political representation and independence of their own. While reading an open letter in which Gandhi wrote, "To Every Englishman in India" in 1920, we closely examined why independence was so important to many Indians. We then watched a TedEd video that described the partition of India and its consequences, such as one of the largest and bloodiest forced migrations in history. We then held a challenging Socratic discussion on what we would do in the shoes of the leaders of the time. Would we have stood with Gandhi for a united India, knowing the violent riots would continue, or would we have supported the partition and the displacement of 15 million citizens?
The Crucible - Launchpad
The learners finished their choral reading of Act 3 of The Crucible on Monday. On Tuesday, Rebels imagined that it was springtime in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, but rather than smelling of blossoms, their town stinks of corruption. Wisteria is replaced by hysteria, and they have just been added to the long list of people being accused of witchcraft. What would they do?! As a group, they voted and discussed which strategy they would have taken had they been charged. Would they have run away from Salem, accused others, become pregnant, confessed though you are innocent, pleaded innocent, or refused to stand trial? Once decisions had been made, they visited a website to explore the likely outcome of their choice. They then reflected and wrote about how the Salem form of government (a theocracy) influenced the justice system. We finished our choral reading of The Crucible on Wednesday by reading Act 4 in its entirety. With the play completed, we watched the first half of a film adaptation on Thursday and Friday. The Rebels have a strong grasp of the plot and have enjoyed watching the play come to life!
Next Great Adventure
With their Declaration Talks only a week away, the Launchpad Rebels met with their international Running Partners to give feedback and edit their speeches. They also recorded themselves multiple times so that they could play them back, paying attention to their pacing, volume, and tone.
Due to the Next Great Adventure process, one of our learners had the incredible opportunity to tour a lab and the greenhouses of the Center for Advanced Research in Environmental Genomics at the University of Ottawa! It was a fantastic experience witnessing our Launchpad learner become even more excited and sure about her future!
Additional Highlights
It was an enjoyable and educational week between the start of March Mammal Madness, celebrating Pi Day, and building leprechaun traps in preparation for St. Patrick's Day! These community traditions are a big part of what makes Revel so unique!
Three of our learners also made several sandwiches and brought bags of chips to Highjinx on Friday. We hope the neighbours enjoyed the meal!
Potential Discussion Ideas or Questions to Ask Your Rebel:
Spark Studio
What does estimating mean? Can you estimate how many windows we have in our house? Or how many socks do you have in your drawer? How many stuffed animals do you have?
How much are you selling the Perler bead products for at the Exhibition? What Perler Bead designs have you made?
What do you think the studio should do with the money you all make from selling the Perler Beads?
How do you say mechanic in French? Can you sing me the Passe-Partout song?
Discovery Studio
R/W - What is more challenging when researching the Greek God, finding the information you need or organizing the information onto your poster?
Quest - You're headed into the final phase of the Hero's Journey next week; how do you plan to conclude your story?
M/L - Draw and Anchor - What question did you ask the Rebels for your survey project?
French: How do you say a neck in French? How do you say elbow?
Exploration and Launchpad Studios
Quest: What character did you select for the McCarthy Trials reenactment?
Quest: What will be the most challenging part of your role?
R/W: Which side are you on for the Cinderella vs Stepsisters trial? Which side do you think will win the lawsuit?
M/L: What does it mean to isolate the variable in an equation? How does this work?
Civ: Gandhi believed nonviolence would be more successful than violence in achieving Indian independence. Do you agree this is always true, or were there special circumstances in India?
French: What is a «déterminant»? (le, la, les, mes ma, mes, ton, ta, tes, etc.)
Next Great Adventure: Is there anything I can do to help you feel more confident or prepared for your talk on Thursday?
Dates of Interest
New Discovery Studio Family Onboarding (by invite only): Tuesday, March 19th, 4:00-5:00 pm
Launchpad Next Great Adventure Declaration Talks (by invite only): Thursday, March 21st
Launchpad Capital Model UN at University of Ottawa Friday, March 22nd - March 24th
Exploration and Launchpad Field Trip to the Diefenbunker: Friday, March 22nd, 10:30 am - 2:00 pm (travelling by school bus)
Session 5 Exhibitions
Discovery Exhibition - Tuesday, March 26th at 4:15 pm
Spark Exhibition - Wednesday, March 27th at 4:15 pm
Exploration and Launchpad Exhibition - Thursday, March 28th at 4:15 pm
No School on March 29th due to Good Friday
Sessional Break and Camp run by Jenna April 2nd - April 5th
Solar Eclipse - Monday, April 8th
Family Book Club - Wednesday, April 10th from 6:30 - 8:30 pm