Welcome to Session 7!

Only six more weeks in the school year?! I guess it’s true that time flies when you are having fun! We hope that you had an amazing break, whether you were near, far, or at Revel for camp!

A big thank you to all of the entrepreneurs, volunteers, sponsors, mentors, and customers who made this year’s Ottawa Children’s Business Fair the best one yet! It was awesome to see so many Rebels at our sixth annual event!

Spark Studio 

Lights, camera, action! It's Showtime, Sparks! Our final session of the year will be filled with all things fairy tales and the theatre. First up in Quest, we will work together to create our very own Spark Studio fairytale book. Each learner will be the author of one page, and we will use plasticine for the artwork. From there, we will become characters in two beloved fairy tales. We will be playing a variety of fun drama warm-up games, practicing learning our lines, and rehearsing our plays. The Sparks will also be responsible for designing their costumes and set designs. This will all culminate with a final stage performance at the University of Ottawa for our Exhibition on June 26th. The doors will open at 2:45 pm, and the show will begin at 3:00 pm. There is paid parking available on site. Additional information and details will be provided by Week 4 ahead of the big show! 

During this session, We will explore classic stories for our mentor texts for Reader/Writer workshops. We will read The Three Little Pigs, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Cinderella. We will create a weekly story map to identify the setting, characters, problems, and solutions. We will also compare and contrast our experiences with those of the story characters. 

Throughout Session 7, the Sparks will also explore the world of measurement! They will learn to identify measurable attributes of both two-dimensional shapes and three-dimensional objects, including mass and capacity. The focus will be to examine key concepts such as length, area, mass, and capacity by discussing the specific words that describe each attribute. Utilizing hands-on learning activities, the Sparks will compare several everyday objects and learn to order them according to their length, area, mass, and capacity. This experience will encourage the Sparks to understand the use of measurements and how they are applied in their everyday lives.

In French, we'll be focusing on the Postal Service! We'll practice writing and mailing letters in French and learn how the postal system works with the help of «le facteur souris» book serie.

This session for Show and Tell the Sparks can bring anything they want to share with their peers. They can ask questions, present their objects, and play with them during free exploration periods. 

Discovery Studio 

Can you believe we're already starting the final session of the school year? We have an incredibly busy and fun-filled final learning arc in Discovery Studio that will allow Rebels to demonstrate their growth. Rebels will be participating in a "Show Your Growth Talent Show" at the University of Ottawa in Week 5 to showcase an element of growth and talent that makes them proud of who they are. Quest will focus on the preparation and execution of the Rebel-led talent show, from pitching their performance ideas to the team, planning and gathering materials they will need, as well as stage design/set-up for each act. Discovery Studio Rebels have come so far this year in terms of their studio culture, individual accomplishments, and challenges they've overcome. As they prepare for the Talent Show, Rebels will need to reflect on these aspects of growth and try to figure out their "why." Why did you select this talent to showcase your growth? Why are you most proud of this skill? (Additional Highlights: Show Your Growth Talent Show doors will open at 2:45 pm , and the show will begin promptly at 3:00 pm. Paid parking is available on site. All additional information and details will be provided by Week 4 ahead of the big show!) 

For our final writing project of the year, Rebels will be creating speeches to present ahead of their performance at the talent show. Using a Speech Recipe, Rebels will reflect on three parts of the year that they recognize as the most important milestones on their Hero's Journey. How does their talent relate to their Hero's Journey? What was the biggest trial/obstacle they had to overcome? What are three ways they have grown this year? What was their biggest takeaway or lesson learned on this journey? Rebels will close out their speech with a quote about what growth means to them.  

This session's essential question in Math Lab is: Do we have enough? Rebels will develop their financial literacy through deep thinking questions involving Canadian currency and real-life matters such as budgeting, profits or losses through ticket sales to their Talent Show. Additionally, they will consider different aspects of more personal finances - for example, how much from a total amount should we spend, save, and donate when trying to plan a studio party or studio pet? Lastly, they will act out simple transactions in a studio "store" and practice making correct change involving money amounts, including cents (decimal hundredths) and taxes. 

In this session, we will also review our French sounds by creating a choir and learning a series of songs to practice pronunciation to perform! Simultaneously, we'll revisit numbers, weather, colours, days of the week, months, and more!

Exploration Studio

Did you know nearly 80% of business leaders say creativity is essential to hiring decisions? Welcome Artisans and Makers to this session's Visual Arts Quest! Over the next several weeks, Rebels will untangle what art is. Who decides? And why is this important to 21st-century living? Each week, we will focus on a different visual medium, building complexity day by day in terms of the elements and principles of design. Starting with the basics of drawing, for example, Rebels will create graded pencil drawings of a curious mathematical phenomenon focusing on just line and value. From there, we'll change paper, upgrade to charcoal and unpack the proportion of the human shape and form through gesture drawing! Every week, we'll look to great masters from the past for clues about colour theory and beyond with other challenges like an oil pastel still life, an acrylic diptych painting project, collagraphy printmaking and low-relief sculpture. Each week culminates with a studio critique where Rebels will critically reflect and discuss their process and Hero's Journey, noticing what is there and not there. In just a few short weeks, Rebels will be armed with an enhanced ability to communicate nuance (an important transferable skill for detail-oriented professions like medicine) and a greater confidence in their creative genius. The session will end with a "play" week, where Rebels will decide on a personal project of their own to unveil at least two completed works from the session and an artist's statement at their Vernissage Exhibition on Thursday, June 27th.

This school year's final series of Math Lab workshops will revisit each previous sessional theme, bringing everything together into a challenging arc of Problem-Solving! Beginning with a few important infrastructure changes to keep things fresh in our final stretch, Rebels will stand, not sit, form random groups each week, work on vertical dry-erase surfaces, and, more so than ever, engage in deep thinking about mathematics. Every lab begins with a group problem string: a sequence of mathematical expressions and equations designed to elicit connection-making around important mathematical concepts, relationships and properties. From there, Rebels will dive into curious contexts like a CEO deciding on awarding bonuses to top performers or a bungee jumping Barbie, and come face to face with real-world decisions like whether or not a family should fly or drive for their annual winter vacation based on a strict budget. While each week there are, of course, precise facts and figures to be arrived at (we don't want Barbie to get injured while bungee jumping!), the path to accuracy is multitudinous, and there IS ample room for reasoning and justification as to why a more expensive option might make sense or why one strategy is more efficient or can become a general rule while others can not. 

For their culminating genre of the school year, in Reader Writer, Rebels will be exploring artist biographies to coincide with their Artisans and Makers Quest. Biographies are a powerful tool in helping us understand the lives and perspectives of others. Biographies invite us to learn more about individuals and what makes them unique and can ultimately help us uncover a big question about ourselves: "What about them inspires me?" Each week, Rebels will dive deep into different artists' biographies, examine and write about their work, and study the various techniques and elements of art involved in the artists' creative process. Aside from all things biographical, Rebels will also incorporate opinion and critique writing skills as they interpret different works of art at each workshop. 

For this last session, we'll review our French knowledge and grammar rules through a series of trivia and jeopardy games!

In Civilizations this session, Exploration Rebels will be researching and discussing Tiananmen Square, Hyperinflation, the Rwandan Genocide, Saddam Hussein's Iraq, Genetic Engineering, Brexit and the Freedom of Speech. We will end the course by comparing the leaders we have studied over time and identifying the character traits we admire and are personally working on. 

Launchpad Studio

As it is the end of the year, Launchpad Rebels have the last six weeks to work toward completing all of their credits and goals and entering their evidence into their Mastery Transcript. 

Rebels will complete their Communication and Literature course with a poetry unit. We will review poetic devices and learn several analysis strategies such as Guided Reading, Argue for One, TPCASTT, Write the Gist, QFT, and Mentor Text Responses. Learners will then read and analyze a variety of poems to pick a champion poet after a series of head-to-head battles! They will also choose a Poetry Anthology for their Deep Book to read throughout the session and then choose three of their favourite poems to analyze and create a final project. 

To complete our World History course, Launchpad Rebels will look more deeply into the Holocaust, the Fate of Eastern European Jews during WWII, propaganda, reparations, and the Marshall Plan. We will also look at apartheid in South Africa, Cultural Commodification, the Rwandan Genocide, Afghanistan, and war before comparing the quality of leaders over time. 

Some learners will complete, and in one case, volunteer during the Exploration Art Quest, while others are focusing on completing additional science courses. Additionally, learners will continue to finish their math courses and second language learning, build a PC, log Duke of Edinburgh Award hours, cook for Highjinx, work on their Next Great Adventure promises, and complete planning for the 2024-25 school year. Launchpad Rebels will also have the opportunity to go to the Westboro Douvris to take a couple of self-defence classes! 



School Wide SunSense Challenge

As we enter our final week of the SunSense Challenge, Rebels will reflect on the key takeaways and wrap-up activities from the past few weeks. How have we become more equipped to play safely outside this summer? How will this impact our decision-making skills before we gear up for recess or spend extended time outdoors? In our first week back, Rebels across all studios will participate in final challenges to learn more about the "ABCDEs" of Skin Cancer and participate in a very special guest speaker presentation by Ottawa's very own Dr. Hetz to help us navigate discussions around sun safety and measuring various longterm health risks and benefits associated with UV rays and sun exposure.  

Dates of Interest

  • School Wide SunSense Challenge - April 29th to May 31st 

  • Exploration Flag Rugby Tournament at Ashbury - Wednesday, May 29th from 9:15 - 2:00 

  • Dr. Hetz Sun Safety Presentation for Discovery, Exploration, and Launchpad Rebels - Wednesday, May 29th, 3:00 pm

  • Cardboard Challenge - Friday, June 7th (Please donate your cardboard!)

  • Exploration Graduation Ceremony - Monday, June 24th at 3:00 pm

  • Session 7 Exhibitions

    • Spark and Discovery off-site at uOttawa Academic Hall - Wednesday, June 26th, 2024 - Doors open at 2:45 pm, Showtime at 3 pm! 

    • Exploration and Launchpad Vernissage Exhibition, on-site at Revel - Thursday, June 27th, 2024 at 4:15 pm






Erin Anderson