Revel Recap: May 27 - May 31, 2024
Spark Studio
MINDFULNESS
Welcome to our final session of the year! To begin our week, we started with the debate: duck or rabbit? We looked at an illustration and asked the learners, "Is it a duck, or is it a rabbit?" The learners were divided in their answers, so we had the Sparks explain what they saw and then look again to see if their answers changed. To further explore this illusion, we read the book Duck! Rabbit! By Amy Krouse Rosenthal. In the end, we agreed that the picture could be both! On Tuesday, our artists were challenged to complete a directed drawing of a dragon. While it was a challenging piece, the Sparks didn't give up, and the final results were spectacular! We loved all the different colours the learners used to make each dragon unique. On Wednesday, we combined storytelling and yoga. We read the story The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson. On each page, we paused to complete various yoga poses. Some story elements contained poses we've done before, such as tree, rock, and snake poses. The Sparks also used their creativity to create their own yoga poses, such as owl, fox, mouse, and stream. Ask your learner to show you their Gruffalo pose! Each Spark created a character on Thursday, and using the ChatterKid App, the Sparks recorded a short monologue. They were amused to see their character come to life! Check out the Band app to hear all of their video messages. To end the week, we played Would You Rather? We used questions from the book Would You Rather: Game Book for Kids. There were various questions to help us learn more about our friends and share our opinions. We ended our Friday mindfulness by completing an entry in our gratitude journals.
QUEST
For our launch of Quest this week, we explored fairytales. We started with a story for inspiration each day before participating in a drama game. On Monday, we read The Princess and the Pea. Afterwards, we played a game called One Word Story. The Sparks sat in a circle. One person said a single word to begin the story. We then went around the circle, and each learner would say one word at a time to make a coherent story. We went around the circle several times, and the Sparks did a great job creating a fun story! Next, we introduced our project of the week: creating a studio fairytale. Each learner is responsible for creating one page. They will write the words and create the pictures out of clay. To help us practice creating stories and working together, we split into groups and worked on creating a storyboard. The groups came up with a title, characters, and setting. They made up a problem, events that could happen, a solution, and a happily-ever-after ending! Each group presented their storyboard to the studio. It was excellent preparation for our week ahead.
On Tuesday, we read the story of Alice in Wonderland. The learners were surprised to discover that, in the end, Alice was dreaming! Next, we used our Fairytale Mix-Ups: Create Story Cards to help us on our story-writing journey. These cards contain images of fairytale characters, locations, and other magical objects. The Sparks each received one card, and we went around the circle, arranging them to make a cohesive story. Each Spark came up with one sentence based on their card. Our authors wrote down their sentences, sounding out the words and preparing them for editing the next day.
On Wednesday, our book of the day was a story version of the nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty. Throughout the book, we observed elements often found in fairy tales, such as a castle, talking animals, and kings and queens. We then played a fun game called Sleeping Dragons. All of the Sparks layed on the carpet as still and quiet as sleeping dragons. One knight was tasked with going around the room and attempting to get the dragons to laugh or move. This was a great game to practice our acting skills and to share some laughter! Next, we worked on writing a good copy of our sentence for our fairytale. We talked about using capital and lowercase letters, punctuation, and spacing between our words.
Our tale on Thursday was The Gingerbread Man. The Sparks loved repeating the refrain that is found all throughout the book when the gingerbread man is running away. Next, we completed a building activity. In groups, the Sparks were challenged to use the wooden blocks to create castles. We saw many castle elements being built, such as towers, moats, and drawbridges. Each group shared their creations and had some time to play! The rest of Quest was spent using clay to create the illustrations for our fairytale book. The Sparks worked hard at flattening out the clay and using tools to create fine lines to mimic the artwork we have seen in author Barbara Reid's picture books. The Sparks made the most enchanting pieces, and as always, the guides were so impressed by their creativity and art skills. Check out Band for the unveiling of this book!
READERS’ WORKSHOP
Our mentor text this week was the classic story of The Three Little Pigs. After reading this fairytale, we completed a story map. The Sparks identified and wrote down the setting, characters, problem, and solution. Throughout the week, we enjoyed reading variations of this story. On Thursday, we read The True Story of the Three Little Pigs as told from the wolf's perspective. The learners really enjoyed this take on the classic fairytale. Afterwards, we completed our compareand contrast page in our booklets. The learners drew what one of the pigs' houses looked like and then drew a picture of their own home. On Friday, we read our final version, The Three Ninja Pigs. The Sparks loved this story and voted it as their favourite of all three. After discussing the similarities and differences we noticed in the three books, we set to work on our final page of the week. As a group, we identified the character traits of the three little pigs and sounded out the words together.
MATH Lab
Our workshop this week marked the beginning of our session-long study on measurement. First, we asked the learners to share their previous knowledge of this topic. We then watched a Mini Math Movie by Scratch Garden to learn more. During this video, we defined measurement as finding the size or amount of something. We learned that we can measure many things, like time, weight, temperature, or speed. This week, we focused on measuring length, the distance between two points. We talked about how, when we measure length, we use units. For example, using a ruler with inches or centimetres. You can also measure with non-standard units, which was what we explored this week. First, we set some guidelines for finding accurate measurements. We talked about how all the units need to be the same size, the units should touch each other at the ends, the units need to be in a straight line, and when we measure something, we need to go from one side to the other. The first challenge was to use their feet to measure the length of the studio! Next, we got out our MathLink cubes and got into pairs. The learners set out around the studio to find out how long or wide some of the items in our room are, using the linking cubes. They measured stools, shelves, doorways, books, water bottles, and more. They wrote and drew a picture of each item and then recorded the number of units. Our mathematicians did a great job finding accurate measurements around the room!
FRENCH
This week, we started exploring the theme of the mailman! On Monday, we read the book "Le facteur est passé" by Orianne Lallemand. Then, on Tuesday and Wednesday, we worked on a craft where we learned the steps involved in delivering mail. We coloured in all the steps and put them in the correct order. We then designed our own stamps on Thursday. The Rebels were very inspired by and interested in flags!
ART
We followed the magical theme from Quest this week, and our art workshop was about creating castles! We read a book called The Very Last Castle and discussed some of the architecture we noticed in the story. We then set off to make our own colourful versions. The Sparks had examples to reference, but each worked on cutting out their own shapes and putting their personal flair on their buildings.
ADDITIONAL HIGHLIGHTS
Thank you so much for attending our rescheduled Magic School Bus Exhibition! We learned so much from Ms. Frizzle last session, and the Sparks were so proud and excited to share their hard work with their families!
Discovery Studio
MINDFULNESS and LAUNCHES
Rebels welcomed a new team member on Monday morning by introducing themselves and sharing a fun fact. We then looked at an image collection from Mightier to spark conversation about what lies underneath some of our big emotions. For example, if you're angry, maybe it's because you're disappointed, frustrated or embarrassed. For Launch, we reviewed the UV index for the day and made a plan before investigating whether or not pets can get sunburns! The Rebels had one last chance to complete work for the UV Index awareness posters on Tuesday. Wednesday, we tried the Wordle puzzle, and we were collectively stumped! The solution had a repeated consonant AND a repeated vowel, which made it extra challenging. At the weekly Wednesday Triad Check-In, Rebels worked on helping new team members get used to tracking their goals, holding each other accountable for completing goals and ensuring their Google Trackers are filled incorrectly. On Thank You for Sharing Thursday, Rebels had a fantastic conversation on whether they could live 100 years ago or 100 years into the future; which would they choose? We met with our Triads again at Thursday's Launch to discuss how we'll distribute responsibility for special weekly tasks like discussion leader, goal sheet checker, and council juror.Feel-Good Friday, we played a new tune on the Boomwhackers - the song "Butter" by BTS! The Rebel-led Current Events report featured: the new WNBA team in Toronto, Iceland's volcanic eruption, and a Crocs shoes appreciation survey!
MATH LAB
This session's essential question is: Do we have enough? Rebels will explore financial literacy, learning about Canadian currency, representing monetary amounts, and budgeting for high costs while balancing money for saving and donating. At the same time, Rebels continue building our "thinking studio" routine, forming random groups, standing while they work and adding ideas to a non-permanent vertical surface. Their first lab was all about money, and they worked on two problems that called upon knowledge of Canadian currency. For example, how many ways can one dollar be made using only nickels, dimes and quarters? Rebels worked together to represent their thinking in various ways: using coins to create a physical model, making drawings on their whiteboard and/or writing expressions and equations.
READER/WRITER
To open our last set of Reader-Writer workshops on Speech Writing, Discovery Rebels extensively discussed what makes a speech great. Rebels discussed two separate elements that contribute to making a speech exceptional - the speech itself and its presentation or delivery. The technical components such as word choice, length, hooks, flow, conclusion, and an engaging topic all matter and make up a great speech. However, Rebels agreed that the presenter can make or break the best speeches due to their tone of voice, engagement with the audience, voice projection, stage presence and more. Rebels watched an inspiring speech from a learner about the importance of recess and why it is essential to children's development. What made their speech great? Did it matter that he stumbled on his words a few times? What is a more critical skill: delivering a perfect speech without any stumbles or errors or the ability to make a mistake, recover and keep going on stage in front of the audience? Rebels participated in two activities to develop their speech-writing skills: "Jot Thoughts" and "Linking Facts." To practice, Rebels wrote as many ideas as they could about their dream vacation location (or favourite foods/sports/hobbies). They jotted down as many thoughts that they might want to include if they were doing a speech about that topic. After ten minutes, they selected three jot thoughts and linked them to facts. For example, one Rebel thought Italy would be the best place to vacation because of Italian cuisine. After researching the most popularItalian foods, they were able to be more detailed in their sentences and paint a more sophisticated picture of why experiencing Italian cuisine is a must on this vacation. Up next week, Rebels will begin to jot thoughts and link facts to their Show Your Growth speeches, where topics will focus on the Rebels' self-growth, evolution and Hero's Journey over the past school year.
QUEST
Welcome to Session 7: Show Your Growth Talent Show! Focusing on our Hero's Journeys this year, Rebels will showcase a talent of their choice that links to ways they have grown this year. Rebels started their final Quest of the school year with a team reflection activity, sparking deep discussions around their individual experiences this year. Rebels shared stories about obstacles they've overcome regarding their goals, friendships, favourite Quests, hardest or most challenging workshops, and an Exhibition they would like to go back and do over if given the chance! On Tuesday, Rebels joined a read-aloud of a children's book called Penguin's Hidden Talent and discussed how to display our different talents. Is a talent solely a performance, like singing and dancing? Could event planning be a talent? Could reading or writing be a talent? Rebels landed on our final "criteria for talent," in which they agreed that talent meant anything you felt proud of, a strength, and something you love doing that makes you who you are. With this new criterion in mind, Rebels began to plan their contribution to the talent show and created a master list of possibilities. From Lego construction to comedy skits, singing, dancing, piano playing, Deep Book writing, TEDx Talks and coding - we feel very confident that, as a Studio, we have come up with an audition list that showcases a myriad of talents and growth. Wednesday and Thursday focused on various activities that helped the Rebels decide what they wanted their audition process to look like. Would it resemble The Voice or American Idol, with judges and audience members watching? Would they have multiple opportunities to pitch their contribution or performance or just one? Do they need to have their entire skit or piece prepared, or could they pitch a sample? What would feedback look and sound like? How can we ensure the audition space is safe for all and promotes failure, authenticity, and encouragement? Rebels spent the final Quest block of the week mapping out audition forms and planning their auditions so we can jump right into them in Week 2.
FRENCH
In this session, we're practicing pronunciation! We translated together and then started learning three songs: La bibitte en bleu, Tout le bonheur du monde, and À la claire fontaine.
CIVILIZATIONS
Welcome to the new universe! This week, Rebels learned about Nicolaus Copernicus, Galileo Galilei and the evolution of astronomy and physics. These modern scientists based their writings on things they could observe, test and measure. We mapped important locations around Poland and Italy and discussed how Catholic powers at the time didn't like new ideas that took the focus away from Earth being the centre of everything. We also thoroughly discussed pizza (just kidding, it was the tower in Pisa). Last but not least, we shared other exciting ideas about telescopes and pendulums!
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT
On Tuesday and Thursday, the gym was booked for Exhibitions. This meant both groups headed outside for PE. Some learners played soccer, while others enjoyed extra time at the park. We saw learners playing tag, practicing gymnastics, and testing their strength on the climbing equipment!
Exploration Studio
MINDFULNESS AND LAUNCH
Welcome to Session 7! To start our session, we discussed our Exhibition and the end-of-year celebrations we'd like to plan. Within the next six weeks, there will be a Flag Rugby tournament, Cardboard Challenge, Printmaking Workshops, Pinata making, Summer Birthday Party, Rebel Olympics, Bouncy Castle afternoon, Ice Cream Truck treats, Grad Ceremony, Spirit Week, and more! We also discussed making our last session priorities to accomplish our most essential goals by July 5th. Tuesday morning, we got our bodies moving with a blend of Pilates exercises and yoga poses - Rebels targeted the whole body, getting our muscles working through anaerobic moves like lunges. In the final minutes, we did static stretches to destress and relax our muscles (like a runner's stretch). We then met to make last-minute preparations for that afternoon's rescheduled Session 6 Exhibition and submit badges. On Wednesday, we used our morning to prepare for the day's flag rugby tournament at Ashbury by reviewing the rules, car assignments, and reminders before heading off! Thursday, we began with Connections mindfulness before brainstorming what we wanted to learn from other Acton Academies worldwide and what we wanted them to know about Revel. We came together for a problem-solving session on Friday morning before a Rebel-led Current Events presentation.
QUEST
Welcome Artisans and Makers to your Visual Arts Quest! To begin, Rebels shared some awesome ideas about what art is: they said it's creation, an expression of creativity, emotions, drawing, painting, sculpting, and perspective. We looked at why visual arts education is important and broke down transferable communication skills they will develop, how analyzing art can elicit keen observation and reflection, how visuals can be powerful when persuading or convincing someone, and how art can also be hopeful when life gets tough. Over the next few weeks, we'll try working with a variety of visual media, from graded pencils, charcoal and oil pastels, acrylic paint, low-relief sculptures, and collagraphs. On Monday, we selected our first subject - the Mobius strip! Rebels got to make one of these fascinating objects and then had to use at least three different graded pencils to draw their strip, focusing on line and value. On Tuesday, we tried gesture drawing! Rebels used charcoal on newsprint to try and capture the essence of the human shape and form in a series of two-minute sketches. Before getting started, we looked at Egyptian, Greek, and Roman sculptures, and we broke down the term contrapposto (the way "weight" is shared between an engaged leg and a free leg, resulting in shifts in angles of the rest of a body). We then looked at some strategies for quickly summarizing other major forms of the body, like the "ribcage egg," the "hip bone triangle," and the "stretch and squash" effect that joins them. Rebels completed some incredible gestures! Wednesday we turned our attention to Paul Cézanne and the way he broke down "rules" of the still life. Rebels used oil pastel on black mixed media paper to try and capture a still life composition with as much detail and variety of colour as possible. On Thursday, Rebels had time to continue their still life work, and then we met for the last half of the period for our first group critique! Rebels used an elements instrument to help them describe, using increasingly complex terms, the line, value, shape and form, colour and space they could observe in this week's projects. Next week, we will paint!
PERSONAL FITNESS
It was a rainy Monday during PE, so Rebels had the choice of finishing up their projects for Tuesday's Exhibition or heading outdoors to enjoy the downpour. Wednesday was spent largely at the rugby tournament, so we utilized our PE time to continue working on our Art Quest and prep for our SunSense Talk with dermatologist Dr. Hetz.
MATH LAB
Rebels tried a new Math Lab routine this week based on best practices for building a deeply thinking studio. We formed random groups of three using a quick card shuffle and then worked standing up at dry-erase whiteboards. Once we were set up and understood the parameters of these new special ROEs, Rebels tried two problem-strings. The first had several sets of values, and we had to determine the mean, median and mode of each. The second was a set of elevation statements. In each round, Rebels took a moment to consolidate some essential math procedures and concepts: to find the mean, you must add all values together and divide by the number of values in the set; when there are two modes in a set, we call this bimodal; when you are moving down in space, this is represented by subtraction or a negative integer in expressions and equations. These two strings prepared us perfectly for the two deep-thinking choice problems for the rest of the lab. Rebels worked to either 1) act as a sales manager awarding productivity bonuses or 2) act as a safety consultant for bungee jumping Barbie and Ken. In the first case, unfortunately, all of your employees report their sales differently. They work in sales teams, and there are different numbers of team members on each team. In the second case, you only got two test jumps to design a safe length of elastic bungee cord. You could measure anything, including the dolls, the flip chart mountain and the elastics, but you could only test jump once you had a table of values and graph to support your design. FRENCH
On Monday, we began consolidating what we've learned this year in French, such as 3rd group verbs, the imperative, inverted verb questions, newspaper, and sports vocabulary. On Wednesday, as a large part of the group was at a rugby tournament, we reviewed some French grammar rules together to prepare for next week's challenge.
READER/WRITER
On Tuesday, we kicked off our Artist Biography workshops with an active listening activity using Macklemore's song, 10,000 Hours. The song's theme spotlights the struggle some artists experience as they attempt to make their mark on the world. Rebels highlighted lyrics that stood out to them and discussed them together. One lyric that guided a big part of our discussion was, "The greats weren't great because at birth they could paint; the greats were great because they paint a lot." Rebels debated whether or not certain people are born with innate gifts that contribute to their talents or whether the "10,000-hour" theory applies to most, where the key to achieving mastery of any skill is simply a matter of practicing for at least ten thousand hours. We opened our artist biographies with Jean-Michel Basquiat as Rebels read a mini-biography about the artist and examined several examples of his work. With his unconventional upbringing and incredible rise to fame in the art world, Rebels took great interest in Basquiat's story. Next week, we'll look into the life of Jackson Pollock.
BOOK CLUB - THE GRAVEYARD BOOK
With only one chapter left in The Graveyard Book, learners led this week's discussion on Chapter 7, checking for comprehension and making their final predictions. Next week, we will celebrate by discussing the final chapter of this year's last book club!
Additional Highlights
On Wednesday, twelve of our learners participated in a Flag Rugby tournament at Ashbury College. We played teams from Turnbull, Ashbury, and St. Laurent Academy, faring very well in a sport largely new to the Rebels! A huge thank you to Emily and Alex for driving and to Coach Dominic for sharing his rugby knowledge and fun leadership with us.
Launchpad Studio
Poetry Analysis
We began our Poetry Analysis unit on Monday by reviewing the expectations and goals for the next six weeks. Each learner also chose a poetry anthology to read throughout the session. They are responsible for identifying their favourite piece(s) and completing a deep analysis or art piece for display at Exhibition. We then reviewed poetry terms and annotation skills before using two different analysis techniques. Using "My Honest Poem" by Rudy Franciso, we completed a guided reading and discussion followed by the Choose ONE & Argue technique. It was interesting to hear which lines connected with each learner based on their lived experiences and their appreciation for his use of humour while also discussing deep subject matter. On Tuesday, we used the traditional TPCASTT (Title, Paraphrase, Connotation, Attitude, Shifts, Title, Theme) method to analyze Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night." With the time remaining, we read "If They Should Come For Us" by Fatimah Asghar and discussed what lines stood out to us and what we would say was the gist of the poem. With multiple Rebels attending the Rugby tournament, we read our personalpoetry anthologies on Wednesday. We finished learning two more techniques for poetry analysis on Thursday. We started with the QFT strategy, which gives time and space to ask only questions about the text with the help of "Lies I Tell" by Sara Borjas. We finished with "Facebook Sonnet" and "Wheels" using the Mentor Text Response, which asks us to emulate the author's style, utilizing their figurative language, word choice, and style. Rebels then discussed their favourite of the six poems from the week and their reasoning. Next week, we will begin our Poet vs. Poet bracket!
CIVILIZATION
Few instances in human history are as dark as Nazi Germany's attempt to exterminate the Jewish people from the face of the earth. After completing their research, Rebels were asked who they believed should be held responsible for the Holocaust: Hitler and his top generals, anyone who took part in gathering for or working at the concentration camps, the German people, or no one; it was war. Philosopher Victor Frankl, who was imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp, holds in his book Man's Search for Meaning that we always have the freedom of choice to decide how we will react to our circumstances, even in a situation as horrific as a concentration camp. Learners debated whether they agreed with Frankl before facing a series of dilemmas, imagining what it would have been like to be a Jew living in German-occupied Europe. At the end of their discussion, they contemplated whether their decisions followed a consistent moral framework, like Utilitarianism, Justice-Fairness, Virtue or Judeo-Christian.
BUILD A PC
This week, our learners installed the CPU, SSD, and CPU cooler on the motherboard. They then put the motherboard into the case. Next week, Rebels will continue their PC build by utilizing instructional videos to guide them.
Core Skills and Independent Projects
The rest of the week was spent completing personalized math, physics, Spanish, French, and communication coursework, getting behind the wheel for driving lessons, emailing potential Stars and Steppingstones mentors, and tying up loose ends from Session 6.
Final SunSense Challenges
Our Studios wrapped up their SunSense Challenge this week! Rebels completed activities like tracking the average UV for May and finishing our media advertisements to promote sun safety and awareness. We had a very special guest speaker in on Wednesday afternoon to talk to the Rebels about the ABCDEs of skin cancer. Over the past month, Ms. Kaitlin has inspired us all by sharing her journey with melanoma in the Discovery and Exploration Studios. She contacted her doctor, Dr. Sam Hetz of Concept Medical, to join us for an afternoon to discuss skin cancer and prevention and share some of his expertise with the Rebels. Skin cancer, and talking about cancer in general, can be very scary and uncomfortable - but having Dr. Hetz lead so many insightful discussions and answering Rebels' questions created a space for Rebels to talk very openly about a very serious topic. Rebels gained a greater understanding of the ABCDEs (asymmetrical, border, colour, diameter and evolution) of skin cancer and what to look for when it comes to moles and other signs on their bodies. We talked about the different types of skin cancer and what happens at the cellular level to a nucleus and DNA as cancerous cells change and spread, and Dr. Hetz informed us about some of the incredible tools and technology he uses to detect early signs of skin cancer. Rebels left feeling empowered and knowledgeable about how to take care of themselves regarding UV protection. Rebels agreed that they feel more equipped than ever to spend a summer of fun outdoors this year!
Potential Discussion Ideas or Questions to Ask Your Rebel:
Spark Studio
Which version of The Three Little Pigs did you enjoy the most? (The Original Three Little Pigs, The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, or The Three Ninja Pigs) What did you like about that story?
Did you see a duck or a rabbit in the picture?
Can you tell me about the page you created for the fairytale book? How did you come up with the sentence? Was it hard to make your picture out of clay?
What are some common elements you find in all fairy tales?
French: What is a stamp? What did you draw on your stamp?
Discovery Studio
Math Lab: what is the value of the different Canadian coins, and what are their names?
Math Lab: How many of each type of coin is needed to make one dollar? Two dollars? Any whole dollar amount?
French: What was your favourite French song this week? Do you know any other French songs?
Quest: What talent are you going to showcase at the Show Your Growth Talent Show? Why?
Quest: How does your talent link to your personal growth and Hero's Journey?
R/W: What part of Simon Link's "Kids Need Recess" speech do you think was the most important? Why?
Exploration Studio
How do you make a Mobius strip?
Which drawing project did you prefer the most: graded pencil drawings, charcoal gesture sketches, or oil pastel still life? Which one did you find most challenging?
Math Lab: How do you calculate the mean or mathematical average of a set of values? When determining the mode, what happens if there is more than one?
Math Lab: If Barbie or Ken is bungee jumping from a flip chart mountain, how would you determine the correct length of elastic bungee cord so she safely jumps without hitting her head on the ground?
French: What grammar rules do you know you must brush up on in French?
R/W: Can you tell me three things you learned about Basquiat this week?
Launchpad Studio
What is your biggest priority as we close out the year?
Philosopher Victor Frankl, who was imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp, holds in his book Man's Search for Meaning that we always have the freedom of choice to decide how we will react to our circumstances, even in a situation as horrific as a concentration camp. Do you agree? If not, why not?
What accomplishment are you most proud of this year?
What was your biggest challenge?
Dates of Interest
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