Revel Recap: May 3 - 7, 2021
Happy Mother’s Day to our incredible Rebel moms! We hope you are all enjoying a your day in the sun!
Thank you Rebel families who joined us for our first online Family Game Night and to the parents who met virtually to discuss the current situation and ways that we can improve our community! Our families are awesome!
Spark Studio
The Sparks began their week reviewing what we have learned about pollination. We read A Bee’s Difficult Search for Food, which follows a bee looking for food but having a hard time finding flowers. Due to construction, pesticide use, and human fear of bees, the bee is getting very hungry. It finally spots a garden with fruits, vegetables, and wildflowers. Once there, it gathers nectar while at the same time pollinating the flowers. We spoke more about how important pollination is for growing foods we love and how we can help pollinators. Sparks then had a fun flower and pompom fine motor activity to complete at home, where we raced to move the pollen from flower to flower!
Sparks then shifted their focus to entomology! In order to be considered an insect, it must have six legs, three body parts (head, thorax, and abdomen), an exoskeleton, and antennae. We looked at pictures and using the criteria, identified whether each creature was an insect or something different. Our challenge was then to create a new insect, keeping in mind this criteria. Using recycled materials, nature finds, and drawings, the Sparks made some very interesting insects which we shared the next day, discussing what we named them, where they live and what they eat. We have such a creative group!
On Wednesday, we studied other animals that also help pollinate; such as lemurs, bats, lizards, and birds. We talked about hummingbirds, as one bird we might see in Canada that helps pollinate. Then after looking at some examples of the different nests that various birds make, our next activity was to gather natural materials such as twigs, grass, moss, mud, and leaves to build a nest. We saved our creations to share during our Show and Tell on Friday and everyone enjoyed hearing how each one was made. The Sparks showed so much innovation and each nest was well thought out and unique. They also completed some fantastic drawings of a bird during our directed drawing time. Well done, Sparks!
During our core skills morning sessions, we introduced telling time to the hour. We began by sharing what we do in the morning, afternoon, and evening and how clocks help us to know what time of day it is. We were introduced to the two hands on the clock and what they tell us. We went through some examples and then tested our time telling knowledge through a game. For our language activity this week, we enjoyed watching a silly song about the digraph sound TH and identifying which words had the TH sound on our handout. We also reviewed our sight words by playing a fun round of BINGO. We continue to observe the progress of our Painted Lady caterpillars which have now formed their chrysalis and have been moved to their new mesh net! This weekend we are encouraged to try and get outside to make a nature mandala or to dedicate some time to nature observation. The learners can draw or take pictures of any insects, animals or plants that are interesting to them and that they would like to share with the group.
In French on Monday, we read Pourquoi? a book where Lulu le Lapin asks his mom a lot of questions...and gets tickled! On Tuesday, we started the class by dancing to “Tête, épaules, genoux et pieds” very slowly, then faster and faster. After that, we made a Mother’s Day card. We wrote Bonne Fête Maman on the cover and we drew our mom step by step, naming each part of the face. All the Sparks were very brave on Wednesday when we practiced asking each other what colour t-shirt we were wearing! It wasn’t easy, but they did a great job. Mme Marie also asked some questions about our mom including what her name is and what is her eye colour. Finally, we read a book called Ma Maman and we learned how to say “I love my mom” and “I love you, mom” in preparation for Sunday. We ended the week with a fun new song called “Maman a fait zim” and read another Mother’s Day book!
One big highlight for the Sparks this week was starting our drama workshop on Friday morning with the Ottawa Children’s Theatre! The Sparks introduced themselves, discussed their favourite animals and had a lot of fun acting out what would happen if the floor turned into lava, quicksand, water, bubbles, clouds, and many other things! We are already looking forward to next week’s workshop!
Discovery Studio
Mindfulness
What a wonderful first week of our Mindful May Yoga Challenge! Thank you to all of our Rebels and families who participated in the first five days of the challenge. It was so much fun to kick start our day moving with so many members in our community! If there are ever certain muscle groups, yoga poses, movements or even music that you would like Ms. Jenna to incorporate into the morning flows, please let us know!
Launch
We began our week with a laughter-filled “Draw-On-Your-Head” challenge. Rebels were asked to place a piece of paper or whiteboard on top of their head and then draw the given prompt. It was so much fun showing off our crazy works of art and found the exercise to be way more difficult than originally anticipated. On Tuesday, we had a special May the 4th Star Wars-themed launch! We got our brains and bodies moving with a special Would You Rather: Star Wars Edition activity! We learned about May Day in France during Wednesday’s launch. Over there it is called La Fête du Travail, and there’s a little twist to it! Way before it was a holiday for workers, in the Middle Ages, May 1st was a day where people bought lilies of the valley for their loved ones. Now both traditions are inseparable! Afterward, we solved a charade together. Thursday’s Current Events had a special guest Rebel Reporter who led a discussion about the new vaccine updates for youth ages 12-15. Rebels discussed their thoughts, enjoyed some hilarious “Live From Snack Time” quotes, learned about Splendid Fairy Wrens and a special elephant doctor who creates prosthetic limbs for animals. On Friday, Rebels had a great time brainstorming ways to jailbreak a character using 2 fuses and 45 seconds in a Ted-Ed Riddle!
Rebel Readers & Warrior Writers
This week, Aim and Release Rebels listened to Brandon Leake’s powerful spoken word performance on America’s Got Talent and discussed how poetry can also be a way for people to cope with grief, loss, and express big emotions. Rebels continued working through their poetry booklet and explored three new poetic structures, creating Verb, Holiday and Acrostic poems. Draw and Anchor Rebels created hilarious ten minute tales with a variety of random images including a snowman, taxi, money bags and a rainbow! We continued to explore rhyme schemes and created our very own rhyming poems using either an AABB, ABCB, or ABAB rhyme scheme. Friday’s Reader Writer class included a powerful performance by international poet, Rupi Kaur on immigrant families called Broken English. We discussed her poetic style and use of words to share her family’s experience of moving and raising children in a new country. Afterward, we completed a 10 Minute Tale with all Discovery Rebels and had some hilarious read-aloud presentations! Rebels used the words Baby Yoda, motorcycle, Skittles, roller coaster, and Kim’s Food Truck to create a wacky story in 10 minutes! Rebels used the rest of the period to catch up on any poetry work, journal entries, and preparing their vocabulary/spelling packages for their final spelling tests next week.
Math Lab
Our Draw & Anchor group continued their deep dive into pet store ownership with a supply ordering activity. Rebels had to use the information provided to come up with repeated addition and multiplication equations that fit the data. For those who wanted an extra challenge there was an additional word problem that required division to solve. With the hard work completed, we took part in a fun animal-themed activity break!
Exteriors and treehouse additions were the name of the game in this week’s Aim & Release Math Lab. Ladders, tree swings, zip lines, and more were being created while other learners took time to add another floor or room to their design. The projects are really coming together with each Rebel showing so much of their personality through their choices and use of their creativity in their treehouse creations!
French
This week in French class, the Rebels prepared Mothers’ Day cards and recited their “poème acrostiche!” Group 1 drew a beautiful portrait while learning the parts of the face, while Group 2 and Group 3 showed off their writing and crafting skills to make their cards! On Tuesday, Mme Marie showed us some new games and books she’s added to Le Jardin d’activités, and we read Abel et Bellina plantent une jolie fleur. On Thursday, we read our fourth poem of the week, “Le moulin au printemps” by Alphonse de Lamartine and one Rebel gave us a great reading of it while we clapped or clicked our tongue to accentuate the rhymes!
Civilization
After a dancing body break to get the blood flowing, Rebels turned their attention to learning about the Great Depression and how it affected the Indigenous and Metis communities as well as Canadians living in both the cities and in the country. We then did a home scavenger hunt where Rebels identified and found the items that were most valuable to them such as family portraits, favourite stuffies, and items they would want to take with them should they need to leave their homes quickly. We then read about the Second World War and how it was really a Three-War War (Sino-Japanese War, the War of the Pacific, and World War 2) that blended together to create one huge, world-encompassing disaster. With a background of the different players around the world, we learned about the gut-wrenching truths of the Holocaust. The Rebels, while upset by what they heard, felt it was incredibly important to study and remember the atrocities in order to honour the victims and prevent future genocides.
Quest
Rebels had an incredibly busy and very productive week in Quest! As we continue to dive deeper into our Wax Figure characters, Rebels created monologues from the research they completed last week. After getting some feedback from team members, they were able to fine-tune and begin memorizing their monologues with partners or small groups at the beginning of the work period Monday through Thursday. We explored costume design more in-depth and began planning and collecting pieces for our Wax Figure outfits. We wrapped up the week discussing and outlining our backdrops for the performances. Rebels looked at some mastery examples and discussed how they were going to showcase their best work in these backgrounds. Some Rebels even began painting and designing them this week! We look forward to Week 5 with our last round of Ottawa Children’s Theatre workshops and finalizing our costumes and backgrounds for dress rehearsals in preparation for our Virtual Wax Museum Exhibition in just two short weeks! Awesome work, everyone!
Exploration Studio
Launch
On Monday’s launch, we learned about the special history of May Day in France. On May 1st, two special events are combined. There is La Fête du Travail, the international workers’ day, but also a centuries-long tradition of buying and offering lilies of the valley that dates back to the Middle Ages. It is a holiday that is very beloved by French people! To start our day off laughing we took part in a “Draw on your Head” challenge on Tuesday morning! Rebels were asked to place a piece of paper or their whiteboard on their head to draw the given prompts. It was a fun way to warm up and there were definitely some works of art that should be sold or exhibited in a very special museum. On Wednesday, we used the cards in our kit to play a couple of rounds of Balderdash in breakout rooms. Most Rebels seemed keen to discuss strange laws from around the world and shared their favourite discoveries from the game as a group during the last five minutes of Launch. After an initial discussion about cannibalism, we watched a brief video on the history of the practice. It was a rich and engaging conversation that pushed all of us to rethink our preconceived notions or views on the subject. On Friday, we took part in a funny Rebel-led Mad Libs session before heading into our last core skills session of the week.
Big History
Many learners are finishing up their artifacts and beginning to write up a description of the items they’ve been making for the past few weeks. To help illustrate what a final product could look and sound like, Mr. Deagan wrote a write-up based on the census, its application, and its history. Learners are encouraged to help fill out the census with their families, especially if they were gifted with the long-form. On Thursday, we discussed the concept of historiography, the history of history. Learners made arguments for whether history is the study of ideas or people, individuals and groups, and what are the archetypes for historical characters.
French
On Monday in French, we learned about the animals that live in Africa. First, we completed a crossword puzzle to learn the names of some of those animals. Then, we did a quick bit of research and we created videos on Flipgrid where we each presented one African animal of our choice. We started by saying its name, then whether it is found in Maghreb or not. We also described the animal and what it eats. Here are the animals we’ve covered: le caméléon, l’éléphant, le lion, l’hippopotame, le crocodile et le rhinocéros. The Rebels then gave each other very useful feedback on their videos! On Wednesday, we learned about the Moroccan art of zellige, a type of mosaic decoration that takes from the world of science to bring beautiful geometric patterns to life! We learned how Arabic civilizations from centuries ago contributed incredible scientific advances and gave us the number system we use now. A Kahoot! allowed us to review and learn the names of some geometric shapes before we coloured a zellige-inspired card for Mothers’ Day.
Math Lab
Wow, while the process is very time-consuming, the Rebel roller coasters are coming together! Bases are growing, tracks are being added, but the highlight has been working individually, yet together online each Friday morning.
Quest
Learners have finished writing their monologues and have moved on to memorizing and rehearsing their scripts. A different learner took us through each day of Quest, focusing on the area they were assigned. On Tuesday, one Rebel took us through tips for memorizing scripts, also discussing how much you should memorize your script versus improvisation. We had a “confidence day” on Wednesday where the learners did various activities that pushed them outside of their comfort zone. Lastly, another Rebel did an incredible job leading us through a busy day of rehearsing our performances and receiving feedback from all of the learners. Next week is the final full week before the exhibition so we will take time to rehearse and enjoy our last workshop with the Ottawa Children’s Theatre.
Team Building
We continued our exploration of the games available on backyard.co, playing a drawing game, and a very fun game similar to Apples to Apples. Although this was probably the most fun part of the week as learners were able to connect with each other in a fun environment of play, some Rebels were missing. Hopefully we will see everyone at team building next week!
Additional Highlights
In our “Embracing Life and Facing Death” session this week, we discussed organ donation as well as the black market body part trade. After watching a quick clip from Tales From the Organ Trade, we thought about the multitude of factors from poverty in developing countries, to unprecedented demands in developed countries. We questioned what would make donations safer and whether the government should become involved in post-donation health care, regulating black market donations, or restricting organ requests. The Rebels then continued working on their poetry analysis and genre pieces.
Our Art Club worked on a “Sketchy Scavenger Hunt” this week while our American Sign Language Club practiced the signs they’ve been learning before adding a few more to their repertoire!
The new suite is getting painted!
Potential Discussion Ideas or Questions to Ask your Rebel:
Exploration: Ask your Rebel to rehearse their monologue for you!
Exploration French: Which animal did you choose to describe in your video? Does it live in Maghreb? What did you think of the zellige?
Discovery: With two weeks left in Session 6, how are you feeling about your Quest Wax Figure project? What are your big goals to finish up in Week 5 before rehearsals begin in Week 6?
Discovery French: Which poem has been your favourite so far? What activities did you choose to try in Le Jardin d’activités?
Spark: What is your favourite insect and why?
Spark: Can you find something outside that you would like to take a picture of to share with the studio?
Spark French: What was your favourite activity in French class this week? How do you say “I love you mom” in French?