Revel Recap: Sept 28-Oct 2

Important Upcoming Dates:

Monday October 5th - Exploration Studio Camp Fortune Trip 8:45-2:00pm (See Band for details)
Grade 5-6 Soccer Tournament - Boys — Tuesday, October 6 from 9:30–2:30 Girls — Wednesday, October 7 from 9:30–2:30
Session 1 Exhibitions:

Tuesday, October 6th - Discovery Exhibition, 4:00-5:00
Wednesday, October 7th - Spark Exhibition, 4:00-5:00
Thursday, October 8th - Exploration Exhibition, 4:00-5:00

October 13th to 16th - Session Break Camp with Ms. Megan
October 21 - Wear Red for Dyslexia Awareness Month
Thursday, October 22nd- Revel Pumpkin Run, 2:45-3:30pm
October 29th Revel Community Book Club: The Self-Driven Child by William Stixrud & Ned Johnson, 6:00-7:30pm

Terry Fox Run

This week, all of our studios came together for our annual Terry Fox Run, raising over $1,500 for cancer research! It was an incredible opportunity for Rebels to come together around such an important cause and carry forward Terry’s legacy of courage, perseverance, and hope. We are so proud of the energy and heart our community brought to the day and incredibly grateful to everyone who donated, participated, and cheered our Rebels on!

Spark Studio

Mindfulness & Launch

On Monday, we began our day with Little People, Big Dreams: Terry Fox, introducing Spark Rebels to Terry’s life and his incredible courage, determination, and hope. Afterwards, we joined Discovery Rebels for a special Launch to learn more about this remarkable Canadian hero and his Marathon of Hope. Spark Rebels also completed a colouring page of Terry on his journey, helping us prepare for our Terry Fox Run later that afternoon.

On Tuesday, we read Our Class is a Family, a story about creating a community where everyone belongs, supports one another, and feels safe being themselves. The story connected beautifully to the promises we have been developing in our Studio. Spark Rebels thoughtfully discussed the commitments that will help our community grow this year and finalized their Studio promises. We are so excited for Rebels to proudly share and sign these promises at Exhibition!

On Wednesday, we began by discussing why we were wearing orange shirts and what Spark Rebels already knew about Orange Shirt Day. We listened to Phyllis Webstad share the story behind Orange Shirt Day before reading When We Were Alone, a beautiful story exploring how residential schools separated Indigenous children from their culture, language, families, and identities. Together, we reflected on how these experiences may have made children feel and brought the conversation back to our own Studio. How do we want to feel when we come to Revel? Spark Rebels shared the importance of feeling safe, welcomed, cared for, and free to be exactly who they are. On Thursday, the Sparks continued their vision boards during mindfulness time, taking the opportunity to reflect on what kind of house they would like to live in someday. Friday, we wrapped up the week with our weekly gratitude practice. This week, the Sparks reflected on something they feel they are really good at and took some time to write about and celebrate their strengths.

Math Workshop

This week in Math Workshop, Spark Rebels began by practising counting by 5s together before jumping into their individual math goals. Rebels worked on writing numbers to 30, connecting numbers to their quantities, exploring multiplication with the Stamp Game, and progressing through their Singapore Math workbooks. It was a focused and productive week of hands on math learning as Rebels continued building confidence with numbers and operations.

Geography

This week in Geography, Spark Rebels brought together everything they have learned throughout the Session! We kicked things off with our favourite geography song, which the Sparks are now singing loud and proud. Rebels showcased their growing confidence by tracing and colouring the continents, naming all seven for a Guide, and choosing their favourite continent.

Our Continent Puzzle Map will be on display at Exhibition next week. Be sure to stop by and give your Spark Rebel the opportunity to proudly show you the map and share all seven continent names!

Reader Writer Workshop

This week, we continued working with our Words of the Week and added two new words to our Studio vocabulary board. The Rebels are becoming much more confident identifying synonyms and are getting especially quick at finding rhyming words! We also circled back to our work with phrases from last week. Working in pairs, Rebels used an image as inspiration to build sentences and identify the different parts within them. Our younger Rebels focused on developing proper technique when writing capital letters, while our older Rebels zoomed through the first 25 Fry sight words for reading. We’ll continue building on these words and use them for spelling practice in Session 2. Finally, we jumped back into our next chapter of Magic Tree House and discovered where Jack and Annie landed on their first adventure!

French

This week in French, the Sparks continued building their vocabulary and confidence through songs, games, and movement. They learned the French alphabet and practiced spelling their names in French. We also reviewed the numbers from 1 to 30 and began learning a fun fall song, “La sorcière Grabouilla.” The Sparks also played a game of opposites, matching French words with their opposites, such as in front/behind, beautiful/ugly, and wet/dry. This was a great opportunity for them to practise recognizing and understanding new French vocabulary while interacting with one another.

Quest

This week in Quest, Spark Rebels brought their hopes, interests, and personalities to life as they worked on their vision boards! Rebels explored what a vision board is and began by thinking about their wishes for the year, drawing a picture to represent one of their hopes or dreams. They also designed a T shirt all about themselves, reflected on the people they look up to by imagining their role model as a superhero, envisioned what their dream life might look like, and even drew their favourite outfit.

Throughout the week, each Spark Rebel also met one on one with a Guide to explore their DNA: Dreams, Needs, and Abilities. These conversations help us better understand what motivates each Rebel, what they need to thrive, and the unique strengths they bring to our Studio community. We cannot wait for families to read their thoughtful answers at Exhibition! Rebels also answered some questions about their favourite things. At Exhibition, families will have the chance to complete the same questionnaire and see just how well you know your Spark Rebel. We cannot wait to see how your answers compare!

Additional Highlights

The Sparks did an amazing job participating in the Terry Fox Run this week! We enjoyed the adventure around the track, and each time the Sparks crossed the finish line, they received a letter to help spell TERRY FOX. Many Sparks challenged themselves to keep going, collecting not only all of the letters but even more along the way! It was wonderful to see their determination, perseverance, and positive spirit shining through as they embraced the challenge!

Discovery Studio

Mindfulness/Launch

This week, many of our Mindfulness and Launch meetings centred around National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, with stories, resources, reflection, and meaningful discussions woven throughout our mornings. On Monday, Rebels continued working on their All About Me pennants for our Discovery Studio banner before several of our Discovery Rebels ventured off to Spark and Exploration Studios to present a Rebel-led launch about Terry Fox in anticipation of our Terry Fox run Monday afternoon. Rebels did such an incredible job, they worked so hard on their launches and did an excellent job presenting to both older and younger Rebels. When we returned to the studio, we spent some time looking ahead at the week together. Rebels identified changes to our regular schedule, including Truth and Reconciliation Day, PE at the Pump Track, and a special Quest guest. We connected this back to executive functioning, discussing how looking at the week as a whole can help us plan Core Skills, anticipate busy days, and make intentional choices about our time.

Tuesday, we gathered in the library for a powerful read aloud of I Am Not a Number by Jenny Kay Dupuis and Kathy Kacer. The story prompted some big emotions and thoughtful reflection about residential schools and this difficult part of Canadian history. When asked, “Why is it important to learn stories like these?” Rebels spoke about how understanding our past can help us make better choices in the present and future, and why learning our history is an important part of accountability. On Wednesday, our conversation turned to Land Acknowledgements. Rebels explored what they are, why some Indigenous people have challenged acknowledgements that are not accompanied by meaningful action, and what it could look like to move beyond simply reciting words. We brought the conversation back to Revel: How can we turn our words into action? What would make our acknowledgement more meaningful? Rebels had some incredible ideas, including continuing Indigenous learning throughout the entire year, creating Rebel-led Launches and Closings, and developing artwork that meaningfully represents elements of our Land Acknowledgement.

We balanced these deeper conversations with plenty of connection as well. Thursday brought a particularly tricky NYT Connections puzzle, the return of Strands, and Thank You for Sharing conversations about favourite movies and something meaningful Rebels learned about Indigenous history and culture this week. Friday’s Boomwhackers ended our week on a high as Rebels added to their growing Boom Playlist, while Current Events brought a new NASA space puzzle, the champion of Fat Bear Week, and a heated debate over pumpkin carving and the best Halloween candy!

Reader/Writer Workshop

This week in Reader Writer, we opened our workshop with a discussion about excellence at Revel. What does it mean to work towards excellence, and how is excellence different from perfection?

Rebels visualized what an excellent piece of work might look like, considering spelling and grammar, clear handwriting, thoughtful presentation, turning a rough draft into a polished final copy, and adding visual elements that strengthen their work. We also discussed how excellence can look different for every learner depending on where they started, the feedback they received, and how they chose to elevate their work.

Rebels then selected one or two communication challenges from this session to develop into excellent pieces for Exhibition. Many chose to continue refining their job applications, Peace Table scripts, and Curious Conversation scripts, with several Rebels excited to showcase more than one piece next week!

Math Lab

Rebels jumped into a challenging operations puzzle to kickstart Thursday’s Math Lab. Given six numbers and a variety of operations, their challenge was to create an equation with an answer of exactly 62! Rebels dove right in, collaborating with partners and talking through different strategies. Several teams found solutions using three or four of the numbers, but only two teams managed to use all six!

When Rebels presented their equations, it opened the door to a more targeted discussion and lesson on the order of operations using BEDMAS. Rebels experimented with adding brackets to their equations and explored how changing the order of operations could completely change an answer.

For the remainder of the workshop, Rebels worked independently or with partners on their Math Lab sessional challenges as they prepare to submit their work for their badge next week!

Civilizations

This week in Civilizations, we ventured to the Golden Age of India to explore what the Middle Ages looked like in another part of the world. Rebels compared Buddhist monks in India with Christian monks in medieval Europe, exploring similarities in their ways of life and differences in their beliefs, monasteries, and traditions.

Our journey then took us to the story of Muhammad, Mecca, and the Hajj, as Rebels learned about the significance of pilgrimage in Islam. Along the way, we opened up thoughtful Socratic discussions: Why do people dedicate their lives to their faith? Why are traditions important? Can we understand and respect a belief even if we do not share it? And what can different religions teach us about cultures around the world? Rebels spent their Wednesday workshops working on their Civilizations projects in the Maker Space. Many of their items that they placed for order in the previous weeks have started to arrive, which brought a ton of buzz and excitement as they begin to bring their villages, castles, churches, battlefields and more to life!

French

This week in French, the Discovery Rebels began creating the final version of their French aide-mémoire posters. They took the information and vocabulary they had previously developed and began carefully copying it onto their final poster. They are working on organizing their ideas clearly and creating a useful visual reference that they can return to when they need support in French.

Quest

This week in Quest, Rebels focused on closing loops ahead of our upcoming Exhibition! On Monday, Rebels dug into the nitty-gritty of their Studio contracts, refining the promises, Rules of Engagement, and technology commitments that will shape our community this year. Rebels did an exceptional job being tough-minded about their language, working to create concise, meaningful promises centred around trust, respect, belonging, and maintaining a learning environment where every Rebel feels they can be exactly who they are.

On Tuesday, we welcomed an incredibly talented local artist, Robbie Larivière, to Revel! Discovery and Exploration Rebels sat down with Robbie for an interview-style conversation, asking questions about his background, creative process, and journey as an artist. As Robbie and the Rebels begin collaborating on a mural for Revel, Rebels eagerly shared their own creative work, presented and discussed a collection of symbols, places, words, and feelings that represent Revel, and even voted on where the mural should live in our school. We cannot wait to see this collaboration take shape!

On Wednesday and Thursday, Rebels stepped into the role of event coordinators as Exhibition planning officially began. Rebels volunteered as MCs and presenters, decided what learning would be on display, established submission deadlines, and got to work polishing pieces such as their “Where I’m From” poems that they are excited to share with our community next week. It was a busy week of creating, collaborating, and closing loops as we head toward our first Exhibition of the year!

Exploration Studio

Truth and Reconciliation & Terry Fox Run

This week was filled with opportunities for Exploration Rebels to connect with our wider community, contribute, and learn through meaningful experiences. On Monday, Exploration joined the rest of our Rebels for the Terry Fox Run! It was a wonderful opportunity to come together as a school, celebrate the money our community raised, and show our support for an important cause while reflecting on Terry Fox’s incredible legacy of courage, perseverance, and hope.

Throughout the week, Rebels also participated in a series of learning experiences connected to Truth and Reconciliation. During Reading Buddies, Exploration Rebels shared Indigenous stories with our younger Rebels in the Spark Studio. We also researched Indigenous leaders in Canada and learned more about their contributions, experiences, and impact.

Our learning then moved outdoors as Rebels participated in a forest restoration project. They learned about invasive species, the impact they can have on local ecosystems, and the role we can play in caring for the land. Everyone rolled up their sleeves to help remove invasive plants, contributing directly to the restoration and health of the forest. It was a meaningful opportunity to connect our learning about the land with action, responsibility, and community contribution.

French

This week in French, the Exploration Rebels began working on the final version of their French aide-mémoire posters. They started transferring their work onto their final copies and organizing the information in a clear and useful way. The goal is for each Rebel to create a personalized French reference tool that they can use to support their learning and independence when working in French.

Quest

This week in Quest, Rebels presented the Revel competencies they’ve been researching with their groups. The goal was to deepen our understanding of the competencies we are developing in the Studio, explore what each one looks like in action, and begin reflecting on where we currently see these skills in ourselves and where we would like to grow. Rebels also dove deeper into our Studio Covenants. Together, they began creating a Studio Guidebook that clearly explains what each of our rules and guidelines looks, sounds, and feels like in practice.

Rather than simply having a list of expectations, we want Rebels to understand the why behind them and recognize the role each person plays in building a Studio culture where everyone feels safe, respected, empowered, and able to thrive.

Math Lab: Land-Based Math Mission

This week, Math Lab moved out of the Studio and into the forest! Rebels were divided into teams and challenged to build a fort using only the resources available in their natural surroundings. There was, however, a mathematical twist: every structure had to meet a specific set of requirements, including particular dimensions and geometric shapes.

The challenge? Rebels couldn’t rely on traditional measuring tools. Instead, they had to develop creative ways to estimate and calculate measurements using objects found in nature and their own bodies as reference points. The mission challenged Rebels to apply measurement, estimation, geometry, spatial reasoning, and problem-solving skills in a real-world setting. Just as importantly, teams had to communicate, divide responsibilities, adapt their plans when something didn’t work, and collaborate to turn their ideas into physical structures. It was a great reminder that math isn’t something that only happens on a worksheet. It’s a tool we can use to design, build, solve problems, and better understand the world around us.

Questions to Ask Your Learner

Spark:

What did you learn about Terry Fox and Orange Shirt Day this week?
Who did you draw as your hero for your vision board?
Can you share with me one promise that you think is very important for the studio?

Discovery:

What is one piece of work you are proud to stand behind at Exhibition next week, and why?
What was something you improved or elevated in Quest or workshops this week to make it excellent? What are some things you did to make it better?
What is one challenge you faced this Session that helped you grow?
If you could change or add one thing to make Session 2 even better, what would it be and why?

Exploration:

What is one thing you learned this week about Truth and Reconciliation or an Indigenous leader that you think more people should know about?
During the forest restoration project, what did you learn about invasive species or our responsibility to care for the land?
What is one Studio Covenant expectation that you think is especially important for creating a community where everyone can thrive? Why?