Revel Recap: Oct 26-30
Important Upcoming Dates:
Session 2 Exhibitions:
Monday, November 23 - Discovery Exhibition, 4:00-5:00
Tuesday, November 24 - Spark Exhibition, 4:00-5:00
Wednesday, November 25 - Exploration Exhibition, 4:00-5:00
Wednesday, November 11 - Remembrance Day
Thursday, November 26 & Friday, November 27 - Session Break: Cozy Camp with Ms. Jenna (Registration details will be posted on Band App in Week 3)
Happy Halloween!
Halloween spirit was in full swing at Revel this week! Our annual Revel Costume Catwalk brought out some incredible creativity, spooky surprises, and plenty of laughter as Rebels strutted their stuff and showed off their fantastic costumes! The fun didn't stop there! Our Exploration Rebels helped bring a lot of extra Halloween magic to the school by helping to organize a special trick-or-treating experience for our younger Rebels. With candy stations set up around the school, our Spark and Discovery Rebels went door to door collecting treats, sharing smiles, and enjoying all the Halloween excitement! It was a wonderful celebration of creativity, community, and the kindness that makes Revel so special. A huge thank you to our Exploration Rebels for helping make Halloween such a memorable experience for everyone!
Spark Studio
Mindfulness/Launch
This week in Spark Studio, we enjoyed lots of Halloween-themed fun and activities! On Monday, we kicked off the week by decorating gourds and transforming them into our very own Halloween monsters. The Sparks loved this activity and showed off their creativity with some wonderfully spooky designs! On Tuesday, we moved our bodies through a fun Halloween yoga sequence. On Wednesday, we read Room on the Broom and completed a related activity inspired by the story. On Thursday, we reviewed bus rules and expectations to help everyone feel prepared and ready for our upcoming trip to Saunders Farm. Finally, on Friday, the Sparks showed off their fantastic costumes during our Halloween Catwalk! We wrapped up the week with a Halloween-inspired activity page, Freeze Dance, and a spooky edition of Musical Chairs. It was a spooktacular week filled with creativity, movement, stories, and lots of Halloween excitement!
Quest
This week in Quest, Sparks began exploring playground design using everyday building materials! Our first challenge involved LEGO. Each learner started by imagining and drawing a character inspired by themselves, then brought that character to life using LEGO bricks. Once their characters were complete, they became playground designers, creating miniature play structures specially built for their LEGO figures. The challenge was to think about size, scale, and proportions while making sure their playgrounds were both fun and functional. It was a wonderful opportunity to combine creativity, construction, and problem-solving through hands-on play.
Reader/Writer
This week in Reader/Writer, Rebels revisited the building blocks of sentence construction by exploring how to ask thoughtful questions. Using a playground image as inspiration, Rebels worked independently to develop and write four questions, practising sentence structure, punctuation, and their questioning skills.
We also began planning a special surprise for our upcoming Exhibition! Rebels explored the concept of setting in storytelling, focusing on the “where” of a story and how it helps bring our ideas and imagination to life. Stay tuned for more!
Math Lab
This week in Math Lab, the Sparks explored 3D shapes! Using our geometric solids, the Sparks had the opportunity to feel each shape and practise identifying and repeating its name. We then played a fun game of What’s Missing? One learner would leave the studio while a 3D shape was removed. When they returned, they had to look carefully at the remaining shapes and figure out which one was missing!
After the game, the learners worked on activities tailored to their learning levels. Group 1 practised tracing the names of 3D shapes and matching each shape to a similar real-world object. Group 2 explored the properties of 3D shapes by identifying and naming their faces, edges, and vertices. It was a great week of hands-on learning, observation, and building our mathematical vocabulary!
Art
This week in Art Workshop, we began by reading Gustavo, the Shy Ghost, which inspired our creative project. After getting to know Gustavo, the Sparks began by drawing an outline of the ghost on watercolour paper. They then added his facial features and used black crayons to create shading and bring their characters to life. Next, the Sparks explored colour by using bright watercolour paints to create colourful patches in the background, blending the colours together to create beautiful effects. Once the paint had dried, they added the finishing touches by using gem stickers, making the backgrounds even brighter and more vibrant!
French
This week in French, Sparks got into the Halloween spirit while practising their autumn and Halloween vocabulary! We sang La sorcière Grabouilla, completed autumn-themed colouring activities, and learned words such as sorcière (witch) and citrouille (pumpkin). We also watched a Halloween episode of the French-Canadian children's show Passe-Partout, giving learners a chance to practise their listening comprehension and recognize familiar French words.
Additional Highlights:
This week was full of festive fun! The learners had a wonderful time visiting Saunders Farm, where they explored the various playgrounds and gathered some great inspiration for our Quest theme. A studio favourite was definitely the bouncy pillow! We also enjoyed finding our way through the mazes and going on a tractor ride. On Friday afternoon, the Sparks had even more fun as they went trick-or-treating through the school. A big thank you to our Exploration friends for handing out the treats and helping make the afternoon extra special!
Discovery Studio
Mindfulness & Morning Meetings
We kicked off the week with some cozy Halloween-themed Zen Doodles and calming music, creating a peaceful start to our Monday morning before gathering for a warm welcome to our newest Discovery Rebel! Together, Rebels reviewed the week's schedule and discussed strategies for prioritizing their goals while balancing extracurricular activities, special events, and all the excitement of Halloween celebrations.
On Tuesday, while many of our Rebels were representing Revel at the cross-country event at Wesley Clover Park, those back at school gathered in the library for a spooky storytelling session! With the lights dimmed, we enjoyed some hilarious Halloween stories from Spooky Tales from the Story Weaver by Andrew Keats. After hearing about a werewolf who was allergic to dogs, Rebels put their problem-solving skills to the test with a collaborative Halloween logic puzzle! Wednesday's My Octopus Teacher clip sparked some wonderful curiosity and conversation about animal communication. How do animals, particularly our fascinating octopus, communicate without words? How can we recognize when an animal is curious, frightened, comfortable, or beginning to trust? Rebels shared thoughtful observations and explored how body language and behaviour can tell us so much, even without spoken language. Thursday morning was all about collaboration, leadership, and responsibility as Rebels came together to prepare for our Saunders Farm adventure! As a team, they discussed expectations and helped establish guidelines for the trip. Who should lead each group? How should teams be organized? Where and when should we check in? Should Rebels be allowed to bring spending money? Together, they worked through these questions while reviewing bus safety and the importance of looking out for one another.
And finally, Friday brought a little extra Halloween magic! Our usual Boomwhackers and Current Events were replaced by the highly anticipated Revel Costume Catwalk! Our Discovery Rebels strutted their incredible costumes down the red carpet, celebrating creativity, confidence, and a whole lot of Halloween spirit! What a wonderful week of mindfulness, connection, collaboration, and festive fun in Discovery!
Reader/Writer Workshop
This week in Reader/Writer, our Discovery Rebels built on their research from last week's workshop as they began the next exciting stage of creating their Canadian province and territory informational brochures! After exploring different regions of Canada, Rebels reflected on their discoveries and narrowed their focus to one province or territory that sparked their curiosity. With their selections made, Rebels got to work on their first research logs, gathering important facts and information about their chosen region. Their investigations included population, average life expectancy, total land area in square kilometres, major geographical and physical features, neighbouring provinces and territories, and surrounding bodies of water. Throughout the workshop, Rebels strengthened their research, reading comprehension, and information-gathering skills while learning how to identify relevant facts and organize their findings. These research logs will serve as the foundation for their informational brochures as Rebels continue transforming their discoveries into engaging, informative pieces that showcase Canada's incredible geographical diversity!
Quest
This week, our Discovery Rebels took their Wild Canada Quest outdoors for a series of exciting, hands-on challenges exploring Canada's physical geography, waterways, and landscapes! Our theme, The Land Beneath Our Feet, encouraged Rebels to think critically about how geography shapes the world around us. How can a single physical feature transform an entire landscape? How do mountains, rivers, lakes, and valleys influence where people settle, how communities develop, and the ways we travel and connect with one another? We kicked things off on Monday with our Build a Landscape challenge, where Expedition Teams headed outdoors to design and construct their own geographical landscapes using the natural terrain around them. Armed with a bag of supplies, including tarps, tape, tools, and markers, Rebels worked collaboratively to create physical features and consider how these features might influence movement, accessibility, and settlement.
Next came the Great Canadian Waterway Challenge! Building on their understanding of physical geography, Rebels explored the historical importance of Canada's rivers and waterways, particularly how Indigenous Peoples have used canoes and interconnected water routes for generations to travel, trade, access resources, and connect communities. With this knowledge in mind, Expedition Teams were challenged to construct a functioning waterway that would allow a miniature canoe to travel successfully with the current. Using their supplies and the natural landscape, Rebels designed routes, created channels, and tested their waterways by pouring water through their structures to simulate a flowing current. Of course, not every canoe made it to its destination on the first attempt! These moments sparked some fantastic problem-solving and discussion. Why wasn't the canoe moving? Where was the water getting trapped/pooling? How were obstacles, elevation changes, and the shape of the land affecting the current? Rebels reflected on how these same geographical challenges would have influenced real explorers and travellers navigating unfamiliar terrain, and how understanding the land and waterways was essential to finding safe, accessible routes.
On Wednesday, we shifted our focus back to cartography with our Map Swap Challenge! Working in Expedition Teams, Rebels were tasked with creating a functional map of a designated area in our neighbourhood. Each map needed to include a clear starting point (Point A), a destination (Point B), coordinate grids, a map key, symbols, and directions using only the four cardinal directions. The twist? Their maps weren't for themselves! Teams exchanged maps and challenged one another to navigate successfully through the designated area to retrieve an important resource along the way. This required careful observation, clear communication, accurate mapping, and plenty of collaboration. Rebels quickly discovered just how important precise directions and reliable map features are when someone else is depending on your work! It was a fantastic week of outdoor education, with Rebels learning through movement, experimentation, teamwork, and real-world problem-solving. Rather than just studying Canada's geographical features on a map, our Rebels had the opportunity to build, test, navigate, and experience firsthand how the land beneath our feet shapes the way we live.
Coming Up in Week 3: Life on the Land! Next week, our Wild Canada expedition continues as we turn our attention to Canada's incredible wildlife, habitats, and ecosystems! Our guiding question: How do climate, wildlife, and environments influence life across Canada? Rebels will explore how animals adapt to different environments, how climate influences biodiversity, and the important relationships between living things and the landscapes they call home. From the land beneath our feet to the incredible life that thrives upon it, our Wild Canada adventure continues!
French
This week in French, Discovery Rebels continued working on their escape room projects, developing their ideas and creating puzzles and challenges for their classmates to solve. With Halloween just around the corner, we also explored some spooky-themed French riddles (devinettes). These activities encouraged learners to practise their reading comprehension, look for clues in written texts, and use their French vocabulary to solve mysteries.
Civilizations
This week in Civilizations, Rebels travelled back to the Middle Ages to explore the fascinating stories of China’s great dynasties! We began by learning about the division of Northern and Southern China, the wars that followed, and the eventual reunification under Yang Chien’s leadership. Rebels were especially captivated by the incredible story behind the construction of the Grand Canal, a remarkable man-made waterway that helped connect regions and strengthen trade and travel across China. Through our discussions, Rebels explored the importance of rivers and waterways for transportation, trade, food, and the development of settlements, making some fantastic connections to this week’s Wild Canada Quest challenges! We then explored the Tang Dynasty, where Rebels were fascinated to discover how ancient Chinese experiments to create gold and an elixir of immortality eventually led to the invention of gunpowder! Our journey continued east to Japan, where we learned about the Yamato Dynasty and explored the captivating legend of Susano and Amaterasu, the Japanese deities associated with storms and the sun.
To round out the week, Rebels continued bringing their medieval projects to life! From elaborate scenery and battlefields to creative weaponry and detailed maps, teams demonstrated collaboration, creativity, and problem-solving as their ideas began taking shape.
Additional Highlights
Our Spark and Discovery Rebels enjoyed a fantastic fall adventure at Saunders Farm this week! With beautiful autumn weather, plenty of fresh air, and lots of excitement, it was the perfect day to celebrate the season together! From a scenic hayride through the farm to exploring, playing, and enjoying all the fall festivities, Rebels had an absolute blast! It was a wonderful day filled with laughter, friendship, and opportunities to connect outside the Studio. There’s nothing quite like a little farm fun, fresh air, and autumn sunshine to make some wonderful Revel memories!
Exploration Studio
Reader Writer
What separates a good interview from a GREAT interview? Preparation! This week, learners continued developing their journalism skills, focusing on the importance of background research. We explored why journalists need to prepare before conducting interviews, how research leads to deeper questions, and how to identify credible sources and verify information. To put these skills into practice, learners were given a challenge: Imagine you have the opportunity to interview Canada's Prime Minister, Mark Carney!
Before writing their questions, learners investigated current events, identified important issues, consulted reliable sources, and verified their information. Their final challenge was to develop six thoughtful, well-researched questions that could lead to a meaningful interview. The big takeaway? Great interviewers don't just ask questions. They do their homework and know how to ask questions that matter.
Drama workshop
Can you say the same sentence in five different ways and give it five completely different meanings? Absolutely! This week in Drama, we explored intonation, vocal expression, and the power of our voices.
Learners discovered how changing their tone, pitch, rhythm, and emphasis can transform a message. We also discussed how these skills extend beyond acting, helping us communicate emotions, tell stories, and express ourselves effectively. Then came the fun part…The Movie Voice-Over Challenge! Learners selected movie clips and recreated the characters' voices and dialogue. From Harry Potter to the Minions, our studio was filled with entertaining performances! Beyond the laughs, learners practised vocal control, timing, expression, and communication.
Quest
Our Career Quest continued to take shape this week as Rebels continued developing their Career Timelines, exploring how their chosen professions have evolved over time. We also began an exciting new phase of our Quest: collecting real career stories! Rebels started building a database of potential interviewees and developing a system to organize and track upcoming interviews with professionals from a variety of fields. Our goal is to help Rebels discover the many pathways, experiences, and opportunities that make up the world of work. We're inviting parents, family members, friends, and community members to share their career journeys, whether they're entrepreneurs, engineers, artists, healthcare professionals, tradespeople, educators, or working in any other field! Interviews can take place in person, virtually, or in writing, and we encourage families to help Rebels connect with people in their networks who might be interested in participating. Every career has a story, and every story is an opportunity to learn! Please reach out if you or someone you know would like to get involved!
French
This week, Exploration Rebels continued making progress on their French escape rooms, working together to develop their storylines, puzzles, and clues. We also challenged ourselves with a series of Halloween-themed riddles in French. Learners had to read carefully, interpret clues, and think creatively to find the answers. It was a fun way to strengthen reading comprehension, practise vocabulary, and develop the logical thinking skills they will need when designing their own escape room challenges.
Math Lab
This week in Math Lab, Rebels continued exploring the world of data visualization! We investigated different types of graphs, including pie charts, bar graphs, line graphs, and infographics, while tackling an important question: How do we choose the best graph to communicate information? Rebels practised interpreting data, identifying patterns and trends, and comparing how different visual representations can tell different stories. Through these activities, Rebels strengthened their critical thinking skills and discovered how the way we present information can influence how others understand and interpret it.
Social Sciences - The million dollar sdg challenge
Imagine being given one million dollars to make the world a better place! How would you spend it? This week in Social Sciences, Rebels took on the exciting Million-Dollar SDG Challenge, where they were tasked with investing $1 million to create the greatest possible positive impact while supporting one of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Rebels researched pressing global issues, explored creative solutions, and considered how their funding could make a meaningful difference. From deciding how to allocate their budget and identifying who would benefit from their investment to gathering evidence, measuring success, and evaluating long-term sustainability, Rebels were challenged to think critically and strategically about real-world problems. A fantastic opportunity to explore global citizenship, responsible decision-making, and the power of innovative thinking to create positive change.
PE Workshops
This week, Rebels took their learning beyond the gym and into our neighbourhood for an afternoon of community service! Armed with rakes, plenty of energy, and a shared goal of giving back, Rebels worked together in teams, going door to door to offer their help raking leaves and preparing neighbours' yards for the colder months. It was a wonderful opportunity to combine physical activity, teamwork, kindness, and community connection while putting our Revel values into action! Best of all, through their hard work and generosity, our Rebels raised an incredible $100 for the Humane Society! We couldn't be prouder of their initiative, teamwork, and willingness to make a positive difference in our community!
Questions to Ask Your Rebels:
Spark:
What was your favourite part of your trip to Saunders Farm?
Can you tell me the names of some of the 3D shapes you learned about? Can you see any real world examples of 3D shapes in our house?
How did you feel walking the red carpet for Halloween?
Discovery:
Why were rivers and waterways so important for building settlements? What did you learn from your waterway challenges in Quest?
What was your favourite outdoor challenge during Wild Canada this week? What did your team discover or learn along the way?
What surprised you most about the great dynasties of China or the legends of Japan during Civilizations?
What was your favourite memory from our Halloween celebrations or our adventure to Saunders Farm this week?
Exploration:
If you had the chance to interview Prime Minister Mark Carney, what would you ask him, and why?
If you were given one million dollars to make the world a better place, which Sustainable Development Goal would you invest in, and how would you spend the money?
What did you discover about how your chosen career has changed over time, and what do you predict it will look like in 2050?