Revel Recap: Welcome to Session 5!
Important Upcoming Dates
Session 5 Exhibitions
Discovery Exhibition - Tuesday, March 31st
Spark Exhibition - Wednesday, April 1st
Exploration Exhibition - Thursday, April 2nd (Doors open at 4:00 pm)
Good Friday - No School - Friday, April 3rd
Easter Monday - No School - Monday, April 6th
Sessional Break - Tuesday, April 7th - April 10th
Guardian Book Club: The Gardener and the Carpenter by Alison Gopnik - Thursday, April 16th
Session 4 Exhibitions
Spark Studio
Quest and Special Events:
Our upcoming Quest focus in the Spark Studio will be Transportation! We are excited to explore the many ways people and goods travel from place to place. Throughout this session, we will be learning about early forms of transportation, cars and trucks, airplanes, community helper vehicles (fire trucks, ambulances, police cars, etc.) and construction vehicles. Through hands-on activities, discussions, and creative play, learners will discover how transportation helps our communities and connects our world.
We’ve also got some fun seasonal activities lined up! For St. Patrick’s Day, we’ll get creative by designing and building our very own Leprechaun Traps! Easter will bring a festive egg hunt full of surprises, and we’ll also be participating in this year’s March Mammal Madness, cheering on our favourite mammals as the tournament unfolds. As spring officially arrives, we’ll celebrate with additional themed activities and enjoy more and more outdoor fun as the weather warms up!
French
This session in French, The Sparks will be learning all about animals! Through games, songs, stories, and hands-on activities, they will build vocabulary and practice naming and describing different animals from a variety of habitats around the world. We will focus on pronunciation, simple sentence structures, and developing confidence while conversing about and describing animals in French.
Show and Share:
This session, we will have a special version of Show and Share: Rhyme Time! Each learner will be assigned a specific date and invited to bring two items from home that rhyme. Please place the items in a bag so they remain hidden. They will share one object with the group, and together we will use our rhyming skills to guess the second item! Please keep an eye on BAND for your learner’s assigned date.
Friendly Reminder:
Many of the Sparks bins are currently missing essential items for a change of clothes. With spring weather approaching and outdoor recess often leaving us a little wet or muddy, please send in a complete extra set of clothes (including several pairs of socks) for your learner(s) to keep at school.
We’re looking forward to an exciting and busy few weeks ahead!
Discovery Studio
Quest
Welcome to Session 5, Discovery Rebels! We’re taking a deep dive into the wonderful world of physics as we explore forces such as gravity, momentum and thrust, concepts like buoyancy, elasticity, and learning about simple machines…all through Rube Goldberg machines! Is simplicity overrated or do you abide by the idea that less is more? Ruben Goldberg was an engineer who famously made cartoons of overly complicated devices to complete simple tasks. Consider his self-operating napkin...
Rebels will aim to design their very own Rube Goldberg machine for this session’s culminating task and present them at Exhibition to compete in the Revel Academy Rube Goldberg Contest!
Reader Writer
Reader Writer Draw & Anchor: Draw and Anchor Rebels will explore how problems and setbacks are a natural part of engineering and learning. Through hands-on exploration with Rube Goldberg machines, Rebels examine what happens when a system does not work as planned. Using storytelling and descriptive writing, learners craft imaginative narratives that focus on a single problem within a machine, explaining what went wrong, how it was fixed, and what was learned in the process. This workshop builds skills in sequencing, descriptive language, and clear communication, while reinforcing the idea that perseverance and problem-solving are essential parts of the design process.
Reader Writer Aim & Release: For this session, Rebels investigate real-world engineering failures to understand how mistakes and limitations lead to innovation and improved design. Learners will analyze historical case studies of machines that did not work as intended. Our mentor text for this session is Galloping Gertie: The True Story of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Through real-world stories, Rebels will identify goals, failures, causes, and lessons learned. Using this analytical framework, Rebels will apply their understanding to their own Rube Goldberg machines, documenting a failure and reflecting on redesign and improvement. This session’s workshop strengthens informational and explanatory writing skills, critical thinking, and the ability to communicate technical ideas clearly, all while emphasizing that failure is a valuable source of data in the engineering process.
Math Lab
This session we will turn our attention to VARIABLES. First, Rebels will explore the vocabulary associated with all the parts of mathematical sentences. For example, two or more addends make a sum, or two or more factors make a product. Does the order of the numbers matter? What is the meaning of all symbols we use? Altogether, we’ll look at all the ways we can show relationships between parts and unknown quantities in math sentences (aka expressions and equations)! We’ll think in terms of IF/THEN, and tackle puzzles showing series of equations with the same variables to deduce their value. Rebels will also engage in some spatial puzzles, breaking apart area models logically, using number clues to solve for missing parts.
French
This session in French, Rebels will be learning about why we speak French in Canada. Learners will explore the history of French in Canada, discover important aspects of Francophone culture, and understand the value of bilingualism in our day-to-day lives. How does speaking more than one language equip us with a better understanding of the world around us? How can learning to speak and understand French provide us with more opportunities as Canadian citizens? Can language influence a greater sense of belonging in a country? Through discussions, projects, and interactive activities, they will strengthen both their cultural awareness and their communication skills in French.
Exploration Studio
Quest - Light it up!
Thomas Edison, one of the most prolific inventors in history, was a relentless innovator whose curiosity and determination transformed the modern world. Edison's legacy is not merely in the inventions themselves, but in his unwavering belief in the power of perseverance and imagination, inspiring countless generations to dream and innovate. In this session's Quest, like Edison, Rebels will have the chance to explore electricity and quantum mechanics in depth and put theory into concrete use by constructing functioning, efficient 21st-century cities. Throughout the Quest, they'll be challenged to function as an effective team, setting goals, dividing work, and managing projects in the face of uncertainty and aggressive deadlines. At Exhibition, they will showcase their energy-efficient model city, complete with a live power grid that utilizes electricity to light up LEDs, monuments, and motors. Sound hard? It will be, but like Edison said, "Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration."
Math Lab
In this session's Math Lab, Rebels will tackle real-world challenges involving measurement, geometry, budgeting, and algebraic formulas. In the first couple of weeks of the session, learners will help a family choose a house based on their lifestyle, choose between different materials and renovation options, and configure their backyard. They will then use their knowledge of geometry and creativity to measure, calculate, and build a simulated town, using their mathematical problem-solving skills to determine perimeter, area, surface area, and volume, with the help of a series of nets.
Reader/Writer speeches & Shakespeare
In six weeks, Rebels will take a stand and give a persuasive speech to improve their community. They can choose to be "for" or "against" a topic and must make a specific proposal and tell a story explaining why it matters to them personally. If their proposal involves spending money, they must also explain how the funding will be acquired.
A smaller group of Rebels have taken on the additional challenge of reading and analyzing Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream in Session 5. Once their choral reading is complete, they will choose a scene to memorize and perform at our Session 7 Exhibition!
French
In French, learners will focus on understanding the reasons French is spoken in Canada. learners will examine key moments in Canadian history, learn about the richness of Francophone communities, and recognize the significance of living in a bilingual country. Through collaborative discussions, creative projects, and engaging activities, Rebels will continue to build confidence and fluency in French.
Big History
As agriculture spread across the world, complex societies usually followed. In Session 5, Exploration Rebels will study the emergence of agriculture and how farming changed human societies. We will then discuss the formation of states, including research on Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus River Valley, before examining why various empires rise and fall, using the Han Dynasty in China, the Persians and Greeks, the Roman Empire, and the Americas as examples. Lastly, we'll discuss how long-distance connections increased complexity and connected cultures as we learn about the Silk Road, Trade in the Americas, and Oceania.
March Mammal Madness
It’s that time of the year again!!! Over the next few weeks, Rebels will learn about some incredible organisms as they research and fill out this year’s bracket. Once the competition begins, all four studios will come together to hear the recap of the latest match-ups and vie for the title of 2026 March Mammal Madness Champion!
