Revel Recap: Feb 2-6

Important Upcoming Dates

Art Camp Registration & Reminder: Art Camp with Mel will close on Monday, Feb 9th at noon. If you haven’t reserved your learner’s space on Band yet or still need to send payment, please do by February 9th so we can plan and purchase materials accordingly!

Session 4 Exhibitions

• Discovery Studio Exhibition - Tuesday, February 10th

• Spark Studio Exhibition - Wednesday, February 11th

• Exploration Studio Exhibition - Thursday, February 12th 

Spark

Mindfulness and Launch 

This week in mindfulness, we continued participating in the Forest of Reading program. Before, during, and after each book, the Sparks took part in thoughtful discussion questions, which led to some really meaningful and engaging conversations. After each book they continued to rate the books out of five stars. On Monday, we read It’s “Okay, Just Ask”, a book that encouraged discussions about curiosity, understanding differences, and the importance of asking questions with kindness and respect. Afterwards, learners completed a colouring activity with the prompt, “When you need to ask a question, who do you go to?” They drew a picture of this person and shared their drawings in a circle. Many learners talked about parents, grandparents, siblings, and friends.  On Tuesday morning, we enjoyed stories from a mystery reader guest and then everyone made a bookmark to sell at the Exhibition. Wednesday, we read Bannock in a Hammock and then prepared our own bannock recipe by writing what ingredients we would add. Thursday, we read “The Most Magnificent Team”, then we were joined by a Discovery learner who shared their Perler Bead business with us. The Sparks were inspired by the many designs they showed us, and were especially interested in learning about their pricing ideas! On Friday, we read our final book, “The Weedflower”. After reading, the Sparks imagined what a new weedflower would look like once it was fully grown. It was then time to vote for their favourite book out of all the stories we have read over the past few weeks. The Sparks reflected on each story before making their choice. Stay tuned for the voting results at Exhibition next week!

Quest 

This week in Quest was a busy and exciting one as we wrapped up preparations for our big sale at Exhibition next week! Learners worked hard to finish their products, create signs, price lists, and design decorations to make their table more intriguing to guests. We also held a vote to decide what we would like to do with the profits we earn. The Sparks brainstormed some ideas, such as visiting a museum, skating, buying more toy cars or train tracks, having pizza party, or split the money and put it in their own personal piggy banks. The Sparks had a vote and the winning idea was a field trip to a museum! 

We can’t wait to open our shops for you next week! Prices for products will range from $2.00–$5.00, and we kindly ask families to bring smaller bills and coins to help our cashiers. Thank you for your support, we’re so proud of all the hard work the learners have done!

Art

Our art workshop was inspired by Valentine’s Day coming up next week. We began by talking together about how we’ll be celebrating and explored one of Valentine’s most popular symbols: the heart. This shape became the focus of our art project. The Sparks used pastels to create a series of hearts in different sizes, experimenting with color and shape. Once their hearts were complete, we added watercolours around them, filling in all of the white spaces to create vibrant backgrounds. Be sure to check out all of their wonderful artwork at next week’s Exhibition, we’re so excited to share it with you!

Reader/Writer Workshop

Group One spent time reading their Bob Books and working with the Waseca reading drawers. Their Reader/Writer workshop focused on the short vowel sound /u/. Many learners are currently reading Dot, Dot and Mit, and Mac. Through continuous rereading of these books, Sparks are building confidence and strengthening their recognition of sight words such as the, as well as and. We also continued using the first Waseca red reading drawer this week. This work helped Sparks practice identifying and hearing different vowel sounds, with special attention to /u/. Sparks then focused on listening for and generating words that contain the /u/ sound. Together, we brainstormed words like bus, bug, umbrella, and nut. Lastly, learners used the moveable alphabet to spell these words, giving them hands-on practice connecting sounds to letters. 

Group Two continued working with the Waseca Reading Booklets, focusing on the “ang” sound. Together, we looked closely at the pictures and practiced spelling and reading words such as hang, rang, sang, fang, angry, angle, and tangle. After our group practice, learners worked in pairs to play a fun game of Tic-Tac-Toe using the word sounds we’ve focused on this session: ang, ing, ung, and ong. The Sparks took turns reading a word and coloring a box, with the first learner to get three in a row winning the game. This activity was a great way to review and reinforce everything we’ve learned so far! 

We also continued our Snowmen at Night book study. The learners completed two activity pages connected to the story. They designed and decorated their own snowmen, adding many creative details and personal touches. Later in the week, they practiced their literacy skills by completing a word search using vocabulary from the book. 

Additionally, the Sparks have been working one-on-one in pod rooms to get extra reading practice in with their Guides! They are using their UFLI documents, sight word games and Bob books to support their learning during Guide-led reading.

Math Workshops

This week, we reviewed our knowledge of Canadian coins and bills. We looked closely at our prices and products as we worked through different real-life scenarios. For example, we practiced figuring out how much change to give if someone spent $4.00 and paid with a $10.00 bill. This practice helped us prepare for our big day! Afterward, the Sparks worked in their business groups to solve money word problems. Each group read the questions together and decided whether they had enough money to purchase the items. The groups did a great job collaborating, expressing their thoughts out loud, and using their money skills to solve the problems correctly.

French

This week in French, Rebels continued learning food vocabulary through songs, games, and movement-based activities. On Monday, we watched the second part of Mini Soleil, which taught us about vegetables and reinforced listening to and recognizing key words. On Tuesday, we went to the gym for a sorting game where learners grouped foods into categories such as fruits, vegetables (légumes), dairy products (produits laitiers), meat (viande), desserts, and tableware (vaisselle). On Wednesday, the Sparks played a vocabulary/colour matching activity where they had to match specific foods to different colours they rolled on a pair of dice. On Thursday, we played a game in the gym to review and strengthen their knowledge of colours and food in a fun and engaging way.

Discovery

Mindfulness and Launch

Monday morning the Rebels tended to their beautiful vision boards. At launch, they viewed an impactful visual metaphor about what happens to one’s spirit when they change themselves for someone else, aka the broken plate metaphor. Unbroken, the plate won’t fit in a container. Break it into pieces, however, and it fits easily. Have you ever felt like the broken plate? How do we make sure we keep ourselves whole? Tuesday’s mindful colouring included a seasonal zen doodle. Our launch looked at the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in connection with our ongoing discussions around democracy and rights and freedoms. Rebels unpacked what it means for the rights of the child to be unconditional and inalienable, and asked thoughtful questions like “what happens if you move to a country where the government has not ratified the CRC?” Wednesday morning we gathered to play our New York Times puzzles. We played Connections and managed to solve all four categories with only one life to spare! Then we tried Capture and were able to complete the first puzzle in the advanced series. For our weekly Wednesday morning meeting, Rebels were extended a goal-setting challenge to write down 2 or more goals they believed they could finish in one hour. Those who committed to the challenge submitted these goals in writing to their Squad Leader and got to work! Rebels who reached this goal were rewarded a bonus Rebel Buck! At the end of the Core Skills, Rebels reflected that they were surprised how much they were able to finish in one period when they were really intentional with how they used their time. For Thank You For Sharing Thursday, Rebels chatted about regret: a lot shared choices that led to injuries like breaking their arm, and others shared things like spending money on something that didn’t last long. On Feel-Good Friday, the Rebels got together to play the song “Peaches” from the Super Mario soundtrack. The Current Events report featured the 2026 Winter Olympic Games! Rebels listened to fun facts about the Milano-Cortina games, learned about a few Canadian athletes to look for who are also podium favourites, and got a heartfelt update from Canadian snowboarder Mark McMorris as he let his community know he would be missing one of his events due to his recent head injury, but was hopeful we would still see him competing in other events.  

Reader/Writer workshops

For Reader/Writer workshops this week, Rebels worked on peer-editing and finalizing their good copies for printing. In planning for our upcoming Exhibition, Rebels have been thinking a lot about what they want their final product to look like. Rebels requested a special scroll/ancient looking poster paper to make their writing look more authentic. Before printing our good copies, Rebels read their mythical creature origin stories aloud for other teammates who also required feedback. These small feedback groups gave the Rebels some wonderful ideas - from suggestions around improving sentence structure to encouraging each other to use a bigger variety of vocabulary, Rebels felt as though the opportunity to give and receive feedback really elevated their final drafts. There were even a group of Rebels who realized they could link their stories with each other’s mythical creatures, so that there were some characters overlapping in a couple of their stories! The changes that were made enabled Rebels to feel as though their work was truly excellent and ready for printing. As we head into Exhibition next week, Rebels are VERY excited to share their creatures with you and showcase their written work from this session. 

Math Lab

This week Rebels had time to go back and work on any of the sessional tasks for their badge: addition and subtraction calculations, multiplication fact charts and multi-digit multiplication problems, using Roman numerals to represent amounts and converting between Roman numerals and Hindu-Arabic numerals, and Greek vase designs focused on geometric properties of various polygons. There will certainly be some beautiful, ancient mathematics on display next week at exhibition!

Civilizations

This week we heard tales about the Mycenaean Greeks and how they conquered the island of Crete and took over the area after the volcanic ash and dust rendered it uninhabitable for the earlier Minoan civilization. The Mycenaeans then battled invaders from the south (Sea People) and the north (Dorians). Rebels mapped significant locations like the cities of Mycenae, Thebes and Athens, and drew arrows to show the directions and pathways of the attackers. We discussed the language used in the story, namely words like “barbarian,” “savage,” and “ignorant” and debated whether or not these words were appropriate to describe the differences between the other groups and the mainstream culture of the time. 

French

This week in French Workshops, learners finished creating their own restaurants while continuing to review food vocabulary. They finalized the name of their restaurant, wrote their menu in French, and designed the outside of their restaurant, including the storefront and logo. These activities helped learners practice writing, reading, and using new vocabulary in a creative way. Group 2 also began preparing their oral presentations, where they described their restaurant and shared their ideas with the group.

Quest

Rebel Spies traveled to the heartland of ancient Persia this week - King Darius’s palace in Persepolis. They learned about the history of the Persian Empire, including Cyrus the Great’s story and how the empire had expanded leading up to 500 BCE. On Monday we completed a mapping challenge to highlight all of the territories that Persia gained control of: as far as the Indus river in the east, as far south as the Nile river and Egypt, and encroaching more and more towards Greece through Media, Asia Minor, Babylon, and Canaan. On Tuesday, we tried a Venn diagram challenge to capture our in depth analysis of the differences between Athens and Sparta. Then, we voted on what the more strategic target would be, based on everything we know of Persia and its values, compared to the culture and traditions of the two Greek city-states: should Darius aim for Athens or Sparta? Wednesday teams met to develop their timelines of significance as a way to reflect on everything they’ve learned this session about the period between 800 and 300 BCE. They defined significance as big, important, affecting many people or existing for a long time. They were careful to say, though, that being significant to one group may not be significant to another, and that significance is not positive nor negative. On Thursday we started to organize what we want to showcase at exhibition and reviewed a video showing the “reveal” or real history of what happened when Persia attacked Greece, aka the Greco-Persian Wars.

Additional Highlights

We are finalizing our MAPS tests and we will be receiving Rebel reports next week. We will be sure to share these with families as soon as they become available so please stay on the lookout for an email from your Discovery Studio Guides with your Rebel’s results. We had another wonderful week of recesses on Carlington Hill and skating at Raven Park!

Exploration

Mindfulness & Launch

Marie Curie (née Sklodowska) was a Polish-born physicist and chemist who, with her husband and partner Pierre, discovered two new elements (polonium and radium), defined and coined the term radiation, and conducted studies on x-rays in surgery. She was awarded two Nobel Prizes for her work, becoming the first and only woman to achieve that honour. After learning about her life and accomplishments on Monday morning, Rebels put themselves in Marie Curie's shoes and participated in a Socratic discussion on the rights to education, professional barriers and constraints, and ethical considerations in discovery. On Tuesday, Rebels completed the Three Kinds of "Doing" lesson in their Becoming a Critical Thinker workbook. To add experiences to their thinking, Rebels learned about direct and indirect experiences and about using their imagination. Some made a plan to try a new activity they've only read about before, such as surfing, baking a cake, or trying iFly! Wednesday morning was a perfect example of the power of learner-driven learning at work! When a morning meeting went long for a guide, Rebels immediately went on Journey Tracker and found the day's art lesson. Someone hooked their laptop up to the TV and, as a studio, completed their detailed drawings of tongues all together. Excellent work, Rebels! After their morning walk on Thursday, Rebels organized their teams for a set of morning food tests during core skills. Friday, we solved a series of brainteaser puzzles before hearing about the biovault for endangered animals in the UAE, terrorizing turkeys, and the meaning behind the ICE Out pins at the Grammys during our learner-led Current Events presentation.

Reader/Writer Workshop

Learners gathered to discuss chapters 12 through 15 of Linda Sue Park's novel, A Long Walk to Water, before reading an article entitled, "Loss of Culturally Vital Cattle Leaves Dinka Tribe Adrift in Refugee Camps." After our close read, learners reviewed the RACCE (Restate, Answer, Cite, Cite, and Explain) strategy for answering short-answer questions. Rebels then chose one of three prompts to answer independently using a RACCE graphic organizer. Once complete, learners crafted their paragraph, inserting transition words when appropriate. Once the draft was completed, Rebels self-edited, had a peer read their response, and submitted it on Friday. 

Reading Challenge, Paragraph of the Week and Grammar

This week's Reading Challenge was a review of Figurative Language. After going over metaphors, similes, alliteration, onomatopoeia, personification, oxymorons, and puns, Rebels identified each in a series of short pieces to solve the mystery.

A dangling modifier happens when the sentence leaves out the word the modifier is supposed to describe. When this happens, the detail doesn't connect to anything, which makes the sentence confusing. On Monday, learners wrote three examples of dangling modifiers and then corrected them, while on Tuesday, they rewrote each sentence to fix the dangling modifier to clarify the meaning. Rebels then teamed up to locate all of the dangling modifiers in a paragraph before identifying and correcting the problems in another paragraph independently. 

Math Lab

This week, we graphed linear relations in Math Lab! We met as a studio to review how to complete a table of values and graph on a coordinate plane. In the first task, groups read story problems that dealt solely with profit. Once complete, they took on the additional challenge of start-up cost plus profit, then moved on to start-up money plus profit word problems. At the end of the workshop, we met as a full studio to solve three consolidation problems and write our notes to our "future forgetful selves."

French

This week in French, learners designed a logo for their food truck and wrote a short description to explain their ideas and creative choices. They answered questions about their food truck using complete sentences in French and then interviewed their classmates by asking the same questions, which helped them practice speaking and build confidence in conversation. These fun and interactive activities supported vocabulary development while encouraging communication, creativity, and collaboration.

Civilizations - Big History

Where and why did early humans migrate? All humans evolved in Africa c. 250,000 years ago. How did our ancestors migrate and populate the entire world by c. 15,000 years ago without cars, airplanes, or ships? The answer has a lot to do with collective learning. After making predictions, about early migration, Rebels learned the reasons for why some humans left their original home in Africa long ago. Using a slideshow that showed the changing features and the impact geography had on early humans over time, Rebels noted the push-and-pull factors before making a list of desirable features they would look for when moving to a new area. 

Quest - Cooking with Chemistry

This week, we explored the "science of delicious" while also diving into solutions and gases. We began Monday's Quest by reacquainting ourselves with mind mapping as a way to capture and display information. Rebels then picked a central theme and learned how our senses contribute to our food experiences, including the basics of taste, umami, the role of smell, and more! On Tuesday, we learned about solutes, solvents, and solutions before learners researched five solutions that might be served or used at a restaurant and identified the solvent and the solute for each. Rebels then turned their attention to gases with the help of a Crash Course video, and listed five ways understanding the behaviour of gases could impact their lives as chefs. On Wednesday, we made connections between the taste of food and its impact on our health. After learning about calories and nutrition labels, Rebels studied how sugar affects the brain. Learners then came up with five principles they could follow as scientists and chefs to deliver tasty food that is good for diners. We also looked at Canada's Food Guide history and discussed why changes were made over time. Any remaining time was used to work on their Mind Map or Element flashcards. Thursday morning, Rebels took part in a series of food tests, including tasting three different sodas and two different Oreo cookies to determine the primary driver behind each, a blindfolded candy test to determine how vital our other senses are to taste, noting how taste changes when holding white bread in our mouth, and testing two different juices and describing the difference. That afternoon, teams learned about taste buds with the help offood colouring. Rebels observed the different sizes, shapes, and patterns of papillae across the tongue and then researched how many taste buds the average person has and whether the number impacts how people taste. For decades, textbooks showed diagrams of the tongue with a 'taste map' depicting that the areas of your tongue were better at tasting different categories of flavour. Research now shows that each of our taste buds can detect every flavour, and that taste is more determined by the brain, a series of senses, and chemical reactions than by our taste buds alone. Teams created taste classification systems with definitions and a rating scale before using a series of ingredients to make liquid flavour concentrate solutions for each category: sugar, salt, bitter, sour, and umami. Once their classification and rating systems were done, teams were tasked with making ketchup that triggers sweetness, sourness, saltiness, bitterness, and umami! They were able to look up a recipe; however, if they made any adjustments, they needed to record all changes. At the end of Quest, everyone had the opportunity to try and rate each group's ketchup with some delicious fries from Kim's!

Personal Finance

On Tuesday, we were joined by Alex Anderson, CFA, Senior Portfolio Manager of the Ottawa Wealth Advisory Group! Alex spoke with us about investing objectives, risk tolerance, and building a portfolio. Rebels were able to ask questions about careers in investment advice, where they get their research, licensing, and the impact of emotions and psychology can have on one's investment strategy.

Additional Highlights

During Fun Friday, Rebels had the opportunity to watch the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics. They had a great time guessing how many athletes would be representing each country and are looking forward to cheering on their favourite athletes!

Potential Discussion Ideas or Questions to Ask Your Rebel:

Spark Studio

• What products are you selling at your table? How much are they? 

• What was your favourite Forest of Reading Book this week? Why?

• What were your goals this week? Did you complete them each day? 

• French: Can you name one yellow fruit and one yellow vegetable in French? (banane, pomme, citron, ananas, poivron, maïs, etc.)

Discovery Studio

• CIV: If you were a Minoan citizen on the island of Crete and the Mycenaeans came to conquer the island and demanded you share your ship-building knowledge, would you: A) tell them how you build ships, hoping for a better relationship or B) not reveal secrets with a different country?

• Imagine it is 500 BCE: Do you think the Persian Empire should attempt to conquer Athens or Sparta?

• Which piece of work are you most excited to share with your families at our upcoming Exhibition? Math Lab Vase, your Mythical Creature Origin Story, Quest projects like your catapult or Spartan Shield, your Greek Play, French Restaurant, or anything else?

• It's the end of the session, and badge submissions are coming up next week: do you expect to be able to earn all of your sessional badges? Are there any you want but they feel out of reach? What can we do to support you headinginto next week?

• French: Can you describe your restaurant and menu in French?

Exploration Studio

• "I am one of those who think like Nobel, that humanity will draw more good than evil from new discoveries." -Marie Curie Do you agree or disagree with Curie's statement? Are scientists responsible for the good or evil that comefrom their discoveries? Why or why not?

• What are three things you are grateful for today?

• Can you show me how to make a table of values and a graph for the following problems?

  • Last weekend, I sold hot dogs at the track meet. I had to pay $50.00 to the organizers to be allowed to be there, but I made $4.00 per hot dog. 

  • Last weekend, I sold hot dogs at a private concert. They paid me $300 to be there, but I was not allowed to make a profit on hot dog sales.

• How was your group's ketchup? What would you change to make it more delicious for next time?

• French: Can you tell me about your food truck and explain your logo?