2/23-3/1
From the Spark Studio
From Miss Anna We had a great week back and an exciting kickoff for our Space Explorers Quest! Very few things bring me more excitement than sharing my passions with others. I LOVE space! I grew up looking through telescopes often, finding the constellations in the night sky and talking about the possibilities of space exploration around the dinner table. My biggest goal with the quest this session is to spark curiosity, and in just 3 days, I can confidently say we are well on our way! During our morning launches and daily story times, the Heroes have had a stream of *literally* never-ending questions (many of which I couldn’t answer if I was allowed to, like “how many Earths could fit in Jupiter” and “what is Pluto made out of”).
To build the suspense of finding answers to all these questions, I told the Heroes that they could write real letters to real astronauts! Surely they would have answers for them. We talked about how to write a letter and properly address an envelope, discussing the relevance of good handwriting – the mailman can’t deliver your letter if he can’t read the address! As soon as the presentation ended, nearly all of our Heroes rushed to the table to get to work on their letters. The process took over 30 minutes – but they did not give up! Handwriting is a ton of work at this age! I loved this opportunity to connect these core skills – writing and spelling – to something real and meaningful to their own lives.
Some of the questions that I enjoyed: “How does it feel when you get too close to the Sun?” “How deep are the holes on the Moon?” “What does it feel like to go through the Asteroid Belt?” I imagine as we explore space over the next few weeks, they will find some of these answers on their own!
Here’s hoping that we get a response back from NASA soon!
From the Elementary Studio
From Kara We had a great start to our new Business & EntrepreneurShip quest. The mates and captains in the studio are sailing around to various islands to learn about careers, the financial world, and the details of launching their own business ideas. Each hero spent time this week evaluating his or her own strengths, weaknesses, and interests. They were able to explore careers that fit their interests and talents and also compiled a resume.
From JeVonne One of my highlights this week was listening to the heroes talk during quest about what they want in their future. They each have glorious futures! They also played some fun games as part of the quest which were a blast just to observe and listen to; these heroes do not lack a competitive edge!
Along with a new session, also comes a new studio excellence goal. This session the heroes chose to improve their work time over the weekends. Listening to their discussion about how they would measure and hold one another accountable to this goal was inspiring. They decided each hero would commit to two hours over the weekend and either everyone does it and everyone gets the reward – or no one gets the reward. I was so impressed by the discussion of their different ideas, the way they committed to challenge themselves and their willingness to unite as a tribe. This discussion wouldn’t have looked the same at the beginning of the year. Truly the heroes are developing the ability to make decisions with one another and hold themselves and each other accountable.
I also enjoyed civilization this week. The heroes discussed the pros and cons of different empires with different governments; the potential safety and peace of kings vs the freedoms of democracies. Their perspectives were enlightening. As ever, the activity that follow was super fun – soap sculptures! I think the heroes better appreciate the work of making a stone sculpture and our studio sure smells clean now 🙂
The final “new” this week, was our 3 new fish fry! The excitement they brought to our school was far bigger than the size of these minuscule fish babies!
I think everyone is grateful this is only the beginning of this session and these engaging new quests. So much more to come!