Session 6, Week 1
Welcome Session 6 and Spring! The arrival of both together brings new questions, explorations, quests, challenges, outdoor fun, energy and excitement!
In the Spark Studio this session we will be exploring cycles: the water cycle, life cycles, and even the cycle of the Hero’s Journey. Springtime is the perfect opportunity to see cycles in action! This session we will watch caterpillars change into butterflies and see ants build an ant farm.
We will be using the CHOICE work cycle this session, to prepare their play. Last session the heroes were beautifully guided as they started preparing the foundation of a great story during Music Theater. Now the reigns have been handed over to the heroes. As we started reviewing what they have learned, they have been directing it, figuring out the details together, and giving their characters new names. Using the pattern of the hero’s journey they even decided how some of the characters in the play will go through a Hero’s Journey and rewrote the ending of the play.
They decided to create and practice with a miniature set and figures.
The Spark heroes will continue using their passions to take ownership of this project throughout this session.
Speaking of cycles…Remember when we had baby quails in the studio? Those quails are now laying eggs! We enjoyed hard boiled quail eggs this week.
This week the Spark Studio also explored the difference between a smooth texture and a gritty texture. We learned that to play a good game of shuffleboard you need a certain amount of sand on your shuffleboard. No sand gives you poor results. We played a game of tug-o-war with one team wearing shoes (the gritty texture) and one team not wearing shoes (the smooth texture). After three rounds there was mutiny! The no shoes team no longer wanted to play. They said that without shoes they had no chance of winning. This led to a fabulous discussion about the meaning of the word grit and perseverance. One young hero came up and shared his wisdom “If you don’t do hard things at school, then you’ll never be able to do hard things as a grown up!”
All week long the heroes pushed themselves in new works, showing perseverance in reaching all types of different goals:
…and getting back up after things don’t go according to plan.
In the Fire Studio heroes are diving into fresh exploratory works about nests, kites, gardens, and other nature discoveries. They also decided as a studio to make math a special focus this session. They practiced breaking a big session-sized goal into week-sized goals, and then broke those down into daily math goals. Ask your heroes how those daily goals are going!
Heroes also learned from the story of Rosa Parks about finding and sharing their voices to make their community a better place. Heroes are taking on the challenge to share during afternoon “close” the stories of other people, real-life or fictional, who found and shared their voice. Each Thursday we are also celebrating heroes in our studio who found and shared their voice that week. It is beautiful to listen to their stories.
And the Fire Studio heroes are LOVING playing together outside in the spring weather!
Just like the bright new energy of Spring, our studio is buzzing with some exciting new energy as we begin our Entomology Quest, the study of insects!
Lady Bzzzz came to introduce the quest and was unexpectedly attacked by the heroes!
We are taking a fresh approach to our Quest time. Daily squad challenges are followed by individual time where each hero is challenged to discover new passions involving bugs! Heroes are choosing their own questions, researching the answers, exploring a wide variety of resources and creating an individual project that answers their question. Heroes will practice presenting their projects to their studio and then will present to their parents at Exhibition.
Monday’s squad challenge: creating a mealworm habitat. On Thursday a hero who didn’t even know mealworms existed prior to this challenge was dancing in excitement that her “mealworm had shed!”
Squad challenge: Taxonomy card game
Using clay to show the answer to the question: “Why do people eat bugs?”
Using stop motion animation to show the answer to the question: “Do mosquitoes do anything good for us?”
Using stop motion animation and iMovie to show the answer to an individual question.
Using pipe cleaners to show the answer to an individual question.
Making books to show the answer to an individual question.
Using a skit to show the answer to an individual question.
We are excited to watch the heroes’ abilities to ask questions, research questions, and create excellent passion driven projects increase as they repeat this process. Not to mention their love and excitement of bugs grow!!!
In the Middle School heroes are loving the spring weather and are flocking outside during lunch. The interactions with each other and the Fire Studio remind us all why we love spring!
Inside, the heroes are focusing on holding one another to a higher standard of excellence this session. Now that they understand and have practiced all the different processes and systems throughout the year, how can they increase their excellence in Writing Squads? Badge approval? Acting as a Running Partner? Approving quality work?
With the play only a few weeks away, dress rehearsals are in full swing. While the heroes keep talking about how far they have to go, we are in awe at how far they have come. Set designs, costumes (even some sewing), choreography, lines, directing, rehearsals… all done without any adult involvement! They are so capable!
A few of the Middle Schoolers chose to participate in a Constitution Bowl this week. They had a great time practicing for it and represented themselves extremely well at the competition! It was a fun new experience for all!
The middle schoolers are taking on a fresh new challenge this quest by exploring, applying for, and securing week-long apprenticeships that they will be doing the first week of session 7. Apprenticeships are an important part of the Acton model and will be something they’ll do each year going forward. The heroes have the opportunity to identify, research, and secure a meaningful apprenticeship in a position where they can use and hone their greatest gifts, while exploring an industry, company and assignment that will advance them towards a calling. The “process” (zeroing in on interests, networking, pitching themselves as able to add value to a company) of ups and downs in their search is almost as important as the “product” (i.e. getting an apprenticeship). Parental support and networks are most welcome in this process, so please ask your heroes about what kinds of apprenticeships they are exploring! We’re also enjoying sports and games as a celebration at the end of our focused apprenticeship work each day.
It’s hard to tell whether the high energy is due to the spring weather or a new session. Likely a combination of both. Regardless, it is great to be back and inspiring to watch the heroes attacking new challenges with excitement and determination. Both spring and Session 6 look to be memorable!