SESSION 1, WEEK 5
Five weeks in, and studios are settling into their rhythms and routines, though sometimes unevenly. This week’s post doubles as an honest progress report: which systems have clicked, which routines still need a nudge, and which habits are still finding their shape. Alongside all that reflection, the quests kept moving. Keep reading to hear and see what’s been going on!
In the Spark Studio
The Spark Studio is settling into its daily rhythm, and as the schedule starts to feel more like routine, heroes are digging into the how and why behind what they do. This week heroes reflected on how well they have kept the boundaries they promised to keep, ranked which boundary needed the most work, and came together as a studio to make a change.
Heroes also kept up their experiments this week. One hero asked to plan his own launch and experiment, creating a plan and supply list for bouncing eggs. The respect heroes showed during his launch was wonderful to see!
Heroes also carved cucumbers, painted with apples, and tested different liquids to see which kept apples looking fresh the longest. The winner: one tablespoon of honey in a cup of water.
In the FIRE Studio
The Fire Studio has been finding its groove with core skills checklists this session. Emerald heroes get a paper checklist at the start of core skills, and most settle into their first challenge within a minute or two, with a few built-in breaks to keep their energy up along the way. At the end of the half-day, heroes present any completed checklists for a gem, which add up toward a studio celebration. That process has sparked some good conversations about honesty, since a few heroes have presented checklists as complete when the work behind them wasn’t quite finished. It has been encouraging to watch integrity, one of the four boundaries protecting freedom and fun in the studio, grow stronger this session. But paper checklists have their downsides too: they are generic, they tend to wander off and get lost, and they don’t share progress information with families at home. Starting in Session 2, all Fire heroes will trade their paper checklists for the Magic App, which works much the same way, but tracks progress through the whole session and year, and makes it easy for families to see from home what didn’t get finished during the day or week.
Sapphire studio has jumped into several new systems this year. Two new committees are giving heroes the chance to lead short discussions: the Hero Support committee led one on ANTS, or automatic negative thoughts.
And the Excellence committee trained the studio on how to clean the council room. Like Emerald, some Sapphire heroes have thrived with paper checklists, finding real satisfaction in finishing their tasks and adding a gem toward the studio’s Gem Celebration, and heroes also earn gems for how well they move in and out of core skills blocks, a transition skill they’re still building but improving on every day.
The core skills block schedule itself has worked well, giving heroes a clear sense of when they’re in core skills and when they’re in collaborative core skills, though heroes have started treating collaborative time like free time or a brain break. With a few reminders, they’re learning to come back together to work on math, logic, and reasoning as a group. New explore tables also arrived this week, with Snap Circuits and Happy Atoms heroes were excited to try. This year, the explore tables are only open during core skills to a hero working alone with a finished checklist, or to heroes working together during collaborative core skills.
Across the studios, heroes are showing more respect for one another and getting better at reminding each other to follow their rules of engagement and contract of promises, with plenty of grace given when mistakes need repairing. They’re also getting good practice working out their own problems: when a few heroes grew frustrated during PE this week, they came together on their own to talk through new rules that would make the game more fun for everyone.
Outside of the systems work, Fire heroes have been deep in this session’s quest. While planting tulip bulbs, meant to represent the dreams heroes are planting this year, Emerald heroes discovered and adopted a new studio friend: a worm they named Crummy, complete with a habitat, a jungle gym, and a cozy home the heroes built themselves.
Heroes also read Farmer George Plants a Nation, learned the story of the Midnight Ride of Paul Revere through Longfellow’s famous poem, and designed their own horses to carry him from Boston to Concord.
After learning the story behind the Star-Spangled Banner and the meaning behind different symbols, including those on the American flag, heroes designed their own flags full of symbols representing the Fire Studio’s core values. Sapphire heroes, meanwhile, finished their dream boards, and it’s been exciting to see what each of them is passionate about and how creatively they expressed it.
In the Delta Studio
The DELTA Studio has settled into a genuinely focused Core Skills time. Most heroes now have their goals, programs, passwords, and initial assessments figured out and are moving steadily forward. It has been fun to watch heroes dive into the things they love and mentor each other along the way. When a guide asked two heroes working on a small motorbike how it worked, they launched into a lengthy explanation—spark plugs, cylinders, and all—that was all new information for the guide. One of the heroes summed it up afterward: “Wow! I’ve never felt so nerdy!” 😊
Mentoring each other along the way…
With the lip dub behind them, this was also DELTA’s first week on a truly regular schedule, including the studio’s first hero-led P.E….
…and Tribe Building time…
…and it has been fun watching newer heroes step up with their own ideas. Heroes also had their first round of Deep Book launches this week, including one new-to-DELTA hero who was nervous going in and did a great job doing something hard.
A few routines are still being worked out, especially the right amount of goals, since some heroes take on too few and others too many, and at least one hero put it plainly: “Home is boring, school is fun, I would rather do school work at home and play at school.” That one left guides amused and not entirely sure what to make of it. One routine that is fully in the groove: pickleball at lunch, which is producing some genuinely impressive players.
In the Microbiology quest, most heroes have moved on to studying fungi and protists, and the challenges have turned up some pretty amazing things under the microscope.
Heroes are also building models of microbes to show off at exhibition, and with more heroes earning Culture Clash cards, the competition between decks is heating up.
Every studio is somewhere different on the road to a groove. Some routines are clicking already: checklists turning into honest habits, PE disputes turning into clarified rules, lunchtime turning into a pickleball league. Others, like remembering what collaborative time is actually for, or figuring out just the right number of goals, are still being worked out. But the direction and flow are all positive, for individual heroes and for whole studios—settle in, work, reflect, adjust, take a break when needed, then tackle the next step on an intentional journey of learning and growth.