This week’s focus was growth mindset. We explored questions like are you born smart or do you get smarter with hard work? We also discussed the word “yet” and explored how powerful it can be when we encounter a challenge, as in “I can’t do this……YET.”
We’ve continued to explore weather through books and activities. The heroes have requested books about natural phenomena like wind, snow, hail, tornadoes, hurricanes and even earthquakes. This week, the heroes made a “tornado in a jar” using water, soap and vinegar. They enjoyed seeing their tornadoes swirl!
We have been reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to launch our daily D.E.A.R. and Writer’s Workshop activities. We finished the book this week, and decided to celebrate on Friday with a pajama day and by watching the 1970’s Gene Wilder version of the movie.
As part of Writer’s Workshop, the children share their stories with each other. They are improving at using their “active listening ears” and giving full attention to the hero presenting his or her story. They are also asking each other “who, what, where, when and why?” questions of the author. All of this supports the skills of kindly questioning, as well as being able to verbalize the thoughts in one’s head and elaborating further.
There was certainly sadness this week with news of the school closing. However, we see that keeping routines and making sure we continue to learn and have fun with friends keeps everyone focused on the positive!
On Thursday morning, the heroes brainstormed a “bucket list” of activities they would like to use to “fill their buckets” as we come closer to the end of the year. They are excited about a potential field trip to a planetarium. A number of them have set the goal to earn a badge before the end of the year. They also brainstormed ways to keep in touch and they would like to do “Acton Alumni Learning Dates,” essentially playdates with a learning focus that allows them to go to places like the Zoo, Children’s Museum, or Train Museum, for example. We love that the heroes are already independent lifelong learners!
During Spark’s afternoon adventures, we dove into some multi-day projects in the Makerspace. The kids pored over various inspiration pictures for crafts using Makerspace materials, and several committed to fairly complex crafts such as egg-carton battleships and paper cup octopi.
The Sparks were showing a strong affinity for mixing liquids together to make potions, but needed practice with keeping their concoctions contained. We decided to learn some wizard skills, like using a pipette to carefully transfer small bits of ingredients without spilling them. This became especially exciting when the Sparks discovered that something was causing their potions to fizz over, and figured out that vinegar and baking soda created the reaction.
After learning about different species of squirrels, we took a trip to Nakoma Park to look for them, only to discover the area had flooded. Sparks still enjoyed finding their way across the creek, practicing balance and strength by climbing over the rocks.
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