Theme of the Week
This week, we are exploring heroes and their hero’s journeys. Specifically, the children learned about Malala Yousafzai, Shirley Chisholm, Steven Hawking, and Everyday Heroes! We are looking for more ways we can integrate examples of heroes into our days at Acton. One idea we have is highlighting a few heroes on the bulletin boards in fellowship hall, and rotate those every month. We are also looking for ways we can integrate discussions of heroes related to the Quest into our daily closing discussions.
Ancient Technology Mini-Quest
This week, the children spent time working towards their Civilization badges by completing the Ancient technology mini-quest. They explored ways that ancient technologies have influenced modern technologies (did you know the Romans invented the first vending machine?). Then they chose an ancient technology to research. Based on that research, they designed and built a model of that technology in the makerspace.
Although we explored ancient engineering feats (think Roman aqueducts or Chinese grain mills), medical advancements (e.g. surgery techniques in India), and advancements in writing, shipbuilding, and textiles, military technologies seemed to capture the interest of the heroes most. We read in our Civilization texts, that military innovations like chariots, javelins, shields and iron spears are all examples of technologies that helped turn the tide between battling nations.
Writer’s Workshop
The heroes are editing their science-based fiction stories. The Guide led an editing and punctuation game with the children. Then they worked together to edit each others’ stories. Next week they will work on illustrating and publishing!
Impromptu Visitor
As part of our school safety planning, we invited Madison Police Department to walk through our building and advise on our safety plan. The children were intrigued by Officer Dan and his bomb-sniffing canine, so Officer Dan invited the children to pet and visit with his dog, Carl. Carl was born in Czechoslovakia, “speaks” German, and is a strong sniffer! He recently helped find two elementary students who had wandered off in the heavy rain.
If you ever have questions about our safety planning, feel free to reach out! We have an extensive safety plan in place that we submit annually to the WI DOJ. We conduct monthly fire drills, 2x yearly tornado drills (we had the fire department advise us and walk through prior to opening, but the police department has been really backed up and it took five months to get them here), and we are working to design an active shooter drill that isn’t scary. Officer Dan had some great suggestions for that, and if you want to know more about how we plan to approach that, I’m happy to share. We will do that 1x / year.
T.G.I.F. Adventure!
We had a really fun Friday this week. The children have been preparing Mother’s Day gifts over the course of the week. Ellie also had the idea of going on an adventure to purchase a small gift for each mom. The children were given a map and a budget of $20, and had to navigate their way to a local chocolate shop (`~15 minute walk) and decide on a fair distribution of the budget. They did well and we are sure you will be happy with what they brought home for you 🙂
Friday was also Friday Reward day plus a birthday celebration! We celebrated our friend with a candle and a globe 🙂 And they loved the insect documentary so much last week, that this week they watched “Meet the Robinsons” about a young inventor, which ties into our Ancient Technology theme.
Entomology Quest
The children are wrapping up their work on the Quest and beginning to prepare for the exhibition of learning! This week and next they will be developing the agenda, creating a program, determining roles, setting up their work at stations, and creating exhibition activities.
Town Hall
There was a lot to discuss at Town Hall today! We asked how we can celebrate each others’ successes! They made a change to the studio maintenance system. And they determined when it was ok to work on core skills outside of actual core skills time. Ask your child what they decided and how! (Note: town hall is a good practice of contributing solutions, but also accepting the outcomes determined by the group even if it’s not exactly what we want – like democracy in the real-world, and one of the bases of civil society).
