E-Ship Quest Kick-Off
We started the new session by kicking off the highly collaborative E-Ship (entrepreneurship) Quest! This week’s challenge was the company formation challenge where the children explored their job roles (e.g. bookkeeper, customer service, lawyer, etc.). The wrote their mission statement and determined how they would make decisions together.
Over the course of the next five weeks, the heroes will form, start and operate a lemonade stand. The end goal is a friendly competition between the Discovery and Spark studios at the Exhibition “Lemonade Stand-Off” where they will invite parents, friends and community members to purchase lemonade and snacks. The teams’ combined profits will go to purchase the winning team’s choice of fun item for the school. Some ideas so far are an inflatable gaga pit for indoor winter fun and large Anji play blocks.C
Communications Challenge: Conflict Resolution
The heroes also kicked off a new communications challenge: conflict resolution. They learned a script for talking about they feel when another’s actions affect them, and also mirroring back the other person’s feelings. They also role-played conflict resolution in partners a few times this week in partners. Their challenge for the week is to engage in at least three real conflict resolutions at the peace table this week.
A few of the heroes really embraced the conflict resolution process while a couple very much resisted it. The challenge is intended to help them see the benefits of the process for solving issues with friends!
Civilization
We also kicked-off Civilization this week. The children learned about Julius Caesar and explored via Socratic discussion what it means to be a good leader. They compared Julius Caesar who expended Rome and subverted the Senate to name become King, vs. Cincinnatus, who ruled Rome in a time of need, and then returned power to the Senate. They are also working on illustrated an timeline of notable ancient events and people, in order to refresh what they learned last year.
Personal Goals
Towards the end of each session, the children engage in “full-circle feedback,” aka 360 peer reviews. They learn to give warm, cool, warm feedback in the form of “two stars and a wish.” This week, the children used that feedback to set a personal goal that they will track for the next five weeks. One hero’s goal is “I will stay in my seat during discussion more than half the time,” or “I will not distract myself.” Two heroes are challenging themselves to bring needed ideas and solutions to Town Meetings in order to strengthen the community.
Applying Math in the Real World: Cooking
Several of the heroes are learning fractions, so the guides are looking for ways to apply fractions in the real world. To that end, this Friday’s celebration was making “caramel” apples from a date-mixture. The heroes were challenged to convert and increase the recipe by 1.5x.
While the older heroes worked on the converting the recipe, some younger heroes were mesmerized by the gears in an old-style hand mixer. They enjoyed figuring out how it worked!
Halloween Festivities
Finally, the children have been preparing for Halloween festivities. They painted pumpkins, decorated skulls with acrylic pens together, and stamped Halloween treat bags. They are excited for the holiday and for our school Halloween party approaching!
