Discovery had a wonderful and meaningful week. In core skills, discovery heroes demonstrated great focus and continued to meet their daily SMART goals this week. They all received character-call outs this week for showing their best work effort in the studio. Recognizing their hard work with character call-outs surely reinforces a positive learning environment and motivates them to continue striving for excellence. A special highlight was witnessing one of our heroes achieving his Level 2 reading badge. He was so excited to meet this important milestone in his hero’s journey, and we held a badge ceremony for him to celebrate his success together.
For communication challenges, Discovery heroes continued to draft their rebuttal and completed their closing statements for ‘Debate a Dame’. They all brainstormed and came up with convincing arguments to debate why the games they chose could be better than their opponent’s. Their ability to articulate convincing arguments reflects their growing confidence and proficiency in effective communication. Discovery heroes also offered each other constructive feedback to help each other improve. As their guide, I noticed a huge growth in providing sufficient reasoning to back up their arguments.
During Civilization, the Discovery Heroes learned about the female war hero Joan or Arc. She was known for leading the French army in a momentous victory at Orléans in 1429 that repulsed an English attempt to conquer France during the Hundred Years’ War. For Civilization research, the heroes researched other female war heroes. By researching and understanding the contributions of other female war heroes, our heroes gained a deeper appreciation for the diverse roles women have played in shaping the course of history through military prowess and leadership.
Meanwhile the Community Garden Quest has been so fun and engaging! Discovery heroes conducted soil identification experiments in collaboration with the Spark studio. They voted for different locations like Nakoma Park and Patio to examine the soil samples. They also set up the butterfly habitat for the cocoons and prepared an apple sauce meal for when the butterflies hatch.
On Thursday, the heroes conducted a decomposition challenge experiment. Discovery heroes put three different subjects (bananas, plastic cups, and toilet paper) into three glass jars with red live worms and soil. They made the hypothesis that the worms will eat bananas so bananas will decompose, and plastic cups will not be able to be broken down. They also set up the vermicomposting bin with moisturized newspaper, cardboards, worms and soil. These hands-on experiments surely provided valuable insights and sparked curiosity among the Discovery heroes!
