It was the last week of the session in Discovery this week, which means lots to do, and lots of fun! All the heroes planted and labeled the vegetable seedlings in the garden bed, as well as the wildflower seeds into the planters. The Discovery heroes organized and led the process, getting practice with their leadership skills as they organized eleven excited children to complete the work. It was a lot of fun along the way!
The next step is to exercise patience and care and the Discovery heroes create and execute a plan for garden maintenance over the next few months. On Tuesday, a special guest who is a master gardener in the community, came and gave a “hero talk” about her gardening journey, and gave the heroes special pointers on the best ways to care for their growing garden.
This week, the Discovery heroes completed full-circle feedback, set personal goals for the next session. This is an important part of Acton where we believe that feedback loops are an important way to learn, and personal goals one of myriad ways we support character development.
For the exhibition, the heroes presented their collaborative process for planning, building and planting the garden. Throughout the process, they needed to research answers to questions like: What vegetables and flowers would they plant? How much space would each need and how would they lay them out in the bed and planters? What do seedlings need? How will they manage their time building? When will they plant given weather conditions and time of year? How will they maintain the garden?
They engaged in a panel discussion with an audience of families and friends, walked parents through their individual plant science work and experiments, and then gave a tour of the new community garden! Everyone celebrated with a toast of sparkling water. The community garden is truly a community project that included Discovery heroes, Spark heroes and families and friends to build.
As a way to blow of steam, the children enjoyed an extended PE/lunch/outdoor time at nearby Glenwood Children’s Park which the children have affectionately dubbed, “Rock Park.” It’s a 20-minute hike to the park, but well worth the effort once they are there! Lots of climbing and exploring rocks, canyon, woods and hills.
The heroes are looking forward to next session when they will explore survival skills in the “Survivor Quest.” A couple of older heroes have also each planned their own one-week quest to deliver to their fellow travelers about a topic of interest. They have chosen, “writing” and “raising chickens.” We have also organized some special specials including Mandarin language exploration and Music!
