This year’s question of the year is “What motivates a hero?” and we will explore this question throughout the year. The entire school started this process during our annual school year kick-off “Welcome Party” where each hero – and their parents parents – shared with the group one new thing they tried or learned this summer, and what motivated them to do so. It was such a fun way to understand the interests and callings of both the children and adults in our learning community. We were surprised and delighted to learn about children running triathlons, joining a baseball team, taking a cooking class or going to sleepaway camp for the first time. Meanwhile, adults were traveling to far away places and reading books in foreign languages. It was inspiring for the children to see that even adults are always learning!
We’re building the Spark tribe this session through lots of play, fun, teambuilding games and collaborative activities while also introducing studio systems and expectations. This week we explored the ideas of civility, peace and friendship. Heroes have had a lot of fun playing games to get to know each other like “get on the boat,” the “blanket name game” and the “friendship scavenger hunt.” Next week we will be introducing Montessori materials and systems in earnest, but this week the heroes learned new skills like rolling a mat, carrying a tray, and walking around a mat. To us adults, these may sound trivial, but not walking through others’ workspaces (mats), or understanding that each tray contains a “work” are new concepts to the youngest Spark heroes.
The heroes have been spending time each day in the makerspace and are learning new skills as they work towards earning their “Makerspace Champion” badge. They mastered using watercolors, cleaning a paintbrush, putting caps back on markers and demonstrated much perseverance completing a makerspace scavenger hunt to help them develop familiarity with the materials and tools in the space. We also have a number of non-readers in the group, so while we make all materials visual, it’s also been a wonderful servant leader opportunity for the readers in the group to support and help their friends.
Speaking of which, we have a new system this year which is the “Pom Pom Jar.” Heroes earn a pom pom when they help a friend and we often end the day saying thank you for the specific ways we’ve seen friends helping each other. Once the pom pom jar is full, we will have a celebration!
Speaking of which, some of the heroes this week were initially disappointed that this week, they didn’t have “Friday Reward” which was a system we used in Spark last year. But then after some discussion amongst themselves, came to the realization that with the redesign of Spark, and the inclusion of Spark Play, every afternoon is a reward! This week, the heroes collaborated to build their own water play system complete with sand dams in the garden (indirectly exploring fluid dynamics :)) and went on a nature walk with the Spark Play Guide that turned into a survival adventure finding shelter from the rain! We’ve also noticed that the heroes really want to build a fort or a lean-to and we are just going to have to figure out how to make that happen…..
Another way in which this year’s studio design is different is that rather than the adults developing all the systems at the start of the year, we are co-creating them with the heroes. For instance, the heroes are very excited about the ideas of badges and are now brainstorming skills to master that are important to them. We will be incorporating their ideas for a “Bravery Badge” and a “Masterbuilder Badge” along with many others that come up throughout the year. We are excited to tap into the children’s intrinsic motivation to learn, explore, and feel pride in mastery.
As always, thank you for trusting us with your children. It’s been a wonderful week and we are so happy to be on this journey with you and your hero!
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