The Weekly Newsletter
Week 2, September 11- 15
Welcome back, we are so excited to release this year’s first newsletter! These last couple of weeks have been such a blast, and we have really been focusing on growing and building the tribe. We spent the first week creating our annual lip dub video challenge and getting to know our space. The Eagles worked so hard through this tough but fun project. This week we began getting into the flow of the school year with introductions into our learning sites, contract writing, PE sports pitches, art, and our first mini-history quest! More details on all of this below…read on!
We welcomed the Eagles back on Monday with the launch of Colonial Acton- our first history quest of the year! This quest was short but intense- as the Eagles were asked to step into the roles of subjects under King George in the year 1773. As the days progressed, their taxes and the proclamations put into place became more steep and intrusive on everyday life. It was very effective in its ability to represent what life was like under harsh rule in the Colonial days of America. Each day, the Eagles had the chance to start a revolution. This would require each member of the colony to sign, and partly relied on the role of the die. Penalties would be given if the revolution was lost. The other choice was to not revolt and instead write a letter to King George about how each subject felt about his unfair taxes and proclamations. The Eagles did such an awesome job with all of this, and stayed true to their roles while being good sports about the whole thing. It was such a fun way to begin to learn about Colonial America!
Throughout the week we had a few town hall meetings to talk about the contract- one of the most important pieces of this school- which promises each other respect, accountability, and safety while we are in these studios together. Once the contracts for each studio and the Rules of Engagement are written, each student will have the opportunity to sign it and become fully committed to it. We also had a town hall meeting to pitch PE sports for this session! There were lots of great pitches for sports…and in the end Quidditch, lead by Reese and Leticia, won! We played our first game on Thursday during PE and had a blast 🙂
This week was all about getting into the flow of core skills. Veterans and new Eagles alike, everyone got into the flow of math, grammar, reading, spelling, and even some foreign language. The Launchpad Eagles have already started their deep read pitches, while others have started picking out the books they will read for their first great and deep reads.
We also started art this week! Our art guide, Charlie, joined us and launched our product design class! This quest will last all session and will really prepare everyone for the business fair, where excellent product design will have some major benefits. This week they started with packaging design and each created their own personal water bottle labels.
Towards the end of the week, we played a few team building games. This included a game called “Dot” where each hero was given a different colored sticker to put on their forehead and had to figure out which color they had without using any words! Then teams broke up and did Squzzle puzzles and led each other through a blind folded Minefield game.
On Friday we launched our first full-length quest- the Chess Quest! The students are so excited to start this fun and challenging quest. They started by launching with “what’s your superpower?” where they reflected on one of their strongest qualities and designed a shield with this power displayed on it. Then we explored chesskids.com so they could practice their skills and start playing with each other!
All in all it was a fantastic week, and we are all so excited to be sharing and growing in these studios together!
We hope you have a great weekend and we will see you on Monday!
