The Weekly Newsletter
Week 4, September 25-29
Welcome back everyone! We had such a fun and busy week again. Read on to hear fun details about what the Eagles were up to this week.
On Monday we started the week with conditioning- our weekly half mile run and PE drills. The kids are getting so great at their techniques in Quidditch!
We rolled out freedom levels this week. The students use freedom levels as a tool to keep on track with their academics and their upholding of the contract. The lower levels are a bit less “free”, and as you work your way up and prove to be an independent learner and someone who is able to take charge of their educational and also respect their fellow travelers, you gain more freedom. Everyone is starting at a level 3/4 and has the ability to move up (we believe in them!) or move down.
The foundation and navigator transition students continued learning about the early colonists of America and the origins of the different states. We read about the Dutch and French colonists who took over the East Coast and Canada, and how the English ended up taking the land from them. We learned about Separatists, puritans, and pilgrims too.
The launchpad and navigator students read through page 28 in Hamilton and answered questions about him, which they had a socratic discussion on at the beach on Friday. Some things they explored were: his education and how it shaped him and his beliefs and values later in life; his views on slavery in the colonies and how his upbringing could have played a part in them; Hamilton’s views about the church…to name a few.
In art this week the Eagles painted their own color wheels! Charlie got back to the basics with them and they learned about the primary colors, secondary colors, and tertiary colors. They then used this knowledge to carefully mix the three primaries and make a color wheel. It was really fun!
The chess quest was a blast this week! The most valuable lesson that’s seeming to come out of this is time management and the ability to follow directions. The launch and meeting times for this quest have been more punctual than we have been flowing this year, so it’s been a great exercise for us all! We also ended the week with an awesome game of human chess! With the help of some Eagles, we drew a giant chess board with chalk and two players moved each of us (pieces) in an epic game of living chess.
We ended the week with beach day! We are lucky to be having such beautiful weather so late in the season so we just had to take advantage of it. It turned out to be such a wonderful day. We played a few serious games of volleyball and frisbee. We had a great socratic discussion about football and it’s pros and cons to students, and the navigators and launchpadders had their history meeting. At one point, the whole school swam in the ocean together at once! There were also lots of awesome sand sculptures made. It was a great end to the week!
We’ll see you on Monday….for the last week of the session!
