New Challenges, Fresh Starts, and Exciting Work Ahead

spark studio

Lost

Time keeps on ticking, ticking, into the future. Can you believe it’s the final countdown of the school year? Time has wings—it flies by so quickly. As we conclude the year, we discovered a problem here at TFS, and we want to solve it.

At TFS, lost belongings are almost a daily mystery—jackets vanish between Studios, water bottles disappear, and the lost and found overflows without ever quite solving the problem.

Inspired by this challenge, Spark is stepping in with a hands-on solution. Our team is designing and building a mobile Lost & Found cabinet to make returning items easier, faster, and more organized for everyone. Instead of things getting buried in a pile, this cabinet will bring visibility and accessibility right to the community.

What makes this project even more exciting is that we won’t be doing it alone. We’ll be guided by experts in design and construction, learning real-world skills while creating something meaningful for our school.

We’re excited to start sketching ideas, building prototypes, and bringing this project to life—one step closer to making “lost” a little less permanent at TFS.

The letter of the week for shares is “F,” as in French fries!

“Children naturally live in the moment and they allow that moment to be what it is; magical and beautiful in every way.” —April Peerless

Let’s be like the children and take the time to settle into the present moment.

lower elementary studio

Welcome to Session 7! As we continue exploring our Overarching Question, this Session’s focus is “Keep going when it’s hard,” with a special emphasis on Persistence in DRIP.

We launched a new leadership opportunity called Car Pool Safety Patrol. Beginning next week, two Heroes will help afternoon carpool stay safe, calm, and orderly, giving them a meaningful chance to practice responsibility, awareness, and service. Safety Patrol responsibilities will rotate each week so that different Heroes have the opportunity to serve in this role. Curious to learn more? Check out this link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PgTSOx1URovc-eZbM_a6GIn3fHl1BIk3Vnobt53snUg/edit?usp=sharing

This Session, learners are taking part in a combined Quest and Story Arts experience called The Super Science Heroes. In Quest, learners wrapped up their exploration of chemistry by making slime to learn about polymers. They then began thinking like scientists by reflecting on a chemistry idea that sparks their curiosity or what helps them learn chemistry best. Through writing, drawing, labeling, and partner sharing, they captured questions, observations, and ideas that will guide their work moving forward. In Story Arts, learners stepped into the role of content creators, beginning to write short scripts designed to teach an audience in a fun, clear, and memorable way.

In Civilization, learners completed a “Secrets of the Silk and Stars” scavenger hunt that explored key places, inventions, leaders, and cultural developments across medieval Asia. Through clues connected to Srivijaya, Angkor, Song China, Japan, the Delhi Sultanate, the Mongol Empire, and the Silk Road, they discovered how trade, religion, technology, and art spread between civilizations.

Studio Update: We have seen a lot of movement on our Behind, On Track, and Ahead Board due to missing Book Reports. As a reminder, each learner must complete 5 Book Reports in order to earn their Reading Badge. The first 2 reports must be written, while the remaining 3 may be completed in a creative format such as a drawing, video, podcast, song, or another approved option.

Question of the Week:
When something feels hard or frustrating, what does it look like to keep going instead of giving up, and how can that choice help you grow into the person you want to become in a changing world?

Each Hero who shares what their family discussed with their Guides on Monday will earn 100 points toward next week’s Work Plan.

upper elementary studio

This week was an exciting one in Upper Elementary as we officially launched our new Session in Quest, Civ, and Story Arts. There is a lot ahead of us, and the learners jumped into each challenge with real energy and enthusiasm.

In Story Arts, learners were thrilled to begin our new podcasting unit. Ideas were flowing immediately, and many heroes shared that several Upper Elementary parents have experience with podcasting. We are grateful that this coming Monday, a panel of Forest parents will be joining us to share advice, answer questions, and help inspire the learners as they begin creating their own shows. On Thursday, learners explored different podcast structures, brainstormed possible topics, developed questions for the panel, and began identifying what materials they may need to produce quality episodes.

In Quest, we launched our newest challenge: 3D Printing the Past and Future. Our expert partner for this Quest is the incredible Akhari Breland, founder of Fazarz Shoes, a company that creates wearable 3D-printed footwear. Learners (and Guides!) were amazed by his designs and immediately excited to help. We will begin by using Akhari’s existing shoe files, scaling them into different sizes, and developing color palette ideas. From there, learners will move into designing their own sandals and shoes. Akhari is eager to stay involved throughout the Session and plans to visit every two weeks while also consulting with us remotely along the way.

On Friday, learners studied the science behind 3D printing by learning about polymers, the materials used in many printed products. They also became familiar with one of the design programs we will use this Session: TinkerCAD.

Our Quest work is closely connected to Civ this Session. Learners will be designing and building a Story of the World board game that brings together much of the historical knowledge they have built throughout the year. This week, they played an Empires of the World matching game to become familiar with major medieval civilizations and then selected the empires they most wanted to study. Each group will eventually create 3D-printed game pieces, event cards, and character cards that help players learn history “on accident” while having fun.

We've got a field trip to the Music Garden on Tuesday, April 28th! They now have a recording Studio and would like to help us with some of our projects (original songs from Session 5, musical songs from Session 6, and podcasting from Session 7). If you can attend as a chaperone/driver for either a 10:00 a.m. slot or a 1:00 p.m. slot, we need several parent cars to get there.

We were also excited to welcome Stephen Pullom from Houston Acton Academy, who spent Wednesday learning alongside us and seeing Forest in action.

As always, we deeply appreciate community support. If any families have items they would be willing to donate or lend this Session, we would love:

Microphones for podcasting
Old cameras
Headphones
Green screens
Unused 3D printing filament

Finally, learners have many important goals to keep track of as we move toward the end of the year. This is a great time for heroes to sharpen their organization and ownership. Current priorities include:

Math practicals
Badge books
Typing Club
Math facts
Hero launches
Quest / Civ / Story Arts submissions
Zearn progress
Lexia progress

Please continue checking in with your learner at home. This is the season for heroes to get organized, stay consistent, and finish strong. We are excited for what is ahead.

middle school studio

This week in Middle School was full of new beginnings, big responsibilities, and important milestones. Heroes launched a brand-new Interior Design Quest, stepping into the role of designers as they begin thinking about redesigning a space that can be created with purpose, creativity, and the needs of our two users in mind. To kick off the work, learners interviewed one of our users, giving them an authentic first step into the design process and helping them better understand how to create with someone else in mind.

We also held elections for our new Council, giving heroes another opportunity to practice leadership, responsibility, and ownership within the Studio. In addition, learners completed the CCRA+ assessment, showing perseverance and focus as they worked through an important benchmark. In Story Arts, heroes began a new short film project, which will challenge them to think creatively, collaborate well, and bring strong stories to life through film.

Alongside all of this, we spent time focusing on goal setting as heroes reflected on where they are, where they want to grow, and what steps they need to take next. We are also looking ahead with excitement as learners begin planning a Dream Team Lunch for May 8. It was a week that balanced vision, reflection, leadership, and creativity, and we are excited to see where this next stretch of the journey leads.

high school studio

This week, our High School Studio officially stepped into Quest: Operation Cloverfield Ranch, and the excitement is already building.

Our heroes have been divided into specialized teams based on their interests, prior experience, strengths, and what they most want to learn. This intentional grouping is helping each learner step into meaningful work that feels both challenging and relevant.

For now, the details of each team’s focus will remain under wraps—we’re saving that for the grand reveal at Exhibition, which will take place live at the ranch as part of an immersive tour experience. Families and guests will get to walk the land, see the systems our heroes have designed, and experience firsthand the real improvements being made.

So far, the Studio has been deeply engaged in:

researching the real challenges on the ranch
studying current systems and inefficiencies
drawing blueprints
mapping out materials and logistics
building the foundations for sustainable solutions

This early phase has been all about thinking before building, making sure our heroes are designing systems that are both practical and lasting.

In addition to launching Quest, we also completed CCRA testing this week. We are proud of the focus and perseverance our heroes showed, and we are wishing them the very best as results come in.

Because this was such a full and busy week, our usual check-ins and regularly protected Core Skills time were adjusted. Those routines will resume next week as we continue balancing foundational skill growth with our exciting Quest work.

Next week, the work becomes even more real as our heroes begin traveling to the ranch to put their research and blueprints into action.

We cannot wait to watch this work continue to come to life.

Session 7: Year 8, WeeK 30 In Review