The Phoenix Games Countdown: Collaboration, Creativity, and Commitment

spark studio

Inspiration, Team Spirit, and a Commitment to Excellence!

What an exciting and inspiring week in our Studio! We had the incredible opportunity to welcome Gold Medalist Keisha Kirtz as our expert visitor. She shared her remarkable journey to winning gold and reminded us that success comes through dedication, hard work, perseverance, and determination. One powerful lesson stood out: her ultimate goal wasn't necessarily to make it to the Olympics, but to become the very best at her sport. Her story encouraged us to follow our passions, focus on excellence, and believe in what we can achieve!

Meanwhile, our PE learners are racking up points as we prepare for the upcoming Phoenix Games! The competition is heating up, and we are getting ready to set and GO!

Current Spark Team Scores:

Red: 19
Purple: 11
Orange: 11
Yellow: 7
Green: 7
Blue: 7

Points system: 0, 5, 10, +1 extra for winners during game practice days. Points are based upon 100% participation, kindness, and listening.

The schoolwide competition is just as exciting, with Purple holding the lead while Green sneaks up behind, and Orange and Yellow race neck and neck. Red is finding its rhythm, and Blue may be ready for a big comeback! With five days of practice remaining—including the weekend—it's time to get up and move those bodies! Speaking of the weekend, we’ve been chosen (perhaps by ourselves) to sing the National Anthem. Lyrics have been sent home for learners to practice. We are so excited!

Following our conference reflections, learners have also embraced the challenge of mastery. Each learner has selected one badge goal to practice first thing every morning until mastery is achieved. We've created a chart to track progress and encourage accountability. Small steps lead to big accomplishments!

Our weekly shares have been marvelous and memorable! We've enjoyed recalling each special item: a music box, milk, megalodon teeth, a monkey, a mouse, a massager, Max the dog, and Malik the monkey. Keep those wonderful shares coming! Our letter of the week is "L," as in lemon!

Finally, we have a weekend challenge for you: We’ve been practicing how to spell words, and our word this session is “physics.” Who will return ready to prove mastery?

What a week of inspiration, movement, growth, and learning! Let's keep the spark alive!

lower elementary studio

Overview: We’re starting to sync up! Overall, more Heroes are consistently signing up to demonstrate Math and Language Mastery, earning Mastery, and returning to try again when they do not earn it the first time. We are seeing stronger follow-through, more willingness to persist through challenges, and a growing understanding that practice only becomes progress when Heroes are ready to show what they know.

Studio Maintenance is still an area of growth, but we are celebrating the small wins. Heroes are beginning to see the payoff of completing Studio Maintenance well after Core Skills. When the Studio is cared for before lunch, they only need to clean up their own lunch area afterward, which means more time for Brain Break. We were especially excited to see the Studio finish five minutes early on Wednesday! 🎉 We hope wins like this help Heroes see that responsibility, teamwork, and strong time management can lead to greater freedom for everyone.

Story Arts: Heroes continued building their Practice to Mastery Wrap Reports by explaining what their evidence actually means. After identifying patterns in their Core Skills choices, they used real numbers to tell the story behind those patterns, named the most important takeaway, and chose a next step for growth.

These Wrap Reports have been especially eye-opening for some Heroes. When asked, “What does this graph show?” Heroes made honest observations such as, “I need to practice more,” “I’m playing too much,” “I’m not doing enough work,” and “I’m not attempting Mastery.” Rather than relying on how they feel they are doing, Heroes are seeing their choices reflected back to them through real evidence. The goal is for that awareness to help them take greater ownership of what they choose to do next.

Quest: Heroes brought their Phoenix Games Physics Quest to life by creating a real-world take-home resource for Piedmont Wellness Center’s Kids on the Move program. In teams, they designed a booklet, pamphlet, or one-page handout that taught children why movement matters, what can happen when we do not move enough, and how physics helps explain movement and fitness.

Mr. Blake returned to check in on each team’s progress and offer real User feedback. He celebrated catchy titles, clear step-by-step directions, and visuals that made the exercises more engaging and easier to understand for different ability levels. He also noticed that some teams had spent too much time deciding how to work and did not yet have enough to show, so he challenged them to move from planning into action. His feedback also pushed Heroes to make their writing clearer, simpler, and easier for younger children to understand.

Exhibition Reminder: Exhibition is a schoolwide event this Session and will be held at Sogility in Fayetteville on Thursday, November 19, from 8:30 to 10:00 AM. Families should go directly to Sogility that morning, and Heroes should arrive dressed in their team color. We are excited for Heroes to share their work and experience the Phoenix Games alongside the rest of the school community.

Question of the Week: As we wrap up our Session focus, Facing Resistance, talk together about:

How did you respond when your first idea, plan, or attempt did not work the way you hoped?

Heroes who share what their family discussed with a Guide before Morning Launch will earn 15 Work Plan points.

upper elementary studio

Elite Coaching, Script Read-Throughs, & Future Policy

We’re gearing up for our Session 3 Exhibition and the Phoenix Games! Our Heroes stepped up their leadership, sharpened their athletic strategies, and brought our original Studio play one major step closer to the stage.

Quest: National Team Soccer Strategy & Volleyball Prep

In Quest, our Heroes received world-class insight from a very special guest! Didier Chambaron, a coach for the U.S. Men’s and Women’s National Soccer Teams, visited the Studio to share elite tactical strategies and leadership tips ahead of next week’s Phoenix Games soccer match. Some learners were stoked when he told them their strategic positioning was “brilliant.”

Later in the week, we took a field trip to the volleyball pit at Trilith for hands-on court practice. Beyond physical training, teams worked closely together to finalize all deliverables for next week’s Exhibition:

Compiling the athletic assessment tool for Piedmont Wellness
Finalizing team game strategies and customized workout plans
Documenting the underlying sports science behind their training regimens

Story Arts: Lore Revisions & Full Script Read-Through

Our Story Arts production team hit a huge creative milestone this week! Learners focused on editing and polishing their handwritten lore pieces to ensure every character, setting, and prop has a cohesive backstory.

Meanwhile, our writing team worked tirelessly to complete final edits on the full play script. On Thursday, the entire Studio gathered to listen to a complete read-through of the story—setting the stage for casting auditions on Friday!

Civ: The Four Industrial Revolutions & Policy Making

In Civ, we traced the evolution of all Four Industrial Revolutions—from the age of steam and electricity to computing and today’s Fourth Industrial Revolution (AI, robotics, and automation).

Looking toward the future, learners analyzed four possible technological scenarios and acted as policy advisors to “President Theo.” Using real-world news samples as evidence, teams debated the potential impacts of emerging technologies and crafted policy recommendations to guide the country forward.

Looking Ahead

Get ready for an exciting final week of Session 3 as we compete in the Phoenix Games and showcase our hard work at Exhibition! The games will be from 8:30 AM–10:00 AM at Sogility, Fayetteville. Learners should be dropped off there and then transported back to school for our reflection day. Have a great weekend!

middle school studio

As we move into the second half of Session 3, our Middle School Heroes have been focused on finding their flow—setting meaningful goals, building strong Running Partner relationships, and working together toward shared success.

Through thoughtful Town Halls and Circles, Heroes engaged in honest conversations about accountability, teamwork, and how we can better support one another. We also strengthened our community through Build the Tribe activities and celebrated an exciting Studio achievement: doubling our total weekly Bloomy learning hours! This milestone was a wonderful reminder of what we can accomplish when we come together with a shared purpose.

We are starting the wrap-up of work for Quest in preparation for the schoolwide Exhibition next week. It’s exciting to see the physics knowledge being actively demonstrated in our learner-developed combines. We also finalized plans for the materials needed to conduct those practice athletic tasks. The development of speeches has been the main focus to ensure a clear message about the benefits of certain approaches for coaching young athletes for our users at Piedmont.

In Story Arts, we are also preparing to publicly share our work on the development of branding and logos for potential future Forest School clubs or teams. The goal was to make them as visually appealing as possible while portraying a clear idea. Ms. Amanda visited and helped lead a Launch on color theory to help us iterate a third time on our designs.

Our creativity was also put to good use in Civilization, where we explored a tragic historical factory fire during the Industrial Age. We put ourselves in the employees’ shoes by writing a journal entry or narrative from their perspective and then making recommendations for law or policy changes based on past and current safety regulations.

On Friday, we enjoyed hosting the families of Heroes who chose Passion Projects or other alternative work to customize their badge plans here at The Forest School. The presenters were thoughtful in showcasing ownership of their learning!

It has certainly been a week of growth, connectedness, and persistence for us all.

high school studio

A Week of Ownership, Teamwork, and Growth!

It has been a busy week in the High School Studio! Heroes have been wrapping up Session 2, refreshing their memories, and preparing for Exhibition. The Exhibition went really well, and we are proud of the effort they put into bringing everything together!

We also jumped right into Session 3 Quest. Heroes have been working to understand the client’s problem, conduct research, and develop solutions. This week, we took a field trip to Piedmont Wellness, where teams presented their first solutions and received feedback directly from the client.

We are deep in the design thinking process, and that means not every idea gets a green light! Some teams received feedback that sent them right back to the drawing board. That is not always an easy place to be. It can be frustrating to put time and effort into an idea, only to realize it needs a major rethink. But our Heroes felt that discomfort, worked through it, and got back to exploring, thinking creatively, and developing new possibilities. That is a BIG part of real-world problem-solving, and I am proud of how they handled it!

With so much happening this week, we haven’t had as much time for Core Skills as we normally would. We recognize how important that time is, and our goal is to get back on track next week and protect it in our schedule.

But what I really want to highlight this week is our Heroes.

I have been so proud of the ownership and responsibility they have demonstrated. They have stayed on top of checking in with their Running Partners, making sure approvals are completed and feedback is thoughtful and meaningful. They have taken ownership of the clock and schedule, worked together as a Studio, and held one another accountable for commitments and responsibilities. They have also consistently submitted their Quest work on time and shown up ready to contribute.

These may seem like small things individually, but together, they make a BIG difference in how our Studio operates. They show growth in the very things we want our Heroes to develop: ownership, accountability, teamwork, and the ability to lead themselves and support one another.

I am truly proud of this group. And while I hope they already know that, I don’t want to just feel it and move on to the next busy week. I want to make sure they hear it, too!

Heroes, you are doing a great job of taking ownership of your Studio, your commitments, and one another. Keep it up!

math lab

The Phoenix Games are coming next week, and they will provide learners with some exciting opportunities to collect information and artifacts for their Math Relevance Project, which will be submitted during Session 7!

To help learners make the most of these experiences, I have provided a guide titled Physics in Action. This resource will guide learners in observing real-world applications of physics, gathering data, performing calculations, and making connections between the athletic activities and the mathematics behind them.

Remember, the Math Relevance Project is one of the four milestones in our Math Lab Badge Plan. Learners can find the project expectations, details, and assessment rubric in the Math Lab Badge description.

The goal is for learners to recognize that math is not just something we study in the classroom; it is something we use, experience, and encounter in the world around us every day! The Phoenix Games are a wonderful opportunity to bring those connections to life.

No grammatical corrections were needed. I only removed the unnecessary heading formatting and extra spacing to make the post consistent and ready to publish.

Session 3: Year 8, Week 14 In Review