Wizarding Wisdom: Year 5 - Week 4 In Review
This week included preparing for Exhibition, breaking ground on the new school building, and more! Details below!
spark studio
In the wild jungle of the Spark Studio this week the learners explored the elements of story writing, completed their first story for the podcast, bravely solo auditioned for roles, and began recording their interviews in studio-made forts. All while welcoming an expert who shared his experiences in setting goals, working to obtain and successfully mastering those goals!
We learned that some goals take time, patience, perseverance and are extremely challenging, however those can be the most rewarding goals. Our badge flowers are now gracing the Studio walls with their beauty as petals are daily emerging into what will be a beautiful flower representing our achievements in sounds, numbers, continents, and most importantly leadership!
elementary studio
Learning this week in the Elementary Studios has been exciting to say the least. Early in the week, the heroes got a chance to learn about the principles of flight through researching and creating paper airplanes. During Art, heroes created their very own broomsticks. They loved decorating them and exploring more about Quidditch and flying with their housemates.
Our expert Ms. Galligan, a stunt double professional, came to tell us about her job and her work with green screens! The heroes were excited to learn about her work and how much the green screens can do. They then got a chance to record a video of them flying on their broomsticks and used green screen technology to create their own videos! This assignment was a bit challenging for them, but they enjoyed every minute of it!
Heroes have been working on their Podcasts for Story Arts these past weeks and have almost come to a final product! This week for Civilization heroes took their Alien Scientist exploring in the Ottoman and Byzantine Empires in Eurasia, exploring their culture more deeply.
With Exhibition next week, heroes seem to be getting the hang of how we do things here in the Elementary Studios at The Forest School! We are excited for the first exhibition of the year and an amazing rest of the school year to come.
middle school studio
“Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine.”
As we wrap up our fourth week in the Middle School Studio, the week was off to a fantastic start. The Forest School has officially broken ground to the future new building for our learners. It was a magnificent time with heroes, guides, leaders, families and the board as we celebrated the building opening next Fall.
The Middle School Studio used their time to engage in a new civilization challenge where they had to think on higher levels of who the Crusaders were and their meaning to the history of the world. The Guides took it up a notch in Quest and changed the challenges per the heroes’ request and made it even more hands-on. Learners gathered up and learned how to test their pulse rate and heart rate with various circuits and physical activities. They where stoked about the new changes and are excited to learn about what the Exhibition will look like. Learners are learning what it means to be a self-directed learner by taking accountability for their actions as well as their peers.
During Core Skills we are rewarding learners that have been consistently in flow, demonstrating their own independent learning, with zero distractions! This is no easy task and rewards are warranted! By the end of the week we discussed the importance of Exhibition and what they will be presenting to their parents and visitors. This exhibition will be as learner- led as possible! Be ready to go through a series of stations learning about multiple aspects of the brain. Remember, Exhibition will be held Aug 30, 2022, at 4:30-5:45pm.
high school studio
“Don't raise your voice, improve your argument." -Desmond Tutu
This week we began with a Civ challenge on a trending topic in America, human trafficking, by analyzing the current state of this issue. This challenge really encouraged our heroes to take a look at their surroundings, and keep safety at the forefront of their minds when out in public.
I’d like to give a huge shout-out to the HS heroes for reaching a major accomplishment this week, they have completed the final product of their music videos! Many went off campus to film, so we are in for a treat with a variety of scenes. In addition, Tyler and two learners held some phenomenal Socratic discussions, launches that keep you thinking even days later, wow, what an impact!
As we start approaching the final days of session one we are beginning to wrap things up; Thus we had our first Studio reflection conversation that focused on our learning experiences of the session, we wrapped up our Quests by completing our lab notebooks, and finalizing the data collected, and are now heading towards planning our exhibition next week. The upcoming week will be all about badge approvals, completing any work that needs to be finalized, and again, getting ready for our Exhibition!