Session 5 Week 4: Colossal Squid and Collaboration

This week in Spark Studio heroes dove into uninterrupted chunks of work time. Our learners are becoming confident in setting goals that are meaningful to them. A hero will independently put away materials and invite one another to join in a collaborative game about counting coins. A classroom culture of teamwork and fairness creates the necessary dynamics for a strong learning community. Our Spark heroes have the time to experience multiple social roles.They practice giving and receiving feedback and work together to problem-solve when compromise is needed. Instead of asking for help from a guide you might hear a Spark hero ask, “Is anyone an expert at peeling oranges?” Our community benefits hugely from a mixed-age dynamic and our heroes use compassion and patience while helping one another. This gives them a sense of pride and accomplishment as they contribute to our thriving community of learners.

One of the best ways to see the heroes following their interests is through the books they create. While one researches deep sea life and the mysteries of the colossal squid, another writes a fictional story that has carefully chosen words that someone younger can understand and would enjoy. We see our character trait of empathy pop up in so many aspects of the day.

Heroes had a guest guide, Ms. Lauren, visit on Monday and were excited to discuss the work they had done on self-portraits that hang in the hall. The week also featured a writer’s workshop around adjectives, an umbrella walk on a rainy day, a Friday pond visit, and an afternoon learning about scaled drawing in regards to playground design. Our young designers can be heard pointing out simple machines to one another outside and in our studio. They enjoyed working together to create bar graphs that display the data they collected doing playground research. Creativity and perseverance were shown as the heroes drew design plans and made 3 dimensional mock-ups of the best playground they could imagine.

I found this article about language development, that is definitely worth a read:
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/02/how-you-talk-to-your-child-changes-their-brain/

Have a wonderful weekend!