How did each state get its name?
What happens if evil elves take over the universe and a team of kittens and rabbits has to stop them?
How did the Greek alphabet arise?
One final question- has your curiosity been sparked? Welcome to the start of Session 7! Here are all the ways our Heroes are getting curious this session…
Civilization is a “DYI Historian” project (or in other words, Hero-driven research). This week, the Heroes explored the connection between the South Fork and Los Angeles dam failures and answered the question, “Does history repeat itself?” Then they devised their own questions to research, like “Why are minor Roman gods called ‘minor’ if they actually have big impacts?” and “How did the letters of the Greek alphabet get their names and shapes?”.
In Writer’s Workshop, the Heroes are taking on the role of children’s book authors with a twist- the illustrations are already drawn! They’ll be using an online program, Storybird, to piece together their stories. Today, we talked about Freytag’s Pyramid (or a useful way to develop your plot). Ask your Hero if it is similar to the Hero’s Journey! Many Heroes already had a multitude of ideas and have spent hours drafting.
Our quest is the inspiration for this session’s character trait: Building Curiosity. We will be exploring geography, engineering, code-breaking, architecture, and baking in one-week bursts. The goal is to provide an introduction to a wide range of topics and hopefully, spark a new passion or area of intrigue. This week’s topic was geography where the Heroes took on the 50 State Challenge. In just 3 days, they memorized the location and names of as many states as they could, and in the process, practiced valuable memory retention techniques and dealt with frustration and set-backs. Next week, they will design marble roller coasters!
One new change for Session 7 is that a new system has been introduced to Elementary Studio. Before break, the Heroes noticed an increase of distractions during Core Skills time and created a list outlining what was distracting so that everyone was on the same page. Looking for a reasonable consequence, we introduced the marble jars. Each Hero will start with 5 marbles every week. If a Hero is being distracting, then another Hero may ask for a marble. This week, the community had a renewed vigor to keep the studio as a sacred learning place.
Thanks for tuning in!
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