Spark Studio
Welcome to Spark Studio! Spark learners will dive into the first session individually and as a community as they learn to live together in their new environment. They will focus on building their independence and collaborative relationships through grace and courtesy lessons. Each week, learners will gain an awareness of how their personal actions affect the studio and learn how to make respectful and kind choices that they outline in our studio contract. They will model and practice routines in the studio, as well as explore materials in the practical life, math, sensorial, cultural, writing, and reading areas. Through hands-on learning activities in their new project space (formerly the movement room), they will further explore what it means to be a community. They’ll work with a wide variety of materials to create self-portraits and harness their collective creativity to build a large-scale model of The Village School!
Discovery Studio
For our first session of the year, Discovery learners will be entirely focused on building our studio community. To do this learners will be immersed in activities and tasks aimed at developing an understanding of their space, others, and themselves. To get to know their space, learners will first be responsible for establishing common expectations by collaborating on a studio contract, maintenance procedure, and general routines. While learners will have many opportunities to build relationships with every member of the Discovery Studio, they will become an expert on one fellow trailblazer by designing a “Portrait” of that learner. Our learners will also engage in a descriptive writing memoir project to reflect on their own strengths and recognize themselves as trailblazers as well.
Adventure Studio
Welcome to the Adventure Studio! This session is all about building studio community and culture. For the Build the Team Project, learners will explore and identify the unique gifts they bring to their community and dive deep into what it means to be part of a team. Learners will have the opportunity to stretch their individual abilities and collaboration skills as they focus on a different Build the Team challenge each week. These challenges will include establishing a studio contract, constructing a badge plan, creating a music video, planning a field trip, and building a symbol that represents their character growth throughout session one. Each challenge will encourage learners to consider what makes a trailblazer and a community of trailblazers.
For Communications, learners will examine their own values, beliefs, and passions. What is important to me? What life lessons have I learned, and what have they taught me? Learners will work through each step of the writing process, practice giving and receiving feedback, and share recordings of their essays during Exhibition. Reflecting on their beliefs and values will aid learners in identifying the characteristics of the team they want to build, and ultimately, the kind of world they want to live in.
Health & Wellness
“By acknowledging our children’s emotions, we are helping them learn skills for soothing themselves, skills that will serve them well for a lifetime.” – John Gottman, PhD.
Emotions and feelings… What are they? How do they feel? And how do we handle them? These are some of the questions we will be exploring together during session 1 of Health and Wellness. We will explore the emotions of others, what they look like, and how we know how someone else feels. We will also explore how these emotions feel for us. How do we know we feel angry, sad, happy, joyful, lonely, or surprised? What signals are our bodies sending us? Once we recognize the different emotions we feel, we will better be able to understand how to cope with uncomfortable emotions. The learners will be introduced to mindfulness practices and tools for how to identify emotions. We will also play fun team building games at the park and work towards building a peaceful community together!
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