“You’re not my friend!”, “I don’t friend you anymore!”, “She is my BFF.” “Everybody is my friend.” You’ve heard these kinds of statements in the playground countless times, right? What does friendship mean to a PS Eagle who is just learning to understand the concept of ‘you and me’ as opposed to just ‘me’? That’s what they will explore this Sprint as they take a break from a formal Quest. What is a friend? Someone to play with? Someone who will take your side no matter what? Someone who will tell you if something is wrong?
The PS Eagles will also examine what being kind means. As they are growing up socially and emotionally, they are beginning to understand that their words and actions affect those around them just as they are affected by the words and actions of those around them. They will ask questions like, “Is kindness only shown through actions?”, “What is a kind word?”, “What are unkind words?”
Finally, the PS Eagles will work on the concept of working together. Does it mean one person doing all the work while the others play? Does it mean everybody has to be in charge and running the show? The PS Eagles will discover the different roles within a team, which roles they seem to take and what working as a team means. United we stand! Divided we fall!
More than anything in the world, children are curious. If you are a parent you will know the incessant nagging of, “How? When What? Who? Where? Why? Why? Why? ” It’s only human to blow a spark and cut this incessant questioning off, especially when you’re trying to focus on something, or Stranger Things is on, or … anytime.
Consider this, however … how did we come to have light? How did we come to have the wonderful things called computers? How did we come to have penicillin?
It was because highly annoying people never stopped asking questions until they got answers. It was because that little child insisted on driving his parents crazy taking every appliance in the house apart to learn how they were made. It was thanks to their natural curiosity that drove them to seek and seek and seek.
In Sprint 2, the ES Eagles have been given the chance to allow their inner curiosity to guide them. You’re interested in magic? Figure out how Houdini got out of those locked boxes. Crime fascinates you? Learn how to pick a lock. Curious about what will happen when the ice glaciers actually melt? Run simulations to come to your own conclusions. Basically, they’ve been given free reign to run with their curiosity, so … look out world, it’s going to get messy!
The MS Eagles, meanwhile, are exploring the wonderful world of medicine. They have been challenged with the question : “Should your doctor be in charge of your health?” Historically, doctors were the ultimate authorities on a patient’s health. They were the knowledgeable health experts, whatever they said went and you, the ignorant patient, listened and followed their word to the T.
In this age of increasing awareness of and interest in our own health, self-research is the norm and the dialogue between the doctor and the patient has changed. Now, it is more of a partnership, a sharing of information, and it really is up to the patient whether they take the doctor’s advice or not. So, who should be the ultimate authority over your own health?
The MS Eagles will familiarise themselves with major bodily systems and ask questions like, “What actually goes on inside my body? What should it look like?” Only when you know how things are supposed to look will you know when something isn’t right.
The MS Eagles will also delve into exactly what to look out for in physical exams, diagnostic tests and medical scans so that they will understand what all that probing and prodding, beeping and scanning means. Of course, there will be hands-on work. Any volunteers for diagnostic testing subjects?
Weekly Updates
Preschool / Spark Studio (PS) Update
Allen’s Adventure
The PS Eagles were introduced to Allen, the new exchange student from another planet who had come to school here on Earth.
“Allen was sad and frustrated because he wasn’t able to join a game – he didn’t know how to communicate with his new friends. Along came a friend who saw that Allen was sad, so he helped him by guiding him to communicate with his Earthling friends.”
The PS Eagles explored Allen’s emotions and thoughts and brainstormed on how they could help Allen. They also put themselves into Allen’s shoes and thought about how they’d like to be helped.
Good Character Callouts
Each PS Eagle reflected upon what good character is. They each gave good character callouts to their fellow Eagles. One Eagle called out how their fellow Eagle was kind to them, another called out how their fellow Eagle shared with them.
Friendship
When discussing friendship this week, the PS Eagles focused on including their friends in their work and play. What would you do if a friend joins in halfway? What would you do if you see a friend sitting all by themself, looking sad? They practised being aware of their friends’ feelings – watching what they say and what they do. How would you feel if your friend snatched from you? Always do to other what you want done to you.
Evangelia’s Birthday
Happy Birthday Evangelia! Always keep that beautiful smile bright and light up the world with it! The PS Eagles celebrated the special day with Evangelia with lots ot bubble fun.
Elementary Studio (ES) Update
Welcome back, Acton Eagles! Here we go with another fun-filled, thought-provoking, character-building Sprint!
Team Building – Cross the Lava Pit Challenge
The week kicked off with a team building challenge … how do we help our fellow Eagles cross the lava pit without being burned by lava?! It was fun, but the ES Eagles had to practise calm and clear communication in a ‘dangerous’ situation. One wrong turn and your fellow Eagle would fall into the deadly lava! Shouting might startle your fellow Eagle!
Quest – Escape Rooms
Each Growing Curiosity Quest will be Eagle-led this Sprint, and, under the guidance of the Guides, The Quest Leaders’ challenges are to design the structure of the week, come up with the challenges, use a tracking system, organise the teams and carry out the launches. The will also run the show for Project Time!
This week Jun Hung and Vega shared their interest in escape rooms with their friends. They shared their background research into Escape Rooms, discussed Escape Room design and factors to consider and challenged their fellow Eagles to design their own Escape Rooms for each other to escape from.
The ES Eagles really enjoyed designing their own Escape Rooms, although they found it very challenging! Overall, they were fascinated by the whole idea: “Escape Rooms are fun but scary!” As Quest Leaders, Jun Hung and Vega gained a lot of leadership and planning skills, as well as techniques to work better together as a team.
Looking forward to the next few week’s Quests:
Week 2: Apsara and Jared look into Climate Change.
Week 3: Chelsea and Sufyan look into Crime.
Fun Friday – Escape Room Outing!
Fun Friday was spent … in an Escape Room! The ES Eagles hunted for clues and cracked codes to get them out of ‘sticky’ situations. The challenge? Can you find the key in the limited amount of time that you have?
Deepavali and Halloween Celebrations
This year’s Deepavali celebration was Eagle-led, so the challenge leaders had to research into and present fun and informative activities. Rangoli and muruku make for a happy, festive celebration but there are also challenges along the way. Rangoli requires patience and a steady hand to create beautiful designs. What better way to create beauty than to do it with your fellow Eagles?
This is Halloween, Halloween, HALLOWEEN, HALLOWEEN! And what better way to celebrate Halloween than to share spooky stories to creep your friends out? The only thing missing was the dark, dark night, the campfire and S’mores.
Chucky’s Birthday Celebration
Happy birthday Chucky!! May you always shine out your bright light and kind heart! The ES Eagles had spooky fun celebrating with Chucky … eating spiders!!!
Middle Studio (MS) Update
Quest: Medical Research
Throughout the first week of the Sprint, the MS Eagles had the opportunity to peek into the lives and work of medical researchers and doctors in diagnoses training. By the end of the week, they had chosen their teams for Week 6’s Exhibition and built up their ActonKL Medical Journals.
The work was intensive and, by the end of the week, only 2 Eagles had completed the work and were on track to participate in Fun Friday – a viewing of House M.D. One Eagle enjoyed it: “I managed to finish this week’s Quest work and stayed on track to earn Fun Friday – which is watching House M.D. I liked it.” The other Eagle would have chosen another activity to do on Fun Friday: “The video kept stopping and that made that experience not enjoyable. I would personally not want to watch House M.D. I would prefer to watch something else for Fun Friday.” Here’s looking to next week when we can get a bigger Fun Friday crowd with work completed in time.
Halloween Celebrations
The MS Eagles had fun dressing up (and choosing NOT to dress up) for a bit of Halloween fun. They showed dedication to their costume, putting in effort to make them authentic and detailed. One Eagle commented about another’s costume, “Hou Yienn is so dedicated to Halloween … he even ripped his shirt to get into character!” A Guide observed the same dedication in another Eagle, “Evan’s Black Plague Doctor costume is so elaborate – an all-black 3-piece suit, a cape with red lining, an inner hood, a customary bird mask under a black hat and, to top it all off, a walking cane with an orb. Such attention to detail!
