Weekly Updates
Preschool / Spark Studio (PS) Update
Circle Time
During circle time, the Eagles played Chinese Whispers. The first Eagle whispered a short message into the ear of the Eagle sitting next to them and the message had to be passed all the way around the circle until it reached the first Eagle again. They enjoyed it very much, especially when the message came out exactly as it had started from the first Eagle. But … how did ‘Christmas tree’ become ‘Crash’ in the second round of the game?! The Eagles were bewildered and started questioning whether they were listening when someone told them something important.
The Eagles liked the game so much that they wanted to play it again after school. After school, everyone quickly grabbed their bags and came back to the circle. The Guide was also prepared to facilitate the game again, then Ari requested that they wanted to play without the adults. Ari was left in charge and Moez was very excited to start the game, but some of the Eagles brought out their toys and the Eagles very quickly ended up playing with the toys. Moez tried to rally his friends to play the game again, but it didn’t work, and he ended up being a little frustrated and disappointed.
Thanksgiving
On Thursday, the Eagles were given pieces of paper to write down what they were thankful for. The Eagles realised that they had so much to be grateful for and expressing that gratitude reminded them that even the present is … a present.
Elementary Studio (ES) Update
Writer’s Workshop Research Paper & Infographic
The Eagles are in the final stages of their research paper! This week the Eagles’ challenge was to complete the final draft of their research paper in preparation for next week’s Exhibition.
There is a general air of excitement and accomplishment at this stage as this has been a particularly challenging Writer’s Workshop with quite a steep learning curve. “What are linking words?” Most of the Eagles managed to complete their final drafts, which was a real achievement! “I’m so happy that it’s complete!”
The next step was drafting out an infographic, which they will draw out next week. They arrived at their final drafts by going through the processes of revising using a rubric and editing using CUPS (capitalization, usage, punctuation and spelling). “My conclusion only had 8 things to correct.”
Eagle-led Exhibition
As the Exhibition coordinators were planning for the Exhibition over the week, they realized that they wanted to change its format. They came to the Guides and suggested the new ideas with a rough plan in place. In our Eagle-led environment which is a safe place to try new ideas and experience natural consequences, the Guides fully supported the Eagles’ ideas and suggestions. It will be exciting to see what will unfold during the Exhibition!
Empathy Certificate and Bookmark
This round the Eagles were challenged to examine ’empathy’ and they were to fill up an ’empathy award’ for another Eagle who had shown them empathy or kindness. Some Eagles found it challenging at first, “It’s hard! I do not know what to write and who to write to!”, but when they sat and thought about it, they managed to think of someone: “Can I write one to my mum?”
The Guide ended the session by giving out a bookmark to every Eagle.
Fun Friday Townhall Discussion
The Townhall is an Eagle-led discussion in which the Eagles bring up issues that they would like to resolve amongst themselves.
During this Townhall, the issue of qualifying for Fun Friday was brought up as some of the Eagles were concerned that those who could not qualify would feel left out and sad. There was a heated debate as opinions flew back and forth about whether Fun Friday should be maintained.
One Eagle felt that Fun Fridays should be maintained: “You have to work hard to earn your Fun Friday. If you didn’t work hard enough this week, you need to work harder for the next Fun Friday. You need to push yourself. You are preparing for the outside world, the real world. Imagine when you are working outside, you need to push yourself to become successful. Moreover, more than half of the Eagles actually qualified for Fun Friday last week. It is a good motivation!”
Another Eagle maintained that the Fun Friday requirements are attainable: “It’s not too challenging to qualify for Fun Friday. All you have to do is to follow the schedule, stay focused, and you will be done. There is a time slot in the schedule for each part of the requirements. You just need to stay on track with your goals. You need to work hard and you can qualify for Fun Fridays.” Focus on your work, Eagles!
In the end, the majority of the Eagles voted to maintain Fun Fridays and Eagles having to qualify for them as they wanted to work towards achieving their goals and having fun together. It was very encouraging and inspiring to see the Eagles debate about this particular issue and how they related it to the real world. It shows how the Studio is becoming more mature.
Fun Friday
This week, the ES Eagles had a wet blast in the neighbour’s swimming pool. One of the neighbours graciously opened up their pool for the Eagles to use and the Eagles were grateful for the chance to cool off in the afternoon heat and play water games: “3, 2, 1 … jump!, “This is fun!”. When it came time to head back to school, there was the expected: “Awwww … do we have to go already?”
Eagle-led Christmas Celebration
The Eagles stepped up to organise the Christmas Celebration this year and they really enjoyed the process of planning it: “It’s fun to organize this Christmas activity!” They formed a SSG (secret Santa group) and are organising a Secret Santa gift swap and an art and craft activity. There was the usual debate between the Eagles: “Do you know Santa is not real?”
Last year’s Secret Santa wasn’t very well organized well, but Eagles learn from mistakes and are doing their best to plan this year’s event. They are sure that they can do it better this year!
Middle Studio (MS) Update
Exhibition Preparation
The Exhibition Committee discussed the timing and venue for the 3 parts of the exhibition. Things that were also considered were crowd movements, noise levels and space and time limitations. Based on past Sprints, the Exhibition Committee takes the views of each Studio member into consideration before making the final decisions – a democratic system.
This time they debated whether to let the PS and ES Eagles attend the Exhibition, due to space and noise level constraints: “Who votes that the PS and ES Eagles will not be allowed to sit in during the MS Exhibition?
House MD
The Eagles are now enjoying peeping into the world of medicine via the award-winning TV series which is touted to be fairly accurate when it comes to medical conditions and diagnoses.
The world of medicine is filled with ethical dilemmas and House MD dives deep into the ethical issues that arise during treatment. The Guides never imagined that the Eagles would enjoy it as much as they now do, but it’s heartening to hear discussions about the cases throughout the Studio after each episode.
