Weekly Updates

Preschool / Spark Studio (PS) Update

Letting Interest Guide

The PS Eagles started to show some interest in the Insets for Design. This material allows them to practise their pencil grip and deep dive into geometric shapes and designs.

A filling up the Curve Triangle with horizontal straight lines.

A with the rectangle frame, nearly completing her horizontal line filling.

A display of the PS Eagles’ work brings the Studio to life.

Clear Thinking

Some Eagles wanted to celebrate the Eagle Buck (EB) Store with confetti, just like last week. The Guide reminded them of what happened last week and then called for a vote of ‘No Confetti vs Yes Confetti’. All the Eagles voted for ‘No Confetti’ as they remembered the loss of time cleaning up the mess the confetti made last week. They made the conscious decision that the EB Store was more important than Confetti.

Exhibition Preparation

The PS Eagles decided on the filming date and they stuck to it. Everyone was ready with their displays on the date, and some were even ready a few days before the deadline. Pretty awesome, PS Eagles!

This was the first time the PS Eagles did a live filming of their Exhibition work in a ‘filming studio’ setting by a ‘professional cameraman’. Mr Aaron was the cameraman and a shooting stage was set in a remote part of the Studio.

The PS Eagles were focused on their filming, not one of them were distracted by some hammering going on nearby. They are maturing and focusing better now! Most of the first filmings were deemed Exhibition-worthy by the PS Eagles and only a few wished to do a retake after watching their videos.

Peruse the PS house tour videos at the PS My Dream Home Exhibition.

Last Day Of the Year!

Thursday 30th July was a busy and fun day in the PS Studio. Exhibition fell on that day, and, since it was the last day of the Sprint, the EB store was opened. It was also considered a ‘Fun Friday’ since Friday itself is a public holiday. Couple this with the fact that it was also the last day of the Acton year and it was definitely a call to celebration. The PS Eagles decided to celebrate their growth and achievements with Water Balloons.

Thank you PS Eagles for the amazing year we’ve had! Here’s to all the achievement, growth, new skills and new beginnings of this past school year and here’s to many more! Have a great holiday and see you in the new school year.

J created a seesaw by accident! J: “I put two ladders on two of A’s towers, but why is it moving up and down like a rocking seesaw?” M and A comes along wanting to ride it. J : “It’s a ride, you need to pay money!”

D and J in the flow during cleanup on Monday.

A and B in play flow – totally focussed on the task at hand.

A moving the block by flipping it. Problem solving!

A’s skateboard. This is how he’ll discover physics and maths: “Why doesn’t my skateboard move with cuboid blocks?”

M jumping from the Throne – an exploration in velocity, mass and distance?

Elementary Studio (ES) Update

Project

The last art challenge was colouring pages for the ES Eagles to get creative with. They went wild with an explosion of colours and discovered the therapy of colouring intricate designs – similar to creating a Zentangle. The ES Eagles used different media like colour pencils, markers and even acrylic paint to bring the pictures to life.

Colouring may seem childish, but it’s very therapeutic and creative.

Gratitude Challenge

For the final gratitude challenge, the ES Eagles were given gratitude slips to cut out and pass to the fellow Eagles. It encouraged them to think of tall the small things that their friends has done for them and be grateful for these acts of kindness.

At first, the ES Eagles found it challenging to think of someone to fir the description on the slips, but as the started passing the slips to each other, there were smiles all around. They all agreed that gratefulness makes you happy.

A simple act of expressing your gratitude brings positive vibes to the giver and the receiver.

Exhibition Preparation

This was the first time that an ES Eagles took over to prepare for an online Exhibition, so kudos goes to Kotowa for taking on the challenge! She had a lot of fun leading and organizing the website layout for the ES Eagles’ art projects and journal writings, despite the fact she had never done it before. She figured it out on her own and was very responsible to give her fellow ES Eagles a deadline for submission of work, and was very firm about it.

The ES Eagles are stepping up to take charge of virtual Exhibitions too.

Although Kotowa realised that she made a mistake with one of the exhibits, she was very honest and apologised to that Eagles’ parents, owning her mistake. Great job owing your process, Kotowa!

No one volunteered to organise the journal entries for the Writer’s Workshop, so the Guides took over. We’re sure that the ES Eagles will continue to grow in ownership, and will take over more parts of their Exhibitions in the new year.

The ES Eagles saw that those who had been organised throughout the Sprint were better prepared come Exhibition Preparation time. This is a learning curve they will continue to go on as they grow.

Enjoy the creativity of the ES Eagles in the ES Art Challenges and the Journal Writing Writers Workshop.

End of Sprint Celebration

For their end of Sprint celebration, the ES Eagles chose to watch a movie together. They all voted on Night at the Museum 2. With their own snacks in hand, everyone enjoyed the movie session and it was a good end to the short but welcomes stint in the Studio.

Popcorn, a scary movie and beanbags … a cosy end to the year.

Power to the ES Eagles for overcoming such a trying school year – what with having to be confined at home and adapting to distance learning. You’ve all matured and amazed us with your strength and tenacity! Enjoy the rest and see you soon!

Middle Studio (MS) Update

A Half-Full, But Still Productive, Studio

It was a four-day week, gearing towards Exhibition on Thursday 30th July. Work and Exhibition preparations still hummed along, and the MS Eagles found joy in discussion, work and play.

Evan led a discussion about dilemmas over whether one should save someone at the risk of conflicting with his/her will. Most of the MS Eagles opted for saving the life, and both sides of the argument were explored.

To save, or not to save, that it the question. Socratic Discussion allow the Eagles to dive deep into their motivations, the ‘whys’ of what they think, say and do.

Unusually, the MS Eagles opted for tag as PE, making the best of the small group that they had. Raw fun or inappropriate for this age? We say it’s the former!

Exhibition Preparation

The Exhibition was a mark of how at ease the MS Eagles are now with the apprenticeship process. Breed can also breed complacency, however, and there were clear differences between the MS Eagles who continued to uphold standards and those who chose to take the easier routes. Have a look at the MS Apprenticeship Preparation Exhibition and see for yourself.

The MS Eagles know the effort they put in and quality of their work, What happens next? An audit can compare excellence in various ways:

Comparison with their previous work – is this better than my efforts for the previous Exhibition.
Badge requirements – is this meeting the requirements, or if an alternative is proposed, is it of higher/tougher standards?
Exhibition-worthy – is this worthy to be greenlighted for the Exhibition?

Will the MS Eagles step up their apprenticeship?

Fun fact: If you need a butt kicker, there is a candidate for hire!

A great shout out to the MS Eagles. You’ve overcome some personal and situational adversities to get to where you are at this point in your life and, as you look forward to a new school year after a month-long rest, strive for bigger and better things for yourselves!

To all to celebrate, happy and safe travels and …