October 26 - 30

A snow day, 2 late starts, and Halloween! What a crazy week it has been!

In Writing, the Eagles were challenged to create a Spooky Story.  Some of them may have a career in writing spooky stories! Ask your Eagle to share his or her story with you! 

We have loved watching the Eagles grow in confidence and excitement in writing! 

Thursday, a younger Eagle reminded an older one that one sentence is not a story.  Together as a group, the Eagles helped that learner come up with ideas to add to the story.  What a beautiful moment of bravery for the younger eagle and learning for the older! 

For our E-Ship Quest, the Eagles were challenged to create 50 sandwiches for a costumer.  They were split into 2 teams and battled against one another to create the best quality sandwiches. Their quality standards included having ham, cheese and mayo on each sandwich, even bread slices, ham and inside the bread, and bread that was not soggy.   The winning team produced the most quality sandwiches; showing the importance of working together and producing high quality work.  

 

On Tuesday, we spent PE time in the auditorium, where the Eagles were able to run and play.  They played Four Square and Tail Tag.  I think they ran for a solid 45 minutes straight! 

In art, the Eagles worked on some Halloween creations, making toilet paper monsters. It's amazing what these learners can create with a few simple supplies. 

The Eagles have been challenged with a new game: to follow the Rules Of Engagement to participate in a Mystery Friday Celebration.  This week, the Eagles had to meet their goal of 3 or less marks for breaking the ROEs!  We celebrated their hard work by making slime!! 

Next week, the Eagles will be challenged with only 2 marks to earn the Celebration. 

Friday, we ended the week with a Halloween Celebration.  Every Eagle came dressed for the occasion and we ended the day with festivities!  We had a candy scavenger hunt, wrapped mummies, played corn hole and enjoyed lots of time in the snow! 

    

We love our Acton Eagles! 

October 19-23

 Another great week at Acton! We are in our second week of Session Two, continuing to work on our Entrepreneurship Quest. On Monday, Michael explained to the Eagles the cost of goods. "If you sell $100 of lemonade, did you make $100? That had them all bringing up great points.. the lemonade mix! the card table! the sugar and ice and cups!" 

Yesterday we played Roborush, an economics game. The Eagles were introduced to concepts like selling door to door, opening a store and hiring an employee, and opening a factory. 

The Eagles continue to learn about Poetry. On Tuesday they learned about haikus, and on Thursday they learned about free verse poetry. Here is an example written from one of our Eagles!

"We have spiky backs, people think we are so cute. We sleep to the max."

What am I? A hedgehog! 

"They live in the jungle, they have black skin. They are very strong."

What am I? A gorilla! 

In civilization, we learned about the Egyptians and the first writing, hieroglyphs. We asked the Eagles to imagine that they were a citizen in an early civilization like Egypt. "What is more important, progress in communication and science or progress in defense and weaponry, and which one makes for a better future?" We also asked the Eagles to write about significant historical writings and how they shaped the world. They then shared these with their fellow Eagles! 

To begin the year we let the Eagles use different learning programs and online games for math and language arts. Now that we are in Session Two, we have asked the Eagles to only work on things that will help them with their badge plan! The older Eagles are working in Khan for math, and the younger Eagles are in DreamBox. Everyone is working in IXL for language arts, and we also encourage reading during our Drop Everything and Read Time. Many have been working through the unit tests, and are showing great progress! When things get tough, we remind them that they can do hard things. 

It is a privilege to be a part of each learner's journey, and we believe that our best days are ahead of us!

October 12-16 Session 2

Session 2 has brought many new learning opportunities for our Eagles.  

We began civilization on Tuesday, and the Eagles loved it! We read stories from the past, learning history and having discussions about our ancestors' lives. The Eagles made connections, shared stories they have heard and learned about the first nomads. 

A few Eagles chose to complete Civilization Challenge #1, sharing artifacts and history about their family. 

Tuesday, the Eagles split into groups to learn about Poetry and teach their studio-mates about their findings. 

 

On Thursday, Eagles learned about Metaphors and were challenged to write their own. 

In Core Skills, Eagles continue to work on SMART goals to focus their learning time.  As they make their goals, conversations are had about how their goals will help them progress towards Badges. 

Session 2's Quest is E-Ship! Eagles are placed in groups to learn about entrepreneurship and create their own business.  The eagles will present their business's product or service at the Session 2 Exhibition on November 13th. 

We laughed at all the Eagles who said they were sore on Wednesday from Tuesday's PE game, and know we had some sore legs on Friday.  These Eagles did a 12 minute Tabata workout of lunges, jumping jacks, and step-ups.  They showed great sportsmanship and never quit! 

In Art, we are spending as much time outside as possible, using what we can find in nature to create. This week, Eagles went on a nature scavenger hunt and created a clay imprint of a treasure they found.  They also practiced the technique of blending chalk pastels of leaves. 

 

My favorite part of the day is watching the Eagles work and enjoy learning together! 

Session 1 Exhibition

 Can you believe the Eagles ran an entire Exhibition on their own?! 

I am still in awe and so proud of them!

The afternoon began with an Eagle Panel- Eagles teaching their families how they learn, how they make decisions in the studio through Town Hall, how they show mastery, guardrails they are not able to cross, what the Hero's Journey is, and the Ticket system they have created to assure all Eagles follow the contract. 

The Eagles then took their families on a Learning Tour, showing them the programs they use for learning, their Memoir writing, artwork, and how they track their progress. 

An Eagle then called everyone to the carpet to show their Lip Dub, Hakuna Matata.  A Lip Sync created and completed entirely by the Eagles.  

For the last 6 weeks, the Eagles have been working hard to craft their Studio Contract- a list of promises made by them.  As a community of the tribe, the Eagles signed the Contract and Rules of Engagement (their promises for discussion time), pledging their promise to uphold these rules for themselves and others. 

The Eagles closed out their first Exhibition with a short reflection.  Many expressed that their final showcase was a huge improvement of their practice runs that morning.  They were Heroes who learned from their mistakes, listened to their peers, and made the needed changes.  Overall, they were proud of their hard work and how they joined together to present their learning to the parents.  

What a great learning process for everyone involved! Thank you for being a part of your Hero's learning. Here's to the next 6 weeks! 

Sept 27- Oct 2

Our studio is beginning to look like an Acton! The walls are filling with anchor charts and artwork, goals cover the whiteboard, a contract awaits Eagles' signatures, and writing is overflowing from portfolios.  

This week, Eagles began tracking their SMART goals on their own.  Every day, they make 2 goals for reading and math.  These goals focus and drive their Core Skills time, giving the young Eagles a purpose for their work time.  At the end of Core Skills, Eagles reflect on the difficulty and progress toward their goal. 

 

Eagles have completed their memoirs by working through the entire writing process; pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing.  During editing, Eagles split into 2 groups to work with a Community of Editors.  Each eagle was given a task to edit specific pieces of their peer's work.  They looked for mistakes in capitalization, punctuation, spelling and word choice.  

Eagles also had the opportunity to meet with a Writing Buddy, an older peer (in this case, our wonderful owners!) who noticed and recommended areas of their writing they could refine and apply to future writing.

We are loving PE time! Especially with this beautiful weather.  On Thursday, the Eagles warmed up with a game of Octopus Tag, then challenged their core strength with a team workout. The Eagles completed a running relay race, while the remaining team members held a plank! 

In art, the Eagles worked together to create a collaborative color wheel. It turned out pretty awesome! 

This week, Eagles spent a lot of time prepping for their Exhibition.  They voted on a schedule, practiced panel questions,  and rehearsed the final product.  The Eagles even coached one another through answering questions that would teach their parents about Acton systems.

We ended our first session with a pizza celebration!

Congratulations Eagles for making it through your first 6 weeks at Acton Academy Amarillo! We are so proud of all your hard work, courage, and grace as we learn and grow together.