Year 1. Session 2. Week 3.

The imaginative, creative fiction works the Eagles have been drafting continued this week in Writers’ Workshop with a focus on Word Choice. Tuesday’s session was kicked off with a TED Ed video highlighting the use of metaphors and similes to put the reader in the shoes of the character. It described a character named Billie who, well, let’s just say wasn’t feeling too well at school that day:

“Billie’s legs are noodles. The ends of her hair are poison needles. Her tongue is a bristly sponge, and her eyes are bags of bleach.”

The author’s word choice makes the audience feel almost as nauseated as Billie herself. With word choice top of mind, and with the help of a few gracious Writing Buddies (thank you!), the Eagles were back hard at work bringing their stories to life!

Once again the clock was dialed back while the Eagles took a trip through time and around the globe. This week’s Civilization witnessed the unified ‘Old Kingdom’ of Egypt and their burial rituals, the Sumerian dictator King Sargon and his rise to power, as well as a King Hammurabi and his code of laws. Debated topics ranged from asking priests to spend royal riches on an expensive mummification to save yourself in the afterlife or risk of being rejected from the afterlife by not being mummified, instead using the money to feed the hungry people of the kingdom, to deciding if you would rather live in a free city-state that was self-managed but did not progress because it was constantly fighting other city-states, or live under a dictator like King Sargon who conquered and was ruling your city-state from afar, but put a stop to the fighting. We can’t wait to see where our travels through time take us next week!

Ultimate Football continued on during the week and this sport has provided a few new challenges to the Eagles in the form of determining equitable playing time. Only five people from each team are allowed on the field at a given time, so how do you figure out who gets to play (and how much) when everyone wants to be out there? Tuesday’s scrimmage was cut a bit short to gather in a Socratic Discussion surrounding that very topic. There was a lot of frustration around the group but great ideas were debated and the session ended with each team working through their own substitution strategies. Typically, Thursdays are split with one team in PD while the other works with Mrs. Rebecca in Art, however Mother Nature had other plans in store. The schedule was adjusted due to the rain so while one group was doing art, the other was working through their hour of Core Skills. The rain subsided just as the typical hour of Core Skills would be getting underway. Since each group got their Core Skills in, an impromptu, `1combined PD kicked off giving the Eagles a chance to put their strategies to work earlier than expected! The response was a complete 180 and it was just remarkable to see so much growth in such a short amount of time. The game flowed seamlessly with substitutes enthusiastically cheering on their competing teammates and Eagles running off the field to allow their peers into the game with words of encouragement and high fives. It was a game to remember!