by Mistral Dodson | Jul 2, 2022 | Uncategorized
On Wednesday of this year’s Adventure Week, the Phoenix Kids went to do a workshop with two self-defense instructors at Forged Martial Arts Studio. The kids did some exercises, some games, and some drills to help them do better teamwork and learn about self-defense.
The instructors started by having the kids do some warm-up exercises to get them ready and making sure everyone was excited to participate. The students were super energetic and excited while warming up, and they kept that energy through the whole day. The students were great at listening to the instructors and following the directions.
The first priority of the instructors was safety, making sure the kids were always safe. They gave very specific instructions and the kids did a great job following them. The older kids were great and helped the other kids focus their energy, and helped the instructors keep everyone safe. A lot of the focus of one of the games was teamwork and leadership; the game was for teams to silently work together to form the shape of a letter or number. The kids got the hang of it really quickly, and the older kids were great student leaders.
After all the warming up and playing tag games the instructors started teaching the kids some Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. But before they started they started teaching any techniques they talked to the kids about bullying. They made sure that the students knew that the point of martial arts isn’t to fight, to only use it as a last resort if someone tries to hurt you physically, and that talking should always be what you try to do first.
After they made sure all the kids understood they started practicing techniques for defending themselves if someone tries to tackle them. The kids had a lot of fun wrestling with each other on the mats while the instructors made sure everyone stayed safe. The instructors finished up by talking about the philosophy of martial arts, and how it’s about self-discipline and learning from one another. The Phoenix Kids made sure to all thank their instructors for what they learned before heading back to the school to eat lunch.
Cassandra, Montserrat Intern
by Mistral Dodson | Jun 27, 2022 | Uncategorized
Engineering is a HUGE part of our curriculum here at Phoenix. It provides the opportunity for curiosity and exploration through design, experimenting, building, testing, and trialing.
Each team or individual designed their own airplane, based on the challenge they wanted their plane to go through. First, we brainstormed ideas as a whole school.
Some challenges were to see how far the plane would fly, what height it achieved, how long it stayed in the air, and how many flips it could do.
We experimented with an app called Wind Tunnel to experiment with different shapes, aerodynamics, and wind flow.
For the older students, it was a mathematical challenge to figure out the speed of their airplane. They used testing tables and documented their data after each flight so that they could learn from their mistakes and create better designs.
by Mistral Dodson | Jun 15, 2022 | Uncategorized
I lead the Phoenix Kids in an animation workshop. Animation is my passion and my main artistic focus, and I really wanted to share my love for animation with the students. We used flip books to let the kids play and experiment with animation as an art form, the same way I did when I was little. My initial idea was to have them all start by making an animation of a bouncing ball so they could get the hang of using a flip book and learn how to animate something simple, before doing more complicated animations. I expected a lot of creativity and artistic ability from the kids, but I was shocked by how creative and driven the kids were.
The younger kids mainly focused on making a bouncing ball, and then coloring it and making a background, learning a simple animation while still expressing their creativity. The older kids were awesome, helping to teach the younger kids how to draw in a flipbook, and being really creative with the things they animated. They animated steam coming off a cup, a rocket taking off, an astronaut, and much more. It was really exciting to see how much the students loved to learn and express themselves through art and animation, and I was especially excited by how many of them had done animation with flipbooks before.
The Phoenix School has clearly fostered the same creativity and love of learning in its students that I treasure so much from my own early education. I’m excited to see what these kids do as they grow up, they’ve been well prepared for a good future. If kids with a passion for making animation keep practicing they’ll make for amazing animators, and lovely people to work with in the future.
Cassandra, Montserrat Intern
by John Andrews | Mar 27, 2019 | Road Trip - Everglades, Uncategorized
News from the Everglades Travelers…
If you didn’t catch us LIVE on Facebook today, here’s the link! We Facetimed with our older students from the Anhinga Trail at Everglades National Park and recorded it live on Facebook. It was really great to hear from them, even though we were envious of the 85°F and sunny skies! Take a look and a listen in to their experience.
