Welcome to the Second Week of the Second Session’s Launchpad Newsletter! This week was filled with thoughtful learning, hands-on experimentation, meaningful discussions, and even a special visit from another Acton Academy. Here’s a look at what we’ve been up to in the Launchpad Studio: 🍽 Genre: Crafting Restaurant Reviews In Genre, we focused on writing a short restaurant review to prepare for the longer, more detailed version coming later this Session. Each learner chose a

Hello, parents of the Journey Studio! This week, the Studio made batteries in Quest, explored perspective and verb tenses in Genre, and enjoyed a super fun visit from another Journey studio! Genre In Genre this week, we dove into verb tenses—present, past, future, present perfect, and more. We also studied point of view, including second person, first person, third person, third person limited, third person omniscient, and third person dramatic. Learners received feedback on

Dear Sparks Families, What an energizing and joy-filled second week of Session Two! The Sparks continued to grow in confidence, collaboration, and self-awareness as they explored our weekly themes. Here’s a look back at all the learning and laughter from the studio: ✨ Movement Monday We kicked off the week with a launch focused on movement as a form of self-expression . Nearly every Spark shared the unique ways they enjoy moving their bodies—some through song, others through

Hello parents and learners, It has been a fun and exciting week in the Discovery Studio! Writer’s Workshop As you know, this session we are focusing on theatrical writing.This week, learners wrote a monologue from the perspective of a character who shares a secret. The secret could be personal or completely fictional—either choice led to creative and thoughtful writing. Learners worked hard, and so many wanted to share their monologues during circle time that we ran out of ti

Hello parents, learners, families, and friends!I hope you all had a wonderful break—it felt long, didn’t it? We’re excited to jump right into everything we explored this week. Let’s start with Writer’s Workshop. Writer’s Workshop This session, we are diving into theatrical writing. In Writer’s Workshop, we’re doing so many exciting things!On the first day, learners memorized a monologue and performed it for the studio. We were blown away—so many talented learners were able to

Welcome to the Session 2, Week 1 Launchpad Newsletter! This session is going to be a very exciting one, as we have started our first science Quest of the year: Cooking and Chemistry. We are all enrolled in a Harvard EdX Chemistry Course, which, if we successfully complete, will result in us earning a graduation certificate!  This week, we learned about dimensional analysis, balancing equations, and more (for those of you who like chemistry, try to balance this equation: 𝐻2+�

Hello parents of the Journey Studio! This is the first week of Session 2. For Session 2, our Genre is Flash Science Fiction, and our Quest is Space X Chemistry and Rockets. This week we had so much fun. Are you ready to hear about all we did? Quest: This Session, our Quest is Space X Chemistry and Rockets. This week, we learned about what chemical reactions make the rocket go up, and then we created and tested our rockets. Most of the rockets did not launch, and the groups wo

Welcome to the final Launchpad Newsletter of Session 1! This week was the last of the Session. A lot of time was spent wrapping up the House Cup, Quest, Genre, NGA, and much more. Everything we did this session was meant to prepare us for Friday, the day of our Exhibition! On Monday, we started the process of greenlighting our Genre essays. We recorded ourselves reading our essays and rewatched the recording, taking note of any words, phrases, or sentences that sounded out of

Field Trip! -  This week, Journey Learners finished the Intentionality Game. In the game, after each working period, a learner rates themself on how focused they were, and at the end of the day, if their total score is above 8.5, they receive a star. At the end of Week 6, these stars were counted, and the learners with 16 or more total stars went on a field trip to the Arte Museum in NYC.  The Arte Museum is an immersive experience with screens, smells, mirrors, and even fog.

Dear Sparks Families, We’re wrapping up another exciting and meaningful week with the Sparks Tribe! Week six was full of hands-on exploration, teamwork, and thought-provoking discussions that brought the community closer together and sparked lots of curiosity. Team-Building Tuesday   The week kicked off with an engaging launch focused on conflict resolution. The Sparks Tribe explored different approaches to handling conflict, shared personal insights, and brainstormed togethe

Welcome to the fifth Launchpad Newsletter of the year! This week was packed with all sorts of fun stuff. From interesting Civ challenges to exciting Hero Visits, this week was super engaging in every aspect.  My favorite challenges this week all came from Civ. On Wednesday, we studied Adam Smith and his economic philosophy. We learned how he viewed the economic system of his time, Mercantilism, as being outdated and in dire need of being replaced, as he argued in his book The