Chapters Twenty-Seven—Thirty
Actors, athletes, politicians, models … They all face an enormous amount of scrutiny and are judged on everything from details about their physical appearance to the company they keep. Very often these criteria outweigh our skills and accomplishments. And while we can expect in life to be judged (assessed) we needn’t feel that we we must put up with humiliating behavior or harassment.
Preparing our kids now for the kinds of assessments they will face when they apply for jobs or college or a spot on a sports team will give them a solid basis to work from as they grow and change. I don’t know about you, but I wish I’d been taught some of these lessons when I was in school—especially as a teen. Let’s give our kids a leg up and not only teach them how to make a good first impression, but how to handle situations when the impression they made was not so great.
⏰ Time: 45-65 minutes depending on your chosen activities.
Add 15-30 minutes for Omnopoly Quiz Game, Vocab Quiz, Ponderlings, and Memoir Writing Prompt (which can be done at any time after the session) + as much time as you like for Multigenerational Meanwhile activities
🔗 Reminder: LINKS ON THIS PAGE ARE LIGHT BLUE (or pink if you've already visited the link)
👀 LESSON AT-A-GLANCE
- 🤓 Theme Overview (above)
- ⏰ Timeframe (above)
- 📋 Supplies
- 🏫 Academic Activities
- ... Multigenerational Meanwhile ideas
- 🔗 Lesson Links (vocab, quizzes, answers, prompts etc)
- 📐📏 Skills & Disciplines
- ⏩ Link to next lesson
🔚 At the end of (or after) the lesson- ♟️Omnopoly Quiz Game
- ✍️ Memoir Writing Prompt
- ⛺️🗓️ Today's Story Advent{ure} Calendar action (if applicable)
- ☎️ 🌊 This week's FATHOMS group call (optional)
📋 SUGGESTED SUPPLIES
☐ Destiny by Design (for glossary & FYI notes in margins)
☐ Paper and pens/pencils for writing answers
☐ 🎭 🎩 If you choose to re-enact the recruit "auction," a red coat, top hat, and whip could be an easy cosplay for the ringmaster
☐ 🎭 🎩 Make sure to have an "element" shirt that goes with your students chosen element
🎁 Experience Enhancers: Streamers to decorate for the Auction, Oatmeal with blueberries, classic Circus Music, small Pizzas (or calzoni), Strawberry Lemonade, Cinnamon twist, Popcorn, DIY Challenge Chaser drink
🗄️ DETAILS by Category
1. ⏪ RECAP previous chapter - As you recall ... when we left Pete, he was exhausted after all of the rigorous so-called "philanthropy work" he did for the element charities. After ordering whatever food he wanted (a burger, fries, and milkshake), he skipped his "sensitivity assessment" with his Emotional Overseer in favor of going to bed.
2. 🔍 RESEARCH
- According to Piddlypedia, what is Druthers Day?
- 📖 Crack open Piddlypedia and share something you learned that you found interesting
- What is the origin of the “early bird” proverb and what does it mean?[according to Missouri State University’s blog, “This English expression first appeared in a 1605 book of proverbs by William Camden. The idea behind the expression is that the birds that wake up the earliest have the best chance of catching a good meal, since no other birds have awoken to pick for worms.”]
- 🔬What is a “sidereal occultation”? Can you give an example? [an eclipse]
- On what page in Piddlypedia is the section about "comprehensive listing of all course materials"? [page 4]
- What is GMT in our world and what does it refer to? [Greenwich Mean Time. “Due to its maritime connection, back in 1884, the village of Greenwich, London, England, was chosen as the reference point for all time on Earth. Together with coordinated universal time (UTC), GMT is regarded as the standard time globally” (source: Forex.com)]
- Why would Sable wear a black armband? What’s it for? [During World War I, when large numbers of soldiers died, wearing full mourning attire became impractical, leading to the adoption of the black armband as a more subtle way to show grief. (source: Google AI overview)]
- Looks like we now know what dimension Pete is from (and us too!) According to the glossary, how is Dimension Q described? [Dim Q is the curious dimension]
3. 🦄 IMAGINE & 🎨 CREATE
- 🎨 Draw or describe how a circus ringmaster looks. How is he dressed? What props or accessories would he have?
4. 🎭 RE-ENACT
- DIY Druthers challenge. Come up with an idea for a physical “challenge” such as an easy obstacle course for fun
- 🎭 Let’s flip the script on the recruit auction and do a re-enactment where we bring up each person and say 3 things about them that are wonderful and give them “talents” for each thing you say. Here is a page of print-&-cut talent coins created for the purpose.
- 🧮 Have students count the total number of talents they have at the end. (Make the math more challenging for older kids by assigning a fixed number to the coins such as 4, so each coin is worth 4 talents. Thus if a student ends up with 7 coins they would have 28 talents.)
- 🎭🎩 This is a big-deal scene to re-enact. While we don’t yet know which element Pete is going to, students can go through their own shirting ceremony by taking the Find Your Element quiz and then donning a shirt that represents that element. If you want to go all out, our school merch-2-purch shop has a number of shirts with each element logo. When you go to our CafePress page, click on the Ocademy collection on right side of page
5. 🧠 MEMORY, 🤔 DEDUCTION & LOGIC
- Do you remember what the word “skolier” means? [student]
- 🔠 What does it mean to expedite something? So then what do you reckon “extra-expedite” means?
- 🔠 Uh oh, what does “fasting” mean when it comes to Pete’s dinner?
- 🔠 The term “warden” is used differently at Omni than we are used to. What other terms have we heard that were different. Hint—what about Etta & Leon’s job titles? [Custodian & Gaurdener]
- 🤔 When it comes to a new day, what time (minute) would be “as early as one can get”? [12:01am]
- 🤖 Select 3 classes from Pete’s schedule and have students list:
- Temmpra (part of day)
- What could Aurora, Zenith, and Gloaming refer to? [dawn, noon, dusk]
- Name of course
- Type of course (core=mandatory, discretionary=elective)
- Preceptor (teacher)
- Location
6. 💬 DISCUSS
- 🧠 What do the Druthers Day challenges gauge? [How recruits respond to danger, how they handle themselves in a crisis, and how they manage conflict]. After the students answer, have them put the answer in their own words
- 🗣️ Explain Dodge Boulder to someone who knows nothing about the Omniverse or Ocademy
- Do you agree with Piddlypedia’s description of the Druthers Day trials? If not, how would you describe them?
- To you, which challenge was the worst and which was the best?
- 🌱 Sometimes things are not as they seem. Espa says there was a purpose to the ordeal the recruits were put through. Can you think of any example in life or fiction that illustrate this point? Example: In the Karate Kid movie & Cobra Kai TV show, karate students do chores. It turns out the movements they use doing chores build muscle memory that will make doing karate instinctive
- 🌱 Waiting can be hard, but it’s said “patience is a virtue”. I like the definition I once read in an old dictionary. It said “waiting is active expectation of good”. What are some ways we can make waiting more enjoyable and productive?
- Espa told Pete there were bigger issues going on than his class schedule. Are there any “bigger issues” you can think of? [I would say the rebels would be a bigger issue for sure!]
- Any idea why Earth is called Gaia … aside from it being confusing that there is an element called earth? [“Earth is sometimes called Gaia because in Greek mythology, Gaia is the name of the goddess personifying the Earth, essentially representing Mother Earth” (source: Google AI overview)]
*indicates a character or activity not specified in the narrative
a perfect way for group members who are either too young or too advanced for the lesson's specific subject matter to get involved
- Have a *narrator read aloud parts of the story while others re-enact
- *Have an adult take little ones on a "roller-coaster ride" of imagination by leading them on a winding path around the house or yard, going up on their toes, down low, tipping to one side then the other etc—even raising their arms and screaming at "the big drop"
- *If you live near a lake, try coming up with your own "log roll" activity for the whole group
- *Play a gentle game of "dodge boulder" with a red rubber ball or beach ball (It's like bowling, but with students instead of pins)
- If adults &/or older members of the group would like something extra-curricular to do, they can mount a *Bid Battle where they haggle over students for their element (away from the students, mind you)
- Have a grownup *portray the ringmaster and conduct the element ceremony where students find out which element they will be in—yay!
- Invite non-students (in your household or friend circle) to participate in the Discussions, Omnopoly Quiz Game, Ponderlings, Writing Prompts, Noshes, Creative Projects, and Group Activities
✍️ Memoir Writing Prompt: This is one of the longest (and most information-packed) novellas in Pete's 49-part saga. How are you feeling? Are you overwhelmed? Excited? What about the story made the biggest impact on you?
📐SKILLS
Memory, Deduction, Research, Vocabulary-building, Acting, Imagination, Drawing, Critical Thinking
📏 DISCIPLINES
Reading, Math, History, Science (astronomy), Ethics, Writing, Language
Reminder, we are not affiliated with any of the entities linked (aside from the Ocademy, of course)