About Our Studios
Spark Studio
Like Maria Montessori, we believe even the youngest children have important work to do, even if the work is imaginary play or working together with wood scraps, ladders, and old tires to build a castle.
Spark (SP) is best imagined as a garden where learners (ages 4-6) embrace Montessori work and Spark Play to learn real-life skills and develop the independence, focus, and kindness needed to enter an Acton Elementary Studio— each prepared to discover a calling that will change the world.
Studio Leadership
We take the original principles of Montessori even further by making the top priority of a Spark Guide to equip Spark and older learners (Sheepdogs) to take over studio leadership tasks from adults as soon as possible by offering examples, a rubric, and a recipe for each skill — mirroring the Montessori method of a Guide showing a lesson so the child can do it alone.
In Spark, the Guide will be turning over the management of morning greeting, cleanup time (with checklists) in the afternoon, leading group time, and resolving conflict at the Peace Table to learners and Sheepdogs as soon as possible.
Elementary Studio
If an Acton Spark Studio feels like a garden where young heroes accomplish important work through play, an ideal Acton Elementary Studio (ES) feels more like a neighborhood, where learners (ages 7-12) choose important work in core academic skills and other areas as a way to earn the right to engage in with great energy in increasingly challenging games.
Play vs. Challenging Games
What is the difference between “play” and a “challenging game”? In a challenging game the:
- Rules, stakes, and consequences are clearer
- Energy of a learner is often more focused for a longer time
- Time spent in collaboration is higher
- Number one goal is to be asked to play again
Goals & Lessons
The goal of an Acton Elementary Studio is to prepare each learner with the skills, work ethic, and independence to thrive in a rigorous Acton Middle School environment.
To achieve this, Acton Owners have learned NOT to overuse Middle School systems like Badges or Freedom Levels to over-stress academic accomplishment. Far more important is to foster a love of reading, a desire to communicate clearly, and the joy of solving mathematical puzzles in real life — plus the ability to get along with others and move from daily to weekly and session-long goals.
Guides
An Elementary Studio Guide acts as if each young hero truly is a genius who will change the world, and begins to transfer responsibility to Sheepdog learners as soon as possible. Guides offer learners fair choices and consequences, with no nudges, nagging, commands disguised as questions or other passive-aggressive tactics adults often use to coerce children into the “right choice.”
Early in the life of the studio, a Guide models the skills of a master game maker through a:
- Compelling launch that puts the learners in the shoes of a protagonist who faces an important dilemma to show why the challenge matters
- World-class example and rubric to measure success
- Recipe, process, or algorithm to address the dilemma
- “Rules of the game” with clear roles and rewards, so Sheepdog learners soon become game makers too
In a mature studio, there is often little for a Guide to do because learners deliver launches, execute multi-week challenges, and practice self-governance with little adult intervention.
Middle School (Coming August 2026)
Preparation and mindset are the keys to building a thriving Acton Middle School (MS) studio for learners (ages 11-14).
The goal of a Middle School studio is to offer learners exciting Quests and increasingly challenging Writing and Communication work that culminates in public Exhibitions and Apprenticeships, all of which prepares learners for a Next Great Adventure in Launchpad.
Launch Pad (High School - Coming August 2027)
The goal of Launchpad (LP) is for each graduate to discover a Next Great Adventure — a superpower skill, industry, and place to live and work — where he or she will find a calling that will change the world.
By Launchpad (age 14+), the right heroes have developed the skills, drive, and character needed to change the world. If learners hold the line on standards in an Acton Middle School studio, and only the most dedicated heroes from outside of Acton are admitted, Launchpad will be a dream come true.