Christy Garvin

December Target Calendar

Please use the following link to access the December Target calendar: Download December 2016 

Garvin's Scuba Academy (GSA)- Week of November,7th

It was great seeing all the projects this morning and I loved all the creativity and unique ideas on your display boards.  We will be leaving the projects in the media center for several weeks, so please feel free to come in and take a look at any time.  Cadets worked very hard on these projects and I am so proud of their efforts!

 

As was mentioned in last week's blog post, students will not have Target for the next several weeks.  This is due to our school-wide Target testing and Thanksgiving break.  I am hoping that we will be able to finish up testing in time for me to pull the kids for Target again the week of December 5th.  Please watch your e-mail and the blog for confirmation on what will be happening that week.  We are also planning to have a Target Christmas party for each of the grade levels.  I will be out of the building a great deal the week of December 12th-16th for motivation portfolio evaluations and paperwork checks, but the parties will be scheduled around these commitments.  The 5th grade party will be on  Thursday, December 15th and the 4th grade party will be on Tuesday, December 20th. Please keep your eyes open for e-mails from room moms with more specific information on times and what you can do to help.  As soon as I have the schedule totally in place I will send out a December calendar.

 

I hope your kids enjoyed our trip to Diver's Supply this week!  They did a great job and learned so many new things.  All students toured the shop and saw many different types of scuba gear.  They also enjoyed a classroom session where they were introduced to the problems associated with Lionfish, an invasive species that is causing extinctions of native plants and animals, reducing biodiversity, competing with native organisms for limited resources, and altering habitats.

However, for most students, the highlight of the day was the pool session.  Students were able to try on scuba gear, learn skills associated with the sport, snorkel, and for students who were 10 and older, take the scuba gear into the deep end of the pool.  I do hate that the nine year olds were unable to take the gear down deeper, but Diver's Supply has welcomed everyone back when they turn 10.  Every other Friday night they offer a "Try Scuba" class and you and your child are welcome to attend free.  Also, if your child really enjoyed the experience and anyone in your family would like to get certified, Diver's Supply will give you a $50 discount per person on any "Learn to Dive" package you choose.  I have posted some pictures and video of our day for you to enjoy.

 

Movies:

Download Instruction in the Pool

Download Going Off the Deep End

Download Clearing a Regulator

Download Mask Clearing

Download Torpedo1

Download Enjoying Diving

 

 

Raiders of the Lost Civilizations- Wednesday, November 9th

Hard to believe, but today was another short Target day! Third grade students enjoyed both the in school Eco Regions field trip and a visiting author talk before making their way to Target.  Once students arrived, we quickly loaded the time machine and headed to ancient Rome.

While there students learned about the rise of the Roman Empire, Roman Numerals, and began to explore the art and entertainment of the culture. Students began planning their own Roman mosaic and learned a little about the gladiators and Colosseum.

We also spent a little time watching our Photostory movies of various cultures. Young archaeologists did an amazing job on their projects and their movies are fantastic!! It is obvious they put a great deal of time and effort into this project and I hope they are very proud of their hard work.

As was mentioned in last week's blog post, students will not have Target for the next several weeks.  This is due to our school-wide Target testing and Thanksgiving break.  I am hoping that we will be able to finish up testing in time for me to pull the kids for Target again on Wednesday, December 7th.  Please watch your e-mail and the blog for information about when we will have Target class and our Target Christmas party during the month of December.  As soon as I know dates and times I will create a December calendar and e-mail you.

With this in mind, students have brought home a packet of activities centered on Rome.  We are getting cut a little short on our time in Rome, and I want the kids to fully experience this amazing culture.  Please look at what was sent home tonight and help your child divide up the work over the next month.  There should be no more than 30-40 minutes per week and all of the assignments will be due the next time we meet (Hopefully, that will be Wednesday, December 7th).

3rd Grade Target Tally-  Download Target Tally 11-9

Raiders of the Lost Civilization- Wednesday, November 2nd

Yesterday was an amazing day at the Carlos Museum.  Young archaeologist thoroughly enjoyed the sculptures and Olympic relics from ancient Greece, the pottery, clothing and jewelry of Rome, and the mummies, Canopic jars, and amulets from ancient Egypt.  The docents were excellent and loved the interaction with the Vaughan students.  They were surprised at how much the young archaeologists had learned this year.  The museum also gave me a free return pass for each student and 1 accompanying adult. I will send the pass home with your child next week in case your family would like to go tour the museum and see some of the cultures we did not have time to tour yesterday.

 After our visit to the Carlos Museum, we topped off the day with a visit to the Varsity.  What'll ya have? What'll ya have? Chili burgers, french fries, naked dogs, frosted oranges, and brownies :)  We all enjoyed the feast!

 Just as a reminder, our Raiders of the Lost Civilizations movie project is due next week.  I have shown the students how to format the movies and save them as a movie file instead of a project file.  The computer has to run through four or five steps to do this and it takes about 5 minutes for the computer to save the music, slides, and animation.  Please make sure your child does this step at home before saving the movie to his or her flash drive.  We don't have time in class for 19 students to do this before we watch the movies- thanks!

On a totally different topic, if standardized test results come in as expected, we will be conducting school wide Target testing the week of November 14th, November 28th, and other selected dates in December.  That probably means next week will be your child's last Target day until sometime in December.  Please look at the November calendar that was posted on the blog earlier today to make sure you are aware of our schedule changes.  With that in mind, we will also need to start thinking about a Christmas party. I am working right now to coordinate a date with third grade and will be reaching out to room moms soon with both a date and time.  Currently, the following parents have volunteered to help out with the room mom duties: Tammy Auldridge, Cassandra FitzRoy, and Michelle Hill.

 

 

November Calendar

Please use the following link to download the November Target calendar:  Download November 2016

Garvin's Scuba Academy (GSA)- Week of October 31st

Today was our final day of instruction on the physics and math connected to scuba diving.  Fourth graders spent this final day working on lift bags and learning how to raise objects from the Ocean floor.

Fifth grade learned all about gas under pressure as we witnessed a Diet Coke geyser created by placing Mentos in a Diet Coke. This demonstration helped students understand the importance of Charles' and Gay-Lussac's Laws which deal with the temperature, pressure, and volume of gasses.  Cadets learned that placing a scuba tank in a hot car trunk or getting a "hot" tank fill can both be dangerous and they used their algebraic thinking skills to determine what conditions would be unsafe for a scuba tank. 

As you all know, next week is our trip to Diver's Supply.  I have posted a great deal of important information about the trip on a blog entry titled "Diver's Supply Last Minute Reminders."  It can be found under the field trip section of the blog; please make sure to read it carefully prior to your child's trip to the dive shop next week.  Because we will be returning after school is over for the day, the clinic will not be sending medications for your child on this trip.  Please make sure to follow the directions on the blog when sending any necessary medications.

 In addition t being the week of our field trip, it is also the week our big Travel Time projects are due (YAHOO!)  I know all of us are excited about finishing up this big project.  Because our field trip is next week and students are out of school on Tuesday for elections, here is how we will work turning in the projects. All student projects will be due on Friday, November 11th.  Students should meet me in the media center between 7:15 and 7:50 a.m. with their projects.  You are welcome to park and help your child carry in his or her project.  Once in the media center, please look for a shelf that has a sheet of construction paper with your child's squad color on it.  In other words, the Monday class will be looking for red paper, the Tuesday class yellow paper, the Thursday class blue, and the Friday class purple. Students will place their display boards on the correct shelf facing the same direction as other student projects.  At that time I will also be taking up the corrections from the 4th grade Dive Table quiz.

 On a totally different topic, if standardized test results come in as expected, we will be conducting school wide Target testing the week of November 14th, November 28th, and other selected dates in December.  I will be getting out a November calendar later in the week, but if tests do arrive in the next week or so, the trip to Diver's Supply will be your child's last Target class until sometime in December.  With this in mind, we will need to start thinking about Christmas parties for the grade levels.  I am working right now to coordinate some dates and will be reaching out to room moms soon.  At this time, the following parents have volunteered to help out with the room mom duties:

Red Squad (Monday class-4th) - Cassandra Fitzroy

Yellow Squad (Tuesday class-4th)- Stephanie Conboy, Serena Meyer, Heather Woods

Blue Squad (Thursday class-5th)- NONE

Purple Squad (Friday class-5th)- Mary Harmon, Danielle Voss

We will need at least one parent per squad who can volunteer to help with organizing the parties.  If there is anyone whose child is in the Thursday class who is willing to help, please let me know.  

 

 4th Grade Target Tally-  Download Target Tally 10-31 & 11-1

5th Grade Target Tally-  Download Target Tally 11-3 & 4