Day 15 - Field Trip to Everglades National Park

What a great field trip today.  We went to the Everglades National Park and walked both the Anhinga Trail and the Gumbo Limbo Trail.  We saw alligators, turtles, fish, grasshoppers, and quite a few species of birds.  We were well-prepared and did not get bit by any mosquitos.  As we finished walking the Anhinga trail, we spotted the skin of a snake that had been shed intact.  It was pretty cool!  Lunch was a welcome break with sandwiches, apples, and water.  On our way out of the park we stopped at the Visitor Center, where they played a movie for our group and gave us all Junior Ranger books.

Once we were all back at the taekwondo school, the Reflex Math team did a quick session before joining the others in some lively games of box ball.  The afternoon was spent playing chess and playing games on the computer.  Before everyone departed, we celebrated the achievements each camper made in Sokikom and Reflex Math.  It was a great way to end our third week of summer camp.

Remember, there is no camp the week first week of July as we will be in Chicago at the USA Taekwondo National Championships cheering on Team Taekwondo athletes Gabriel Hernandez, Gabriel Mora and Sky Choi.  See you all on July 8th when camp resumes! 

Day 14 - Rainy day outside, plenty of fun inside.

As week three is winding down, we changed up the daily schedule just a bit.  We played board games, built amazing things with Legos, and played box ball/four square in the morning.  While Team Tiger played math board games, Team Dragon did Sokikom and Reflex Math.  Team Dragon also had a fraction lesson with Mrs. Dana using the cool pizza manipulatives.  While Team Tiger did math, Team Dragon joined Instructor Sky for storytime.  He read two books about the Everglades as we are going their tomorrow on our field trip.   Both Team Dragon and Team Tiger trained taekwondo today as well.  After lunch, we watched a movie --- a perfect activity for a very stormy afternoon.  We checked out the progress of our bacteria growing experiment and manage to put the live ants we received in the mail into the viewing habitat --- a few escaped but we got things under control quickly.  We also learned to make lots of cool things out of paper using one of the origami apps on our Google Chromebooks.  Of course, the day would not be complete without a little free time to play Run on the Cool Math website or Club Penguin!

Day 13 - Legos, Zome, Marble Run, Math and Reading

Team Dragon had a great time building with Zome, Legos and Marble Run.  Science today was focused on learning about bacteria and hypothesizing where the most bacteria lurked.  After making agar and preparing our petri dishes, armed with swabs, the campers scoured the school to look for the best location to test.  We will see what we can grow over the next few days.  As always, Instructor Sky made our workouts challenging but fun.  Team Dragon even had the chance to spend some time bowling with oversized, inflatable bowling pins.  The Reflex Math crew reached a record high number of milestones!  The math fluency gains are amazing.  The team working with Sokikom math has been blazing through the program as well.  Campers are also working on their assigned summer reading from the campers' regular schools.  The Team TKD library has all the books assigned by the local elementary schools, making it easy for students to get their summer reading assignments done.  What a great summer!

Day 12 - Tumblewing gliders, Reading, Math, Physical Fitness, and more.

Campers spending at least four weeks at Team TKD Summer Camp have the option of doing Reflex Math along with Sokikom.  The sole goal of Reflex Math is to develop math fluency.  We have 10 campers that have committed to averaging 30 minutes a day, five days a week for at least four weeks of camp.  Collectively, they have worked over 18,000 problems in the past two weeks and have made huge gains in math fluency.  The best part is that they are actually having a good time playing the math games that are the heart of the Reflex program.  We are already seeing some amazing statistics coming out in the daily reports but are waiting until the end of camp to calculate the overall gains in fluency.  

In addition to Reflex, campers use Sokikom for math and Scoot Pad for Language Arts daily.  Add to it a minimum of thirty minutes of sustained reading each day and you have kids that will be returning to school ahead of the game.  The coolest part is that the kids (and the counselors) are having a blast!  Today's science time was spent building tumblewing gliders and attempting to fly them.   With two physical fitness training sessions each day and time playing with the parachute, it is not just strong minds, but also strong bodies being built. The day is rounded out by free time playing on the computers, playing chess or other board games, and building with Legos.   

Week 3 - Day 11: Legos, Box Ball and Two Science Experiments

Today, we played with Legos, played chess and Othello, burned a great deal of energy playing box ball and parachute games.  Science time was a big hit as we did two science experiments.  First, we did the PTC test to see who has the gene that can taste PTC.  The ability to taste PTC (or not) is conveyed by a single gene that codes for a taste receptor on the tongue.   Our second experiment involved Newton's 1st Law, the law of inertia.  We tested this using an empty water bottle, a playing card, a plastic ring and a hex nut.  By placing the hex nut on the ring or card on top of the bottle.  We next tired to knock away the car/ring to make the hex nut drop straight into the bottle.  If we applied a force on the hex nut, it did not drop into the bottle.  Science is a favorite subject here at Team TKD summer camp.  We also did Sokikom and Reflex Math, along with Scoot Pad for Language Arts.  Everyone is making great progress...and having fun while doing it! Of course, we read every day and are plowing through everyone's summer reading assignments.  The day would not be complete without some free time on the computers to play Club Penguin or games at Cool Math or Fun Brain.  Life is good!

Day 10 - Water Park, Free Time and Egg Drop!

Friday is Field Trip day!  We went to the YMCA Aquatics Center in Pembroke Pines and had a great time.  When we arrived back at the taekwondo school, we played Chess, built things with Legos, and played with the parachute.  We finally got to do our egg drop experiment.  We designed our protective cases on Tuesday, built them on Thursday and did the drop test on Friday.  All but a few eggs survived the drop!  Some of the more interesting drops involved marshmallow Fluff (Luke D.), an avocado (Santiago R.), cheese puffs (Shreyan), silken tofu (Sebastian R.), cotton candy (Sophia/Matty R.), oranges (Tommy M.) and shortcakes (Giuliano)!  A good time was had by all.  We cannot wait for Week 3!

Day 9 - Fewer pictures today....

Today, we did two projects that were both incredibly messy, leaving little time (nor a clean hand) to get the camera out.  First, we made polymer bouncing balls.  Before the polymer sets up, it is a lot like rolling a glob of glue in your hand.  Team Tiger went first and we had a few mishaps, but we perfected the method by the time it was Team Dragon's turn.  Good thing Master Choi was at a meeting and did not see the huge mess we made with glue, Borax, cornstarch, water and food coloring!  After lunch we made protective cases for the eggs we are going to drop from 15 feet tomorrow.  The campers designed their projects earlier this week and today was build day.   Both teams were very creative and the room was filled with everything from duct tape and bubble wrap to marshmallow fluff, balloons, oranges, avocados, tissue boxes, cotton candy and cheese puffs!!!  We will make sure to take pictures tomorrow of the eggs in their cool cases being dropped.

As usual, we did Reflex and Sokikom Math.  Luke D. could not get enough of it and did over 500 problems in one day!  Pedro is also on a roll, having completed over 1400 problems in just four days.  Gabriel H., Gabriel M., Damian A., Michael M., Valeria C., and Pedro G. have all earned certificates.  In Sokikom math, our campers are earning tons of Soki coins which they use to update their online avatars.   We also had reading time.  Pedro and Samuel (aka the Twins) are reading machines and are plowing through the Five Ancestors series.  Everyone is reading a minimum of 30 minutes sustained silent reading.  And, a day at camp would not be complete without Taekwondo, physical fitness training and parachute games.  Check out the collage below and see if you can find Team Dragon doing classic Korean military drills ---the only difference is the Team Dragon kids are smiling!

Next week all of our projects will be focused on the Everglades as we will be heading to the Everglades National Park next Friday.  Best. Summer. Ever.

Day 8 - Making strides in math and reading!

Several of the Team Tigers are trying out the Reflex Math program this week.  After only three days,  five of eight have earned certificates of achievement.  Pedro has earned two certificates, including one for hitting the 1,000 problems solved milestone --- not bad for an average of under 40 minutes a day for three days.  All campers are making great progress in Sokikom math as well.  The parachute games and the Legos are still favorite activities.  Both Team Dragon and Team Tiger put in some serious free reading time today. And, we made a cyclone in a bottle during science.  Sky kept everyone on their toes during physical fun time and Taekwondo.  Strong Minds, Strong Bodies!

Day 7 - New Addition: PARACHUTE

We had another great day at Team TKD's Summer Camp.  The morning started off with some board games (Othello, Chess, Go/baduk, Words With Friends), computer time (Club Penguin, of course) and box ball.   While Team Tiger spent time reading, Team Dragon did their language arts program online using Scoot Pad. Team Dragon switched with Team Tiger and played physical fitness games with Sky, while Team Tiger worked on Sokikom and Reflex Math.  After lunch we did two different science experiments.  Team Tiger studied how Dawn dishwashing liquid separates the fats from the proteins in whole milk --- made visible with food coloring.  Team Dragon made polymer worms!  Both teams practiced Taekwondo.  But, the new activity today was playing with a 24 foot parachute!  This is going to be a camp favorite no doubt.  Check out the photo below.

Week 2 - Day 6

What a great day!  We did plenty of math today using Sokikom, Reflex, Cool Math online and dice games with Instructor Sky.  We also made sure to fit in some reading and Language Arts using Scoot Pad and Merit Learning Online.  Aside from math and reading, we played games with Sky, had plenty of free time to play on the computers and with the board games, trained Taekwondo and watched a movie.  Today's science experiment was about absorption and equilibrium.  We drew circles with different color markers on a paper towel and then dipped it in water to see the towel pull the water and color up the towel.  Next, we had two cups with water and one one empty cup.  We put blue food coloring in one cup and yellow food coloring in the other.  We stuck a rolled up paper towel in both, with the other end in the empty cup.  We watched the paper towels absorb the liquid in the two cups and pull it over into the empty cup.   Later when we checked back, all three cups had the same level of liquid  --- one blue, one yellow and one green.  We also played with Legos and learned to play 9x9 Go/Baduk.  Tomorrow we begin designing our protective containers for the ever popular egg drop.  Master Choi has volunteered to drop the eggs from atop our ladder to see whose egg can survive the fall.  Aside from Mrs. Dana, Master Choi, and Instructor Sky, we have some great counselors: Christian Reis, Bum-Soo and Na Young Shin, and Gabriel Pulley.  We all miss Mrs. Noel and Cayla Reis this week but look forward to seeing them later this summer.

 

Day 5 - Field Trip Day!

Today we went ice skating.  It was cold, but a lot of fun!  Master Choi and Instructor Sky are good ice skaters and they helped everyone learn to skate.  Instructor Sky wore shorts!  Many of the older students took time to help the younger ones.  After ice skating, we came back to the Team Taekwondo for a pizza party.  We also made Father's Day cards for our dads.  Some of us made paper airplanes.  Master Choi and is very good at making paper airplanes!  Marble Run, chess, and Club Penguin are still the camp favorites.  What a great way to end the first week of camp.  We cannot wait for Monday!

Day 4 - Lava lamps, math, chess and Taekwondo!

For science, we learned about polarity and why water and oil do not mix by making lava lamps with water, canola oil, food coloring and Alka Seltzer.  We did Sokikom Math online, played math games and read.  After a tough workout with Sky we watched Mulan, Sky's favorite movie.  Team Dragon built two different types radios from the electronics kit and continued to build the Mega Marble Run.  Playing Club Penguin is still a favorite free time activity, along with Chess, Othello, Mancala and Stare.

See more photos on Team Taekwondo's Facebook page!

Day 3 - Slime, balloon rockets, IXL Math, Sokikom Math, Club Penguin, Taekwondo and more....

Day 3: Today it rained for most of the day but that did not stop Team Tiger and Team Dragon from having tons of fun.  We made slime, complete with glitter and food coloring.  Of course, we spent time working on our online math program and playing math games.  We also read.  Instructor Sky makes working out fun.  We train twice a day with him.  With a complete set of Google Chromebooks everyone can get on and do their math work before having fun at such sites as Cool Math, Fun Brain, PBS Kids, and everyone's favorite, Club Penguin.  Of course there are also all the board games --- we played Chess, Columns, Othello, Mancala, Go and lots of other games. Master Choi played balloon rockets with us and Mrs. Noel is the best storytime reader.  Team Dragon spent hours building marble mazes and started working on the new "Mega Marble Maze."  Be on the lookout tomorrow for the finished product.

Here are a few photos from today's adventures.

Day 2 --- still loving it!

Our guest blogger today is Mariana (grade 4):

"I just loved it."  My favorite part was the rockets made with Alka Seltzer.  I did not like the nunchuks because it kept hitting me.  I liked doing IXL math online. Doing Mad Libs was cool. Catalina was my partner.  I made new friends and when we played it was more fun than extra fun."

Here's a few photos from today:

First Day...Awesome!

With 35 campers we divided into two teams, Team Tiger and Team Dragon.  We played games, built a super tall marble run, read books, played box ball/four square, played math games, learned taekwondo, played on the computers, did IXL math online, ate turkey burgers, with carrots, yogurt and an orange,  performed a science experiment with soda and Mentos, wrote in our science journals, watched an episode of Kung Fu Panda, ate popcorn,  played Stare, Chess, Chips, Farkle, Checkers, Parchesi, and tons of ThinkFun & Binary Arts strategy games, ran relay races, played on the Google Chromebooks, the iMac, and Macbooks.....and that was just the first day!

Here are a few shots from the day (more to be uploaded tomorrow)