Bringing Week 8 To A Close

Here are a few photos from the end of Week 8.  The highlights of Thursday and Friday were testing out our engineering skills with gum drops and toothpicks and taking a field trip to The Deering Estate for an archeological dig and bird watching tour.  We also capped off our first week using Sum Dog for both math and reading.  Laurent G. was the big winner being the only camper who won both the reading and the math challenge.  Gabriel H. and Nicolas H. both succeeded with the math challenge.   Week 9 will bring our summer to a close.  What a summer it has been!  We will miss our campers, but we are thrilled to know they will be heading back to school well prepared for the new school year.    

Day 37 and Day 38 - Hoop Gliders, Gum Drop Bridges, Vinegar/Baking Soda Explosions and Sum Dog!

My apologies for not posting last night.  I took the rare advantage of going to sleep early in an attempt to catch up on some sleep.  Good thing as tonight I will be up very late washing the Korean Judo Team's uniforms.  They are in town competing in the Cadet World Judo Championships.  Hopefully, their beautiful, clean uniforms will bring them good luck.  As for camp, it has been an exciting two days.  In science on Tuesday, the Dragons learned about tension and compression while building gum drop bridges, while the Tigers made hoop gliders.  On Wednesday, the Dragons had the opportunity to make and test out their hoop gliders.  There was not enough time for the Tigers to build bridges, so we opted for making quick "explosives" out of ziploc bags, baking soda and vinegar.  Who can resist watching ziploc bags blow up?  We also introduced two new learning opportunities this week.  The Tigers are learning to code using Ruby, a simple programming language.  Several have shown a real aptitude for programming.  Additionally, we rolled out a new online Math & Reading program called "Sum Dog."  It was a huge hit with both the Tigers and the Dragons.  I love its real time reporting; I can see instantly what each camper is working on and if they need assistance on a concept.  We will be finishing out this week and next using Reflex Math and Sum Dog; both will also be available for students taking part in Team Taekwondo's After School Enrichment Program.   It is great to see them so excited about learning!

  

Week 8, Day 36: Monday, Monday

We got off to a slow start this morning as campers trickled in.  Nevertheless, we managed to fit in math, reading, science, taekwondo and plenty of free time.  For today's writing assignment, the Tigers read the newspaper and picked an article to summarize.  Needless to say, the Sports section was in high demand!  For science, we built roto-copters out of paper and took turns seeing who could make theirs travel the farthest and who could control theirs sufficiently enough to make it land in a bowl.  It is amazing what you can do with a little paper, markers and paper clips!  With only two weeks to go until school starts, we are also working on finishing everyone's summer learning packages and summer reading assignments.  Our campers are going to head back to school ready to rock it!

Field Trip Friday = Fun at the IGFA Fishing Hall of Fame & Museum

Friday's are field trips days and these last three weeks of camp we have some amazing field trips.  Today's field trip was to the IGFA Fishing Hall of Fame and Museum in Dania Beach.  The campers had a great time making Japanese fish rubbings, touching all kinds of interesting sea creatures, and playing with the interactive games in the museum.  They were able to use the fishing simulators to see what it is like to reel in a Tarpon or a Marlin.  They also went on a nature walk and saw many species of birds, fish, tortoises/turtles and two very large alligators.  We learned a great deal about some of the marine animals that live in South Florida.  We are thankful for all the parents who could join us on this field trip.   Enjoy the weekend and we will see you all on Monday!

Day 34 - Finishing Summer Learning Packages & Hypothesizing About Polymer Sphere Growth

Today flew by in the blink of an eye!  We started our morning with reading comprehension activities courtesy of Sebastian R.'s assigned summer learning package. Both Team Tiger and Team Dragon continue to excel in the online math programs.  Team Dragon had extra math practice in small groups with flashcards.  They love trying to beat their previous high score (number of cards won with correct answer).  The afternoon included Physical Fun with Sky, silent reading, a writing prompt and plenty of free time.  For science, we reviewed the specific steps of the scientific method, a skill most students are expected to master over the summer according to their assigned summer learning packages.  To make it fun, our question today was how big will a polymer sphere grow after being soaked in water for 24 hours.  Campers developed their hypotheses and will make their observations, collect data and develop a conclusion tomorrow.  All in all it was a good day at Team TKD Summer Camp.  See for yourself.