Pi Day 2016

Math is FUN!!

Mrs. Allyson Whittaker's MS Math class is excited about their new year!!

National Junior Honor Society Induction

Seventeen middle school students were inducted into the National Junior Honor Society!

Candidates

  Austyn Holcombe

  Danielle Parker

Gabriel Parker

Spence Butler

Garrett Donalson

Hallie Jordan

Lillian Reynolds

Kate McRae

Laura Posey

Julian Amaya

Addison Elkins

Jack Holden 

Seth Parker

Emellia Woodrum

Lilah Widner

Jared Hiers

Ava Caroline Wells

Mrs.Cox's Egg-citing Egg Drop!

Mrs. Cox's physics class did an experiment that took these eggs to new heights. The Egg Drop is a classic science demonstration that illustrates Newton's Laws of Motion. The Junior class learned a lot, and had a fun time doing it!

Working hard!!!

Josh Carnes

                                

Kaitilin Adams

4th & 5th Graders Celebrate History

Mrs. Sheffield's 4th & 5th grade students had the opportunity to celebrate history last week.  The students were asked to read a biography of a historial figure , write a paper, and give an oral book report dressed as their character.

Pictured Left:
Kate McRae - Scagawea
Garrett Donalson - Abraham Lincoln
Spence Butler - Ben Franklin
Hallie Jordan - Florence Nightingale

Pictured Right:
Olivia Penala - Mary Mapes Dodge
Abigail Mills - Lotta Crabtree
Kelly Kelly - Annie Oakley
Nicholas Hodges - Jesse James

8th Grade Explore Engineering

Mrs. Smith's 8th grade class enjoyed exploring the field of engineering while building bridges. The students had to research, design, and construct a bridge in teams. Each group developed a construction company with a budget of 1.5 milllion dollars. The jobs of contractor, engineer, accountant and communications director were given among the teammates. Each team had to design a company logo and checks, they had to purchase building materials and insurance, fill out paperwork to aquire permits, research and design truss bridges, and construct their bridge within the guidelines set.
After the bridges were built, they tested the strength of each bridge by adding weights of 5 and 10 lbs increments. The strongest bridge, which was built by Jordan Davis, Dylan Harrell, and Tyler Jones was able to hold 318 lbs before it broke. The students had so much fun that at time Mrs. Smith noted that they actually forgot they were learning. Mrs. Smith stated that "math, science, and technology objectives are very important to create the interest but how the students use the objectives and what they learn in class is priceless"!

GCA Students Participate with Duke Tip

Seventh-grade students Brent Warr and Chase Harris recently took the SAT as a part of Duke Tip's 7th Grade Talent Search. The Duke program identifies students in sixteen states in the Southeast, Midwest, and Southwest who have scored in the 95th percentile on a grade-level achievement test. As part of the program, these academically talented students elected to take above level college-entrance exams (SAT or ACT) to learn more about their abilities.

Soden & Bennett Named STARs

Congratulations to Elisabeth Soden for being selected as the 2010 GCA STAR Student and to Mrs. Kathy Bennett for being selected as her STAR Teacher.
Elisabeth is the daughter of Randy and Elisa Soden. She is very active at GCA as Captain of the Lady Cougars Basketball team, Editor of the GCA Yearbook, Senior Class Homecoming Court Rep., member of the National Honor Society, graduate of the Bainbridge-Decatur County Chamber of Commerce Youth Leadership Program, recipient of the Presidential Award of Excellence and member of Grace Goes Green. Congratulations!!

Simmons Attends National Leaders Conference

Congratuations to GCA's Alea Simmons for being selected and attending the National Young Leaders State Conference in Atlanta. Alea is a 9th Grader at Grace and is the daughter of Doug & Jan Simmons.

GCA 5th Graders Poetry Published

Mrs. Sheffield's 2008-09 4th grade class entered a poetry contest with Anthology of Poetry, Inc. last fall and several of her students were chosen to be published in the 2009 Anthology of Poetry by Young Americans. The children could write their poems on anything. Their work had to be original and without any help from their parents or teacher. The following students were selected and received their own copy of the poetry book and an extra copy was given to the GCA Library: Tyler Rentz, McKenzie Ferry, Brandon Swicord, and Mikayla Buckhaulter. Way to Go... We are so proud of you!!

6th Graders Explore Starfish

After completing a study on invertebrates, Mrs. Smith’s 6th grade class had the unique opportunity on May 14th to dissect starfish which is an invertebrate animal in the phylum Echinodermata. Mrs. Smith noted that it was a challenge to host a lab for 22 students who have never dissected before but thanks to some great parent volunteers it made it very doable. This year, GCA chose to invest money, time and resources to fund exciting science experiments along with giving our Science Lab an Extreme Makeover. It has certainly been money well spent as we all know science in a textbook is important but backing it up with hands-on experiments really brings science to life.

7th Graders Design Coasters

During the study of “Force and Motion” the GCA 7th graders researched, designed, and built a “Marble Roller Coaster.” Students were required to write a paper on simple machines, draw a blue print, construct a roller coaster with at least 4 different simple machines, keep a science journal of the sequencing and problem solving they did, and demonstrate their roller coaster while answering questions from Mrs. Smith and a panel of scientists and engineers from the community. According to the National Science Standards, science inquiry is basic to all science. Students and judges alike were amazed at how different each roller coaster was. Other classes enjoyed the demonstrations as well.

Book Reports Come Alive

Mrs. Susan Sheffield’s Fourth Grade students at Grace Christian Academy decided to make their book reports a little more exciting by letting their book character come to life. Each student selected a book about a famous person from the GCA Library. On Monday, April 13th the students dressed in the attire of their character and gave a brief speech about this person. The students were told to get special information that other students would find interesting and to make sure they included information about their personality, a story of their childhood, and the person’s life accomplishments.

23 Inducted into NJHS

Twenty-Three middle school students were inducted on March 12th into the National Junior Honor Society at Grace Christian Academy. New members include: Alex McLendon, Veronica Harrell, Haley Smith, Kaitlin Adams, Bo Bailey, Josh Carnes, Aaron Carraway, Logan Davis, Lexie Goodson, Chelsey Harrell, Chase Harris, Niklas Isler, Austin McQuaid, Merrianna Parker, Ansley Posey, Jeremiah Register, Jacob Sego, Lydia Thompson, Alex Ward, Brent Warr, Daniel Winburn, Shellby Woodrum, and Hannah Wynn.
NJHS recognizes students with an 85 or above core-curricular grade point average. They must be recommended by the Faculty Council as to character and self-discipline in the classroom. These criteria must be maintained during membership. NJHS includes grades 7-9 and 6th graders after the first semester. GCA's National Junior Honor Society has 52 members.

Congratulations Students!!!

Pi Day at GCA

Grace Christian Academy celebrated Pi Day on March 12th instead of the traditional date of March 14th as that date fell on a Saturday, and March 13th was a holiday for our students. Pi Day celebrations were held worldwide to honor the most famous ratio in mathematics and its importance in our daily lives. Pi is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to the diameter. Denoted by the Greek letter, Pi has been around for almost 4000 years. This important constant in a string of never-ending digits with no apparent pattern that stands for an approximation that works for every single circle imaginable.
Each mathematics class in middle school and high school was assigned projects to use pi. Constructing mobiles, measurement charts of familiar objects, and creative pi designs were used for grading purposes. The real fun was at the celebration party. Pi eating contest, pi songs and poetry, Jeopardy, a pi drama, pi videos, and many other games of a circular nature were great applications of this useful approximation. This is one math class everyone was eager to participate in. How many digits of pi can you memorize before next year’s celebration? 3.14159265358979323846……….
(Article prepared by Mrs. Bennett)

Wax Museum ... Huge Success!

The Annual Middle School Wax Museum was held on Thursday, March 5th from 4:30 - 5:30. The 6th, 7th & 8th graders did an outstanding job this year. Their costumes, display boards, and props were all awesome!!
It was so much fun to see history come alive.
The attendees of the event (which boasted over 200) were asked to vote for their favorites in five categories. Congratulations to the following students:
Best in Show - Amellia Earhart - Melissa Mills (7th)
Most Educational - King Tut - Brent Warr (6th)
Best Props - Robert E. Lee - Russell King (7th)
Best Display Board - Betsy Ross - Rachel Harrell (7th)
Best Costume - Lakshami - Shellby Woodrum (6th)
Mrs. McDonald and the students are looking forward to making this event even better in 2010.

Pi Day - March 12th

The middle and high school students will celebrate the universal number pi on Thursday, March 12th. The celebration will include lots of delicious "round" foods (cookies, pies, pizzas, etc.) and learning activities. All math classes will have an assigned project for the day. Many thanks to Mrs. Dowdy and Mrs. Bennett for making this learning experience possible!!

Henderson's Class Celebrates Dr. Seuss!

On March 2nd, Mrs. Vedia Henderson's 2nd grade class celebrated Dr. Seuss on his upcoming birthday. They read many of his books and even created cool book covers from his collection. According to Mrs. Henderson, they were very creative and did a great job! The highlight of the celebration was eating green eggs and ham cooked by Mrs. Henderson. What a great, fun learning experience for the 2nd grade!! Thanks Mrs. Henderson!

6th Graders Build Catapults

The 6th grade class has been working for months on their catapult projects and Tuesday, Feb. 17th they finally had the opportunity to see their hard work come to life!! It was an exciting morning for our students.

Thank you Mrs. Smith for creating this incredible learning experience.