Guyan Valley Middle School: March 2012

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Pi Day 2012

Wednesday, March 14, 2012 students studied the meaning of Pi and participated in activities that would draw attention to the infinite number of Pi. How many digits exist in Pi? This mystery remains unanswered and the number keeps on going, and going, and going...

Students heard the story of "Sir Cumference and the Dragon of Pi" and and some even wrote their very own "Pi Poems, made Pi Bracelets, and participated in different fun and educational activities that brought the number Pi to the forefront.

Math classes hosted a "Pi Off" (pictures below) in which each class determined who had memorized the most numbers of Pi. Also, during the week, students competed with one another to see who could bring the most can goods in for a chance to throw a pie at a principal. The track team sold chances for everyone to be able to throw a pie in the face of a teacher or principals. Students and teachers in all content areas embraced this day and once again, made learning fun!

During the "Pi Off," 7th Grade student, Nattie Toney, memorized and recited an impressive 320 numbers. Just how many numbers is that, you ask? Well, here you go:

Nattie Toney, 7th Grade,
memorized 320 digits of Pi!
CONGRATULATIONS!!

3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751
05820974944592307816406286208998628034825342117067
98214808651328230664709384460955058223172535940812
84811174502841027019385211055596446229489549303819
64428810975665933446128475648233786783165271201909

14564856692346034861045432664821339360726024914127

37245870066063155881

Nattie reaping her reward of
learning the most digits of

Pi at GVMS!!

Mrs. McClanahan even got in on the action!

"Pi Off" Pictures:

Mr. Roy being a good sport as Alex Adkins,
6th Grade, pies him in the face!

MaKayla Frye, 7th Grade, won a chance
to pie her Math teacher, Mrs. Prichard!

Mrs. Prichard thought revenge was sweet
and gave MaKayla a big whipped cream hug!

Mr. Adkins graciously takes a pie to the face
by 6th Grade student, David Beaver!

Watch out Mrs. Prichard!! I hear that
Sarah Barret can throw a mean pie!

The winners of the can

good drive from each grade level
won the opportunity to pie Mr. Adkins!!

Luke Chandler, 6th Grade

Starr Butcher, 7th Grade

Savanna Adkins, 8th Grade

And, finally....

Lindsey Prichard, Student Council President,
tops off Mr. Adkins!

Below, you will find a couple of example of "pi poems" that were written on Pi Day. Students were instructed to compose poems that followed the first 6 numbers of pi. For example, the first number of pi is 3, so their first line contained 3 words. They used the numbers: 3.14159...

R. Adkins' RLA Pi Poem

Cool, funny, smart (3)

Mr. Adkins (1)

Silly, chilled, and loveable (4)

Students (1)

Crazy Ms. Debbie loves the class (5)

Mr. Adkins enjoys watching Marshall basketball and football-- GO HERD! (9)

J. Shortridge's Flex Pi Poem

Very educated teachers (3)

Work (1)

With entertaining and humorous (4)

Students. (1)

A caring principal watches carefully. (5)

Students who are hardworking and diligent will be successful! (9)

Friday, March 9, 2012

Zack Dial is GVMS' 7th & 8th Grade Young Writers Winner!

No Way Out

Zack Dial is a 7th grade student and 7th/8th
"Young Writers" winner

As the sun sets over the horizon, peace fills the air. All is calm and quiet, but this peace is short lived, for somewhere in the dark of the night, horror and fury is just waiting to be unleashed.

As I lie still in my bed, staring into the darkness of my room, I hear a crackling noise. Unsure of what it is, I ignore it. A few minutes go by, and I notice it has gotten extremely hot and arid. Now I begin to worry, so I go downstairs to check it out. The heat intensifies significantly, and I begin having trouble breathing. At that moment, I smell smoke, then I see smoke, billowing out of the garage door. I frantically run back upstairs to my parent’s room and burst through the door, “Mom, Dad, come quick!” I yell, “There’s a fire downstairs!”

“Oh my goodness!” my mom shrieks. “Honey, hurry downstairs and get the fire extinguisher.” As my dad heads downstairs into the perilous unknown, I decide to follow him. As we reach the bottom of the stairs, our eyes widen and our pupils shrink, because the nightmare before us is a fierce fire ravaging in the kitchen.

“It was just smoke coming from the garage when I left,” I inform my dad. The fire had spread at an alarming rate. It had only been about a minute since I first went downstairs, and the fire had already spread from the garage to the kitchen, and it was continuing to spread rapidly. Both my dad and I know the fire is too big to control ourselves, so my dad races to the phone to call 911. His hands are shaking with fear, so it takes him a few tries to dial the number correctly.

“911, what’s your emergency?” the voice says.

“Our house is on fire!” My dad screams, “My family and I are all here, and we need help!”

“Sir, please calm down and give us your address,” the voice says calmly.

“Calm down?!” My dad says frustrated, “My family is inside a burning building, and you want me to calm down?!”

“Sir, just give us your address, and then get out of the house immediately,” the voice instructs. My dad gives them our address and hangs up.

“It’s going to be alright, son,” my dad tells me convincingly. We both rush back upstairs to get mom and Samuel, my baby brother. My family and I run downstairs and head for the door. The fire had spread and grown even faster. Most of downstairs is already engulfed in flames, and the smoke is so thick I can’t even see two feet in front of me. I hold on to my mom’s arm so I don’t get lost. Just then, as I am about to make it out the door, a fiery wooden beam falls on me, separating me from my mom and the rest of my family.

I am now trapped inside this terrifying nightmare alone, and my breathable air is running out second by second. I can barely see. I can barely breathe, and the only thing I can hear is the fire crackling and pieces of the house falling and smashing onto the ground. The ominous glow of the fire through the smoke is all I can see. My heart is pounding and my mind is racing, trying to think of what to do. I am too scared to think, and I am still pinned under the wooden beam, thus preventing me from even attempting to escape. I push with all of my remaining strength and free myself from the wretched beam. I look for any possible exit, but the smoke blinds my sight, and begins to make me dizzy and disoriented as well. I collapse back to the floor and wait for my obvious death.

As I lie on the floor motionless, a blinding light appears out of the darkness. Assuming it is a sign that my time has come, I close my eyes and think of my happiest memories. I then suddenly feel myself being lifted from the ground and into the air. I slowly open my eyes to the unexpected sight of…

Dylan Adkins is GVMS' 6th Grade Young Writers Winner!

Somethin’ Smells Fishy

Dylan Adkins is a 6th Grade
Student and the winner of the
6th Grade "Young Writers" Contest
for GVMS!!

All of my life, I have wanted turn into a fish and breathe underwater, but not this way! Lately, I have been experiencing some……. “fishy” situations. It started out with just a simple, green, slimy scale that appeared on the top of my hand, but the next thing I knew, I had spots of scales all over my body. After that event, it just got worse, and worse, and just plain out weird. I gained almost every feature a fish might have. I had scales and little pectoral fins popping up everywhere. I even sprouted some gills and a dorsal fin. The very worst part of it was when I first started transforming.

Starting out, I was an odd, but average kid. It was one day away from my eleventh birthday. I was getting so excited for it! I knew that I was going to be the most amazing birthday yet. Of course, I think that every year, but I had a special feeling about this one. The thing is, at the same time, I felt like something bad was going to happen. I thought hard about it as I went to bed, and finally when I woke up, it was my birthday.

Immediately, I felt extremely thirsty. I rolled right out of my bed and ran straight for the kitchen sink. I stuck my head under the faucet and drank as much as I could. I felt like I could drink all the water in the Hoover Dam. As I was gulping up the water, I realized I was getting very messy and slung water all over my arms, and when I started drying my arms I found a green, slimy, scale on my hand.

Right after I saw the fish scale, I knew there had to be more. I turned my arm over and found three whole patches of blue and green scales. That is when I started freaking out. All of the sudden, my mom and dad pop out of nowhere and wish me happy birthday, and I just hid my arm behind my back and ran out of the room. In my head, I was thinking about what would happen if I fully exposed my body to water, so I snuck out my window and headed toward the beach.

Afterwards, I finally reached the beach. I was standing on the sand to where the water could almost reach my toes. Before I went into the water, I had to stop and think for a second. I wasn’t sure whether to wait, stay with my family, and see if the scales would go away, or go into the ocean and find out what I’m really turning in to. I had left a note on the kitchen counter just in case I didn’t come back. I told them how I will stay safe, and don’t worry about me. I finally made my decision: to go into the water.

Finally, I ran right into the water. Once I had gotten into the water, my whole body started tingling. Pectoral fins were sprouting on the sides of my arms and the back of my legs, and my body was covered with scales. Then, I looked down at my feet, and they were turning into fins. The bones in my feet were turning into the bones that would that would be in a fish tail. The next thing I knew, I had gills instead of lungs. Finally, my transformation was complete, and I was half boy, and half fish.

In conclusion, I noticed that being half boy half fish isn’t really that bad anymore. Apart from the fact that I can’t see my parents anymore, I’ve learned how to communicate with all marine life, so I am able to live with different types of fish all around the world. I mean like, I could communicate with sharks, but who in their right mind would want to live with one. Anyways, I have learned how to send radar signals like dolphins. So, lives under the clear, blue sea, really is not that bad, and if you ever turn into a fish, give me a call on your shellphone.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

World Read Aloud Day 2012 (March 7th)

World Read Aloud Day 2012 was a huge success at Guyan Valley Middle School. Every teacher selected a country and they read short stories and/or folktales for at least 5 minutes. As I walked around the building, the sounds of African drums and even a man with a Russian accent could be heard reading. Teachers from all disciplines were reading to their students. From Music to Math to Social Studies to Science, teachers and students were engaged and fully participated in World Read Aloud Day. Guyan Valley logged an IMPRESSIVE 1250 minutes reading, which equates to a little more the 20 hours of reading!

This week, students also had an opportunity to pledge how many minutes they would read per night. At the end of the pledge drive, over 114 hours of reading has been pledged by our school.

Students skyping with Hope
College in Holland, MI

Teachers and students continued their excitement by decorating doors of their selected country which included the 2012 World Read Aloud theme: "Changing the World...Story by Story." The afternoon was rounded off with a Skype session with a college class from Hope College in Holland, MI as they read a "choose your own adventure" story written by one of their students. The experience was amazing and as students were leaving, they asked if they could write their own story as well!

"Gotta Keep Reading" Guyan Valley....

Ms. Kilgore