Chorus News

The Gunston Chorus and Orchestra students performed their Winter Concert on December 10th, 2015. The night included performances by the 6th Grade Beginning Orchestra, Concert Orchestra, Symphonic Orchestra, Gunston Singers, Gunston Glee, Combined Gunston Choruses, as well as a special guest performance by Maximus Rojas on piano, a 7th grader in Gunston Singers. The auditorium was bursting at its seams with the large number of both students and audience members and the energy in the room was that of pure excitement and joy. Ms. Long and Ms. Wood are very proud of the wonderful performances put on by all ensembles. The students are looking forward to the numerous performances and events of the coming semester such as Jazz Night, District Assessment, Spring Concerts, and the spring trip.

Gunston Band

The Gunston Band and Guitar students performed their Winter Concert on December 17th, 2015. The night included performances by the Guitar Ensemble, Jazz Ensemble, Concert Band, and Symphonic Band.  All of the groups did a phenomenal job!  The ensembles will now begin preparing for Band Assessment in February and March, the W-L Jazz Festival in April, and the Gunston Spring Concerts in May.

Baked Nuggets!

Teen Living is especially exciting at this time of year! 7th grade students have been busy preparing their presentations on a particular Health and Nutrition topic.  They range from Halal, Diabetes, Obesity, Eating Disorders or Fast Food Dangers, to name a few. They will view the documentary Food Inc to learn more about the Food Processing Industry and finish out their Food Unit with their last lab of the year making Healthy Chicken Nuggets. Baking a chicken nugget is far better than a fatty fried one!

Drama and Video Collaboration!

The 7th grade TV Journalism and Drama classes have teamed up for their bi-annual TV Production project. Students collaborate in remaking a full length television show episode. Mr. Costner and Ms. Chapuis enjoy working with their 50+ students on storyboarding, designing, acting and producing as they bring a TV show to life. Stay tuned and join us for the final product in the new year!

ART at Gunston

The sixth and seventh grade art classes at Gunston Middle School are engaged in some exciting clay projects this quarter. In 6th grade students are creating amazing clay boxes that are also animals. These students are learning clay slab construction techniques, where they join corners and sides with slip.  

The seventh graders, by contrast, are learning to seal a cylindrical forms that will become mugs that will be fully functional when finished.  In both projects students are combining clay construction skills with creativity to come up with unique projects.

Hour of Code in the Business Lab!

National Hour of Code Week

On Thursday, December 10, Gunston Middle School students explored an hour of coding for National Code Week. This was a Collaboration project with Business and Information Technology, Technology Education and Gifted Department. The event took place in three classrooms after school during ACT II, PM1 and PM 2. Computer science drives job growth and innovation throughout our economy and society. Computing occupations make up two-thirds of all projected new jobs in Science, Technology, Engineer and Math (STEM) fields, making Computer Science one of the most in-demand college degrees. And computing is used all around us and in virtually every field. Together we can break the stereotype that coding is only for certain kids or certain fields. A computer science major can earn 40% more than the college average. Computer coding skills are in high demand in Virginia with 33,863 open computing jobs. The Hour of Code Project consisted of 50 plus students and students received a certificate of completion. In addition, some students received extra credit toward their math grade. The students were very engaged and they enjoyed the mini project along with the wonderful snacks.

Tech Ed TidBits!

Tech Ed has been going strong.  I have been welcome with much fervor and energy and hope to harness that throughout the rest of the quarter!
 The 6th grade has been making templates, transferring templates and using those to fabricate different vehicles of propulsion. From catapults, to boats, planes, and hovercrafts. Now, we shoot off into the next phase of using tools! 7th grade is all about the mousetrap cars right now. After creating thumbnails, making a materials list and doing their schematics…we are well into the fabrication stage! Watch out for these little Rodent Roadsters running down the hallway soon! 8th grade is in the final stages of fabricating their CO2 cars. From Foam to Fabulous in five easy steps. These fierce flyers are sure to impress!! Now that the techies all know about orthographic drawing, and seeing in 3-D…its time to move on the fabricating in 3-D….our next projects will be utilizing the 3-D printers… seen here is the first test run of a skateboard…This one will have moving wheels and trucks. I’m seeing a theme here…. perhaps one of movement, moving on, moving up and moving beyond. Thanks to the Gunston Community for welcoming me with open arms!! Look to see many more great projects coming out of G17 in the coming weeks!!