Garden School

Make a Splash! Become a Lifeguard!!

admin — Tue, 08 May 2012 16:12:36 +0000

Become a Red Cross Certified Lifeguard at Garden School. We are administering the course, which is 40-45 hours in duration, beginning Monday, June 11 through Saturday, June 23rd from noon to 6pm. Students must be at least 15 years of age and pass a skills evaluation the first day of the course. Call for details….

Garden Hosts Metropolitan Debate

admin — Fri, 04 May 2012 20:52:20 +0000

On Saturday, April 21st Garden School hosted the Metropolitan Debate League’s monthly tournament. It took a herculean effort to prepare for this momentous event – from teachers to students to staff – but it was a day well worth the effort. At least the Queens Courier thought as much.

See Debate League Comes to Queens in the Courier

The Daniel Webster Society (Garden’s debate team) chose the right time to put in its most successful shift of the entire campaign! Sam V. (Grade 5), Jonathan G. (6), and Caitlin W. (8) comprised one team; Hanna V. (7), Graham P. (7) and Daphne D. (6) comprised the other. In the end, the latter team took home a Top Ten Team Finish, and each team had 2 students score individual awards – with 2 of these being Top Ten Individual Speaker awards.

The event was dedicated to the memory of Rory, a team member whose recent passing left our community in a state of shock and sadness. As a show of support, many faculty members were on hand to kick off the day, with Dr. Marotta delivering an address to them and the participants, alike. The outpouring of support was incredible – both from members of the Garden community, and from other teams, one of which dedicated its awards to Rory’s memory.

In the end, the day was one that will live long in the memory – for the participants, supporters, and the co-moderators (Messrs. Burgoyne and Kruczek). It was yet another shining example of how this small school comes together to do great things – no matter what the circumstances may be.

Join us for Summer 2012!!

admin — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 02:29:52 +0000

Our 2012 Summer Program brochure is now available on-line. Download it here

Shauntane is back at the pool, Super Soccer Stars and First Shot Basketball are waiting in the gym.

Join the staff of Growing Chefs in the organic garden and explore your creative side with the Theatre specialists from Flushing Town Hall.

It’s business as usual at Garden School this Summer – Camp begins June 25th and runs through August 17th and we can’t wait to have you back.

Debate Team Does It Again!

admin — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 22:02:12 +0000

Will the Middle School Debaters ever cease to amaze us? After this Saturday, March 3rd, the answer must be no! It was another long and trying day at the Berkeley Carroll School, where our Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eight Graders worked fervently to debate another set of difficult topics: 1. Police should use truth serums in investigations; 2. Super PACs should be prohibited from political election campaign activities; 3. It is morally permissible to wear leather; 4. Universities ought not to privilege legacy applicants for admissions; and 5. Disney should release a feature film with an openly gay protagonist. While it was a tiring day, the team persevered, which resulted in many awards. One of our teams—Hanna V., Rory S., and Daphne D.—won trophies for placing 9th out of about 30 teams, and two of our debaters, Rory S. and Hanna V., received top speaker medals out of about 130 students! It was another great Saturday to say the least, and hopefully you can join us at April 21st’s debate, which will be held at the Garden School.

Middle School Debate Team

admin — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 22:41:48 +0000

It was another eventful Saturday at the Berkeley Carroll School for our Middle School Debate Team, but it was certainly not easy. The topics required much research and discussion to understand their abstract concepts. One of our debate teams had an especially rewarding day, winning three out of five of their debates. Also, the team was thrilled when one of their teammates, Rory, was given his second individual speaker award during the awards ceremony.

Our debaters—Daphne, Jonathan, Rory, Hanna, and Sam—worked tirelessly all day, debating the following difficult topics: Abolish the EPA; Whenever possible, organizations should replace human employees with machines; Students should participate in teacher performance review boards; Schools should be required to offer courses in etiquette; Despite the current state of a country’s economy, countries are morally obligated to support others during calamitous events.
Great job debaters!

Lego Robotics 2012

admin — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 21:35:48 +0000

Nearly 350 Queens youngsters and their teachers gathered at the 12th annual Queens qualifying round of the FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) LEGO League (FLL®) on Saturday, January 28th. They presented months of serious research on food safety and demonstrated the little robots they built and programmed to execute courses designed to simulate food safety issues in a gymnasium filled with cheering parents, coaches and fans.

Garden School hosted 2 of the 35 teams of 9- to 14-year-olds who competed at the qualifier, the Slaughterbots and the Mindcrafters. Long weeks of practice and research readied the FLL teams to devise technological or robotic applications to real-world problems related to a topic selected yearly. In 2012, the budding engineers and innovators were asked to solve issues related to the theme “Food Factor®: Keeping Food Safe,” coached by their teachers, parents, and Upper Division students. The Slaughterbots researched and constructed a theoretical design for testing and treating E. coli in chicken. The Mindcrafters researched a way to make a test-strip that would tell a consumer if baby food is contaminated with botulism.

At the Queens qualifier, the Slaughterbots won the prize for Best Programming and have earned the right to compete in the NYC Championship Round, held at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan on March 18, 2012.

Talk About Success

admin — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 17:02:42 +0000

The Middle School Debate Team had an incredibly productive Saturday morning, afternoon, and evening, as they laboriously debated four challenging topics against the steep competition that New York City has to offer. Topics included: Abolish standardized testing; The “Occupy Wall Street” protests cause more harm than good; Civics classes should require students to watch presidential and primary debates on TV; The United States should adopt a carbon emissions cap-and-trade system; and NATO’s recent campaigns in Libya are morally justified. After several weeks of practice and preparation, the debaters ended Saturday proudly, with one of their teams—Caitlin, Rory and Daphne —placing 9th out of about 35 teams and one of their peers—Rory—placing in the top 20 of over 100 students who participated. Possibly, the most important thing that came out of Saturday was the students’ acknowledgement that they are making great strides in progress, but there is much more work to be done. Congratulations to our debaters!!

Barnes and Noble Bookfair

admin — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:40:08 +0000

Barnes and Noble Bookfair On Saturday, November 19th, students, parents and teachers gathered together at Barnes and Noble bookstore in Bayside for a PTA fundraiser. Teachers and families shopped happily with proceeds benefiting Garden School.

The teachers of grades 1-3 led story hour. Ms Sarran read Caps for Sale while her mother interpreted the story into American Sign Language. Ms Ingravalla read aloud Miss Nelson is Missing as the students made predictions. Ms Renner set a purpose for reading the humorous Thanksgiving story The Ugly Duckling.

The day was a great showing of school spirit with many proudly wearing Garden School t-shirts. Thank you to the PTA for organizing a wonderful fundraiser. If you missed the event you can order online from Saturday, November 19 to Thursday, November 24th. Use the ID number 10560100 at Barnes and Noble Bookfairs and a portion of your purchase will benefit Garden School.

Debate @ Garden!!

admin — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 14:44:33 +0000

On Saturday, October 22nd, the 6 members of the new Garden School Middle School debate team joined students from a variety of other New York City schools to compete in the first Metropolitan Debate League meet of the year at Hunter College High School.

Teams received the topics in advance but were not told if they would support or oppose each assertion – whether each team would be in the “opposition” or “proposition”—until 15 minutes before the debate. The assertions this time were “Alcohol should be banned at sporting events,” “Students rather than principals should determine student punishments” and “Free speech should not protect hate speech.” Our two teams participated in three debates each, and the students received individual instructive review and constructive criticism from each judge. Competition aside, it was a great learning experience for our novice debaters, particularly watching our debaters use their new criticisms to become better throughout the debates.

This debate was the first of six to be held this year and was our team’s first chance to compete. But it comes at the end of 4 weeks of practice – 3 hours per week – and research that the students did at home. The team’s advisors, Mr. Burgoyne and Mr. Kruczek, have worked with the students and encouraged them to do independent work as well.

Over 100 students participated in the debate, and two Garden students earned special recognition. Caitlin (8) came in 9th overall and Daphne (6) placed 5th in the area of Best Individual Speaker. Congratulations to Caitlin, Daphne, Rory, Jonathan, Henry and Hilary – our great debaters and winners all! The Middle School Debate team, with their advisors, showing their “game faces.”

A Night at the Museum!!!! (Literally!!)

admin — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 16:59:01 +0000

Campers at the Garden Summer Program experienced “A Night at the Museum” first-hand. On Saturday, July 23 twenty-eight campers ages 9 to 13 and their chaperones had an unforgettable sleepover experience at the American Museum of Natural History. The evening began with an awe inspiring IMAX film entitled, Sea Rex: Journey to a Prehistoric World. Then, as the doors closed and the lights dimmed, campers were armed with flashlights to begin their nocturnal adventure; finding themselves in the Hall of the North American Mammals, then climbing down stairs to the Age of the Dinosaurs and finally turning in for the night beneath the 94 foot long blue whale.

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