The Georgetown School

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9 Nov 20149 Nov 2014

2014 Latin II Funeral Games

The 2014 Latin II Funeral Games were held on Britain’s southern seashore on Friday, November 7, to commemorate the life and death of Queen Boudica. First, the Latin II student enjoyed a feast of Italian food: creamy pasta with chicken and spinach, lasagna, Caesar salad, garlic bread and cannoli. Then all of Middle School went out on the lawn in 5th period to start the games. Sam (sacerdos) and Grayson (rex) welcomed everyone and Ryleigh explained who Boudica was.

Adara led the games with help from Tiyon and Mme Gates. First, there was a discus throw, then a javelin toss, then a series of foot races. The games concluded with a boat race between two British tribes, the Regnenses and the Cantiaci. It was a fun day–thank you, parents and students!

6 Nov 2014

Bounty of the Mud

The entire middle school went to the salt marsh just north of Huntington Beach on Tuesday, November 4. They spent the first part of the day learning to use oil pastels by painting a landscape with Mrs. Patrick, experiencing some of the joys and challenges of making art en plein air. Throughout the day, students gathered details about the beautiful setting to be used as imagery in a descriptive paragraph that everyone is writing for Mrs. Crosby. They paid attention to their five senses and will write about how the mud felt and smelled, for example. Finally, they dug clams and oysters out of the mud with Dr. Neubauer.

“I hit the jackpot,” says Wilfredo, “I kept finding a bunch of them together.” “I caught a crab,” reports Adara and Tiyon admits, “I was up to my waist in water!” Some people had challenges. “My shoes had a hole and kept filling up with water,” says Bronwen, and apparently Zachary and Mrs. Crosby got stuck temporarily in the mud. Sundiante says her favorite part of the day was catching the clams and oysters.

Students brought their bounty back to town in buckets. The next day, Biology students dissected the largest clams in their lab while Mrs. Crosby, Mrs. Patrick and Dr. Gates set up a “kitchen” on the sidewalk outside our building for the rest. Dr. Gates steamed the clams and oysters while Mrs. Patrick made New England clam chowder. When lunchtime came, the table was covered in delicious seafood. “This is great!” said Maston as he downed his thirtieth clam, seasoned with a bit of Tabasco. We are proud of all the kids who tried clams, oysters and chowder for the first time! Thanks to Dr. Neubauer, Mrs. Crosby, Mrs. Patrick and Dr. Gates for a delicious culinary, artistic and scientific experience.

24 Oct 201430 Oct 2014

Hold the Phone! First Place in Regional One-Act Play Competition!

The Georgetown School’s high school drama students took first place in the SCISA Regional One-Act Play Competition at the historic Winyah Auditorium on October 22 with “Wait Wait Bo-Bait,” a series of vignettes about the psychology of waiting directed by TGS drama coach Judith Gates. TGS middle school students presented “C’mon Dance,” and earned third place with this drama about the value and difficulty of being true to oneself. Regional second place for high school went to Lowcountry Prep with their original play “Neverland,” featuring Petra Pan, Wendy, kids and pirates, directed by drama teacher Hannah Grippo.

Middle School drama was also well represented. Pawley’s Island Christian won first place with an adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” directed by Kathy Morgan, while Florence Christian garnered second place with their comic “Bad Auditions,” directed by Megan Kendall. Best High School actor awards were given to Lance Rogers of Florence Christian and Avery McMillen of Lowcountry Prep. Best Middle School actor awards were given to C. J. Fuller of Florence Christian and Georgia Beacham of Pawley’s Island Christian.

TGS would like to thank Lowcountry Prep, Pawley’s Island Christian and Florence Christian for your participation. We enjoyed sharing the stage at the Winyah Auditorium with all of you and we enjoyed meeting all the sponsors, parents and kids. Many thanks to all the drama coaches for your fine work and congratulations to all the winners. Finally, we want to extend our appreciation to the Winyah Auditorium and our distinguished panel of judges: Jim Calk, Lauren Joseph, Stacy Rabon and Jeremy Vause. We hope to see you next year, so break a leg!

Wednesday, October 29 “Momma” Gates brought an amazingly large sheet cake with icing in our school colors to celebrate the victory. Everyone had blue lips and teeth there for awhile at lunch!

20 Oct 2014

Wooden Boat Show Volunteers

Kingfishers were out in force on Saturday and Sunday, October 18 and 19, volunteering in multiple areas at the 25th Anniversary Wooden Boat Show. The weather was absolutely perfect and Front Street was thronged with visitors on both days.

Our Statistics class designed a survey for the Georgetown Business Association to help them determine where WBS visitors are coming from and how they spend their money here. Students walked up and down Front Street with their clipboards and canvassed about 400 visitors. “I had to interview someone in French,” said Nathan, “He was from Montreal.” Isabella said, “It is really cool that we are known that far away and I thought it was interesting that we had to talk to a bunch of different people and find out how far they had come.” Students are currently compiling and analyzing the data they collected.

Second, our students helped out at the Children’s Activities in Constitution Park. They did face-painting and helped kids play corn-hole and other games. “There was one little boy who almost fell asleep while I was painting his face,” said Savanna. “He was so adorable!”

Third, we sold the WBS 25th Anniversary Retrospective at the Sponsors’ Tent and at the tee shirt tent. People are overwhelmingly positive about the quality and content of the book, produced by our Journalism students this past year. The WBS even presented us with an award expressing their appreciation for the students’ hard work at the Banquet Saturday night!

Fourth, two students were recruited to be the new Goat Mascot at the Friday night Regatta. Josh actually wore the costume and Nathan was his “goatherd,” since the costume is difficult to see out of. “That goat costume is awesome but really hot,” said Josh, who did his usual great job as mascot.

Thank you so much to the Wooden Boat Show for preserving the maritime history of Georgetown and for making every third weekend in October a fun and memorable experience. Our students have made many new friends! We appreciate the opportunities you have given to our students to gain real-life experience in so many areas and we look forward to helping you out however we can in the future.

15 Oct 2014

Sarah Makes Regional All-Stars

Congratulations to Sarah Exum, senior captain, for being selected for the All-Region Team!

The end is here for the fall 2014 volleyball season, a challenging and fun experience for the parents, the girls and the fans. High-lights of the season include winning the team’s first set off St. John’s, our first match against Faith Christian, and a double-header against Ridge Christian. We also defeated the Lowcountry Prep Marlins in a fierce competition at their school. “It was a nerve wracking experience,” said Meredith and everyone agrees. Spirit was high that day among Kingfisher fans, with parents on their feet and two mascots (the Kingfisher and the baby Kingfisher) whipping up the crowd. We had to cancel our last game against Cathedral but managed to have a fun afternoon anyway: the soccer boys played the volleyball girls in a hilarious match involving hands, feet, heads, the walls and the ceiling.

9 Oct 201411 Oct 2014

Love your Mum!

“Mums for sale! Mums for sale!” shouted students at lunchtime on Wednesday, trying to convince cars passing by to stop and purchase a chrysanthemum. Students (and teachers) spent Monday and Tuesday making beautiful signs advertising the mums, finally setting up outside on Wednesday. Mums are $12 for an 8″ pot, with all funds going towards The Georgetown School’s scholarship fund. Flowers are available in bronze, yellow, white, pink, and purple, a color for every occasion! Mums will be for sale on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, but don’t wait, supplies are limited!

by Top Lee

30 Sep 201430 Sep 2014

Welcome, Ms. Smalls!

Ms. Smalls helps out making the baby Kingfisher costume.

Meet Ms. Smalls, the newest addition to our Kingfisher family. Ms. Smalls moved to Georgetown from New York City when she was ten years old. “I had culture shock!” she admits, “I think I cried the whole first year!” After graduating from Howard University, she worked in Washington, D.C. Then she moved back to Georgetown to be with her grandmother. She comes to The Georgetown School from the Mitney Project and is now assisting Mrs. Swietzer as our administrative assistant. “Yes, I love to be a secretary,” she smiled, “My favorite part of being here is that everyone is friendly.” Two little known facts about Ms. Smalls are: she has a huge book collection (she estimates it to be about 1700 books on the subject of African American and European Studies) and once she fell down the stairs at TGS after tripping on her dress. (She was not hurt!) It is great to have such a funny and nice person working with us.

23 Sep 2014

Kingfishers Win Over Faith Christian

In a historic moment, the Kingfisher volleyball team won its first game of the season in a double-header September 18 at home! The girls lost the first game but several of the sets were close. “We started winning when we started playing as a team,” observed Sarah, senior captain. Fans were thrilled at the victory in the second game, an important milestone for our school. Several of our younger players like Avery Rose and Tiyon put in a super performance while experienced players like Lizzy and Savanna were very consistent. The team celebrated at Tony’s Famous Pizza after this long, hard and very fun day.

14 Sep 201414 Sep 2014

Kingfishers at Charleston Open Regatta

It was hot and muggy at 9:45 Saturday morning, September 13, when 13 high school sailing teams turned up for the skippers’ meeting of the SAISA Charleston Open Regatta at the Charleston Community Sailing docks. The Kingfisher team was represented by Savanna and Nathan, (along with new team member Bronwen who came as an observer). First, thirteen 420s had to be towed around the Charleston Battery to the Carolina Yacht Club, where there was plenty of open water to create a course. When the boats arrived, the regatta began and teams lined up from 11:00 to 4:30 to race around four buoys and be the first to sail past the finish line.

Spectators for teams such as Bishop England, Ashley Hall, Lake Norman and Beaufort High sprawled on towels and in deck chairs, watching the course through binoculars and straining to interpret the movement of the bobbing boats. The concrete dock was littered with life vests, coolers and people relaxing in the sun. The wind finally came up and it turned out to be a decent day for racing.

“My race was fun,” said Nathan. “It seemed like we were out there for a short time.” Savanna agreed, “I had fun, even though it was a long tow back to the marina.” Nathan and Savanna sailed with Griffin and Sydney of WHS in four races; the boys placed 7th and 8th (we think) while the girls place 5th and 10th.

8 Sep 2014

Hobcaw Fish Survey

On Friday, September 5, Dr. Neubauer’s Biology and Environmental Science classes took a field trip to Hobcaw. The purpose of the trip was to participate in Hobcaw’s transient fish survey. Dr. Paul Kenny is studying climate change and changes in the fish population in North Inlet. The sky was a mix of sun and clouds as students began mucking around in a side creek of North Inlet, helping to pull the seine and gather as many fish as they could from the estuary. “Jump in the mud? Who doesn’t want to do that!” said Maston, plunging into the pluff. After getting totally soaked and muddy and narrowly escaping a downpour, students returned to the laboratory to sort and count the fish on large trays. Species included pin fish, mojarra, ladyfish, white shrimp, striped mullet and white mullet. The day ended with lunch and rehydration on the porch of Visitor’s Center. We would like to thank our guides Melissa Heintz and Paul Kenny, and Hobcaw for allowing us to help out with Dr. Kenny’s current study. Thank also to Dr. Neubauer and Dr. Gates for arranging and chaperoning the trip.