Voyager Housekeeping
BOOK SALE
- The Wiki to sign up to help with the Voyager Book/Media Sale at the WCS Craft Fair is ready.The Craft Fair is on Saturday, November 3rd from 9:00 am - 4:00 pm. The success of this sale is directly related to the merchandise we collect to sell...so even if you can not help outat the Fair, it would be great to have you involved in collecting books, DVDs, music CDs, video tapes, and records prior to the sale. Merchandise will be stored in the Voyager Project Room.
- There are spots to sign up to 'adopt' a collection in your neighborhood, if you chose to sign-up for those spots, I will be in touch and hold a brief meeting on how best to undertake those collections.
- This book sale is a great fundraising opportunity. Last year, we raised over $1,000! The funds went directly to reduce the costs of the end-of-year field trip -- which ended up being FREE for ALL Voyager students. This year, there will be a 7/8 overnight trip to NYC as well as a 5/6-specific trip. We'd love to see the older students signing up for some of these spots and helping at the fair. Any questions, please send to apechaver@yahoo.com Thank you!!!!
Voyager FAP wiki http://voyagerfap.wikispaces.com/home
NECAPS
- NECAP testing will begin on Monday, October 8, 2012. Please schedule in extra rest, a focus on hydration and nutrition, and a cheerleader apporach to doing one's best on this assessment. It takes health, happiness, and stamina to attend for these long testing blocks!
5-8 Wish List
- We want to make our learning environment rich, interesting, and comfortable! If you would like to add a book to our library (we have a list of books we would love to have), purchase a Crazy Creek for your child to use in literature group, or add some green life (a plant, that is) to our windowsill, feel free! Just contact your child’s core teacher for more details! AND THANKS!
Mr. Merrill’s Wrap Up
⅚ Language Arts
We
started the week off with our “Reading Cafe.” Many students are ahead
of their reading goals and have finished at least one independent
reading book. We are going to move our “Reading Cafe” to follow our
Vocabulary time on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s. This will make for an
easier transition following Vocabulary and give us an extra period for
instruction. If you signed up to bring in a snack for “Reading Cafe”,
please bring it in on that Tuesday.
During
our Writer’s Workshop, we focused on using commas. Students wrote a
story about a trip they took, including packing lists, dates, and
locations to practice using commas. Many students wanted to share their
stories with the class, so cool!
The Vocabulary books are finally in, so students should be completing their next lesson in the book. For students new to the Wordly Wise
program, the test they had this week was open book. We will correct
the test together next week, so students can understand what to expect
on future tests.
⅚ Social Studies
The WCS Candidate Forum is next Friday, October 5th. The ⅚
students are making posters for this event. This week, they selected a
candidate, completed research, and started working on a poster to
display for the forum. Colored Duct tape (blue and red) and colored
pencils are running low, if you would like to make a donation. Thanks!
News from Ms. O
5th Grade Math
We
are moving on to multi-digit multiplication! Students have wrapped up
algebraic patterning work and moving into multiplication. We took an
assessment Thursday that will be posted on Jupiter Grades and sent home
Monday. Please ask to see it; I’m asking all parents to sign assessment
so you are not in the dark about your child’s performance!
Students
have two additional math classes each week to pursue additional math
topics, many of which are centered around computation and skills, like
graphing. We have just begun a penny flipping activity to look at the
likelihood or chance of certain events happening. The discussion has
been rich! I’m very pleased with the focus and attention during these
two math days!
All
kiddos are enrolled in FASTT math and have taken an initial assessment.
Most students are in multiplication, even if it is above their grade
level, because this is the focus of the next unit. Students login is
firstlast and password is math. Please ask them to work on this 3 x a
week. I have a magic eye that can detect lack of activity. Don’t be
the one!
6th Grade Math
Students
wrapped up some initial discovery of properties of matter and will be
moving on Monday to some new ways to look at and understand numbers.
Investigation 2 in Prime Time! Assessment will come home on Monday and
should be signed, once you see the Jupiter Grades post. We are really
focusing on writing a good math explanation. It is a lot of work, but
I’ve already seen kiddos step it up so that they don’t need to do a
rewrite. I am working on not accepting anything unless it has capitals
and periods. I hope this makes the difference!
All
kiddos are enrolled in FASTT math and have taken an initial assessment.
Most students are in multiplication, even if it is above their grade
level, because this is the focus of the next unit. Students login is
firstlast and password is math. Please ask them to work on this 3 x a
week. I have a magic eye that can detect lack of activity. Don’t be
the one!
⅚ Science
This
week students continued discussions on two big ideas: What is matter?
and What properties of matter allow us to identify each substance as
unique and different from other substances? By investigating what
happens when you heat and cool liquids, solids, and gases, students have
come to the understanding that matter is stuff (anything in our world
and beyond) that has mass, volume, exists as solids, liquids, gases (or
plasma) and that this stuff, is made of atoms and molecules that are in
constant motion and are attracted to each other. When we know this, we
are able to explain why water droplets tend to move toward each other or
act sticky; we are able to explain why a thermometer can go up or down
based on the temperature of the liquid it is sitting in; we can explain
why cement walkways are built in sections instead of as one continuous
surface. We ended our week with an open notebook assessment where
students were asked to write about what they have learned based on
evidence and information. I am expecting students to use LEAF
paragraphs to explain or justify their thinking. If you don’t know what
that is, your child will! As scientists, we must communicate our
thinking in writing and to do this well, we need structure. The LEAF
structure is the perfect structure for this! P.S. - I would like all
assessments to be seen and signed by parents. Please feel free to ask
your child when you see the score posted on Jupiter Grades.
Ms. Q’s Corner
Science 7/8th
Monday,
I was up in the Northeast Kingdom participating in my science class. It
was chilly and the foliage was spectacular. In my Vermont Science
Academy class I am learning to push students to articulate their thought
process in making science meaningful. This year, my goal is to have
students write clear and concise “claims and evidence” statements based
on data that we find in our experiments. Another goal is to make sense
of the data we find in our scientific explorations and extrapolate what
could happen in other situations. Making meaning is key.
This
week in our 7/8th science class, we completed our seedlings experiment.
Our question: Does a seed in a closed system gain mass as it grows?
We measured our seedlings everyday, made observations in our inquiry
notebooks, and came to the understanding that the mass of the seedlings
will stay the same in a closed system. This major scientific concept of
conservation of mass was clearly seen in this experiment We moved
onto the Carbon Cycle and calculated how much carbon each human being
exhales everyday. We investigated our carbon footprint through an
online carbon calculator. Students completed a ecosystem vocabulary
worksheet that will be the basis of our investigation of the pathway of
energy through an ecosystem.
Math 7
Who
knew that there could be so much data around a bicycling trip. This
week we continued our investigations in the CMP unit “Variables and
Patterns.” We created graphs and tables as the bicycle tour group made
their way down the the coast toward Norfolk, VA. We talked about scale,
coordinate points and stories that can be told by looking at a graph or
table. Finally, we reviewed exponents and several skills from our
starter sheets.
Math 8
We
have been very busy this week. We continued our work in “Thinking with
Mathematical Models.” We looked at patterns and created algebraic
equations that would allow us to extrapolate. The class also worked on
reviewing simplifying algebraic expressions. We practiced one-step and
two-step equations. On the skills front, we tackled scientific
notation. Students received their first quiz grades on number systems
and mathematical operations .
The Week in Ms.Wesnak’s Room
Language Arts
This
week in LA both 7th and 8th graders have been working on some of the
basics in grammar and punctuation. We’ve been working on solidifying our
skills in the world of commas, homophones, and what it takes to write a
complete sentence. As a class we hunted down some real-world examples
of proper comma use. Students were asked to dig into their literature
group books to find examples of commas in published writing. Students
challenged themselves to think about what would happen if their author
didn’t use commas. Students asked themselves would this sentence,
statement, or question make sense without commas? What is this author
trying to say? 7th graders completed a review on these skills and took
their quiz on Friday. 8th graders will be completing their review
friday, and quizzing on Monday. 8th graders also took a little time to
watch an inspiring video on Friday. The hope was that the story in the
video would motivate them for their own 8th Grade Challenge. If you have
an 8th grader, be sure to ask them about their Challenge and how it’s
going!
Social Studies
We
are knee deep in the election race! Students have been working really
hard to learn all about the candidates in the Vermont race and what
their jobs are all about. All of our hard work around the government,
what it means to be a citizen, and our rights is about to pay-off with
the upcoming Candidate Forum! Students in the 7th and 8th grade are
given an amazing opportunity with the Candidate Forum to actually CREATE
the questions being asked of the candidates. Wow!! Voyager House has
been asked to create the questions for the candidates in the race for
Governor and Lt. Governor. As a house, we are all very excited about
this opportunity. We are getting pumped-up for the event and polishing
off our knowledge around the issues and the different views taken by
each political party. Students, individually, are being asked to pick an
issue and take a stand! Learning to take a stance on a political issue,
finding your voice, and backing-up your opinion is important and
inspiring work. I feel lucky to be having such discussions and
conversations around these topics with such a great group of students.
Talk to your child about the Vermont election and who is running the
state race! Also, please engage in conversation about the issues facing
our state and our country!
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