ZUMBA Fitness
Come dance with us to celebrate fun & Fitness!!!
All Are Welcome!
Sunday, November 18, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
WCS New Gym (up front)
Donation to support Voyager overnight field trip: $10 adults, $5 kids
Zumba
Fitness® is the only Latin-inspired dance-fitness program that
accommodates all fitness levels. This class will be directed by a
licensed team of Zumba Fitness® instructors.
Voyager raised $1,146.00 at the Voyager Media/Book Sale at the Craft Fair on Saturday!
Many thanks to our Voyager FAP volunteers!
Voyager Family Night @ Old Brick Church - Save the date - Thursday, December 13th
Reminder - No school during Thanksgiving week
Literature Group Parent Tip of the Week:
Our latest literature group book theme is “What makes scary scary?” If you haven’t seen this book, short story, or chapter come home, don’t hesitate to ask you child, what makes your book scary!?
Ms. Q’s Corner
7th Grade Math
This week we became more familiar with the graphing capabilities of our calculators. Comparing linear and nonlinear functions was made easier by observing calculator generated tables and graphs. (Students were happy to put away their paper generated graphs and tables for a bit!) We discussed what changes happen for both x and y axes with a variety of different functions. After playing a rousing game of jeopardy, we completed the Variables and Patterns Unit Test. Our next unit “Moving Straight Ahead” will continue the exploration of linear relationships, rates of change and discerning equations from tables and graphs.
8th Grade Math
We left “Thinking with Mathematical Models” and plunged into “The Shapes of Algebra”. We learned how to find coordinates of a circle on a Cartesian Coordinate plane by using the Pythagorean Theory. Constructing right triangles using the radius as the hypotenuse was a fun challenge. We needed a little refresher on square roots, exponents, and how to utilize our graphing calculators to their fullest potential. We also dabbled in inequalities in relation to points on the inside and outside of our circle.
Science
We took a kindler gentler look at our ecosystem through water color. We completed our succession drawings, discussed the scientific definition of succession and compared it with our own definitions. It is truly amazing how nature can create order out of chaos, especially after a forest fire, or natural disaster. Climate change and global warming are next up on our science agenda. We visited the EPA website on climate change and viewed the BBC movie the "Hot Planet", a documentary that looks at the science behind climate change and solutions to global warming.
The Week in Ms.Wesnak’s Room
Language Arts
This
week in Language Arts we put a close to our unit on U.S. government and
civics. We decorated the room with red, white, and blue on Tuesday in
honor of Election Day. All students took part in the WCS mock election
and also shared one paragraph from their final essay to the entire 7th
and 8th grade group. It was a great way to get a small preview of each
student’s essay and for each student to hear each others points of view.
Both myself and Martha were impressed with the students writing,
support, and behavior. Now that the election is over, we are moving into
a mini unit around poetry. To help fuel this unit we have decided to
take part in a project called Shells for the NJ Shore. This is a project
that schools are participating in across the country to raise money for
Hurricane Sandy Relief. Both 7th and 8th graders are taking part in
this project. We are using time in class to combine our poetry work with
our artistic, volunteer, and research skills. Talk to your 7th or 8th
grader about the project and their work around it. Here is the link if
you would like to check it out yourself! Shells for NJ Shores Project Link
Social Studies:
In Social Studies this week, we helped close the unit on U.S. government and civics. We are now widening our learning lens and beginning to look at government systems around the world! On Wednesday students took the time to listen to Obama’s speech from election night and begin thinking about the impact our President has on the rest of the world. Do other countries care about who our head of government is? What kind of message does Obama send out to the world? On Thursday we then took a trip around the world looking at a variety of images from different continents and countries. We also tested our knowledge around world geography by taking notes, and trying to track the videographer’s travels! It was quite fun and frustrating. This fun introduction is just the start of our work in the Global Government Project, which students will be starting next week. Students will continue working on their note-taking skills while conducting research on a country of their choice. They will be reading all about that country’s government system, finding out who their government leader is, and also digging up some fun facts about that country.
News from Ms. O
Grade 5 Math
This week students completed Unit 1 in Bridges 5! Whew! We are excited to be moving on to a big conceptual unit on multiplication and division, which will allow students to deeply grasp the meaning of these operations and make connections between them. The WCS faculty discussed computational fluency in depth this week at our faculty meeting. See the 0-12 multiplication and division math facts as a mountain that we must summit as soon as possible.
Grade 6 Math
6th graders have moved into our new unit, Bits and Pieces 1, to explore more deeply the relationship between fractions, decimals, and percents. We began the unit looking at why “knowing what the whole is” is so essential when working to understand fractions.
On a fluency note, I am aware that some students still are unable to do multi-digit multiplication and division. Please feel free to teach your child again and again the process of multiplying and dividing. We are asking students to know the good old-fashioned way (the way we are taught) at this point. And repetition seems to be working for many of my students who are happily mastering this skill! This is again about 0-12 multiplication and division fluency, which explains why FASTT math!
⅚ Science
We began exploration of density this week and students are working toward some focused inquiry on sinking and floating objects in water which we have learned has an easy density to remember 1g/1ml. This helps us to understand why copper which has a density of about 8 g/ml sinks in water! Upon completing these explorations we will then move in conservation of matter investigations for physical and chemical change.
Mr. Merrill’s Wrap Up
There was plenty of excitement and thoughtful discussion about the election this week. Students learned about the Electoral College system and completed maps to score the election. They also voted in the Mock Election on Tuesday. Graphic organizers were completed to support and organize an argument paper on “Who should be the next President of the United States?” Students started typing this final paper for the Election unit which will wrap up next week.
We also started a new online web based learning platform (No Red Ink) to help students improve their grammar and writing skills. This program seems to be a hit with the kids and provides additional support and practice for our Writing Workshop lessons.
Finally, we will be making a slight adjustment to our weekly schedule. We are going to move “Reading Cafe” back to Mondays, following the Thanksgiving break. Spelling and vocabulary will be on Thursdays only. The students have a good understanding of the spelling and vocabulary programs and a full class time committed to the program once a week will be a more efficient use of our time. The lesson will be introduced in class with the expectation that students complete the lesson for homework and study independently for a spelling quiz and vocabulary test for the following week. This change will also allow us to partner up with the ⅞ grade students for some fun reading activities during our Reading Cafe time.
No comments:
Post a Comment