Week of September 23

TA’s Notes

• Voyager FAP Meeting: Tuesday, October 1st at 6:30pm in Voyager Kiva

Anyone is welcome to attend this meeting with Voyager FAP Reps to become more involved with FAP and the planning and implementing of fundraising activities.

Need Something to do this Weekend?

The Dorothy Alling Memorial Library in Williston will present “Vermont History Through Song” this Saturday September 28 at 1 pm. - Dressed in period costume, Ms. Radtke takes listeners through state history, using the songs Vermonters published in their communities. From the earliest published song, ‘Green Mountain Farmer” (1798), though 1850 temperance ballads, Civil War era songs, to songs about Vermonters Calvin Coolidge, Thomas Dewey, and Jim Fiske, singer and researcher Linda Radtke joined by pianist Arthur Zorn bring Vermont history to life with engaging commentary about the songs found in the Vermont Historical Society’s collection of sheet music.

Linda Radtke, mezzo-soprano, has served as the principal alto soloist for the Mozart Festival and the Gilbert and Sullivan Players with the Oriana Singers, and is a founding member of Robert DeCormier's professional vocal ensemble, Counterpoint. She also sings with a vocal quartet, Ah!Capella, sponsored by the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, which brings music to Vermont schools.  She toured the state with a Vermont song recital sponsored by the Vermont Historical Society.  She works for Classic Vermont, WCVT 101.7 hosting Vermont Notes, a radio program focusing on the Vermont classical music scene, and the Classic Vermont Choral Hour, on Sunday mornings.

A recording of many of the songs from the program is available from the Vermont Humanities Council.  (www.vermonthumanities.com)

Sponsored by the Friends of the Dorothy Alling Memorial Library and the Vermont Humanities Council.

Mr. Merrill’s ⅚ Humanities Wrap Up

This week we continued our work with Peacemakers by focusing on the vocabulary that we have been using throughout the unit.  Students created wonderful word maps to use as a teaching visual for group activities.  We also explored the issue of bullying by using role  play, followed by some engaging discussion and a journal activity.  The journal entry was of one day in the life of the character they played in the skit.  Today, Students took a quiz on the Peacemakers vocabulary and were to have finished typing their “Best Summer Memories” LEAF (Constructed Response).

Note - We made an attempt to start No Red Ink (NoRedInk.com is a web-based learning platform that helps students improve their grammar and writing skills), but we had some glitches.  If your student wants to try and log on this weekend, there is no need to… I need to go back into the program and reconfigure it.  I will send an email out next week with the passwords and codes.

Ms. Q's Corner

Math 8

How is the line of best fit created in a data set that is not quite linear?  What does this "best fit" mean?  We continued investigating data sets that trended toward being a line and discovered the equation that would encompass that trend.  We reviewed how to find equations from points, slope and a single point and a graph.  We saw an "interesting" short video on functions to illustrate another mathematical model of how functions work. Math help is available during core and after school on Wednesdays.

Math 7

What stories do graphs tell us?  What is the difference between the dependent and independent variables and where do you place them on a graph?  Students continued their exploration of Behavior over Time Graphs or B.O.T.G. and worked with a partner to come up with a narrative that could be replicated as a graph.  Each team presented their narrative and the class tried to replicate the story in graph form.  It was a lot of fun!  We rounded out the week with a Check-up on Investigation 2. Math help is available during every core and after school on Wednesdays.

Science 7/8

When last we corresponded our fearless scientists were pondering the physical properties of matter.  This week we continued our investigation of melting and boiling points of different substances.  Students graphed their results, compared and contrasted the melting and boiling points of water and our substances (H2O2, NaCl aqueous and C2H4O2) and they made claim/evidence statements.  Conclusions were formed and we conjectured why boiling points may differ between substances.  We rounded out the week with vocabulary review, and a BBC movie called "Chemistry- A Volatile History."  Students will be writing a LEAF paragraph on the question: "How has man's view of the world been changed by chemistry?"  We will be moving into a study of the Periodic Table and chemical properties and reactions next week.

The Week in Ms. Wesnak’s Room:

7/8 Humanities: This week in Humanities started off as usual with our Independent Reading in the morning, and our Current Events catch-up in the afternoon. As the week continued on we did a close reading of a Time Magazine article titled “The Fighter - Malala Yousafzai”. This young woman over the past year has become an advocate for children’s education around the world and women’s rights. As a class we read this article aloud, took notes, found new words, asked questions, and discussed her story. Over the summer she gave an inspiring speech to the United Nations, which our classes watched and reflected on. If you haven’t heard it or seen it, you can find a link to the video via  BBC News on the Humanities website. This week marked the start of the General Assembly Debate for the United Nations in New York City. In perfect timing with what’s going on in the world outside of Williston Central School, our Humanities class focused our learning lenses on the United Nations. We continued our guided learning on the United Nations by students working in small groups to prepare a Google Presentation. This project had a little bit of a competitive edge to it. Using the United Nations as our bridge between our mini unit on Peace Day and our trimester unit on Global Cultures, students were told that after all presentations were shown we would vote on 1 presentation per class to be linked to our class website. Linking presentations to the website will be our way of not only spreading the word and educating others on Peace Day, but it is also a great way to showcase work to the global community! All groups had to focus on the same questions, but were given the use of their creative license to jazz up their presentation. Some groups added animation to each slide, pictures, or even links to the live feed of the debate in NYC. The presentations were all around fantastic! Humanities Gold had 2 presentations linked due to a tie, and the Humanities Blue had 1 presentation linked to the website. Check out the Humanities page to see whose presentations will be educating others on the United Nations and Peace Day :) Next week we will be preparing for our Model UN General Assembly, in which pairs of students will pick 1 member nation to represent in a debate over important global issues.

News from Ms. O

Math 5:  We are moving toward completion of Unit 1 of Bridges Grade 5.  This first unit is intended to review 4th grade learning and then advance discussion on concepts like algebraic patterning and the use of variables, factors of a number and each number’s prime factorization and properties of operations and how to model multiplication and division.  The instruction does not allow for expertise in student learning, but is designed to reintroduce the discussions about the above mentioned concepts.  Our next unit does a deep and comprehensive drive toward expertise and proficiency in the area of multi-digit multiplication.  We will be taking a unit assessment next week while working on testing strategies for NECAP.  I will not pause instruction for testing practice, but will use those items as a launch in our discussion about the math we are studying.  Watch for notation in the planner about a specific testing day by Tuesday.

Also, please help your student plan for at least 4 FASTT math sessions a week.  This may require your student to use a computer.  If you have hard and fast rules about computer use, access to FASTT math is simple and can be no longer than a 10 minute session on computer.  I will also work on helping them complete some of those sessions in school.

Math 6:  We continue to explore the properties of numbers while investigating tools that allow us to find the prime factorization of any number.  Is there only one product of prime numbers for any given number?  Yes.  For example, the number 12 can be decomposed into the product of these prime numbers, 2x2x3.  There is only one prime factorization for the number 12 which makes the number 12 unique.  We also investigated how a prime factorization can help you identify all the factors of a number AND help you identify the greatest common factor and least common multiple of any pair of numbers.  Cool tricks abound!  For example, if you have the numbers 12 and 18, the prime factorization of each respectively is 2x2x3 and 2x3x3.  Because each prime factorization has one two and one three in it, if I multiple those I have found the greatest common factor - 6!  Now, I can use that same factorization to find the least common multiple.  I take the GCF (greatest common factor which is 2x3 and I then multiply that by another 2 and another three and I have 2x3x2x3, which is 36.  That is my LCM!  So really it’s cool to find the prime factorization of any given number so that we can solve problems!

Students have been working on their special project for this book , which is to write a children’s book about their number.  Please check in on that so that students are honest about the expectations and approaching due date.

Science ⅚:  Science this week has been all about the Earth’s crust.  We made soil profiles from samples taken during our soil pit dig last week and then moved toward one very important theory of geographical changes on Earth, the idea of Continental Drift.  We are working to build our understanding while using nonfiction text and good writing strategies, so that we can understand how it is possible that we are moving across the earth’s crust, up to 3 inches a year!  We will look more specifically at the mantle on Monday, so that we can build understanding from the idea of Continental Drift to what is now accepted as the theory of Plate Tectonics.  Quiz results will be posted this weekend on Jupiter Grades.

Letter to Parents

Attached is a revised letter from the nursing staff at WCS.  Please read carefully so you can be better informed about the school guidelines around peanut allergies!

September 2013

Dear Parents and Students,

This school year a student in your child’s classroom has a severe allergy to all peanut products.  For this reason, students in our classrooms will be peanut safe and nut safe this year.

When possible, please do not send any of the following items to school for snack. 

• Peanuts
• Peanut butter
• Snack crackers with peanut butter fillings

**Students with a peanut/nut allergy should have a designated area in the classroom to have snack. This area only should be peanut/nut free. Students may sit in this area with a peanut/nut free snack. Washing hands after eating peanut products is recommended to prevent contamination of surfaces. 

Please check the labels on prepared foods and mixes.  It will state on the ingredient label if any peanut or nut products are used.  Classroom teachers will be monitoring snacks and lunch to assure this child’s safety.  Additionally, please talk with the classroom teacher prior to sending food in for birthdays or other special occasions.  Attached are peanut/nut free alternatives for snack if you are looking for guidance.

Students with peanut/nut allergies can sit at a peanut/nut free table in the cafeteria and in their classroom for easier monitoring. Friends may sit at the peanut free tables if the food they are eating are free of peanut/nuts. Students may be asked to wash their hands when entering the classroom in the morning and when they return from lunch.

I understand that this request may be an inconvenience for you, but it could save a child’s life.  If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to speak with your child’s teacher or our school nurse.  Thank you for your help in making Williston Central School and/or Allen Brook School a safe place for every student.

Sincerely,

Lisa LePrevost, RN

WCS  871-6170

Week of September 16

Mr. Merrill’s ⅚ Humanities Wrap Up

This week students started a writing piece titled “ My Best Summer Memory.”  Using the LEAF model (see Jupiter Grades for Handouts) students completed a graphic organizer that included a lead, 3 pieces of evidence and analysis, and a finisher.  Students used this organizer to write a first draft.  We followed this writing up with a lesson on revision, discussing things that effective writers do.  Using Post Its, and a hand out on revision sentence starters, we had a musical chair, peer editing activity.  We wrapped up our writing time this week by organizing our Google Drive folders, and starting a shared document that will be used to type the final draft of this piece next week.

During our project time, students have been working on their “Peace Quilt Squares”, that will become part of a larger Peace Quilt to celebrate a great peacemaker.  This has been a cooperative group activity, requiring informational text reading, research, and team planning.

The quilts are beautiful and will be on display in the hallway next week.

Ms. O’s Math and Science Shout Out

Math 5:  This week in math we focused on building rectangular arrays that allow us to deepen our understanding of multiplication and learn more about the numbers we were modeling.  We made observations of pairs of numbers, ones like 15 and 17, observations like the factors of those numbers (we also called them the dimensions of the array), and whether we could build just one model or more than one.  This was helpful in categorizing these numbers as composite and prime respectively.  Students worked really hard on these tasks!  

It’s busy in this class of 29, so we also focused on what it means to be a whole body listener, what Private Reasoning Time looks like and sounds like, and math talk with our dyad partner.  Students have come with great skills in these areas, but there is always more to do!  Touch base with your 5th grader around his/her own success in these areas.  

Math 6:  Students began several investigations this week to deepen their understanding of properties of numbers.  We engaged in two explorations, one about ferris wheels and the other about cicada emergence.  Both explorations involved finding common multiples and identifying the Least Common Multiple (LCM).  We will tackle real life situations where finding the Greatest Common Factor (GCF) might be a useful understanding.

Students also had a chance to work on their Special Number Unit Project.  I will be checking their book summaries this weekend and giving them the go ahead to write a children’s book about their number.  Many have already begun.  It is not due until the middle of October, but they are already tackling the short term scaffolding of the project.  

Also, we will be having sessions on specific patterns in nature to follow up on the work students did this summer.  Many students did not blog about patterns they recognized from photos they took, so I will reup the focus of this project on Monday, so all students know it is a required assignment.  

We also spent half a class period looking at the math reflections and viewing benchmark examples of how to write like a mathematician.  Students analyzed these responses according to the LEAF structure.  The first true scored reflection will be some time next week.  Students will receive a rubric for that assessed assignment so they know what is expected.

The quiz and test protocol is the following:  Students will have a chance to correct their quiz or test in the classroom to earn up to 4 PRACTICE points (to be recorded in Jupiter Grades).  Students did take a quiz this week, so you should ask and SEE how they did.  You will find this assessment in his/her binder under the tab (quiz /test).  

⅚ Science:  From tossing the Earth around our class to digging into the soil, students are learning about the crust of this Earth.  We engaged in a mapping task this week in order to enjoy this beautiful weather and observe patterns in what we see happening on the school campus.  We had two enjoyable days outside, one was a 90 minute block in which we collected soil samples and look at an 18 inch deep soil profile.  Students did a great job learning outside.  I hope we can squeeze more of that in before the snow flies.  There will be a quiz on Tuesday on the material we have covered thus far.  Review sheet will go home on Monday.

Ms. Q’s Corner

CMP 7

This week we began the CMP (Connected Math Program) unit called Variables and Patterns.  We started with an investigation on how many jumping jacks we could do over a two minute time period.  We explored what happens to our rate as time goes on.  We looked to see if there was a pattern in our tables and what story our graphs could tell about our performance.  We have some very athletic students that were able to power through many jumping jacks. It was impressive!   Students reviewed proper graph labeling and scale.  

CMP 7

CMP8 We began the week experimenting with a the Connected Math 3 unit "Thinking with Mathematical Models.  Students experimented with building paper bridges of various thicknesses and lengths and determined how each of these variables related to the amount of weight the bridge could hold.  Students created tables and graphs and explored whether the relationships between the variables were linear or nonlinear.  Students began considering rules that would allow them to extrapolate future values.

Science 7/8

Ms. Q received some "mysterious" powders.  Table teams had to figure out what the substance was using  their power of observation,  and their understanding the physical property of density.  The mystery was solved and students had a better understanding that knowing the density of substances can sometimes lead to its identification.  We rounded out the week with investigating the physical properties of pennies and how the pre-1982 penny was vastly different from the post-1982 penny. We learned about different composition of those pennies and how their densities reflected that change. Incidentally, the pre-1982 penny is made up of 95% Copper and 5% Zinc, whereas the post-1982 penny is made up of 97.5% Zinc and 2.5% Copper.   It has made me rethink my penny collection!  We rounded out the week with our investigation of phase change.  Using water as a control, students graphed the results of water's change from a solid, liquid to a gas. Next week we will compare phase change of other solids to water.

The Week in Ms.Wesnak’s Room:

7/8 Humanities: Over the past week, during our mornings, students completed some journal writing and handed in what will be their first graded writing piece of the year. Through their first table challenge of the year students discovered and learned the meaning of “Informative Writing” which will be our main focus for the trimester. To finish up our week students participated in the first simulation of the year! During simulations students and teachers take on roles in order to bring to life topics and units of study we are focusing on in class. This simulation focused on culture and the meaning of diversity. It was also meant to have students think about stereotyping, how culture can be developed, and how relationships between different cultures can be created and possibly broken. The simulation brought out high energy, great questions, thoughtful class discussions, and reflections. During our afternoon time together we caught up on Current Events through CNN Student News, and the help of Carl Azuz and his ever so “punny” news anchor skills. If you have never seen CNN Student News I suggest you watch it with your child sometime! It really is a great way to get caught up on what is going on in our world. As the week continued students completed their recipes for world peace, and began their work on the “Uniting Nations” project. The focus of this in-class project is to learn the basics of the workings of the United Nations and its connection to the Peace One Day project. Students are working in small groups answering questions such as: What is the General Assembly? What is the mission of the United Nations? Students will complete this project early next week, and we will begin preparing for our model UN!! Don’t forget Peace Day is on Saturday! What will you do to create peace on Saturday?  

Week of September 9

Important Info from the Voyager TA

Lots of information coming home with students this week!

• Jupiter Grade logins were sent home today allowing you to view your child’s current grades, homework, missing assignments, test scores and report cards.
• School picture day is next Wednesday the 18th!  Please send in order forms if you would like to order school pictures.
• An information sheet regarding classrooms being peanut and nut free this year.
• Any students who checked out library books over the summer need to return these books asap!
• Please call or e-mail me if your child will be out for the day, late coming in, picked up early or if you need anything related to Voyager house.

Katie Fieldsend       

871-6148       

KFieldsend@cssu.org

Voyager House News:

• Very important!!!  Voyager and 5-8 Curriculum Night - Tuesday, September 17th

           

For curriculum night parents will start on their student's team (6:30-7:30) and then  go to the auditorium from 7:30-8:00 pm for a big picture overview.

The Voyager teachers will review the website, student schedule, curriculum, homework, Jupiter Grades, reporting and answer questions.

• Advisory Groups:  Voyager 5th and 6th graders each have a 7th or 8th grade mentor.  Among other mentor mentee get togethers, we have placed each mentor and mentee together in an advisory group so that they can begin his/her two year journey with his/her mentor or continue it from last year.  We will continue to schedule time into advisory for mentees to be mentored!  Our first theme of the advisory year is Healthy ME!  Find out what kind of healthy activity your child is participating in next week!

• Literature Groups:  We began literature groups this week on our theme, Peace and Social Justice.  Ask your Voyager student what they are reading.  

One Half of the Equation:  News from the ⅚ side

The Schedule!  I’m sure you are all wondering what your kiddo does each day.  Here’s the good news...they are busy!  Aside from a few little edits to the schedule, our learning blocks are as follows:

8:10 5th Grade Skills; 6th Grade Related Arts and World Language

8:50 Related Arts and World Language

9:30 6th Grade Math; 5th Grade Humanities

10:30 5th Grade Math; 6th Grade Humanities

11:30 Literature and Advisory

11:50 Guided Study Hall (5th Grade Language to begin Oct)

12:30 Lunch and Recess

1:15 and 2:00 Science and Humanities multiage

Mr. Merrill’s 5/6 Humanities Wrap Up

This week students organized their Humanities binder.  The binder has 4 dividers, current (work), past (work), class tools, and readings.  We also made a reading response notebook with special tabs to be used for  whole class literature books, read alouds, and independent reading activities.  Student composition books were covered with a collage for writing inspiration, and tabs were also added for entries, writing strategies, and a personal spelling list.  The other spiral will be used as a Humanities notebook, for current events, notes, and vocabulary.  

In the morning, Humanities class is divided by grade level.  The focus of this period will be on reading and writing instruction.  The work we do will be connected to the literature, historical, global, and current events that we will be studying throughout the school year.  In the afternoon, the Humanities class is multiage, and lessons will have a “social studies” focus, be project oriented, but continue to emphasize the writing and reading instruction from the morning’s work.  

This week, students studied great peacemakers, writing and creating an illustrated “Dream for Peace” poem, and started research on a group project.  The project is to create a Peace Quilt (paper) that celebrates and identifies the 5 W’s (who, what, when, where, why) of a great peacemaker’s accomplishments.  

This assignment, along with the handouts will be available on Jupiter Grades next week.  Homework will be posted in Jupiter Grades, which will be reviewed at our open house on Tuesday.

Ms. O’s Math and Science Shout Out

Math 5:  Students in 5th grade kicked off the year with a little algebra!  Cube sequences has been our focus this week...how do we identify a pattern in a growing sequence of cubes so that we can generalize it for future cube sequences?  Students have been building and counting and seeing into the future (my determining the 201st arrangement pattern) and have been doing very well!  There is more to come, but our next stop will be in building math models for multiplication.

Our Math Habit of Interaction goals focus on the following habits:  Private Reasoning Time, Explaining my Reasoning, and Listening to Understand.  All students made a goal for this first trimester and will be self-assessing progress on this goal. So far our classroom has been quiet, quiet, and then loud, loud ( in a good way).  

Kathy Rossier is a co-teacher in our room.  We are lucky to have such expertise and support!

Math 6:  Students have been assigned a Unit Project, in which they much write a children’s book about a special number they have chosen.  The book’s theme is what makes my number unique?  We dived headfirst into attributes of a number this week by playing two games, the Factor Game and the Product Game.  While some attributes like odd and even may be review, we have learned new math language like abundant, deficient, composite, prime, and perfect numbers.  Students will use these features to describe their number and introduce it to the world in book form.

We will be addressing the photo blog from the summer through some themed studies on specific math concepts that we might find in nature.  If your Voyager did not do the summer blog, they should work on taking pictures and posting them on the blog so that next week, we can pick that project up again.

Our Math Habit of Interaction goals focus on the following habits:  Private Reasoning Time, Explaining my Reasoning, and Listening to Understand.  All students made a goal for this first trimester and will be self-assessing progress on this goal. So far our classroom has been quiet, quiet, and then loud, loud ( in a good way).  

Math Homework Check-in

Many parents have been patiently awaiting our homework policy and schedule.  The students are finally in a routine and so they are ready to invite you in.  

• 5th grade math students have received both Home Connection packets and Practice packets in advance.  By providing students with a stapled packet, students who struggle with the daily papers here and there can receive all of the assignments and just do them when they are assigned. It’s a no mess solution!   It keeps binders neater and prevents the paper scatter that we have all experienced in our children’s backpacks! Occasionally students will have math homework in a book, but this will not happen very often.  There is plenty of homework in the unit packets you see in their math/science binder.  You should expect math homework on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday each week.  Students will also be expected to do FASTT math or Fraction Nation 4 times a week.  All homework is due the next day unless otherwise indicated.  

• 6th grade math students are in the 6th grade Connected Math book, Prime Time.  This book is not a book students can write in.  Therefore all homework should be done in the learning log (the math spiral).  6th graders have also received a practice skills packet.  Homework is assigned daily, Monday-Thursday and is dependent on progress in class.  At the end of each investigation, there is a series of 40-50 problems and students will have 5-8 problems, due the next day, unless otherwise indicated.  6th graders are also still responsible for achieving computational fluency and are therefore required to do 4 days a week of online enrichment in this area.  Student FASTT Math, Fraction Nation, and soon Kahn Academy have been customized depending on the growth your child needs in this area or the enrichment they are ready for!  

Science ⅚:  No Homework as of this moment!  We began our unit on Earth’s Systems with a memory test!  How many objects can you remember from the table filled with objects made or originating from materials from Earth’s surface?  Some students were able to remember up to 20 objects and then guess the theme!  We took a short journey to the center of the Earth with the question in mind, could we actually do it?  We spent the rest of the week learning about the geosphere (the Earth’s physical structure) and the hydrosphere (water on Earth) as it relates to the Earth’s crust.  Students are responsible for learning new vocabulary like geosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere, and atmosphere, in addition to knowing the layers of the Earth.  Onto earthquakes and volcanoes in the coming weeks.

The Week in Ms. Wesnak’s Room - Humanities 7/8

This week has been busy, but has been such a great start to the year. We started the week off with our usual IRM (Independent Reading Monday) during our Morning Humanities, and followed it up with Current Events in the afternoon. This will be a weekly thing in Humanities as a way to ease our minds and bodies into the week. As our first full week continued we began our work on the first graded writing piece of the year: My Summer Vacation in a LEAF! Students are being asked to write about their summer vacations via the LEAF paragraph format. In class students were given time to work, but also time to discuss major parts of the paragraph such as the lead sentence/hook and transition words. This writing piece will be the first graded writing piece of the year! During our afternoon classes we have been discussing global peace. Students are being asked to put on a “chef hat” as they prepare a recipe for global peace, as one of our first projects of the school year! As prep for our first major unit of the year, all of WCS is starting with a mini unit on peace by focusing on Peace Day and the Peace One Day project. We have discussed topics such as why is Peace Day important, and could something like this actually work? We also looked at photographs and discussed the consequences of war. Today we kicked off our studies on the United Nations and its connection to the Peace One Day project. Please talk to your student about Peace Day and what the goal of Peace Day is. It would even be fun to come up with an activity to do on Peace Day (which is Saturday, September 21st) to celebrate!!

Ms. Q’s Corner

CMP8

Over the past few weeks we have reviewed number systems, commutative, associative and distributive properties of multiplication and division, multi-step algebraic problems, order of operations, mixed number operations and exponent rules.  These topics are preparing us for the upcoming NECAP tests and also retooling our mathematical minds for our first CMP unit Thinking With Mathematical Models.  Students had a quiz on Friday for the first full week of classes.

CMP7

The 7th graders revved up their mathematical minds with the introduction of number sets and how they interface. We reviewed mathematical operations using positive and negative integers and practiced solving multi-step equations using PEMDAS (Order of Operations).  We reviewed geometry vocabulary and constructed some geometric figures.  All of these topics are part of our NECAP review and a great place to start before jumping into our first  CMP book called Variables and Patterns.  Students took a brief quiz on Friday.

7/8 Science

What do engineers do?  We became student engineers and worked to solve a problem through design engineering. The problem: How can we transport GI Joe/Jane safely from a high cliff,  over a valley of seething lava, to a plateau where he/she will be rescued? Using a variety of strategies students designed, tested and redesigned an evacuation system to get their comrade out of danger.  We discussed the scientific principles observed in our devices, and the design successes and failures.

Voyager Grading System

Introduction:  Voyager House uses an online grading system, Jupiter Grades, in order to help a student understand the expectations and commitments of learning in their classrooms.  The grading system clearly outlines how an assignment is categorized and helps students, parents, and teachers see student strengths and areas for growth.  This grading system works across all core subject areas and learning settings and has been adopted in all Voyager grades 5-8.

Assignment Categorization:  Voyager students will see each assignment categorized according to the 4 categories listed below:  

• Accountability:  This category is all about a student’s ability to do what is expected both in the classroom and independently.  We will categorize homework here, as well as being prepared to learn, peer review activities, self-assessments, oral participation in the class, among others.
• Practice:  This category is designed to measure a student’s commitment to classwork, first drafts, graded homework, science journals, short writing pieces, and online practice like FASTT Math or Kahn Academy.
• Performance:  This category captures performance on projects, presentations, major writing pieces, science fair, lab reports.  
• Quiz/Test:  This category includes quizzes and tests in a given core area.

Assignments categorized under accountability, practice, performance, and tests will be scored on a 4 point scoring system.  See details below.

• Accountability (0-4) - Homework completion, prepared to learn (completed and on time = 4, on time and nearly complete = 3, late or incomplete = 2, significantly late = 1, never turned in = 0)
• Practice (0-4) - Classwork, graded hw, drafts, journaling, science journal, short writing pieces, math additional practices (rubrics)
• Performance (0-4) - Projects, presentations, major writing pieces, science fair, lab reports (rubrics)
• Test/Quiz - (0-4) The percentile grade will be noted in the comment section, so that you can see where you fall in the grade range.

These 4 categories will be weighted! The weight of each category will vary from Math/Science to Humanities due to the high number of tests in Math and high level of projects/major writing pieces in Humanities. Students and families will be made aware of these weights. In addition to getting information on each of the four categories, your child will receive an overall cumulative score for the core subject area.

Scoring Specifics in a 0-4 Scoring System

4: 95-100 - Exceeds Expectation,

3: 85-94 - Meets Expectation

2: 75-84 - Working Towards Proficiency

1: 74 and Below - Needs Assistance to Meet Expectation

0: Never turned in by end of trimester

Jupiter Grades Abbreviations to Know:

/: Missing or not completed

EX: Excused from the assignment

ABS: Absent; due upon return or shortly thereafter

Reporting/Grade Reports:

We are still a standards-based house. Our teaching and rubrics reflect and implement standards. Our grade reports reflect performance and are influenced by the standards we meet in class. At the end of each trimester students will take home a large manilla folder that will be filled with all of their work and reflections from the trimester, along with their final Grade Report. Parents and guardians are expected to receive the envelope, review the work and Grade Report with their child, and then return the EMPTY envelope to school. Grade reports will still have a narrative about what each class achieved during the trimester and will also have a list of key standards met. Grade reports for each trimester will include the following:

• A narrative about the class
• A list of key standards met
• One overall grade for the class
• Four  individual grades, one for each of the four categories
• Comments from the teacher