Week of November 4

THANKS

A big thank you to those parents who donated books, canvassed neighborhoods, and set up and staffed the Voyager Media Sale at the Craft Fair.  Amazing team effort!  We raised a total of $941.00 that will go directly to reducing the cost of the end-of-year, overnight, in-state field trip for ALL Voyager families.  Great example of how a small contribution of time and effort can yield great results that benefit all of our students!  If you did not have a chance to participate, there will be more opportunities in the coming months.

Thank you!

Voyager FAP

Ms. Q’s Corner

CMP8

What is the difference between a growth factor and growth rate?  How does the initial value impact on the rate of growth in an exponential function.  What is compound growth and how can we ever save money with such low interest rates!!  We explored and and challenged our thinking on our understanding of growth.  Students are learning to write exponential equations effortlessly.  They have been working hard and are now delving into the mysteries of exponential decay.  

CMP7

We continued our review of the algorithms used for subtracting negative integers.  We looked at the ways that you can get a similar value by adding and subtracting.(You can sing the words...”like signs add and different signs subtract....”)  We rounded off our week with reviewing the algorithm of multiplying and dividing positive and negative integers.( You can meditate on the words “If you love to love, you love. If you love to hate, you hate” etc.)These are devices that remind us how to keep the correct sign when using positive and negative numbers while multiplying and dividing.

Science 7/8th

We completed the Chemistry test on Monday and jumped right into our engineering task.  The problem: How to keep a bungee egg from breaking when pushed off a platform.  Through trials and data collection students worked to find the proper length of bungee to make it a fun ride for the egg without cracking the egg’s skull.  It was eggciting to watch!  The final plunge is on Monday. Students will write up their findings for this task next week.

Mr. Merrill’s ⅚ Humanities Wrap Up

We completed a number of self assessments this week in preparation for 1st trimester reporting.

Students self assessed their Reading Response Notebooks, Writer’s Notebooks, and filled out a Student Investment in Learning rubric.   I will also be assessing this work and the rubrics will be coming home as part of the 1st Trimester reporting.  

Students continued to blog, post, and comment on a 2nd Trimester Goal, identifying a timeline and steps to follow to reach the goal.  The Voyager ⅚ blogging community offered many supportive comments and thoughtful questions during the activity.  

Students wrapped up the week with a quiz on a number of the New Learning Categories that we have explored since starting the Lewis and Clark unit.  New vocabulary, geography, people, and events made up the content for the quiz.  

News from Ms. O

Math 5:  Students in 5th grade have been working on building conceptual understanding of division.  The construction of conceptual understanding of division lies in conceptual understanding of multiplication. We focused an immense amount of time on multiplication, so the step across the division bridge has been seamless!  We have spent the bulk of our week looking at problems like 36 /3, 42/3 and 53/4 as a way to build the framework for understanding problems like 384/12 and 156 /4.  Most of the comparison work has centered around trading base ten pieces, whether there is a remainder or not, and whether you can make a rectangular array.  The Unit test will take place before the trimester ends.

Math 6:  Students continue to build proportional reasoning understandings while exploring ratios, fractions, and rates.  We learned about unit rate this week, when one number in the comparison is a one.  We used that information to look at fair share scenarios, how much does each person get?  We also looked at situations when unequal shares are okay, like a large dog getting more food than a small dog.  This will lead us to a deeper sense of proportions. We used Kahn Academy in class today and I realized that many 6th graders are not on it, and they should be.  This is the best tool for pre-teaching concepts and solidifying skills.  Please encourage this self-directed learning at home.

⅚ Science:  We have been learning about the rock cycle and that it isn’t a cycle at all!  Cycles imply predictability and consistency, but the rock cycle is anything but that!  We went on an erosion walk to investigate sources of erosion, whether human made or natural and learned the reality of our maintenance staff here at school!  It is a lot of work to reverse the effects of erosion.  As we move forward we will  investigate how fossils are made and view some fossils we have here at school.  If you have a fossil at home, please send it in. We looked at some today. We will be careful with them!  We are coming to an end of this long investigation of Earth Systems.  There will be a unit test next week during the long block.  Next unit, an energy and engineering unit on electricity and magnetism.  

The Week in Ms. Wesnak’s Room

7/8 Humanities: Global Village Week!! This week all students dug deep into the cultures of their Global Village countries to expand, create, and transform what were once small classroom spaces into 12 beautiful global booths! Our humanities class started the week with our usual independent reading and discussions around current events. As the week went on students handed in their Informative Writing Pieces and did a little bit of journal writing. On Wednesday and Thursday we took over a large quantity of school iPads and began our work with an app called Haiku Deck. Haiku Deck is a wonderful presentation program that allows students access to gorgeous copyright free pictures and only allows them to use limited text on each slide. Some of our students said things like “Haiku Deck was very easy to use.”, and “It was really easy to understand and the picture search was really helpful.”. While students were creating their “decks” on iPads, other students were busy turning our classroom into an art studio by building sculptures, painting, creating cardboard cut-outs, collaging, and building large flags! The excitement level throughout the day on Friday was at a high, and they could not wait for the village to open up. Big thank you to all of the Voyager staff for participating in our Global Village, and a HUGE thank you to our 7th and 8th graders!! They really pushed themselves to put together projects and displays that they were proud of and excited to share. They built temples, created huts, learned dances, spoke a variety of languages, cooked, and created diverse environments representing cultures from all around the world!! This is something to really be proud of!! Thank you for an amazing project and day!! :)