VOYAGER
THEATRE PRODUCTION
Performance Night - Thursday, April 4th at 7pm
Important information about schedule changes and academics during the play
production weeks. On March 18th Voyager will start a three-week unit (March
28-April 14) of experience and study in producing our own play Dr. Jordyn and
His Toybox of Success. Our daily schedule will be changed to accommodate
rehearsals and technical work. The casts and crews will be assigned by March
15th. All students have a role or job for the play. There is one large cast
that will perform. Parents are invited to help out in various ways before and
during the production. Look for a Needs List coming from the technical crew for
what props, costuming, and help during the day are needed. This list will be
emailed by Core and also posted on the Voice. A cast list will also be sent home
next week.
In terms of academics, all students will continue their independent reading
during the times when they are not directly involved in the play (waiting for
their scene, waiting for paint to dry, etc.) or during afternoon core time. We
will still be holding math and science classes during the production weeks, and
all students will have journal writing to complete on a weekly basis. All
Voyager students will be responsible for completing a final reflection at the
end of the unit, along with a final project. The list of journal writing
expectations/prompts and final project choices and expectations are provided
with the play rubric (available on Jupiter Grades once the play begins).
Eighth graders will not have any special or dictated work periods for their 8th
Grade Challenge projects and will need to continue that assignment
independently at home. All students have an 8th Grade Challenge folder at
school that has a copy of the final presentation checklist, as well as the
final presentation rubric. With a lighter homework load now is a great time for
eighth graders to put in some hours in order to start wrapping up their work.
Our play unit this year happens to be during a VERY busy time. We begin on
March 18th, Report Cards go home on the 22nd, the 7th and 8th grade Science
Fair is on March 28th, Parent Conferences take place on March 29th and the
following week is our performance week. The play unit is a very unique,
creative, and special time in our curriculum where all of Voyager comes
together as a 5-8 community. We’re in an “all hands on deck” mode to help make
this a memorable and exciting experience for all.
Below is a guideline that we wrote for the students to understand how the
theatre production will be run. We want you to have a copy so that you can
support the process.
The house goal is to have all students participate in the play in some
capacity. All roles must be filled. Teachers will look out for the proper
workings and success of the whole play and make decisions accordingly. It
is a privilege to receive a lead role and appropriate behavior, attitude,
and
effort is required. If you do not get the role you want, you will be
assigned
to another role. This means you may be assigned to a role you did not
sign up for. There is no switching once assignments are made, unless the
faculty initiates and decides the change. Accept the role you receive and
give it your best effort. We all have much learning to do. Together, with
good effort, we will all have a blast doing this project.
Please also review the play rubric which will be used to evaluate your
student’s effort, cooperation, and participation for the next three weeks. The
rubric and play assignments will be posted on Jupiter Grades once the play
begins.
Thank You!!
-Voyager House -FAP Update:
Final numbers for The Pet Food Warehouse event are in! We made an
additional $310 on the pet washes and coupons, bringing our total to $826!
Fantastic. Thanks again to all that supported that fundraiser. Keep Pet Food
Warehouse in mind for your pet purchases, as they were so welcoming and
supportive of our students!
Voyager Recycle Sale is coming up! Saturday, April 6th in the WCS
cafeteria from 9:00 am - 3:00 pm. Please mark this on your calendar because
this is the most important, biggest fundraiser of the year! How can you
prepare? Spring Clean!!!! On the Friday night before the sale (April 5th) we'll
be collecting and tagging items to sell. We will accept household items
(plates, decorative items, old coffee pots, toaster, lights, etc....you name it!)
Also, fashion items, gently used clothing (jeans are a hit!) pocket books,
games, toys, books, sports equipment, carpets, furniture, jewelry. This year,
if you have a large ticket item to sell and feel you would be challenged to
'donate' the whole thing -- we'd be glad to accept it on consignment for a
'split!' So if you'd like to see a piece you think would fetch $50, we'd be
happy to split the proceeds... Start cleaning, look for a wiki sign up
beginning NEXT week to help run stations and staff the event.
SCHOOL BUDGET QUESTIONS? If you are concerned about the school budget
and like your voice heard, come join us at the next FAP meeting -- WCS, March
14th at 8:15 am in the upfront dining room. These meeting are always open to
the public.
The
FAP Big Basket Raffle
Collections
for the 13th annual Big Basket Raffle and Silent Auction are underway! This
is
one of FAP’s biggest fundraisers of the year, with proceeds distributed as
grants to
teachers
and other FAP programs for the benefit of WCS/ABS students. Items donated
by
our Williston School District families will be made into beautiful themed
baskets that
will
be raffled off at the BIG BASKET RAFFLE on Saturday, April 13th, 2013.
Donations
should
be sent to your child’s class between March 11th and April 5th!
We
ask each family to donate one (or more) item(s) that relate to your class
theme:
- O’Brien - Movie Madness (popcorn, movie passes, candy, popcorn
maker, bowls, big throw pillows, DVD’s, blankets, rental passes, soda,
etc.)
- Wesnak - That’s Italian (oil bottles, pasta, strainer,
breadsticks, garlic, garlic crusher, pizza kit, pizza stone, tomato sauce,
bread basket, Italian cookbook, wine glasses, wine carafe, corkscrew,
pasta bowls, restaurant gift certificate)
- Mr.
Merrill - Monday Night Football (soda,
mugs, packaged party snacks, coasters, serving bowls, dips, dip bowls,
cheese knives, nerf football, team items, whistle, cooler etc.)
- Ms.
Quatt-
Voyager
Parent Conference Information:
- Friday,
March 29;
- No
School for Students; Student should attend conference;
- A
pre-conference questionnaire will be distributed beforehand so you can
customize the conversation (5/6 only);
- All
students should attend; both teachers will be present;
- A
wiki will facilitate the sign up process; see posting for next week!
- Conferences
not scheduled on the No School Conference Day will need to be scheduled
after the play unless dates are set by teachers beforehand;
- 10-12
minutes long
- Portfolios
and Report Card will be given out to students before the conference, but
portfolios should be brought to conference to assist discussion.
News from Ms. O
Math
5
We
have begun our exploration of division and its relationship to multiplication
and its applicability to fractions. Students are working with Multiplication
menus and using them to begin the process of dividing (or repeat subtracting,
which we determined is what division is!!).It is good practice for all
operations. Have your child show you the method! It brings new meaning to the
standard algorithm we all learned in school, which has little conceptual
connections to the meaning of division.
All
work should be in by next Friday.
Math
6
We
have worked our way through the measurement of rectangles and triangles in
terms of area and perimeter. Our next stop will be circles in honor of Pi Day
on 3/14. Students can make pies to bring in and there will be a contest for
those who want to compete to recite the digits of Pi. Students have a take home
quiz this weekend due Tuesday, a mark that will be included on the 2nd marking
period.
All
work should be in by next Friday.
⅚ Science
Science
has been MESSY this week! Our Rube Goldberg Projects have been fantastic! The
pictures posted are a tribute to the work that students did to come up with a
complex mechanism that would transfer and transform energy to do a simple task.
We can all be engineers! We successfully popped over 200 balloons and used lots
of tape, putty, glue, nails and other adhesives to make seamless connections between
aspects of our Rube Goldberg. Thanks to all family members who helped coach
students.
The
Rube Goldberg Written Component is due MONDAY!
Our
next unit will bring us from planet Earth to our Moon. Students will be
required to write a research project incorporating their understanding of space
exploration and technology and how it has changed our understanding of the
Solar System. In addition, we will learn about gravity, the moon phases, and
proportional reasoning and how it affects our perception of observable
characteristics of our solar system.
Math
7
This
week we investigated using proportions to find the missing side of two similar
geometric figures. We also determined the scale factor of original figures to
similar figures that are smaller and larger. It was an excellent review of
equivalent fractions and ratios. Next week we will be concluding our unit with
an assessment. During the play unit students will be participating in a “Blow
it Up and Shrink it Down” cartoon activity.
Math
8
If
Payton and Jordyn Diller wanted to make a million dollars before reaching
retirement what could they do? We continued our investigation in exponential
growth by exploring compound growth and savings. We looked at growth rates,
growth factor,initial investment and how they impact final savings. We observed
two friends that invested at different times and for different durations to see
what they made at retirement The big message: Try to save at least 10% of your
money and place it in a interest accruing fund. We will be investigating
exponential decay and end this unit test next week.
Science
7th/8th
Start
your engines!! We ended this week with the rubber band car competition.
Students had an engineering problem of using one rubber band to power a car
that could land directly on a 10 ft line. Students designed and tested a
variety of cars: two wheels, three wheels, four wheels, a jet and several
propeller powered vehicles. Students collected data from multiple tests to try
and get their cars to land successfully on the line. At the conclusion of our
competition we had a scientist meeting and discussed what design seemed to work
and how we could modify our cars to improve our results. We also made
connections with the motions and forces utilized in our car and Newton’s Laws.
A brief lab report is due Monday.
Students
are working diligently on their WCS Science Fair projects. At this point the
experiment should be done or underway. The lab report template and many other
documents are available on Jupiter Grades. The WCS Science Fair is 20 days
away! During our play unit, we will have a number of double blocks for students
to complete their work. This would be a great time to purchase or recycle a tri
fold in preparation for our science fair display.
The
Week in Ms. Wesnak’s Room:
7/8
Language Arts: Fresh off of February vacation the 7th
and 8th graders got back to work on their personal narratives/memoirs. Rough
drafts were due on Wednesday, which was also our peer editing day. We used a
new peer editing technique inspired by the game “Musical Chairs”. Students were
given a peer edit checklist and were asked to dig deep into their peer’s
narrative to prompt deeper writing and detailed description. Final drafts were
due at the start of class on Friday, which brought us directly into the second
part of this memoir writing project. Students learned today that their memoirs
are going to be transformed into Photo Stories using Windows Photo Story.
Ms. Bonnie Birdsall joined our class today to teach about digital citizenship,
gave us a tutorial on Photo Story, and also showed everyone how to
properly find and use copyright free images. Ms. Birdsall will be joining our
classes on Monday and parts of class on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week to
assist students in building and creating beautiful, fun, and creative projects.
All students are expected to bring their memoir back to life by using found or
original photos, and by recording themselves reading their memoir. Photo
Story provides the students with all the tools they need to create a unique
project that will fit their memoir. I’m very excited to start this project!
Once all of the projects are complete we will be planning an event for families
to come in and listen/watch the finished products. Stay tuned for the date and
time!
7/8
Social Studies: Before the break we had moved out of
the WW2 era and into the Vietnam War. We had started a great documentary on the
Vietnam War and upon returning from break we picked up right where we left off.
Instead of just focusing on the war we have opened up our mini unit to focus on
the 60’s. We finished our Vietnam War documentary and took a look at a timeline
of the war. We then began learning about the Civil Rights Movement, which was
also a major event during the 60’s. We started off with a mini-simulation where
students were asked to follow a few simple rules that put some restrictions on
our day-to-day classroom freedoms. We then went back in time to the mid-50’s
and read the Brown vs. Board of Education U.S. Supreme Court decision.
We have been using the PBS series, “Eyes on the Prize” as our guide and we
have watched video segments, listened to music, and looked at pictures from the
1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott, the Little Rock Nine, Woolworth’s Sit-in, and we
are ending the week with the March on Washington, which took place during the
late summer of 1963. Students have completed a series of 60’s vocabulary and
have participated in great classroom discussions, read-alouds, and video
analysis.
Mr.
Merrill’s Wrap Up
⅚ Social Studies
This
week, students started playing and reflecting on their experience with Mission
US - “For Crown or Colony”. The character, an apprentice, experiences the
political turmoil of Boston in 1770. Students encounter patriots like Paul
Revere, and a loyalist importer named Theophilus Lillie, as they complete the
mission. We also read primary sources, like a newspaper account of an actual
event from the period and prepared for the game by learning relevant
vocabulary. A vocabulary activity, quiz, timeline project, and writing prompt
will be the final assignments for Mission US.
⅚ Language Arts
Our
goal this week was to write a rough draft for our fictional narrative unit.
Students learned about and organized a plot plan for their narrative. The plan
includes: an exposition, rising action, climax, and conclusion. Student also
learned how to use dialogue to create an exciting story. A rubric for the
narrative is posted on JupiterGrades. A final draft will be due next Friday.
