Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Week of December 14 and December 21

TA’s Notes:
***Please do not send in any food to be shared among Voyager students***

Thank you so much to all of our Voyager Elves, the families that helped get these elves to the event, and all who donated to the Vermont Children’s Trust and Ann Schmidt for organizing!!
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Important!
The Williston Families as Partners (FAP) is dedicated to ensuring that the children of Williston receive the best education possible. Strong schools and strong families combine to create a vibrant Williston community and help our children reach their full potential.
For a suggested donation amount of: $45 per student in grades 5-8                                                                                      
Your contribution to the Williston Schools Annual Fund will ensure the continuation of important FAP
programs that directly support and enhance the education of all of our children:
  • equitable funding of field trips that extend the learning beyond the classroom;
  • educational grants for classrooms to provide enhanced developmental opportunities for all students;
  • new technology for classroom use;
  • student services in the form of clothing, equipment and scholarships to camps for those most in need;
  • speakers and workshops for parents;
  • an intergenerational reading program;
  • and teacher appreciation events;
Return your check made payable to “Williston Families as Partners” to one of your House Teaching Assistants with the donation card found by clicking HERE.

Voyager House contribution is currently at 27%.  
Our goal is at least 70%.  Please contribute!

After school with Ms. Sherman:
8th Grade Trip: This is just a reminder that  deposits are needed before the holiday break. Please send them in and give them to Ms. Fieldsend. Remember, you also need to fill out your other forms as well. The itinerary is being firmed up and we are getting really excited about the different events we will experience in the spring together! If you have never been to Q.C., you’re in for a surprise, it’s like stepping into Europe, only a few hours from Vermont!

On Sunday night a bunch of Voyager elves gathered for some holiday fun and support of Vermont Children’s Trust. Much fun was had by all! It was great to be with some spirited kids and parent chaperones (shout out to Ann and Kelly!) Below are some additional pics from the night.  
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MAKING DECORATIONS
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The Gingerbread Challenge
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The Week from Ms. Q’s Room (⅞ Math & Science):
7th Grade Math
Over the last few weeks students have been working toward understanding ratios and proportions in relation to similar figures.  We have learned different methods of solving proportions using vertical, horizontal and cross product methods.  Understanding that ratios and proportions can be written in multiple ways with the same results is where we are focusing our attention.  We worked on solving the missing sides of nested triangles and ended last week with stations where students practiced all the different skills that have been covered so far in the Stretching and Shrinking. We began this week with a Check-up.  When we return we will complete this unit and begin our “Blow it Up and Shrink it down” project where students will use cartoon characters to create images that are scaled and skewed.

8th Grade Math
Students finished up the” Looking For Pythagoras” unit with a test.  We began looking at parabolas and quadratic equations in our new unit “Frogs, Fleas and Painted Cubes”.  Students looked at  tables and graphs of quadratic functions to observe landmarks.  We learned about the maximum point, x intercepts and the line of symmetry.  We also dabbled in forming equations.  In the new year we will continue to explore quadratic functions, their graphs and how they can be transformed.  

7th/8th Science
Last week 7th and 8th graders completed their Evolution Project.  We had a wide variety of topics that looked at the evolution of horses, whales, sharks, dogs, birds, turtles and man.  Students learned about homologous structures and common ancestry. It was very enlightening! At the beginning of this week we completed our study with a discussion of our future on earth and what may happen to our species as we move toward outer space.  We will have a brief pause in science when we return, due to our theater unit.  

Saturday, December 12, 2015

Week of December 7

TA’s Notes:
***Please do not send in any food to be shared among Voyager students***

Thank you to all who attended Voyager’s Family Night and a big thank you to those who donated raffle prizes and food & drink for the social part!
This night would be not be the great night it was without parent support!!

**Voyager’s Polar Express Elves are raising money for Vermont kids through the Vermont Children’s Trust Foundation.  Any amount helps- please consider donating through this link:
Thank you for your support!**

8th grade trip paperwork and deposit is now due!  Please contact me at KFieldsend@cssu.org if you need another set of papers for your 8th grader.

The Week in Mr. Merrill’s Room (⅚ Humanities):
Monday - Independent Reading Cafe and Current Events (WKET News Quiz and a mini lesson on Pearl Harbor Day).
Tuesday - Folktale Literature Circles: Students read another folktale in their circle group and took responsibility for a new role in the discussion.
Culture Mini Unit Introduction: Students explored cultural groups, elements of culture and the importance of culture. Student created a concept map to connect these components of culture.
Wednesday - We completed our Folktale Literature Circle discussions and had a great mini lesson and activity on our Booster Cell Challenge - How to get the attention of our peers at the right time and in the right way.
Thursday - Scholastic News Activity: Students read an article about the behaviors that chimpanzees and humans have in common. They worked on identifying the main ideas of the story and writing a summary of the article.
Trout int the Classroom: Students were introduced to the life cycle of the Brook Trout and the work that we will be doing to raise our trout starting in January.
Friday - Narrative writing: Students evaluated a piece of writing using a checklist and then evaluated their own writing; setting goals for their next piece of writing based on the checklist.
Culture Unit: Students compared their daily life activities to 10 other people from around the world. We used interviews that asked people from around the world about their daily life.

The Week in Ms. O’s Room (⅚ Math & Science):

Math 5 Highlights
  • Getting comfortable with decimals in the thousandths and ten thousandths.
  • Discovering the connection between decimals, the Base Ten System, and the metric system.
  • Conversions from millimeters to centimeters and investigation of the ruler
  • Decimal addition and subtraction proficiency for all on assessment

Math 6 Highlights
  • Modeling decimals
  • Serious work on long division and the standard algorithm
  • The knowledge that ¾ means 3 divide 4.  All fractions are division.
  • Understanding how fractions can be renamed as decimals and decimals as fractions
  • Fraction and decimal problems in context
  • Public records on strategies for renaming fractions
  • Comparing and ordering fractions and decimals on positive and negative side.
  • Review of absolute value

Science ⅚ Highlights

  • Newton’s Law of Inertia (1st Law of Motion) and Newton’s Second Law of Motion, CHECK!

  • We had lots of fun with cards, coins, and balls this week and last.  We are finally able to explain why a motorcycle can tear a table cloth off a long dining table without interrupting the table setting!  See photos below.

  • Got a STAR WARS fix by watching Yoda and Luke train in the swamp.  “Use the force, you will Luke Skywalker.” Only Luke cannot, because his starfighter is too big.  Ask your child to explain this one, using Newton’s Second Law.

  • Learned about a Newton, a measure of force.  Talked about balanced and unbalanced forces and how they move or don’t move objects.


The Week in Ms. Wesnak’s Room (⅞ Humanities):

This week during our morning classes we continued on with our mini grammar unit. As we moved out of learning about sentence variety and the 4 types of sentences, we moved into a short unit focused on verb tenses and verb tense consistency. We practiced identifying verbs in a variety of tenses; we used journal writes to apply our practice, and we even had a few relay races and rounds of BINGO. These in class activities helped us in a variety of ways. We were able to practice our spelling, identification, and use of verbs in their appropriate tenses. We ended the week by sharing our journal writes from earlier in the week!

Our afternoon classes have been completely dedicated to our Vermont Impact projects. We have been focusing on trying to answer the question: How has VT made an impact on the world? Each student has been researching and writing an informational LEAF paragraph or 5 paragraph essay to answer this question. This week most students were able to complete their first drafts and participate in a quick peer edit. All of the writing pieces will be due next Tuesday. As we move into our final full week before vacation, students will be focusing on the more hands-on aspect of this project which is geared toward Vermont tourism. Students will be taking their research and writing pieces to create a video, book, brochure, or other project of their creation to attract tourists and visitors to our state! With persuasive techniques and great facts, students will be using the best of the best in Vermont to create some fun and artistic pieces!


The Week from Ms. Q’s Room (⅞ Math & Science):

CMP7
This week 7th graders continued their exploration of similarity of geometric figures.  We explored scale factor and the relationship between linear measurement such as perimeter and the area of an image that is enlarged or reduced. We dusted off our shape sets and investigated whether these figures would tesselate or could create a “rep”-tile.  A “rep”-tile is a figure that is made up of identical similar figures.  
    
An example of a “rep”- tile.

CMP8
The 8th graders are at the end of the “Looking for Pythagoras” Unit.  We are working to become more fluid with all the different methods of finding the length of line segments, the side lengths of right triangles and the perimeter of irregular polygons. Students created review questions for their peers, we also worked on the Unit Test Review.  We will play Jeopardy on Monday and the Unit Test will be on Tuesday.

Science 7th/8th
We began our week by watching a segment of the  NOVA “Great Transformation Evolution” series. This fascinating video looked at the development of life on the planet and the evolution of man and animal species through time.  They are currently working on an evolution, adaptation and natural selection project.  Students will create a 6 panel graphic cartoon, animation or other media that answers the science focus question and models change over time.  This project will be presented next week.

Friday, December 4, 2015

Week of November 30th - Dec 4th

TA’s Notes:
***Please do not send in any food to be shared among Voyager students***

REPORT CARDS WENT HOME TODAY!

Voyager's Annual Family Night and Talent Show - December 9th, 6 - 8pm!!

We do ask that families bring a small snack to share, based on the core class your child is in or to please donate a raffle prize.  Such prizes in the past have been movie tickets, gift cards or any sort of small treat.

Sign up sheet is here:
The Week in Mr. Merrill’s Room (⅚ Humanities):
    On Monday we started off with our Reading Cafe; students were reading deeply with an independent book. In the afternoon, we introduced the National Geo Bee competition and took the WKET News Quiz.
    We kicked off our folktale literature group round on Tuesday. Students participated in a Literature Circle, taking one of 4 roles: Discussion Director, Literary Luminary, Vocabulary Enricher, and Checker. Students will rotate through a new folktale each week and take on a new role in the circle with each new story. By Friday we finished our first round.
    We also had a great US Geography Jeopardy Game in preparation for the Geo Bee Competition. Students competed in 7 rounds of questions in the Geo Bee - from states to countries around the world. The winner will represent Voyager ⅚ in the school wide Geo Bee competition.
    Our school wide booster cell challenge this month is improving our behavior while obtaining peer attention. We had a class discussion on Friday morning on this social thinking skill, as well a fun activity to practice it.
The Week in Ms. Wesnak’s Room (⅞ Humanities):

During our morning classes this week we started to get back into our classroom routines by starting off the week with independent reading. We then moved through our week with a variety of journal writes, and we began our mini grammar unit. We will be focusing on sentence variety and the 4 different types of sentences, along with studying verbs, adverbs, and practicing our verb consistency. Our journal writes this week were focused around winter themes such as snow globes and snow!

For our afternoon classes this week we started building up to our next mini research project which is focused on the question of: How has Vermont made an impact on the world? Students will be studying a variety of topics from products to people to places to businesses, that have made an impact not only on our state and community, but on the world. They will be writing an informational LEAF paragraph and then working with small groups to create a tourism marketing project. Some groups are creating videos, iMovie trailers, or A-Z books about Vermont. We spent our week researching important businesses, people, places, products, and events from Vermont that have made an impact on the world. We then watched a few Vermont Tourism videos to gain ideas and inspiration for our projects and writing pieces.

The Week from Ms. Q’s Room (⅞ Math & Science):
CMP7
This week students explored similarity of geometric figures.  We measured angles, side lengths, calculated perimeter and area of rectangles and squares to see what attributes make figures similar.  Students explored scale factor when creating images.  We had the opportunity to draw some Mug Wumps, a cartoon character on a coordinate grid. We explored “rules” that transformed our original character into similar and skewed images. Finally, we began a new online math program called IXL. This online program allows students to work on a variety of Common Core math skills related to the books we are learning.  
CMP8
Square roots, cube roots but not root vegetables!  This week we continued our investigations in “Looking for Pythagoras”, by exploring perfect squares, perfect cubes and how to use our graphing calculator to find roots.  We also did a lot of estimating of where non-perfect square numbers fell on the number line.  Near the end of the week, we began in earnest to explore where the Pythagorean Theorem came from and how and why it makes sense.  Finally, we returned to using IXL the online math program that we trialed at the beginning of the year.  This online program allows students to work on a variety of Common Core math skills related to the books we are learning.

Science 7th/8th
Students passed in their engineering lab reports this week and we put closure on competition.  The 7th/8th graders had fabulous designs, redesigns and huge amounts of data, but we were not able to bring any wins to Voyager.   However, I must say that Voyager was well represented with excellent designs that showed ingenuity and effort.  Kudos to our hardworking 7th/8th grade scientists.  

This week also began our exploration of adaptations, natural selection and evolution.  Students read about Darwin and the Voyage of the Beagle in the 1830’s, defined vocabulary, took notes on Brainpop videos, discussed recent findings about homo naledi a recent hominin species found in a deep cave in South Africa.  The current thinking places this species as living somewhere around 1.5 to 2 million years ago.  

We rounded off the week with a simulation called “The Battle of the Beaks” where our students become bird species with different beaks and fought for limited food resources.  We discussed what could happen over time as environmental changes put pressures on the organisms living within it.  

Friday, November 20, 2015

TA’s Notes:
***Please do not send in any food to be shared among Voyager students***

No School Nov 23rd - 27th
Have a wonderful & safe Thanksgiving!

Voyager House raised $856.67 at the Book & Media Sale Nov. 7th!!
Thank you to all students and parents who made this happen!
A special thank you to:
Ann Schmidt, Tess & Cullen Swett, Monica & Luisa Hutt, Alex Ulanov, Quinn & Sandy Connolly, Michelle & Kylie Pierce, Parker Soares, Kary & Laurynn Bombardier, Gavin Schaaf, Leigh Samuels, Deanna & Joey Merola, Cathy & Sam Clear, Sarah & Emma Kim and Addison & Jackie Urch.

Dates to Remember:
December 9th:  Voyager Family Night 6-8pm
March 26th: Voyager Recycle Sale
May 6th: Voyager Dance

Ms. Sherman:
Your 8th grade son or daughter will be bringing home some paperwork regarding the end of the year 8th grade trip. Bringing back in this paper work is crucial to us securing the dates with the travel company. While all the details of the itinerary are still in the works, we are travelling on June1st and returning on June 3rd. In order to secure these dates we will need deposits from all students that are going to be in attendance. Please take a look at the forms and send them back in as soon as possible. We are so excited about this trip and spending some quality time with such a great group of kids in Canada!!!!!!

The Week in Mr. Merrill’s Room (⅚ Humanities):
Thank you for all of the great book donations from the book fair. I am looking forward to having a book share when we return from the break and offering the books to the students to borrow from our classroom library.
This week…
Monday:
Reading Cafe - We went to the library for book talks and an opportunity to sign out books for the break.
Current Events - Students cut out significant stories from the Burlington Free Press and wrote summaries to add to our Current Events Google Map.
Tuesday:
We started organizing our Scary LEAF writing from our literature group book. Students gathered evidence from their Reading Response Notebooks and the book to show how the setting and characters made the book scary. We also wrapped up a couple of geography lessons on map projections and watersheds.
Wednesday:  
We focused on techniques for writing a creative lead and convincing finisher for our Scary LEAF. In the afternoon, students tested their engineering prototypes for the competition on Thursday.
Thursday:
Self assessment time - students self assessed their independent reading skills, Reading Response Notebooks, and Writer’s Notebooks for the first trimester. They also typed, revised, and edited their Scary LEAF. In the afternoon, we had a race to find, locate, and list the most landforms from an interactive US map.
Friday:
This morning after a final edit, students self assessed their Scary LEAF and passed them in. They also had a second chance to show how many states they can locate on a US Map. Students took their first try one month ago. Both US Maps will be coming home with reports.
This afternoon students put together our Thanksgiving donation baskets and added a thankful note to our Voyager wall.

The Week in Ms. O’s Room (⅚ Math & Science):

⅚ Science:  It has been a busy and messy week.  Rubberbands, hot glue, and a lot of forces and motion at work in our classroom!  We hosted the second annual WCS Engineering Challenge yesterday and it was great!  Dan Fleming, the engineer that works in our classroom weekly, and often daily, was one of the judges for a day long look into the solutions to four problems related to objects in motion (egg bungee, rubberband car, marshmallow catapult, and zipline).  Most impressive was the attitude and focus of students all week for this challenge.  Students worked together to construct a prototype solution to the problem and tested their ideas all week using good engineering practice, like collecting data, making improvements, discussing changes, and redesigning for a whole new cycle of testing again.  It was great.  If you didn’t see the livestream or the actual event, we have captured some moments below.

Math 5:  We have been working our way through the early lessons of Unit 3, all about fractions and decimals.  I’m so excited about place value, like someone might be about ice cream!  I think that the gaps we see in learning at the 5th grade level are often related to gaps in understanding about place value.  This is certainly just an opinion but I often relish the opportunity to get to place value because it build number sense.  A student’s ability to be flexible and fluid with numbers makes teaching operations, or algebraic reasoning, simpler.  So on with it...We are digging into the numbers to the right of the decimal point, those numbers that are fractions of one.  We are working on things like Are all threes equal in the number, 33.3333 and why not?  Or what happens when you multiply a number by ten or divide it by ten? Does the trick, add a zero, work with decimals?  It has been productive week of investigations similar to the ones described above.  Lots of fun and a few Ah ha’s this week!

Math 6:  We have expanded on the idea of comparison statements by just referring to them as ratios and rates.  Students have worked on building a sense of unit rates, ratios in which one of the numbers is a one, and using those ratios to solve real world problems.  We tested and tasted lemonade recipes this week, discussed food labels and recipes, and investigated other ratios that come up in our every day.  This jump to ratios, and the inherent need to think multiplicatively, can be hard for a student who thinks in addition.  We are encourage multiplicative reasoning through development of ratio tables, setting up equivalent ratios side by side and looking at scale factor, and solving which is the better buy problems.  We are halfway through the book, so there is more to learn!

The Week in Ms. Wesnak’s Room (⅞ Humanities):
Art Exhibit was Thursday night- pictures to come in future!

The Week from Ms. Q’s Room (⅞ Math & Science):
Engineering Challenge was this week- results will be posted!