Sunday, September 13, 2015

TA’s Notes:
Reminder that all snacks brought in for sharing need to be nut-free!

Dates to Remember:
September 16th- Picture day at WCS
September 17th- Curriculum Night & Learning Expo: 6pm in auditorium, 6:30-7:30 in Voyager Kiva, 7:30-8 Learning Expo
September 23rd- No School
October 9th- Parent Teacher Conference Day (more info to come soon) / No School
October 12th- No School
November 7th- 24th Annual Craft Show at WCS- free entry, free parking
November 9th-13th- Scholastic Book Fair at WCS
November 10th- Guest Speaker, Paul Auxman - Anxiety and supports for children at WCS

*Please feel free to contact me for anything at KFieldsend@cssu.org or 871-6148*

Don’t forget to bring a photo or printed picture of your summer SELF!  Our wall has a lot of spaces for our missing Voyagers!

⅚ Jupiter Grades:  Please be sure you have received the parent login information for Jupiter Grades.  For 5th grade families, this is new!  Check out our assessment program on https://login.jupitered.com/login/.  See the folder info that came home earlier in the week.  Didn’t get it?  Email Colleen or Aron.

The Week in Mr. Merrill’s Room (⅚ Humanities):
This week we started our first read aloud of the school year -  I Am Malala. Students wrote a Thinking Stem response ( Wow, I didn’t know that… or I was confused by…) in their Reading Response Notebooks. The book is the autobiography of Malala Yousafzai, who stood up for education and was shot by the Taliban. It is an inspiring story of courage and hope for change.
Our Peace One Day lessons included a discussion about bullying and students creating role plays to perform and share on the issue. We also used BrainPop to learn about 9/11. Students brainstormed what they know about the topic and questions that they wanted answered. We then took a look at some of the vocabulary that might come up with the topic and viewed a short age appropriate video about the event. Students then used a collection of Q & A repsonses to learn the answers to their questions. They wrapped up by taking a quick online quiz.
Spelling and Vocabulary classes are off and running. Wordly Wise students will have a spelling and vocabulary quiz next week. Check Jupiter Grades for specifics.
On Friday morning, students completed a Degrees of Reading Power assessment. This data will help us with aligning our support system and teaching to the needs of the students.
⅚ Humanities After School Support Time - I will be available for students evey Wednesday from 3-4pm. Please let me know by email if your student will be staying for extra help. Also, just let me know what the pick up plans are for the end of the session.
The Week in Ms. O’s Room (⅚ Math & Science):

Math 5:  
  • Our work this week has been focused on factors of a number.  We played the Product Game for a couple of days and analyzed strategies for winning.  Students used omnifix cubes to build shipping packages for Brad’s Baseball Enterprise, another reinforcement of factors and products in action.  

  • We have been slowly piecing together all of the responsibilities and pieces and parts of the program.  Please take a quick browse through your child’s math folder to learn about all the things we have in there!

Math 6:  
  • We began our work in the first Connected Math 3 book this week and things are going seamlessly!   Our first book, Prime Time, is a reinforcement of number and operations, specifically properties of numbers and operations.  There is a project attached to this unit - to publish a children’s book about a special number each student has chosen to explore.  See the description in math folder and on Google Classroom (your child must log you in).

  • PS: We were busy Thursday and I did not check in Wednesday homework for 6th grade (First ACE assignment on J grades).  Check with your Voyager to be sure they have completed it!  A bonus weekend if they didn’t!
Science ⅚:
  • Magnet circus designed to play with and explore magnets.
  • Scientist meetings to discuss our understandings of magnets and learn how to talk in this circle.
  • Demonstrations of magnets in action and solidifying our Claims about the Properties of Magnets.
  • Introduction to Engineering and our first engineering task:  To build a motor using our understanding of magnets.
  • To come...Electricity and its connection to magnetism!

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

Tweet the Week:
  • Captain Cork flew away! Summer’s over - let’s see the LEAFs!
  • #WCS will never forget 9/11
  • Peace One Day, I Can’t Wait
  • Science experiments to writing assignments packed with work but FUN
  • 9/11, Captain Cork Challenge, Summer Reading Writing Piece
  • 9/11, Peace One Day, Infographics
  • Peace One Day, 9/11, Captain Cork, Labor Day
  • #PeaceOneDay
  • Captain Cork!! 9/11 :( Never Forget

This week our morning classes were focused on writing our FIRST graded writing piece of the trimester. Students were asked over the summer to read a book that was later turned into a movie. Students were expected to not only read the book but to also watch the movie. For this first assignment students will be answering the question: Did the movie stay faithful or stray from the book? This question connects directly to one of our Common Core Standards for the year. Students were administered this assignment through Google Classroom and were provided the following scaffolds and tools to help in finding success in this assignment: in-class work time, peer edits, rubric and standards, and a fill-in-the-blank outline to help in developing their ideas, organization, and structure. We had 2 in-class work days, and 1 day for peer editing. The final piece is due next week! We rounded out our week by spending our Friday morning taking the DRP.

Our afternoon classes have been dedicated to viewing the Peace One Day documentary, “The Day After Peace”. Students seemed to be really engaged in the film and the journey of Jeremy Gilley the founder the Peace One Day organization. Students took part in short discussions with a partner and with the full class. We also took time to reflect on the documentary using a prompt administered through Google Classroom. To bring our week to a close students were introduced to their first mini project, which is to create a Peace One Day infographic to inform people why it would be so beneficial to support Peace One Day or take part in Peace One Day activities. We will be showcasing these infographics using the Voice and my class website. Students are really enjoying the program we are using called, “LucidChart” and they are developing some really creative work! We also took some time on Friday afternoon to talk about 9/11, share stories, and reflect on the impact that day made on our country.

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

CMP7
We had a shortened week, but a week full of everything polygon.  We classified different polygons, looked for commonalities and differences between all groups and subgroups of polygons and reviewed how to use protractors to measure angles. We began talking about the relationship between the number of sides of a geometric figure and the sum of the internal angles.  Students logged onto Google Classroom and Mobymax.  Both applications will be utilized this year.
CMP8
8th graders began the week with a series of experiments and games to collect data. We played the Wooly Mammoth game, where each roll of the dice brings birth or death.  This system of inputs and outputs showed a non-linear trend. We then looked at bouncing a ball and recording the drop height and bounce height, building a bridge with different layers and collecting data on the mass that it can hold before it folds. Both of these models showed different trends.  We discussed line of best fit and practiced finding the equation from data on resting heart rate and exercise.  Students logged onto our Google Classroom and a new online math program called IXL.
Science 7th/8th
Captain Cork was put through his/her paces this week.  Students continued to find ways to get Captain Cork safely to the landing zone deep within enemy territory.  Students did multiple trials, recorded data and did some redesigning of their devices using limited resources.  Only 1 team from each class was really successful in getting Captain Cork to the safe zone. An engineering lab report is due on Monday. Students access Google Classroom and Birdbrain Science.  Birdbrain Science is an online science resource for science readings on many important subjects.  The program assesses understanding and reading level while giving Next Generation Science Standard content.
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