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!

Week of November 9th - 13th

TA’s Notes:

***Please do not send in any food to be shared among Voyager students***

Reminder - Grades close next Friday, 11/20. Reports will be going home on Friday, December 4.

Ms. Sherman:

THANKSGIVING BASKETS!!!

Just a friendly reminder to families that we are doing a “food drive” for Thanksgiving. Each core has a sign-up sheet for items. We hope to create 4 complete Thanksgiving baskets to donate to our local families this holiday. Check in with your children about what they have signed up for. Your child can bring in their item any time in the next few weeks and drop it in the bin, in their core classroom. Thanks in advance!!!!

The Week in Mr. Merrill’s Room (⅚ Humanities):

Monday:

             Reading Cafe

             WKET Current Events News Quiz

Tuesday:

            Worldly Wise Spelling Quiz

            Final Read Aloud for Closed for the Season and Coraline

            Completion of Setting Maps and Character Tables in Reading Response notebooks

            Investigating Map Projections Activity

Wednesday:  

             Book Fair Visit

             Guest speaker - Emily Keller former Voyager Student who has started her own non   

             profit to feed the elderly in Guatemala

            

Thursday:

             Wordly Wise Vocabulary Quiz

             Scholastic Reading - Bug Bites and Summary Writing Activity

             Mapping US Watersheds Activity

Friday:    

             Weekly Reflection Writing

             Students review map/table in Reading Response notebook for best evidence

             Evidence and analysis drafting for the final LEAF essay

             Global Village Visit (a ⅞ Voyager project)

             

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

Math 5:  We wrapped up a week of learning about Least Common Multiple and Greatest Common Factor and how these numerical noticings may help us solve fraction addition and subtraction problems as well as simplify fractions.  It was good solid review for the assessment, which we took today.  On to Unit 3!

Math 6:  Students are trudging their way through some very sophisticated understanding re: ratios, rates, and their relationship to fractions.  Armed with new language and solid connections to what they already know about fractions, students are learning about equivalent ratios, unit rates, and comparisons between numbers based on multiplicative reasoning.  

Science ⅚:  It’s an Engineering Challenge!  Students were assigned groups and a problem to solve and have begun the Engineering Design Process in order to find an award winning solution to the problems.  Tasks include:  a zipline that can transport a money down an 8 meter line in 8 seconds or as close as possible; an egg bungee system to protect a raw egg from splattering on the floor; a rubberband car that can hit the target 3 meters away; and a catapult system that can launch marshmallows consistently to a target 5 m. away.  Thursday is competition day.  More details about timing of events to follow.

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

Global Village Excitement!  

Everyone did great- countries were amazing!  Pictures to follow in near future!

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

CMP7

In math this week we are finishing up Accentuate the Negative.  We reviewed Order of Operation and PEMDAS, learned about the distributive property using an area model, and utilized a new visual model to help students understand addition and subtraction of signed numbers. Students had the chance to play positive/negative number Bingo and the product game. We also learned about solving 2 step algebraic equations and showing your steps clearly and methodically. Next week we will complete our review and the Accentuate the Negative assessment will be on Tuesday.  Students had less homework this week due to the Global Village.

CMP8

This week we completed our Growing, Growing, Growing investigation with exploration of fractional exponents and their equivalent expressions, scientific notation operations and transformations of exponential decay and growth functions.  We rounded out the week with playing jeopardy!  We will begin our Unit Assessment on Monday.  The next unit is on the Pythagorean Theorem.

Science 7th/8th

This week’s science focus was the Global Village.  Students created Google slides about their country’s current health status, which included infant mortality, life expectancy, common diseases, common causes of death, and immunizations needed for entrance to the country.  Finally, students had to research about current travel restrictions. Friday morning we kicked off the WCS Engineering Task. Students were placed in 7th/8th groups and selected tasks such as the rubber band car, monkey zipline, marshmallow catapult and Egg Bungee.  The competition takes place on Friday, November 20th!  Go Voyager!!!!

TA’s Notes:

***Please do not send in any food to be shared among Voyager students***

***All 8th Grade Trip Behavior and Academic Expectation Forms NEED to be in by Monday, November 9th!***

Voyager’s Book & Media Sale Today!

We still need as much help as we can get with set-up tonight and selling tomorrow!  

Tonight from 6-8pm is set-up in the Sterling hallway

Saturday we need helpers from 12:30 - 2:30 and from 2:30 - 4:30!

Thanks to everyone who has volunteered- let’s make this a crazy successful fund raiser!

The Week in Mr. Merrill’s Room (⅚ Humanities):

    Students should be very close to finishing their mystery/suspense books. We had more fun taking turns reading in character this week. Students had some great interpretations for their parts.  We have been busy collecting evidence about the setting and the characters to write a LEAF on what makes “scary” scary. We will be starting that next week.

    We have been exploring many strategies and techniques for personal narrative writing over last two weeks. This week we explored writing from a clear point of view and using details that ring true. Students spent some time doing some storytelling, telling so the listeners could experience the story with them. I have been really impressed with the writing effort in class.

    Our 5 Themes of Geography Google Slides State Project concluded today with a fun share time. Students had to explore 4 slide shows (4 states from 4 different regions) and use the slide shows to complete an exit survey of each state. The projects can be accessed via your students google account (google slides or classroom).

    FAP Book Fair - We will be going to the FAP Book Fair on Wednesday morning, if your student would like to purchase a book, this is the day to bring money.

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

Math 5

• This week students reinforced understanding of common denominator and how to use these strategies when adding and subtracting.
• Our work in science has insisted that we learn and understand more about line graphing.  We had several lessons on the elements of good graphs and will continue to work on this until we are pros!  

Math 6

• The introduction to ratios and how they are related to fractions is a good step in the Algebra direction.  We have had practice activities just making ratios, but also have worked on fractions of the whole problems where students are commenting on the fundraising goals of an imaginary group of students. This work has resulted in making ratio/comparison statements about the fundraising goals.

Science ⅚

• This week we took advantage of the weather and spent all science periods outside.  In order to understand the concept of speed, we had several runners and walkers run/walk a race course; we collected data; we graphed the data; we then made sense of that data.  This week was very math heavy and revealed the need for more time working with data sets.  Statistical analysis is a lot of work!  See photos below for some insight into our learning!

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

Our morning classes this week have been dedicated to our 5 paragraph informational essays. Students spent about a week researching and taking notes on topics of study for their Global Village country. After our research, we took the next step in the writing process which was to build an outline. Students were given multiple options for their outlines and suggestions for how to organize all of their notes and research to build a 5 paragraph essay that they would feel successful about. Once students completed their outlines, reviewed any suggestions or feedback, they were given the green light to move ahead to begin writing their essay. Students have been spending each morning this week with their essay, and by also putting in time at home or during core, they should all be at the point to participate in a peer edit. After having reviewed some helpful hints for informational writing over the course of the week and providing students with time to self-edit their work, all students participated in a peer edit on Friday morning. Once they have applied any necessary changes and completed a final proofread students can turn in their essays in Google Classroom. The final due date is Tuesday, November 10th. For this writing piece we have been using bits and pieces of the Lucy Calkins information writing unit, so the rubric may look a little longer than previous units, but that is only because the Lucy Calkins’ rubrics go into great detail! Lucy Calkins writing units, rubrics, and check lists are being used throughout Williston Central School in all grade levels, and it is also the rubric that is used for our On-Demand writing assessments in the Spring and Fall.

8th graders have been assigned their final reading response for their literature group on “The Day of the Pelican”, and the 7th graders are completing their final reading assignment. The 7th graders will be assigned their final reading response next week, and students will also be participating in a final discussion.

Our afternoon classes have been covered in cardboard creations, paint, duct tape, glue, and costumes! We are officially in the “All Hands On Deck” mode for the Global Village as we are only one week away! Students have been working hard and really pushing their creativity by taking risks and thinking outside the (cardboard) box. We need to send a special thanks out to all of the parent volunteers that we’ve had in our classroom over the past few days. With their help we were able to set up stations and rotations for students to go to the WCS costume room and also spend time painting large pieces of cardboard and murals for their displays. We have a variety of building and landscapes in the making such as mountains from Norway and Iceland, Big Ben from the United Kingdom, and even a Parisian Cafe! We hope that you will all be able to join us next Thursday from 1:30-2:30 for Voyager’s 2nd Global Village!

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

CMP7

What rules can help you add and subtract positive and negative numbers?  What rules can help you with multiplying and dividing positive and negative numbers?  These questions preoccupied our lessons this week.  We also worked on our understanding of inequalities.  Such as

2x + 5 25.  Students solved these inequalities as equalities and worked to graph them on a number line.  These problems were challenging for students and put many into disequilibrium, which is all part of building our math thinking.  **A  special note about homework. Students should stop working on math after 30 minutes, even if they have not completed the assignments.  Thanks!

CMP8

Decay factors and decay rates; students did a lot of work around tables, graphs and equations that showed these functions.  They included things like area of a ballot, flea medication and cooling tea.  We saw that the exponential decay equation is similar to the exponential growth function, however, the decay rate is always less than 1.  Y = 200 (.80x) is an example of where the starting amount of 200 decreases by 20% each year, however, you have to multiply each year by .8.  Finally, we had some jasmine tea and watched the decrease of temperature over time using our new GoTemp temperature probes and the Graphical Analysis app.  

Science 7th/8th

This week students were working diligently on researching a genetic abnormality or disorder.  Their goal was to create a brochure that was accessible to a general audience and that explained the symptoms, genetic causes and treatment of the disease.  They also learned about which chromosome, gene was responsible for the disorder and how it was passed on.   Students shared their information on these diseases with each other. Next week we will be giving up science for the Global Village Project.  Each country will have some specific health questions that they will research as a science component of their project.