Sunday, June 14, 2015

Week of June 8th - 12th

TA’s Notes:
Reminder that all snacks brought in for sharing need to be nut-free!
5th - 7th students will be coming home with report cards on Tuesday.

The Week in Mr. Merrill’s Room (⅚ Humanities):
  • Read articles to identify author’s purpose (persuasive, informative, or entertainment).
  • Students participated and performed in some read aloud plays based on Revolutionary War events.
  • Selected up to 5 books from our library to bring home for the summer. A reading goal of 5 books helps to prevent summer learning losses. Books will be due back on the first day of school.
  • We also hosted a great step up day for our incoming 5th graders. Many thanks to the current 5th and 6th graders for making Voyager such a warm and friendly place.
  • Students participated in our yearly traditions of 8th grade wills/poems to send off our graduates in style.
Look for an email/voice next week with summer learning opportunities and expectations. We want to keep all of our students reading and writing over the summer and we have some simple and fun things planned for the students.

The Week in Ms. O’s Room (⅚ Math & Science):
Don’t Forget!  Join us for some demonstrations of our learning on Monday at 10:00 am.  We will have about 30 minutes of parent and Voyager 7th grade only time and then we will have a few visitors from the lower houses.  

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

CMP8
Phew! After several weeks of review the 8th graders took the CSSU Math Final.  It was a very long test that covered questions from the entire year.  I saw a lot of grit and perseverance as the day wore on.  Kudos to our 8th graders!  Good Luck at CVU!

CMP7
On Monday we finished our “Filling and Wrapping Assessment” and students had the opportunity to correct it before the grade book closed.  We completed our study of geometric figures and volume with a “stinky” problem.  Students worked to figure out the volume of waste from disposable diapers from a single baby over a year.  It was surprising.  We also looked at the number of babies born each year and the realization that babies live in diapers for up to three years.  The waste is staggering.  Students will be receiving their summer math packets next week.

Science 7th/8th
This week we came full circle from our business convention to focus on the worker and what life is like trying to live on minimum wage.  We explored the cost of rent, transportation and food.  Food insecurity was the topic that we moved into as we discussed the difficulty of feeding yourself and others on little cash.  We watched the documentary “A Place at the Table”, a film that focuses on several families living with food insecurity.  We realized how hard it is to eat healthy when you don’t have a lot of money to buy nutritious food.  There was a lot of eye opening discussion.

Monday, June 8, 2015

Rain Barrel Silent Auction

Please make a bid!  Kellie Weening is a CVU grad who worked with us to fulfill her grad challenge!  See the link below to make a bid. Colleen

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FoqAA3uoyJkxpNesjpBOwMqDI9eE_FjbLdOfaUt8wB0/edit?usp=sharing

Friday, June 5, 2015

Week of June 1st - 5th

TA’s Notes:
Reminder that all snacks brought in for sharing need to be nut-free!
FAPAC May Meeting Highlights
The FAP Advisory Council held its final meeting of this school year on May 28th.  Please check the full minutes on the school website in a PDF format by clicking HERE.  Below are a few meeting highlights:

2015-2016 School Calendar:  This is now available.  Click HERE for a PDF version of it!!

Administration Report:  Walter Nardelli talked about a proposal to purchase more chromebooks for WCS so that every classroom will have a cart of either chromebooks or laptops.  This would be able to be covered in the approved budget for the upcoming school year.  Check out the full meeting minutes for more information on this topic!!!

Fun Day Parent Help Needed:  The PE staff needs help to support Fun Day at WCS, which is on Monday, June 8th (rain date is June 9th).  This is a day of fun for 1st through 4th graders (1st and 2nd graders in the am and 3rd and 4th graders in the afternoon).  Middle-schoolers help with the event too but additional adult supervision is really appreciated.  If you can help, please get in touch with PE staff ASAP!!!

Budget and Calendar Planning:  We approved our 2015-2016 budget of $49, 950, including $34,000 to all Houses for field trip allocations for the school year (not the out-of-state trips).  We also began our planning for events for next year, trying to spread out our events throughout the year a little bit more.

Sign up Now to Help on Monday, August 24th:  Remember those calls and emails you receive in August to help out with the Staff Welcome Back Luncheon by bringing in a salad or a dessert?   Well we wanted to give you a heads up before the end of the school year about this important event that all staff really appreciate.  We are even including a sign up sheet and we can send you a reminder email in August if you include your email address on the sign up sheet.  So if you are able to commit now to helping with this, please click HERE and sign up for bringing a salad/side dish or a dessert!  Thanks so much for your support.

Please contact me at sarahforbesdesign@comcast.net  or l_samuels@yahoo.com if you have feedback or questions on FAP.  Thanks for all of your support of FAP this year.  Consider becoming part of the Voyager FAP team next year (one parent from each grade).  It’s a small commitment with 4 team members.
Thanks and have a great summer!!!
Sarah Forbes & Leigh Samuels
FAPAC representatives
______________________________________________________________________________
Last Chance to Enter the “Contract for Life” Raffle

Drugs and alcohol are not easy topics to bring up. Especially with children and teens who may often seem like they’re not listening—or don’t care what you have to say.  But the truth is that children care deeply about their parents’ opinions—even if they don’t show it directly. In fact, the #1 reason kids give for not drinking is that they don’t want to disappoint their parents.  And children who learn about the risks of drugs from their parents are significantly less likely to use drugs.  It’s never too early—or too late—to start the conversation. For more info, click here http://parentupvt.org/
The Students Against Destructive Decision's "Contract for Life" is an easy way to have that conversation with middle school students.  http://www.sadd.org/contract.htm   It is a mutual agreement between parent/guardian and child to keep communication open.  In addition, all those who turn in the contract to the house TA by Wednesday, June 10th and be entered into a drawing for many great local prizes including:
1 - Phillips Blu-ray Disc/DVD player + Insignia Chord donated by Best Buy ($120 value)
$20 Asian Bistro
$5 Yogurt City
$25 Belle’s Cafe and Deli
$50 Glamour Nails
$25 Shaw’s
O’Brien’s Aveda Institute - Spa Pedicure and Spa Manicure
$10 Bagel’s Plus                                                                                                                      
and more..

Wishing you and your family a happy and healthy summer!
Sarah Klionsky, LCMHC, AAP
Student Assistance Program Counselor
A Connecting Youth Program at WCS

The Week in Mr. Merrill’s Room (⅚ Humanities):
  • Students self - assessed their Reading Response and Writer’s Notebooks
  • Discussed the current events of the past week
  • Completed a final 15 minute free write
  • Shared a favorite writing piece
  • Participated in a Jigsaw activity - learning about various perspectives during the Revolutionary War (Native Americans, women, slaves, Loyalists, and Patriots)
  • Read and translated (into kid language) letters from George Washington and John Adams to understand the concerns Washington had in beginning his presidency
  • Completed a Scholastic Magazine Robot article and activity on proper researching practices
  • Participated as investors in the ⅞ Business Convention

https://gm1.ggpht.com/axmnHU1uVWuWiro06o9NU10fvEo9rug5tmdhu8LwjLFbAFwzM3hBEsX74HwBrswhW8DPLRLFBGQKiRUzY_pO5sT1UZBPmMX975lQBi6xlEC7ZVmQaAbr-zK8dqV5E8qyY4KxqzJA4W7Q2XgKhzZD7cJ7eBnP5fJDIVVTLcpvWQ8ghugt8O9HUduWGs2_b4ZKb9n6n4o0_eJcO5iIBJank8-dAsPG6lm8fV6UmvNP3G6mC37tcGkikAYE5E_jujsYdln0AjBzVpAKLAOsZKeDS_x7_jHiv3Zqmk-5Us8LJ8WRPm3zEES_U75MC8tZEm9aELRlKq7TBHYywA3zGD3nIdOOwVSKyEi3l39qoCjm5DzONcrzo0t5WbMuYRJOQGTyc2jTOdeoIcWdZyWcRc39aPE-hUU_MM1MDKhS59P8_KMNlSSCVfUwNpuitzm4VAfwNZ6aUfJxmPsnIBBYA-gV9aocxMWHLTDRZ4tUj6vuOWSQfJXV4kIMHsg6Ax-PU0dMiTQokD4aujwVW-S2HMz5f5tU8qYx9ZkQ92gjaJuU7q_q7l8qtZGTrX8VBcosbR2pGmBBlhRHUM6t0KbiKKoNLdYolcDaY27W7MGF=w1246-h793-l75-ft
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The Week in Ms. O’s Room (⅚ Math & Science):
Math 5:  Yes, we are still working!!!  We have had a great week!  Students in the 5th grade class, for the very first time, have chosen their seating mates and they have really come a long way to learning with friends. This is a huge step for students, and truth be told, I hardly ever do it, but it feels like a good thing when a community of learners can function so highly with pals.  Good for them.  Anyhow, to the math!  We began our work in the Geometry unit before my trip to DC and have continued to work on the coordinate graph this week.  Specifically we have been exploring tile sequences and relating the pattern in the growing sequences to coordinate points on the graph.  Interestingly enough, this has dumped us head on into algebraic reasoning and I have been very pleased with the bridge created by the 5th grade program.  We also began deeper exploration of geometry shapes, specifically polygons and what makes each polygon unique.  Lots of language.  We will wrap up this unit next week.  We will be cutting short the unit but I will do my best to cover concepts next year that were left out of the 5th grade program.

FYI:  There will be work assigned over the summer.  Please let me know if a paper copy of work would be a better choice than online work.  

Math 6:  Yes, we are still working!!!  This week has been an introduction to some new concepts and deeper learning around data.  We have been looking at line plots all week, working to figure out Summary statistics, like range, mode, and median. With new words like distribution, variability, and measures of central tendency, we are doing a lot of problem solving around these ideas, and not just finding these stats.  Our work Thursday addressed the mean, and the new big learning about this is when to use one measure of central tendency (mode, median, or mean) over another.  We don’t use mean when talking about household income, because mean has a way of pulling “what is typical” to the outliers.  ARod was our example.  So yes, we use median for this.  This is a very valuable unit, that we will need to cut short.  I am doing my best to expose at this point, and use Khan Academy to advance thinking.  So sorry for the puzzlers, if there were family’s who spent immense amounts of time on them!  They were hard, but it’s good for them to struggle a little, right?

Science ⅚:  Important Date!  Please come to our Rube Goldberg presentations on Monday, June 15th at 10.  I know it’s not an ideal time, but they will be fun to watch.  I saw so many of you today at the Business Convention and recognize the difficulty in getting off from work, again, but perhaps some will have the flexibility!  Maybe you can sneak out!  I won’t tell!

The Week in Ms. Wesnak’s Room (⅞ Humanities):
This week was ALL about the Business Convention, and our students ROCKED IT!! All of their hard work from the third trimester was displayed beautifully this week at our 2015 Business Convention. Students used a variety of persuasive techniques, sales pitches, and their clever (sometimes hilarious) commercials to lure in investors on Thursday and Friday afternoon. The 7/8 side of Voyager was certainly a buzz, and the students were a mix of excited and nervous to see what was going to happen. I look forward to counting the “Wezbucks” in the Bank Boxes this weekend to see the outcome of the investments. In the end, all of these students deserve a HUGE pat on the back and round of applause for their work. They showed true grit and critical thinking through their writing pieces by making connections from their project to the real world to articles read in class to online research. They showed creativity and out of the box thinking with their imaginative, realistic, and fun products, logos, commercials, and company names.

Thank you to ALL parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, guardians, siblings, friends, and family who attended the event. The students were so excited to share their work. Also, a huge thank you to everyone who donated to our prize baskets. They are going to be certainly well deserved. What a fantastic way to bring our last trimester to a close!! :) THANK YOU!!

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

CMP8
Phew!  We made it through our CSSU Final Review this week.  Students will be working to complete their exam notes and practice  problems. Monday and Tuesday will be utilized to go over any sticky points and additional practice. Next Wednesday is the big day!  They have been working very hard!

CMP7
We completed our “Filling and Wrapping” Unit with investigating spheres and cones.  Students created their own unit test notes and they began their assessment on Friday. We will finish up on Monday, and then we will end our year with a fun engineering task.  A summer math packet will be given to the 7th graders before we break.  Some math fun in the sun!

Science 7th/8th
This week was all about designing our models, prototypes and step-by-step processes for our business products.  Students also needed to create environmental impact cards that summarized their ecological footprint and ways their businesses protect the earth.  This portion of the Business Convention will be assessed as a science grade.  The convention was a big success and students worked hard to make their products shine.