Week of May 9th - 13th

TA’s Notes:

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

Last day of School- Friday, June 10th  Half-Day (dismissal is 11:55am)

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Note from WCS Cafeteria for 8th grade families:

From Friday May 13th throughout the remainder of the school year there will be NO CHARGING at all for 8th graders. They must have a positive balance or cash to make ANY purchases in the cafeteria.

All negative balances must be paid before school ends.

All positive balances will be transferred automatically to CVU.

Any graduating 8th graders that are not going to CVU should let us know ASAP so we can figure out what to do with any positive account balances remaining.

We are really going to miss this group. They have been pretty special. Congratulations to them all!

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5th & 6th graders start SBAC Testing Monday!
Please make sure students bring healthy snacks, water bottles and a good independent reading book.  

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

This week students wrote a LEAF essay on westward expansion using their concept maps they created in small groups last week.  We also prepared for SBAC tests, which start Monday.

We had a very successful trout release.  61 trout were released into Lewis Creek.  Students hiked the community trail along the creek and had a chance to see Macroinvertebrates that were caught by Bob Wible, our trout unlimited coordinator.  

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

Science 5/6:  This week was super productive in science!  We learned even more about the Grand Prismatic Pool, considering the driving question: What is happening in the pool and why is it happening?  So far, students have learned about why the prismatic pool has condensation and steam above it, that the water in the pool is hot and being heated by geologic features below the pool, and all about Earth’s structure based on earthquake data collected from all over the world.  See the Grand Prismatic Pool below.

Also attached are photos from our modeling this week.  Our last mystery to solve and understand is the coloration in the pool!  Don’t share with your kiddo if you are interested and look it up!

Math 5:  We finished Prime Time this week after learning about Distributive Property and Order of Operations!  Tests will be scored at weekends end!

Math 6:  Students worked on percent of a number problems this week and did some early algebra work to prep for SBAC.  I’m seeing really excellent results from Moby, so please encourage more work on this online program.  It has served as great computational practice for students.

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

This week we had a bit of an alternative schedule due to the Science NECAP, but here is an overview of our week!

Monday, we had independent reading time during which students read a book of their choice and then responded to a reading response focused around conflicts in literature. Students learned about the various types of conflict which includes: Man vs. Man, Man vs. Nature, Man vs. Society, etc. They were then asked to identify or predict the conflict in their book and use evidence and analysis to support their reasoning. In the afternoon students turned in their Road Trip projects, completed a check-in about the physical characteristics about the U.S., and then we kicked off our global geography unit! We started global geography with an A-Z Scavenger Hunt across the globe! Students were only allowed to use the clues provided and an atlas to find the answers! As the week continued on 8th graders focused on their Science NECAP, while the 7th Graders completed their Spring Writing On-Demand, began brainstorming and gaining inspiration for their upcoming 8th Grade Challenge Project, and did a fantastic job wrapping up their Literature Group, “Walk Two Moons” with a thoughtful, respectful, connected, and wonderful discussion. The feedback from the 7th grade was that this was the best lit group book they have ever read! YAY! It is so exciting to hear about when a book or a reading experience hooks a student. Big win for “Walk Two Moons”! As the week came to a close, during the morning we began our Myths and Legends unit by defining what a myth or legend is and identifying the difference between the two. We watched a few short films to help in understanding these stories. We also launched into a mini unit on greek mythology! Students made small coloring books of the Greek Gods and Goddesses which they will be using to help in analyzing Greek myths and writing their own stories using the Gods and Goddesses as characters. Students seem to be really excited for our myths and legends unit as they will be creating their own myths and legends about geographic phenomenons across the globe to wrap up the year.

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

Kudos to our 7th and 8th graders this week!  What wonderfully flexible and dedicated students we have on Voyager House.  This week 8th graders worked diligently on the science NECAP testing.  They showed grit, stamina and perseverance on this two day assessment.  The 7th graders began their work on their 8th grade challenges and wrote their On-Demand Writing piece.  We also had a day-long interview process with our four teacher candidates for the humanities position.  Each candidate taught a class where a portion of our 7/8 grade community participated.  After each session our students gave written feedback on each teacher candidate.  We are very proud of how respectful and engaged they were in the process.

Needless to say we had interrupted classes in math and science this week.  In science we explored the difference between rocks and minerals and began a mineral identification lab.  In CMP7 we began looking at the relationship between surface area of a 3-D figure and its dimensions.  In CMP8  we are continuing our algebra final review.