TA’s Notes:
***Please do not send in any food to be shared among Voyager students***
Dates to Remember:
Friday, Nov. 4th - Voyager’s Book & Media Sale Set-up
Saturday, Nov. 5th - Voyager’s Book & Media Sale
Wednesday, Dec. 7th- Voyager Family Night in WCS Auditorium
Sunday, Dec. 11th - 11:30am - 4:00pm Polar Express Elves
WCS Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBiS) News!
During the two weeks leading up to the Thanksgiving break, WCS students are engaging with a BOOSTER CELL CHALLENGE focusing on using their SMART behaviors in the hallways. Students will earn a booster cell (large SMART cell) when they demonstrate the behaviors listed below.
Safe: Stay on the right, hands/ and feet to self & walking at all times
Mindful: Calm and quiet body & moving toward destination
Accepting: Leaving room for others & following adult directions
Respectful: Using an inside voice & keeping food/drinks closed
Truthful: Taking the shortest route to destinations & being responsible for behavior choices
Please take a few moments and talk with your child about SMART hallway behaviors. Teachers will be reteaching these expectations, as well!
FAPAC October 2016 Meeting Highlights Information
The FAP Advisory Council held its monthly meeting on October 13th. FAP is Williston's equivalent of a parent-teacher organization. We meet each month, our meetings our open to all, and you will receive an email like this every month with highlights of the meeting and a link to the FAP website for the full minutes. Check the full minutes in a PDF format by clicking HERE. Below are a few meeting highlights:
FAPAC Meeting Recording
The October FAPAC meeting was recorded and is available at this LINK online.
Administration Update
Greg Marino spoke about the upcoming Election Day, which will take place at Williston Central School again this year. Due to the expected increase in voters, the main entrance will be at the front door of the school, with an additional entrance in the band room. Community member volunteers will be at the entrances directing voters along with uniformed police officers. Greg also discussed the school budget. Decision packets were due on October 15th. FAP will be reviewing the packets before the November meeting. Approvals will be moved up this year due to the school budgets being consolidated.
Upcoming Events
Craft Show: Saturday, November 5th, 2016 from 9:30 am – 4:00 pm We are still in need of more volunteers to set up (Friday afternoon) and for the day of the show. Please consider sharing some of your time and Sign up here
Families and Technology – Digital Citizenship presentation: Thursday, November 10th from 7:00 – 8:30 pm (More information here.)
Scholastic Book Fair: November 28th – December 2nd
Educational Grants
Some portion of FAP funds go to educational grants that teachers or staff submit to FAP. These grants cover items not included in the school budget, but that would enhance the learning environment. The Grant Committee reviewed all grants that were submitted and provided recommendations on funding. The recommendations were reviewed in the meeting voted on. The grant package was approved as presented. Letters have been sent to all applicants.
The next FAP meeting is on Thursday, November 10th at 8:15am in the WCS Dining Room. All are welcome to attend.
The Week in Mr. Merrill’s Room (⅚ Humanities):
- Mystery reading - Students identified the setting and characters and mapped them out in our Reading Response Notebook.
- Executive Branch - We examined the roles and responsibilities of the presidency and learned about and used an electoral college map. Students pretended to be campaign managers and selected the best states to campaign in to reach 270 votes. They also made a prediction for the number of electoral college votes each candidate will win in the election.
- We examined the history of voting by putting students on panels to review a petition to vote. The petitioners were from various times in U.S. history. The panels had to grant or deny voting privileges. Students were able to identify many groups that did not have the right to vote in our country. Students then wrote about and reflected on voting in their writer’s notebooks.
- Finally, we examined the candidates for president to prepare for our mock election on Tuesday. Students gathered evidence on their selected candidate’s experience, character, and where he/she stands on the issues. We used several ⅚ scholastic articles as our sources.
The Week in Ms. O’s Room (⅚ Math & Science):
Math 5: This week there was a bit of a change in Ms. O’s classroom. Dean Menke, the student intern working with Ms. O, took over the classroom for the entire week, for both math and science. In Math 5 we continued to work with adding and subtracting fractions using a variety of useful models. There as a Check Point on Thursday to measure each student’s ability to use these models and successfully add/subtract fractions.
Math 6: In Math 6 we worked on estimating fraction addition and subtraction, investigated real-world examples of when it is best to underestimate or overestimate, and developed different strategies to accomplish this.
Here, Luke and Julia are using fraction and decimal cards to estimate sums and differences.
Science ⅚: In science class we did a number of investigations into different aspects of adaptation. On Wednesday we investigated how well different model bird beaks are at collecting food from different “habitats.” On Thursday/Friday, students searched the classroom for different colored dots, demonstrating how camouflage helps organisms survive.
Here Robert, McKinley, Harrison, Addi, and an unidentified student try to collect seeds from holes drilled in logs with a duck’s bill. Where they successful?
The Week in Mr. G’s Room (⅞ Humanities):
The Week from Ms. Q’s Room (⅞ Math & Science):
CMP8
This week we explored exponents and the rules you need to follow to work with them. We created step books that students can access when having to solve or simplify equations with exponents. We also began our new unit called “Growing, Growing, Growing”. I’m sure you can deduce from the title that we are looking at models that grow, grow and grow....like bacteria! Exponential growth is a non-linear system that has a very specific signature equation, graph and table. We began with looking at paper cutting, and the repayment of a debt in the Kingdom of Montarek, where a crafty chess player wanted payment doubled for each space on a chessboard. Students received their TWMM Unit Tests back this week. Please look for the scored test with the learning targets.
CMP7
We began this week with adding and subtracting positive and negative numbers. We worked with a human number line in the hallway and learned how to add and subtract integers by moving left and right, forwards and backwards. How much does an ice cube lower the temperature of your room temperature beverage? Inquiring minds want to know! We predicted whether the change was going to be linear, utilized our Go Temp temperature probes and recorded how much our beverage cooled over a 10 minute time period. We then looked at the mathematical operation of this temperature change as an equation and on the number line. Students received their Shapes and Designs Unit tests this week. Please ask your child to see their scored test. Reteaching has begun for those that did not meet the target.
Science 7th/8th
We began the week with a review of a claim and evidence statement based on the variables they tested in their mousetrap cars. Students were expected to cite evidence from their testing to support their claim. We then moved onto the topic of gravity. What is gravity? How does mass have to do with gravitational force? Do we have humans have a gravitational force? Students took notes, participated in creating a model of space and masses interacting in space, made observations in their journals and began to form an understanding of the force of gravity. Finally, we looked at a gravitational force simulation.
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