TA’s Notes:
***Please do not send in any food to be shared among Voyager students***
April 24th - 28th : No School (April Break)
May 2-5 SBAC testing for ⅚ students.
May 5th : Voyager Dance & Activity Night Fundraiser
May 12th : 5th & 6th grade Trout Release @ Lewis Creek and Fishing @ Lake Iroquois
May 23rd: Last Tuesday early release
May 29th : No school (Memorial Day)
June 1st : 5th & 6th grade field trip to Fort Ticonderoga
June 1st - 2nd : 8th grade overnight to Ridin-Hy Ranch
June 8th - 9th : Voyager House overnight to Camp Abnaki
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Below is the Sign Up for the upcoming Voyager sponsored dance and Activity Night happening Friday, May 5th. Please mark your calendar!
This is a fundraiser we need to do in order to raise the last $800 needed to send all of Voyager House on an overnight Camp Abnaki experience. We have done this overnight in the past and it is LOTS OF FUN!
We really need chaperones and concessions!! Attached is a sign up sheet with many ways to help and we are hoping between all of the students and parents we can make this a booming success. Any help/time/items you can offer is very much appreciated!
Any questions, please email Katie Fieldsend at KFieldsend@cssu.org
The Week in Mr. Merrill’s Room (⅚ Humanities):
Our narrative writing week kicked off with a short story read aloud that we mapped on a large story organizer. We introduced the elements of a short story and modeled the completion of the organizer after we read the story. Students were eager to use the same kind of organizer to map out their own narratives that they brainstormed last week. Characters, setting, conflict, and climax ideas filled their maps. Later in the week we practiced using sensory imagery and figurative writing techniques. Students also selected a point of view and a theme to use for their stories. We even managed to sneak in some mini lessons on using dialogue and transitional words and phrases in our writing..
Our last periods of the week were used for writing. The students were very engaged in their creative work and many students were “shaking out the cramps” as they wrote fast and furiously.
Have your student read his/her first draft to you over the weekend.
The Week in Ms. O’s Room (⅚ Math & Science):
Math 5: Students began their first 6th grade Connected Math Program (CMP 3) this week, by revisiting number and operations in the book, Prime Time. We are essentially skipping the first investigation, as it is a repeat from parts of the Bridges program but did review math language like FACTOR, PRODUCT, PRIME, COMPOSITE, AND SQUARE NUMBERS. Our main focus this week was on common factors and multiples. We are working to answer the following questions, “How do you know when you have found all the multiples of a number? Are our generalizations relevant for odd and even numbers? In case you don’t know, to find the factors of a number, you begin with 1 and the number. The next highest factor is half that number, if it is even and less than half if it is odd. By using a factor rainbow and “squeezing the factors” out, you can land on all factors of that number. We then solved problems involving ferris wheels, cicada emergence, and snack bag real world scenarios.
Math 6: Starting a new unit the week of the play was challenging, so we are redoubling our efforts on the first investigation with the CMI that will encompass much of our work, “What is the relationship between tables, graphs, and equations, and what does the relationship tell us about the patterns and trends we see in these formats? When we see the equation, 55t = d where t is time and d is distance,we could say that a car drives 55 miles per hour (the rate) and we could then create a table for 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 hours of driving at this rate. And when we graph this data, we would see that the line is steep, especially compared to say, a bike that might travel at a rate of 23 miles per hour. So the steepness of the line relates to the 55 in the 55t and we can see that when we compare one hour to the next, the pattern is + 55 to each subsequent hour. This is a lot, I realize, but the kids are getting good at it. Lots more to learn in this heavy algebraic unit.
⅚ Science:
What a week! We spent the week looking at the properties of substances. Monday and Wednesday we looked at the properties of substances and how they change when mixed with other substances. Then we looked at both thermal and electrical conductivity, properties of substances often not explored at this level. Thanks to Dan, our resident engineer, we had a lot to do! Our work next week will continue these explorations, during which we will look at the electrical conductivity of salt water. See photos below.
The Week in Mr. G’s Room (⅞ Humanities):
This week students are beginning their informational essays on WWI. Students have chosen a topic that they find interesting or exciting, related to WWI. The topic may be something that we covered in class but the student would like to study in more depth, or something we did not have a chance to touch on. Some interesting topics include “Theatre During WWI”, or “Video Games Based on WWI”. In the afternoons, we are watching a film about the Christmas Truce, a moment in 1914 where troops all over the Western Front laid down their arms and refused to fight. This event is one of the most touching examples of humanity overcoming strife in history, but it is also a key to understanding how WWI actually ended, with soldiers on all sides exhausted and demoralized, refusing to take part in a that seemed impossible to win.
The Week from Ms. Q’s Room (⅞ Math & Science):
CMP8
We began speaking a new math language this week. Function language or more specifically function notation. For example f(x) = 2x +1. This would be read “f” of “x”. This is all about inputs and outputs. f(2) for the above function would mean that the input was 2 and we would then place 2 in the “x” spot and solve the equation. The answer is......drum roll.... 2(2) + 1 = 5.
When the f(x) = 7. That means that the output of the function is 7. We set up the problem 2x + 1 = 7 and solve it. The input would be 3. We also looked at non-linear filling functions and tried to figure out what a behavior over time graph would look like for different types of vases. We ended the week with graphical translations of functions. We explored what part of our equations move a function to different positions on a grid. Vertical translation moves our functions up and down vertically.
CMP7
Finally....y=mx +b. We unveiled our first linear equation and learned about slope, rates, and the constant of proportionality. Students graphed situations using food sales, oranges and car mileage. We grappled with the difference between independent and dependent variables. Did you know that it takes 10 pounds of milk (5 quarts) to make 1 pound of cheese....who knew?!
We have been practicing our ratios and proportions and reviewed proper graph making with “My favorite no”. This is where I replicate a student’s work and ask the students to find what is correct in the representation and what is not. We ended the week with a Check-up.
Science 7th/8th
We completed our Biological Creature Investigation with students creating class records by describing the life functions we observed and researched. We learned a large amount about very small creatures that play a very big role in our ecosystem. We reviewed how to write a concise response to a science question using specific data and we had the opportunity to play several interesting and challenging food web games.
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