Voyager Google Site Link: Be sure to bookmark it and check on Fridays for the Hot off the Press week in review published on the Voice!
TA’s Notes:
***Please do not send in any food to be shared among Voyager students***
***Please notify us if your child has strep. Thank you for this courtesy.***
Dates to Know:
- Tue, Oct 3rd- Walking Field Trip to Adams Apple Orchard. Permission slip HERE
Please have your student turn into to teacher or TA or email back to KFieldsend@cvsdvt.org
- Fri, Oct 6th- Dance! Grades 6-8, $6 charge, 6:30 - 8:30pm, refreshments available for sale.
- Sat, Oct 7th- Fall Festival @ WCS 8:30 - 10:30am Breakfast in Cafeteria, Touch-a-Truck & crafts. Adults $8, Students $5, Seniors $6, Under 4 Free. Benefits Unified 8th Grade Trip
8th Graders needed! Sign up sheet: Fall Fest Sign Up
- Fri, Oct 27th- Voyager Harvest Breakfast Open House 7:45 - 8:45am in Voyager
House. Come see various works students have created on display.
- Wed, Dec 6th- Voyager Family Night / Variety Show 6 - 8pm at WCS in Dining Room & Auditorium
Williston Central School Supports Hurricane Victims!
Monday, September 18th through Friday, September 29th Bring in your loose change!
Each team will have a collection jar! Donations will help support two organizations!
AllBreed Dog Rescue who have already been in Texas saving owner surrendered and stray dogs from shelters and is currently doing the same in Florida. Twenty-five dogs have been brought to Vermont and are in the process of being adopted from the Williston shelter.
Belle Terre Elementary School located in Palm Coast, Florida which has been closed since the hurricane. Margaret Munt’s daughter, Vanessa Ajayi, works in this school system and is serving as our connection. Note: Margaret was a long-time Williston teacher that passed away from cancer.
We welcome any parents or businesses to “match” the amount of money collected for their child’s team. Contact Jackie Parks, Principal, if you are interested. jparks@cvsdvt.org
The Week in Mr. Merrill’s Room (⅚ Humanities):
During our Reading Cafe, students presented their first book talks. These talks were in small groups. We brainstormed tips for public speaking and gave students time to prepare before they presented. Students self assessed their presentations.
To prepare for our read aloud of “I Am Malala”, we worked with 25 vocabulary words from the book. Students completed matching games, word maps, and a performance activity. We added these word to our Tier 2 word list in our Reading Response Notebooks. We also sketched a map of Pakistan and the surrounding countries in our notebooks. As we read, we noticed differences between Malala’s culture and ours. We also were introduced to what life was like under the Taliban. We made a venn diagram and a t chart to record our findings. Students will use these notes to write an argument piece at the end of the book. A link to the audio version will be posted on Google Classroom.
The Week in Ms. O’s Room (⅚ Math & Science):
I will be hosting open math classroom days. Please look out for these dates so that you can come and learn like a 5th and 6th grader! This idea came out of conversations with parents about not understanding the math we teach today. I’m happy to have you join the class like a learner or an observer!
Math 5: This week, students solidified concepts in volume and surface area. We learned big ideas like: volume is the number of unifix cubes that can fit into a rectangular prism; you can count cubes or multiply the three dimensions to find volume; that surface area of a rectangular prism is calculated by finding the area of all sixes faces and then adding those areas for total surface area; that long skinny rectangular prisms have big surface areas and more compact rectangular prisms have less surface area for a given volume; and the ultimate generalization of the week was the closer the dimensions of a rectangular prism, the smaller the surface area. This is a considering if you must pay for the amount of cardboard used to create a box! We also began looking at factors and multiples by playing some board games and prime and composite numbers. Busy week!
Math 6: We are moving along in Comparing Bits! Work this week included: new understandings of ratios by using ratio tables; equivalent ratios kind of work like equivalent fractions; learning about unit rate and realizing that every ratio has two unit rates; and that sometimes the unit rates are usable and make sense and others, well, they don’t! For example, it makes send to have 1 person paying $5 for a ticket to the fair, but it doesn’t make much sense to say that ⅕ of a person can get into the fair for $1.00! Students did have a math reflection due this week. I may be kicking those back, if they are weak in evidence to explain thinking. But we will do this together.
⅚ Science: It was a great week that began with our Lt. Governor, Dave Zuckerman’s visit to our school. Our circle discussion with Dave was all about his farm, the farming community in Vermont and about how to juggle and balance the demands of farming with the demands of legislative and policy work at the State House. It was so great to see just how down to earth and real he was to the kids. Not a politician in a suit, but a real working Vermonter who happens to hold a role in our government too. It was my first time meeting him too, so it was such a pleasure to learn more. He did invite us to the farm, so perhaps we will take him up on it! We also had two Voyager parents, a professional writer and architect respectively, bring their expertise to our Hoop House Project. Sarah Healy, a fiction writer, began the grant proposal writing process with students. She talked about six simple aspects of a grant and student began research on 4 of those including: information and stats on Williston and WCS; hunger in U.S., Vermont, and Williston; Project Description, which included learning more about hoophouses, what they are used for, and how they will facilitate a market garden business; and Project Outcomes which required students to think about how this will provide educational opportunities for all students at WCS. Lauren Davis, an architect, began the design process with students, so that each could think about the role math plays in our building project. We worked on two dimensional drawings, as seen below, to learn front view, top view and ground view.
Both parents are naturals in the classroom! I know there are more experts out there! I may integrate you into my classroom if possible and if you are game.
And as always, Dan Fleming, our resident engineer and mathematician, was there to bring to life his research on the hoophouse, engineering skill, and budgeting knowledge.
Thanks to all who made this week great!
The Week in Mr. Roof’s Room (⅞ ELA and Social Studies):
7&8 ELA
This week, we focused on PLP writing, Independent reading, and Book recommendations. For PLP writing, students took all of the learning from our previous PLP assignments, and used it to assist them in writing mini Identity biographies. These are three paragraphs in length, and are coming together nicely. Our independent reading continues with Reading Log 4. The focus again is on goal setting, tracking, vocabulary, and finding great quotes. This is due every Monday at the beginning of class. We had our first Book Bistro on Friday, during which each student shared a recommendation of a book s/he read this school year. In addition to the recommendation, students created original covers for their books, different from published versions. These were exceptional! As an added bonus, we all sat in a circle as we shared and enjoyed some hot cocoa.
7&8 Social Studies
This week, we focused on some current events reported on CNN 10 from Monday, and examining them through the 5 W’s and 1 H lense (Who, What, When, Where, Why, How). This is a great way of organizing our writing, especially for news stories. Due to some scheduling changes, we ended up using a significant chunk of social studies time to complete our PLP work and to complete the artwork necessary for the book recommendations covers.
The Week from Ms. Q’s Room (⅞ Math & Science):
CMP8 and CMP7
The design team from PopsiCo arrived bright and early on Thursday. Such notable personages as Dr. Pepper, Ms. Sierra Miss, Car B. Nation, Ginger Fizz and Sandy Pellegrino were searching out future design engineers for new and innovative packaging ideas. Students
pitched their models, math thinking and shipping ideas.
Many students had great designs, mathematical thinking and had practiced their pitches for the PopsiCo Design Team. The team voted on the following winners:
“Best in Show” 1st Place : Addison U.
“Best in Show” 2nd Place: Ada J.
“Best in Show” 3rd Place: Ava B.
Mathematical Reasoning: Anna A.
Unique Design: Tyler D.
Aesthetic Design: Quinn C.
Congrats to our winners and all our participants for a job well done.
Science 7th/8th
We have been working hard to explore and understand atoms and the Periodic Table. We made edible atoms with subatomic particles represented by marshmallows, skittles and smarties. Students learned that protons and neutrons reside in the nucleus and electrons are in orbitals that form a cloud around the nucleus. We colored our Periodic Table with types of elements such as Alkali metals, Alkali earth metals, Halogens, Non-metals, and Noble gases to name a few. We did research on the characteristics of these groups and selected our element that we are going to become an expert on. Next week we will be creating our own periodic table of characters based on the characteristics of our elements.
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