Week of January 23rd -27th

TA’s Notes:

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

A Note from Ms. Sherman:

Just a reminder that our Recycle Sale is coming on April 1st. Although this is months away, I wanted to plead with you to hold on to your “stuff” just a little longer and consider donating it to our cause. We need to have a very robust sale this year to gain the funds necessary to attend the different field trips intended in the spring and throughout the rest of the year. We would really like to push for good quality housewares, especially moderate sized pieces of furniture. You may be thinking of upgrading or replacing and if you are, please consider bringing your used goods to us for this sale. Antiques have also been great sellers for us as well! Parents of small children are always looking for clean, gently-used toys, books, and clothing, and others really enjoy the hunt for special treasures like jewelry, outerwear and house decor. Thanks in advance for helping us to make this year’s recycle sale a hit!  

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

This week we read an article about exposure to ads and the impact it has on kids. Students learned some of the tricks and strategies companies use to try to get kids - and adults -  to buy their products. They then used these strategies to make their own ads (skits, videos, or posters) in small groups. Each group presented their ad and the rest of the class analyzed it for the strategies used.

We also kicked off our financial planning poster competition. Students have to make a poster with a money plan that addresses the four choices people can make with money. Students will be using a website (themint.org) to find tips and strategies to illustrate and record on their posters. Ask your student about those choices.

Moby Max - We are now using Moby Max - Social Studies. Students are completing lessons that support the content that we are focusing on in class that week. We have had a couple of technical glitches with this switch and a few students are having a tough time getting to the lessons. Have your check in with me if they are still running into problems.

*Reminder - Google Classroom now only shows work completion scores.

                    JumpRope shows academic and habits of learning target scores.

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

Jumprope Update:  I have scored all work to date. Please ask your child for recently returned work.  Scoring Summaries are attached to many of those evidences.  This gives an opportunity to look at Jumprope and the evidence simultaneously and ask questions to me about how things were interpreted!

Math 5:  We spent three days this week practicing the traditional/standard algorithm for multi-digit multiplication.  Many kids have made big progress on this skill.  Please feel free to lob in a problem before dinner time to continue to practice the skill.  We also began multi-digit division using area models and ratio tables.  The program does not expect proficiency in the “long division” strategy (the one you know).  This does not mean that it won’t be introduced, but students will not be proficient by the end of Unit 4.

We will wrap up this unit next week and move toward a Unit Assessment by the end of the Week of Feb 6.  Lots of practice before the assessment!

Math 6:  Students in 6th grade have been making tons of generalizations about polygons and measurements like area and perimeter.  Specific investigations of triangles have produced generalizations like “to find the area of a triangle you multiply the base x the height and then divide it by 2” and generalizations for parallelograms have include generalizations like, “the area measure for any parallelogram is the same as for a rectangle which is base x height.”  The students have been out of their mind excited about answering questions (and a little mad at me when I don’t get their voice out in the air!), which speaks to the interest and understanding of spatial/geometric reasoning.  We have another 1 ½ weeks before we close up Covering and Surrounding.  Then on to decimals...

⅚ Science:  We spent our week customizing our foam rockets and practicing launch techniques and recordkeeping of data for distance traveled.  We are excited to have an audience at our challenge Monday beginning at 1:15 in the new gymnasium.  We hope you can join!

Gravity Challenge: To Build a Paper Castle!

We did have a Galaxy Competition called the Gravity Challenge.  It was fun for the kiddos and lots of points were awarded to Galaxy groups based on positive behaviors like collaboration and leadership! In addition points were awarded to build the tallest, most beautiful and most stable structure.  Yes, out of paper and with only one run of staples!  See photos below!

The Week in Mr. G’s Room (⅞ Humanities):

This week in Humanities we worked on revising our argument essays from the Japanese Internment unit. Students honed their abilities to make a claim and support it with evidence from reliable documents. We also introduced our final research for the Immigration unit. Students will propose a topic that they want to look into in more depth, choose a method of research including conducting interviews, experiential learning or gathering articles from the internet, then choose a method of presentation. Finally students will give a two to three minute speech on their project.

We will have CVU teachers Stan Williams and Emily Rinkema in next Thursday to teach a lesson on public speaking to help students meet their learning targets. In eighth grade we also spent time watching CNN student news and discussing current events.

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

CMP8

What do you call a parrot that won’t eat?  A polynomial...... This week students explored mono, bi and trinomials. We began investigating quadratic function equations and learned about specific landmarks of parabolas like a maximum and minimum point, line of symmetry and x intercepts.  These topics are all part our new unit “Frogs, Fleas and Painted Cubes”.  Students received their Looking for Pythagoras Unit assessment back.  As a class they did a great job showing their understanding of the Pythagorean Theorem.

CMP7

This week students worked on creating ratios from corresponding and adjacent sides of similar figures.  This concept has been a bit of a “sticky wicket” (as seen on their Check-up #2), but we are working through both the vocabulary and the understanding that similar figures have many numerical relationships. We reviewed equivalent fractions, decimals and percentages while exploring terminating, repeating and cycling decimals.These numbers will help us with ratios and proportions as we move ahead.  This unit will be coming to an end next week, so look for the announcement of the “Stretching and Shrinking Unit Test”.

Science 7th/8th

Students have been working on their Alien Planet Project.  We rolled dice to select attributes for their earthlike planets and this week they began researching similar planets within our solar system that have different gravity, atmosphere, moons and temperature.  Using these attributes they began creating creatures that are adapted to an environment that they created.  The learning targets for this project include:

• Creating a clear, accurate model which represents complex relationships between components
• Using a model to describe relationships including details necessary to show full understanding
• Constructing an explanation for a situation using multiple sources of evidence that are consistent with scientific ideas and theories
• When given multiple sources students can effectively communicate main ideas and make connections with the real world

Next week students will present and defend their aliens to their classmates.  

Week of January 17th - 20th

TA’s Notes:

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

8th Graders:

Baby Photos wanted for Yearbook by February 1st!  These pictures can be turned in to me with your name and “Voyager” on the back so they can be returned, or emailed to KFieldsend@cssu.org.

Message from 8th Grader to Parents:
I am Emma Howe and I am in the 8th grade. For my 8th grade challenge I am focusing on Cancer. Next week I will be having a week long fundraiser challenge. Can you please send in your kids with coins. Thank you and have a good weekend.

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

Tuesday

Reading Cafe - Independent reading time. The goal is to build reading stamina. Studies show that the ability to read for extended periods of time is a good indicator of success in college.

The learning target is to "get lost in the book".

Wednesday

Argument writing - Students worked on writing strong conclusions by highlighting their main points and making it personal for the reader by offering greater insights, questions, or a challenge to take action.

Current Events - Mr. Maika taught students about the culture and people of Hawaii.

Thursday

Economics Kick Off

Personal Finance - Students reflected on their personal finances. They wrote about how they currently use money for spending, saving, investing, and donating. We then read an article about kids who shared their stories of bad choices with money and what they do now. These students have personal financial plans that include saving 10%, investing 30% in stocks, donating 10% to charities, and spending money on things they really need. A goal for the unit is for students to come up with their own financial plans.

Students are working on completing an online course called Everfi - Vault. Below is a description of the program.

Vault is an interactive learning course specifically designed to introduce financial education skills early in a child’s cognitive development.  The course uses the latest in new-media technologies to bring complex financial concepts to life for today’s digital generation. Evidence-based learning theories are incorporated to increase students’ knowledge and build the foundation for making good financial decisions at a young age and promote career development skills.

Topics Covered:

• Responsible Money Choices
• Income and Careers
• Planning & Money Management
• Credit & Borrowing
• Insurance & Safety Management
• Savings & Investing

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

Math 5:  This week, students built skeletal arrays for multiplication and practiced modeling the area of a rectangle to find the product of problems like 76 x 34.  We then color coded area models and related them to the standard algorithm for multiplication (I know you have all been waiting for years for this!).  The purpose of this relating was to see that the conceptual understanding of place value related to the less conceptual recipe for multiplying.  I was pleasantly surprised by just how strong so many students are in terms of place value understanding, and that carrying a 2 to the tens place in the standard algorithm shows that they understand that the 2 is a “twenty”. We ended the week with some practice and games multiplying multidigit numbers.

Math 6:  With a visit from our math coordinator this week, who commented that “your students are jumping out of their seats to answer questions about area of triangles,”  my response was “of course!  Is there anything more exciting than the area of a triangle.”  They really were jumping out of their seats!  We are discovering so much more than area, by seeing patterns and relating numbers/measures, or quantifying the effects of multiplying, that students are becoming so obviously thrilled by their discoveries.  Well, let’s pretend shall we?  I have noticed a measured increased in excitement in geometry, which often happens because it is so visual, measurable, and filled with patterns.  In particular, I have been pleased to introduce problems where decimals or fractions are used, say for the base and height measures, and that students are using skills from previous units to solve those problems.  I heard a lot of “oh yeah, that’s how you divide fractions.” OR “I forgot that 4.6 is also 4 6/10 leading to an increase in proficiency when finding the area of a rectangle.  Quick Quiz Friday will measure student proficiency on area of rectangles and triangles.  On to parallelograms next week...

⅚ Science: Gravity continued this week with some discussion and video reinforcement of what we have learned about how gravity affects objects on Earth.  And the big news of the week is that we are building rockets (no propellants, just rubberband rockets) so that we can compete in a challenge on Monday, January 30th from 1:15-2:50.  If you can join us, it would be fantastic.  We will have 8 launch stations and it would be helpful to have one person per launch station.  Please email me if you think you can join.  It will be in the New Gym.  

The Week in Mr. G’s Room (⅞ Humanities):

In 7/8 Humanities we continued our Immigration Unit by doing an inquiry into the treatment of Japanese Americans living on the West Coast during World War II. Students compared and contrasted primary source documents and archival video to determine which was the most reliable source for understanding this chapter in American history. In their writing, students are practicing making claims and supporting them with evidence. We also had a class discussion, "What are the greatest challenges facing the nation?" on the eve of the presidential inauguration.

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

CMP8

This week we explored the common misconceptions in using the Pythagorean Theorem.  We investigated several “interesting no’s” or math processes where errors had occurred. We ended the week with a review of all the major concepts and played a close game of Jeopardy.  On Friday we began our “Looking for Pythagoras” Unit Test.

CMP7

Students have been working hard to understand the relationship between scale factor, area and perimeter.  We have practiced problems on similar figures and finding unknown side lengths, nested triangles and ratios and proportions.  I have asked students to look for an image that they would like to reproduce for our upcoming scaling project. We ended the week with the Check-up!

Science 7th/8th

Both Blue and Gold classes were given feedback on their last data analysis entrance task on the distance of planets from the sun.  As a collective group, students have done a great job at making claims based on observations, however, their evidence has not been data driven.  We practiced data analysis using data about the diameter of planets.  The question we were exploring was: “How are planet diameters related to what we know about the formation of the solar system?”  We found that  the rocky or terrestrial planets are substantially smaller than the outer gas giants. Our evidence showed that the diameters of  terrestrial planets are less than 8,000 miles whereas the gaseous planets range in diameter from 30,000 to 88,000 miles.  This relates to the current  understanding that outer planets formed first and were able to gather materials (gases and debris) from the sun’s initial blast.  The rocky planets formed second with less materials to work with.   Finally, we rounded out the week the introduction of our ”Alien Planet” project, where student will create a planet and alien based on different attributes. (low gravity vs. high gravity, high temperature vs. low temperature, etc). 

Week of January 9th - 13th

TA’s Notes:

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

• No School Monday, Jan 16th

Heads up to parents: Thera-putty has been a bit of a problem this week in classrooms so teachers will be taking it away from students if this behavior continues and additional thera-putty should not be purchased for students.

8th Graders:

Baby Photos wanted for Yearbook!  These pictures can be turned in to me with your name and “Voyager” on the back so they can be returned, or emailed to KFieldsend@cssu.org.

A Message from Ms. Sherman on Behalf of Voyager:

Over the years our building tools and supplies have been depleted. We are on the hunt for donated items! If you find yourself with multiple items in your possession, we would LOVE to take them off your hands. Some things that we are looking for, but not limited to are:

1. Hand Tools like: Screwdrivers, Hammers, simple saws, etc.
2. Power drills/drivers
3. Tool boxes
4. Nails, screws, bolts, etc.
5. Wood glue and other odds and ends for building

And….While you’re cleaning out your tool area, just a reminder that we will also have our annual recycle sale again this late winter and we need your stuff!!!! We are seeking good quality, gently used belongings to sell! A good sale all depends on the donated items we receive. Items that are great sellers include: furniture items, clean and complete games and toys, and functioning electronics. We also take other household goods such as decor and clothing, but we would love to increase our availability of the other items that have been listed. Our recycle sale has been set for: April 1st!!!

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

Monday

• Reading Cafe - Students continued to read independent books and work in their Reading Response notebooks.
• Current Events News Quiz with Mr. Maika.

Tuesday

• Introduction to mini argument writing and debate unit.  Students were placed on teams and selected topics to debate. We then worked on highlighting important reasons and evidence to use in an argument writing piece for the selected topic.

Wednesday

• Students worked with their debate team to write an argument outline. We used an organizer and reviewed writing strategies as students wrote each component of their argument.  They used their organizers to type a draft.
• We reviewed the debate format, planner, and scoring expectations. Debate teams completed their debate planners and worked out a strategy for the debate.

Thursday and Friday

• Students completed their final arguments, practiced, and debated in front of the class. The debates were impressive and longer than expected due to their great research, preparation, and enthusiasm.

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

Math 5:  Our new unit introduces and reinforces strategies for multiplication and division of numbers. The way Bridges approaches this is through relationship building.  Bridges strings groups of problems together, like ¼ of 8, ¾ of 8, 25 x 8 and .75 x 8 to get kiddos thinking about quick strategies for solving these problems.  You can see that through this process kids are multiplying fractions, whole numbers, and decimals (principles that are generally taught separately).  This is a very successful way to reinforce strategies like ratio tables, ¼’s being half of a half, ¾ as 3x one fourth.  It makes me smile when kids have ah ha moments like so many did this week.  We are moving toward standard algorithms, multiplication first and then division.

Math 6:  Students have been tackling some area and perimeter concepts this week that have allowed them to generalize relationships, between the length and width of shapes, generalize strategies for rectangles, and explore connections between the area of rectangles and triangles.  Students are doing geometry on the side too, engaging in some self-directed learning for geometry concepts I am not providing instruction for (like lines, corresponding angles, and the rule of supplementary angles for example).  You will notice lab sheets in math folders that show that students are building models for constant area and constant perimeter problems and then graphing some of that data.  We also continue to address recently acquired skills like adding and multiplying fractions (when finding perimeter and area respectively).

⅚ Science:

• Engaged in Dropping Objects Investigation
• Engaged in the development of experimental questions and defined the same, change, measure variables.
• Organized tables for collecting data and then ran trials and filled in data tables
• Met as a group of scientists to discuss findings in order to answer the question, what object will hit first?
• Looked at the relationship between F of gravity, the mass, and motion.
• Ran a pendulum experiment to further develop explanations about how mass affects which object hits first.

The Week in Mr. G's Room:

This week in 7/8 Humanities we discussed the push factors that lead groups of people to move to another country. We used the case study of the Irish Potato famine. In the 1840's more than a million Irish peasants starved to death in spite of the fact that Irish farmers produced more than enough food to feed twice the population of Ireland. How could this happen? We conducted a mock trial to determine the culprit. 

We also held the preliminary round for the National Geographic Geo Bee. After a tough competition, we narrowed the field to two students, Jamie Doyle and Jake Ludwar. In the final elimination round Jake received a near perfect score and was chosen to represent Voyager in the school wide Geo Bee next Friday.

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

CMP8

We had some major breakthroughs in math class this week. We have a better understanding of how the Pythagorean Theorem is used and how it makes sense in the context of right triangles.  We created a class record for all things Pythagorean and steps for finding square and cube roots without using a calculator.  We finished the week with beginning our Partner Quiz.  We will be completing this unit within the next week.

CMP7

We made strides this week in seeing the relationship between scale factor, area and perimeter.  In midweek Ms. Sequeira led us through a hands-on investigation where we utilized tiles to create figures and then increased them by different scale factors.  Students took a Check-up and we began an investigation on rep-tiles and tessellations.    

Science 7th/8th

Students completed their universe timelines!  Many were well done and will be displayed in class. We focused on the time approximately 9 billion years from the Big Bang.  This was the beginning of our solar system, which exploded out of a star and a swirling cloud of material.  We looked closely at the planets within our solar system and the story they tell of how they were formed.  We analyzed several comparison graphs such as planet diameter and planetary distance from the sun and noticed a relationship in how gas giants and terrestrial planets were formed.  We finished our week learning about the Goldilocks Zone, an area around a sun for habitable planets, and what attributes and materials are needed to sustain and create an environment for life.

Week of January 3rd - 6th

TA’s Notes:

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

• No School Monday, Jan 16th

8th Graders:

Baby Photos wanted for Yearbook!  These pictures can be turned in to me with your name and “Voyager” on the back so they can be returned or emailed to KFieldsend@cssu.org.

Swift House is sponsoring Marko the Magician, Friday, January 27th at 6:30pm in the WCS Auditorium.  Tickets are $8 each, order tickets using form: Marko the Magician Form

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

• Independent Reading in Reading Cafe: Students should have an independent reading book that they are committed to reading over the next two weeks.

• National Geographic Bee: Students played geography games, prepared for and participated in this national competition.
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone Wrap Up: Final reflection and compare/contrast (book to movie) essay.
• Trout in the Classroom: 100 brook trout eggs from the Roxbury Fish Hatchery arrived courtesy of our local Central Vermont Trout Unlimited volunteers. Students will learn how to test our tank water and care for our eggs. Hatch date is March 14.

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

Now that Jumprope is live, you and your Voyager should check once a week to see updated scores.  We do our best to get the scores into Jumprope as soon as we can.  Please know that the students and I touch student work 3-4 times before an assessment score is derived.  

Google Classroom will serve as an ongoing planner for you.  You can see assignments there and then check the scores on Jumprope.  Homework is done in two week increments.  So you will not see daily records of whether say, Tuesday’s assignment was completed.  You will only see a cumulative score from a two week time period.  

I have shared my New Year’s Resolution for the ⅚ students:  you will all meet proficiency on homework!  I am asking students to stay in for recess (I know, I know) to complete the day’s assignment if it is not complete by the class period in which it is due.  So far we have 100% homework completion.  I want students to run around, and as a mom of boys, I know the value of recess.  I am trying this to see if I can decrease the high number of “homework no shows” each day.  I will let you know if your child is consistently missing recess.  The squeeze will reap benefits, I know.

Math 5:

Highlights from the week…

• Division with Base Ten Pieces
• Unit 3 Final Assessment
• Revisiting Ratio Tables and using them to solve multiplication and division problems
• Beginning of efficient strategies for multiplying and dividing.  The traditional standard algorithm is coming!

Math 6:  

• Students have worked their way through Let’s be Rational.  Scores will be posted on Jumprope soon.
• Beginning work on Geometry.
• Review packet ( a big one) assigned to review points, lines, rays, segments, and angles.
• Extensive conceptual building of area and perimeter

⅚ Science:  If your kiddo wants to walk the dog before bedtime, let them!  They are watching the moon!  Students have a month long assignment to view the moon when they can and when the moon is visible!  I will have students staple the moon journal into their planner, so it is always there!   If students don’t see it, they are welcome to use the link below to find the phase that wasn’t visible.  Students have a Lunar Phase Journal Task Card that accompanies their yellow, cardstock moon journal.  Keep an eye out for it.

Also, students began investigations related to gravity.  Have you ever drop a weighted ball and a tennis fall of the exact same volume and shape at the same time?  Well ⅚ students are doing just that.  We will have photos for next week, but for now, know that we are focusing on experimental design:  good questions, same/change/measure variable identification, planning data tables, choosing material and ultimately running trials.  

The Week in Mr. G’s Room (⅞ Humanities):

Happy New Year!

This week in Humanities we are getting back into the swing of things. We are beginning our Immigration Unit covering both current events and earlier waves of immigration in American History. We are working to incorporate what we learned through the novel writing unit last year into students' independent reading this year. Also we working to incorporate Personal Learning Plan reflections into the weekly routine. You may have noticed you are getting emails from your student regarding their goals and the work they have done toward them. Each email should state a student's goal, what he or she has done to work toward that goal in the past week, and what a student plans on doing to work towards his or her goal in the coming week.

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

CMP8

We entered 2017 with investigations on the Pythagorean Theorem. Remember the a2+ b2 = c2 that we memorized  when we studied math? This equation was actually based on the adding up the area of boxes from the sides of a right triangle. We pondered and tested whether this theorem could work with acute and obtuse triangles.

This week we also practiced fractional roots and simplifying radicals.  Students performed an entrance task and we explored my “favorite no”, this is an example of a problem that is solved improperly. As a class we dissect it to see what was done correctly and what was not.

CMP7

We began the New Year with reviewing how to plot points on a cartesian coordinate plan. Students were tasked with creating cartoon characters called Wumps.

Using different rules, we created similar and dissimilar Wump figures.  We explored what happens to a  figure when we multiply our (x,y) coordinates by a coefficient such as (3x,3y).  We also explored  what happens to a figure when we add or subtract numbers from our coordinates like (x + 2, y - 1) We discussed what attributes a similar figure has.

Science 7th/8th

We began the week with a kick-off of our astronomy unit with a model of the Big Bang! We discussed space, time and where our solar system fits into the big picture.....what a big picture it is.  Students are being tasked with creating an astronomical timeline from the Big Bang to present day.  Students have been given a fairly dense reading assignment and will complete their timeline next week.