Friday, March 30, 2018

Week of March 26th - 30th

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.***

Voyager Homework Club- Tuesdays (2:00-3:30pm) and Wednesdays (3:00-4:30pm)

Thank you to all our parent volunteers & student volunteers for set-up, Sale helpers, clean-up crew, to all who donated items, all who donated concessions and everyone who helped support this fundraiser!!

The FAP Big Basket Raffle

Collections for the 18th Annual Big Basket Raffle and Silent Auction are underway!  This is one of FAPs biggest fundraisers of the year, with proceeds funding FAP programs that support all WCS and ABS students, families and staff.  Items donated by our Williston School District families will be made into beautiful themed baskets that will be raffled off at the BIG BASKET RAFFLE on Saturday, April 14th, 2018.

We ask each family to purchase and donate one (or more) item(s) that relate to your class theme:  
Mr. Merrill
GOING GREEN
Donation suggestions: reusable shopping bags, kitchen compost bucket, natural cleaning supplies, reusable lunch containers, cloth napkins, books on how to live greener, rain barrel, organic/natural packaged snacks, natural cleaning products, organic seeds, organic cotton t-shirts, gift cards to health food stores, CFL light bulbs, LED flashlight, rechargeable batteries and charger. Gift cards to businesses like Healthy Living, Natural Provisions, Trader Joes or any company with a green theme.

Ms. O’Brien
LIVE RIGHT, LET’S GET FIT
Donation suggestions: yoga mat, exercise ball, weights, water bottle, energy bar, sport drinks, jump rope, exercise video, Pilates kit, pedometer, ear buds, iPod arm band holder, reflective vest. Gift cards to businesses like Alpine Shop, Dick’s, or Fleet- Feet. Also consider Zumba Class passes or Jazzercise passes.

Ms. Quatt
GET ORGANIZED
Donation suggestions: desk top/draw organizers, photo album, plastic bins, cord organizer, list notepads, Post It pads, highlighters, compression bags, dry erase board/calendar, dry erase markers, cork board, battery organizer, organizing baskets, gift card to stores like Walmart, Home Depot, Bed Bath & Beyond, Staples

Mr. Roof
SNOW DAYS
Donation suggestions: Sleds, marshmallows & hot chocolate, face masks, hats, ear warmers, hand & toe warmers, snow gear, snow paint, gift cards to Alpine Shop.

Family contributions are voluntary, and every item, large or small, is greatly appreciated.  Price is not a factor, and all donations are anonymous. If you have more than one child in a house, it is perfectly acceptable to donate one item per family.  Students may also join together to donate a larger item.

The Basket Raffle Committee members are also out contacting local businesses for gift basket items, gift certificates, and silent auction prizes.  If you have a connection with a local business you think would be interested in supporting this school fundraiser, please contact Sarah Francisco, at sarah_francisco@hotmail.com

Spring Ultimate at HCS
For those interested, ultimate Frisbee will be offered this year as a school sponsored afterschool activity. Practice times will be Wednesday evenings from 6pm to 7pm and Friday afternoons from 2:55 to 3:55 (so students can take the late bus home). Students from other CVSD schools will be welcome on a first come first serve basis.
All practices and any home games will be at Lyman Park. Boys and girls in 5th-8th grade are welcome to sign up, but if there are overwhelming numbers this will be limited to 6th grade and up. Start date will be Wednesday April 11th, 6pm, at Lyman Park. Last practice will be Wednesday June 6th. Game schedule TBD. Participants will not be required to attend all practices. To sign up please e-mail Dan Opton at dan@blueheronbuilding.com  By April 5th .
All students wishing to participate must fill out the HCS School Sponsored Activities Family Permission Form. This is different from the Family Permission Form for HCS Athletics Form that you may have already filled out for another sport.
We are planning to have a couple of away games and we will need parents to help out with transportation, therefore participants must also fill out the Acknowledgement of Transportation Form. Both forms can also be found here on the HCS Athletics page: https://sites.google.com/cvsdvt.org/hcsathletics/home.
Deadline for getting the forms filled out is THURSDAY, APRIL 5TH, otherwise students will not be allowed to participate.

TESTING...TESTING...TESTING
Hello Voyager House Families,
During the Week April 9th Voyager House will be conducting the SBAC and Science testing.
We would GREATLY APPRECIATE that you make every effort not to schedule regular appointments during that week as all testing needs to be made up at a later time.

Also - please support your child by encouraging good sleep and healthy food/snacks/drinks.

Thanks so much parents and guardians!



The Week in Mr. Merrill’s Room (⅚ Humanities):
  • We wrapped up our narrative unit and 3DVT project in preparation for our open house on Thursday.
  • Students have spent time diving into Nightjohn and sharing their thoughts on the institution of Slavery before the Civil War.
  • To finish off this week, we’ll be focusing on narratives from former slaves taken in the 1930s to learn more about their experiences under slavery, as well as to help students compare and contrast these experiences with those of the characters we are reading about in Nightjohn.

Pics from 3D VT Competition at VT Technical College in Randolph
The Week in Ms. O’s Room (⅚ Math & Science):

Math 5:

Math 6:  

⅚ Science:




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

ELA: In English class, we focused on commonly confused words. We practiced using them correctly through website exercises and on Reading Log 27. We continued to practice our study of compound and complex sentences using independent and dependent clauses. We also took a look at some sacred texts from various religions. We read the texts, had some class discussion, and then completed short answer responses.

Social Studies: In Social Studies class, we continued our current events practice of watching CNN 10, and then writing a summary on one of the stories from the newscast. For the past few weeks, we’ve been working on incorporating a quote.

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

CMP8
This week the 8th graders had a fairly comprehensive math check-up.  As a class they did a great job and are making excellent progress on symmetry, congruence and geometric transformations.  We took a brief pause from our day-to-day to begin our geometric mandala project. Mandala is a Sanskrit word for “circle”. A mandala is a visual representation of “wholeness” and can often represent a person’s model of their universe.  Within mandalas you will see repeated patterns, symmetry and geometric transformations. Students mandalas will have the following features and be able to describe them in relation to their work:
  • Lines of symmetry
  • Rotation
  • Translation
  • Reflection
  • Dilation
They are working hard and we look forward to seeing their finished product.  
We are also preparing for SBAC tests with reviewing test taking strategies and practicing problems.

CMP7
This week 7th graders took a quick math check-up.  The class is making great strides in their learning targets.  We are taking a brief segue with a statistics project. Students are reviewing measures of center (mean, median, mode, range) and we are looking at both categorical and numerical data (qualitative and quantitative) and different forms of graphical representation.  Students will work in pairs or by themselves. Students will have to ask two related questions, one that elicits numerical data and one that is categorical. We will also look at trends and discuss the mathematical significance of our data.

Science 7th/8th

Students picked up where they left off last week from our field trip to one of Allen Brooks’ curvy turns. Our topic for the week has been weathering and erosion as we consider how water shapes our landscape. Student’s shared what they recalled from Friday as we investigated the nuances between weathering and erosion. Though not an easy task, students developed understanding of the differences through independent video research, pairing sharing, and old fashioned sandbox demonstrations. Both classes expressed what they understand about how water shapes our landscape by drawing models and expressing the processes involved while leaning on 4 key vocabulary terms in their description. The tail end of the week has been exciting as students are researching their topics for our museum exhibit next Friday morning, April 6th. The museum is tailored to younger members of our Williston community. Mr. Willis and Mrs. Martell have agreed to have their 3rd and 4th graders come visit our museum exhibits - students will have the opportunity to share what they have learned about their selected topic in a way that is engaging and interactive for younger students. Looking forward to next week and seeing what our students create!

Saturday, March 24, 2018

Week of March 12-23

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.***

Voyager Homework Club- Tuesdays (2:00-3:30 pm) and Wednesdays (3:00-4:30 pm)
Dates to Know:
March 22nd- Jump Rope Reports are emailed out to families (Marking end of Trimester 2)
March 23rd- No School (Parent/Student/Teacher Conference Day)  
Recycle Sale Drop Off 6-8pm in Cafeteria
March 24th- Voyager Recycle Sale 9am - 12 noon:  Sign up sheet HERE
Thursday, March 29th - Voyager ⅚ Open House 8:30-9:30am: Students will have personal narratives available for a reading cafe, a math statistics project, and a cell animation for our unit on the human body on display.

April 23rd- 22nd- No School (April Break)

Message from Administration:
WCS has been working in collaboration with the Spiral International organization to connect our school with schools in China.  I am excited to announce that 9 Chinese middle school students will be coming to WCS from April 1st-April 7th. WCS is seeking host families for them.  This is an incredible opportunity for our middle level students to make a personal connection with a Chinese student. The Chinese student would stay with their host family and attend school each day.  

If you are willing to host one or two Chinese students, please email Jackie Parks for more details.  jparks@cvsdvt.org  
______________________________________________________________________
Hello Incoming CVU Class of 2022,
It's hard to believe that the summer will be here before we know it and what better way to spend the summer then getting to chill with your friends while having a blast at Camp.  

The CVU Summer Camp is an exciting summer camp experience where incoming ninth graders have a chance to learn the layout of CVU and meet CVU Faculty while participating in daily activities lead by experienced upper class students. This camp will help students to grow relationships with other students from all the sending schools. Students can choose different interest groups that they will participate in new and exciting activities lead by their upper class members.  Along with fun daily activities such as tie dye, capture the flag, and karaoke battles, snacks, lunch and a camp T-shirt are included in your camp fee.  Scholarships are available upon request.

Please take some time to review our website via the links below with important info about the daily schedule, interest areas and other program information.  
Please follow the link below to register your student.


If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out!  We look forward to sharing this once in a lifetime opportunity!

"The CVU Summer Camp is amazing! It allowed me to meet so many new people that I then was able to know on my first day at CVU so it made all the difference!"  - Jensen Marrott
Rick Kinsman

CVU Summer Camp Director
Transition Coordinator, Special Services Department
Champlain Valley Union High School, CVSD
(802) 482 - 7195
_______________________________________________________________________________

Advanced Coder Camp

This new, advanced coding camp at Vermont Technical College – Williston Campus provides an opportunity for campers ages 11 - 17 with some programming background to dive deeper into programming. The camp will be held July 23-27, 2018. Campers will learn to develop simple Android applications using Java and xml.  Smartphone apps, robots, video games, small business—the world runs on code. Whether you dream of becoming a Google developer or want to launch your own mobile game startup, your coding path continues here. Cost is $150 – plus many scholarships available.
Contact: Zoe McDonald at zmacdonald@vtc.vsc.ed
Bonnie Birdsall
Digital Learning Leader
Public Information Officer

Williston Schools
Williston, Vermont

New email address: bbirdsall@cvsdvt.org
Twitter: @bonniebird


Notes from Ms. Sherman on behalf of all Voyager Teachers and Staff:

To all our Valued Voyager Parents and Guardians,

Happy Third Trimester!!! As we enter into the last stretch of school, we as Voyager teachers have been discussing what progress we would like all our students to be working towards by June. Our goal for these shifts is to give kids opportunities to become more independent with completing and managing their work, and to also give ample time for kids to be metacognitive and reflect on their collaborative skills in the classroom. With this progress in mind, there will be some shifts in our practices on house, and we wanted to make sure to provide you with information regarding these changes.  Thank you for your support, and please feel free to contact us for questions and clarification.

Schedule: On Mondays, starting on March 23, students will begin their day in core and have a check-in to see how they are doing.
Activities during this time will include →
  1. Check google classroom for completed, not completed, or not turned in assignments
  2. Check in on JumpRope
  3. Complete Google Form regarding homework completion
  4. Make a plan for completing outstanding work
  5. Students will share this completed form with their parents/guardians (Please make sure your child is sharing this with you weekly and let us know if they are not.)




New Classroom Practice with Collaboration Focus: All students in Voyager are accustomed to the use of entry and exit tasks, especially in math class. Voyager teachers will be adopting this same practice for kids to take time to reflect on their collaboration skills. This reflection work will be done a minimum of once a week and will happen when the teacher sees fit.
Below is what it will look like→
  1. Students will self assess on a defined 1-4 scale
  2. Students will write a short statement of reflection with evidence and analysis of scores
  3. Teachers will then also score everyone using the same 4 pt scale
  4. Teachers will then upload these (teacher) scores to JumpRope under Habits of Learning on a bi-weekly basis

Teacher Shift in Practices: In an effort to guide students towards more independent practice and personal responsibility for their work completion habits, Teachers will no longer be sending out Friday emails. However, if you need more information, we will do our best to meet or correspond with you regarding your questions and/or concerns.
Below are ways to help students and their families stay on top of their work→
  1. Check google classroom and JumpRope with your child regularly
  2. Talk about and review your child’s Monday Work Completion Google Form
  3. Read the Voyager Voice every week!


The Week in Mr. Merrill’s Room (⅚ Humanities):
Slavery: Mr. McElroy started his solo unit focusing on Slavery before the Civil War. Students spent time reading excerpts from slave narratives as well as viewing historical pictures of enslaved people from the years before the Civil War. Students have been reading Gary Paulsen's Nightjohn in class and have spent time comparing and contrasting the experiences of the characters in Nightjohn to the experiences of former slaves in their narratives. Thursday morning, Joan Robinson from the Flynn Theater led a supplemented activity that allowed students to revisit the Freedom Train performance they viewed last week at the Flynn.
Current Events: Students read a story and completed a post-reading activity covering main points of the article.
3DVT: Students continued their progress on their projects.



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

Math 5:

Math 6:  

⅚ Science:




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

ELA & SOCIAL STUDIES: We had an alternative type of week as so many of our students are involved in chorus and band. Their amazing concert performances occurred this week



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

CMP8
This week the 8th graders continued to explore geometric rotations and the coordinate rules that transform figures from one quadrant to another.  Along with the coordinate rules, students investigated what happens to line segments of geometric figures as we translate and rotate them.
Next week we will have an assessment on Investigation 3.  We also plan to do a brief mathematic mandala activity where students will create an image that shows multiple forms of geometric transformation.

CMP7
The 7th graders turned their attention to unit rates and how these rates can be placed into a linear equation and then graphed.  This is our first glimpse of building equations and exploring linear functions. We investigated the difference between direct variations, y = kx  and linear equations that are in the slope intercept form y= mx + b. Direct variations are a form of linear equation that crosses the y-intercept at  0,0 and the table shows x changing and y changing in proportion.
x
0
1
2
3
y
0
2
4
6
We will be having a check-up next week and will hopefully begin a survey project.


Science 7th/8th