Please visit the Voyager Web Site to keep in touch with what’s happening in Voyager this year.
5/6 Lake Champlain Maritime Museum Field Trip
Thursday, May 30. We will be studying Revolutionary War events that occurred on Lake Champlain. Please dress for the weather and bring a bagged lunch, snack, and a water bottle. We will return by the end of the school day.- Chaperones Needed! - Please contact Ted Milks (tmilks@cvsdvt.org) or Aron Merrill (amerrill@cvsdvt.org) as soon as possible if you can be a parent chaperone for the trip.
2018-2019 Parent Satisfaction Survey
Please take a few minutes to provide us with feedback on ways you feel we can enhance the education of your children by filling out the 2018-2019 Parent Satisfaction Survey. You can access the survey by clicking on the following link or on our web site:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/1819ParentSatisfactionSurvey
If you are having trouble accessing the link please contact Liz Neeld at lneeld@cvsdvt.org.
To Parents of 7th Grade Students
The families of 8th graders need you! Each year parents of 7th graders help with the graduation reception at WCS. We need help setting up food, serving and cleaning up. Providing this help allows families of 8th graders to focus on celebrating their children and this milestone. Graduation is on June 13 and the reception is held in either the WCS Courtyard or the Cafeteria, depending on the weather. We are seeking help between 6:30pm and 9:00pm.Please use the sign up below or email Shelley at shellcore@comcast.net with questions.
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0544AFA72EAA8-help
Cell Phone Use
Please refrain from texting your child during the day. If you need to communicate a message to your child, please contact Ted Milks (tmilks@cvsdvt.org; 871-6148) and the Core Teacher. If your child does receive a text from you, please do not expect a response until the end of the school day. - Thank You!
Absent Student? Appointment? Change in Bus ride home?
- Please email tmilks@cvsdvt.org and your core teacher if your student will be absent, needs to be picked up during the day for an appointment, or will ride a different bus home. Core teacher emails are:
Please do not bring in food to share. We have many food restrictions on house. Thanks!
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IMPORTANT LINKS
- Student Assistant Professional (SAP) - https://spark.adobe.com/page/ssMYvqB70CDFQ/
- WCS Athletics - Click this link to the website to view all information regarding the WCS Athletics program.
Voyager House Learning Tools for teachers, students, and parents
- Google Site - an important site for regular communication coming from Voyager. This site will be modified weekly and should be bookmarked on your desktop or laptop. This site contains a link to weekly academic summaries as well as important upcoming events. https://sites.google.com/cvsdvt.org/voyagerhouse/home
- Google Classroom - an online planner platform where students can check on daily assignments. This is in lieu of a paper planner. Just ask your child to log in using his/her email. It is important to know that this is not an assessment database. We do not check completion of the assignment on this platform. However, we do ask that YOUR CHILD press the button MARK AS DONE when an assignment is completed. This will make it easy for you and your child to discuss completion of work.
- Google Mail - an email system used by Williston Central School. All students have an email account and students use it regularly to communicate with peers around collaborative work and project-based learning. This is a great way for teachers to communicate with students and a great way for students to get reminders about assignments from Google Classroom.
- Jumprope - an online platform for assessment of the targets. Students can view weekly or biweekly his/her achievement on the targets by logging in using his/her email and a password. This password was emailed to each student in a letter last week. *Habits of Learning, like homework completion and collaborative learning skills will be posted on a biweekly schedule. This is where you CAN SEE whether your child is in good standing on daily assignments. https://nyc.jumpro.pe/login/
- Protean - an online Personalized Learning Plan (PLP) platform used primarily at this point by 7th and 8th graders. ⅚ students may post executive function skills reflections, personal interest projects, and other measures of growth and reflection after 1st trimester. https://app.protean.me/index.html
- IXL - a program that supports students on math and language arts skills. https://www.ixl.com/signin
- Moby Max - a math program used by ⅚ math students to build computational fluency and fill gaps in understanding on major concepts. Students have a username and password for this program.
- Typing Club - a program used by the ⅚ humanities students to build typing skills.
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ACADEMIC UPDATES
A Note from Ms. Sherman
7/8 Field Trip: Our 7/8 field trip excursion in Burlington and boat ride on The Spirit of Ethan Allen has been rescheduled for Monday, June 3rd! We are looking for 3-4 parent chaperones to help us make this trip a great adventure! If interested, please let Ted Milks know by email at tmilks@cvsdvt.org.HOMEWORK CLUB: We will continue to have HW club for the next few weeks. Our last day of HW club will be on May 30th as long as kids are still attending. If we have sessions without attendance will cancel the remainder of HW club sessions.
Ms. Quatt- Math/Science
CMP8This week the 8th graders continued to explore quadratic functions. We discovered the landmarks found in factored and expanded forms, we developed a method for finding the line of symmetry and the vertex of a parabola. We also learned a methodology for finding the quadratic equation from any table. Students are showing some grit as we work through some of these challenging math concepts.
CMP7
The 7th graders are beginning to understand the basics of linear functions, how to graph them, create equations from tables and create tables from equations. We are learning to solve one and two-step algebra problems and how you can tell if a table represents a proportional relationship. We investigated linear equations, y = mx and y=mx + b. We ended the week with a snappy investigation with rubber band shooting.
Science
The big question we were investigating this week was: How does the structure or form of an object give us a understanding of its function? We returned to our microscopes to look at mosquito mouth parts, feathers, animal fur and many other specimens to make observations about their structure up close. Students then conjectured on their function. We ended the week with looking a cheek cells and comparing them with plant cells.
Cheek cell Onion cell
Mr. Merrill - 5/6 Humanities:
Narrative Writing: Students continued to work on their historical fiction narratives. We worked on using dialogue and building tension in our stories using descriptive writing techniques.
History: We focused on the Champlain Valley and the battle to control the lake from the mid 1600’s to the French and Indian War. Students used a blank map of the lake to locate where forts were built during that time frame. Students learned that the lake was an important highway for moving armies, and would determine who would control the region.
We then mapped North America, color coding the territory the British controlled after defeating the French. Next week we will pick up where Ms. Drasler left off on the Revolutionary War.
Mr. Roof - 7&8 Humanities:
This week, we continued our study of "turning point" battles of World War II. The Battle of Midway and D-Day were the focus. Students worked to complete graphic organizers using primary sources from the battle of Midway, including photographs, memos, radio broadcasts, and letters. Next, we looked at D-Day. Students used video, articles, and class discussion. We also set up a simulation of a typical Normandy beach in the classroom and then discussed strategies used and actions taken on D-Day.
As a class, we read about Operation Overlord, which D-Day was a part of, and then completed short answer questions in response. Mostly in PM classes, students wrote final drafts of argument essays. The topic was recent tension between Iran and the United States. Students chose claims/thesis statements and then wrote five paragraph essays, including reasons, evidence, and counter-claims. Additionally, students continued making progress with their holocaust literature as their independent silent reading. Finally, 8th graders took the spring DRP on Tuesday.
Ms. O’Brien
Math 5 Highlights
We reviewed and prepared for our unit assessment on fraction operations, but were unable to complete the test. We stole from math on Friday to complete the Science SBAC test. Students will complete their math assessment on Tuesday.
Math 6 Highlights
Students have done a really nice job with the last of the algebra concepts we learned, understanding, writing, and graphing inequalities. Students also spent Thursday’s class taking the final assessment of the year. I did not see students Friday, due to SBAC testing for Grade 5.
Science 5/6
Students received a new project packet this week, called Rube Goldberg and Energy Transfer. This packet outlines a project that will take us through the end of the year and the goal is to build a Rube Goldberg mechanism, a model of energy transfer, to demonstrate understanding of engineering principles, energy concepts, and an ability to collaborate! The students would love to pick your brain for innovative ways to transfer energy. We have discussed energy transfers and energy transformations so that they can consider the criteria when building the mechanism. We studied Rube Goldberg cartoons, ones written by the actual Reuben Goldberg in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, to learn about the mechanisms he portrayed (which later were named after him). We have also watched several videos, from the Goonies, to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, to Back to the Future, as well as a couple of really wild videos online, that show the sophisticated nature of Rube Goldbergs, mechanisms designed to complete a simple task in the most wild of ways!
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