Voyager Team Overnight Trip to Camp Hochelaga in South Hero!
Voyager House is very excited about our upcoming field trip to Camp Hochelaga in South Hero, Vermont. Camp Hochelaga is a YWCA camp that is celebrating its 100 years of operation this year! Our trip will be a three-day, two-night adventure from June 5th to June 7th. All students of Voyager House are welcome in this educational and fun opportunity. We also welcome parent chaperones to participate in this camp experience!Due to successful fundraising throughout the year through your donations to the FAP Annual Fund and Voyager Team events, there is no cost to you associated with this trip!
ACTION NEEDED ASAP: Please complete and return the following two forms to Ted Milks as soon as possible, and no later than May 17th:
Also for your review are the following linked documents:
Lastly, please note the following:
- We are asking students to leave cell phones and other electronic equipment at home. Students will have the opportunity to use teachers’ phones if needed to call home.
- Lunch on Wednesday, June 5th will not be provided by Camp Hochelaga, so we are asking everyone to pack their lunches. Refrigeration will be available. If your child gets school lunch, you will have the option to get a bag lunch from the cafeteria
- We are asking students to leave cell phones and other electronic equipment at home. Students will have the opportunity to use teachers’ phones if needed to call home.
- Lunch on Wednesday, June 5th will not be provided by Camp Hochelaga, so we are asking everyone to pack their lunches. Refrigeration will be available. If your child gets school lunch, you will have the option to get a bag lunch from the cafeteria
Two Special Guests from CVU - Socks Needed
This Friday, May 17th, we have two special guests from CVU coming to talk to us about the problems of homeless immigrants. They are holding a sock drive and would love if students could bring new socks into school on Friday for them. There will be a prize for everyone who brings in a pair of socks. The socks can be kids, women, or men's socks.Raffle to benefit the Ronald McDonald House
Hello Everyone, my name is Addi Hunter and I am an eighth grader. During the week of May 6th, I will be having a raffle to benefit the Ronald McDonald House. Some of the raffle prizes are coupons for a pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream and homework passes. Raffles tickets are 1 for $1, 3 for $2, and 8 for $5. You can also get a raffle ticket by donating an item on the wish list. All the money from the raffle will go toward buying supplies on their wish list. Please remind your kids to bring in some money to help or an item on the wish list.Here is the wish list:
- Mr. Clean Magic Erasers
- Toilet Bowl Cleaner
- Liquid Dishwasher Soap (no pods)
- To Go Coffee Cups with Lids
- HE Laundry Detergent
- Juice Boxes
- Ind. Packets of Sugar
- Regular Coffee pods
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!
2019 CVU Spring Social Dance for 8th Graders
With cooperation from all the CVSD middle schools, CVU is proud to announce the 4th Annual “Spring Social,” an event meant to bring together the CVU Class of 2023 before the end of eighth grade. Click here for more information.
FAP’s Annual Fund Needs Your Help
Click here to learn more.
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!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ACADEMIC UPDATES
A Note from Ms. Sherman:
7/8 Field Trip: We are excited to announce that we will be able to offer a 7/8 field trip on May 24th; an excursion in Burlington! We are looking for 3-4 parent chaperones to help us make this trip a great adventure! Forms for the trip will go out soon, but 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
CMP8
We began the week exploring polynomials, monomials, binomials and understanding their order. Learning how to manipulate these terms will lay the groundwork for working with quadratic functions. We also learned the F.O.I.L. method for multiplying binomials. We began a new book called "Frogs, Fleas and Painted Cubes," which investigates quadratic equations, their tables, graphs, and equations. Quadratic functions form parabolas.
CMP7
This week we finished up with Comparing and Scaling with a review, creating class records, and finally taking the unit test. We began our new book called "Moving Straight Ahead," a unit on linear functions.
Science 7th/8th
This week we began our Microscopic Creature Safari. The underlying mission was to explore single-celled and small multi-cellular creatures and what role they play in the ecosystem. We looked at paramecium, euglena, stentor, spirostonum, water bears and others and observed how they moved and interacted with their environment. We will continue to explore these creatures and others as we investigate how energy flows through the ecosystem.
Euglena Tardigrade
When we look at the mobiles above, the can make statements like:
The lefthand mobile has a triangle that weighs more (or has a greater value) then the square.
Or
For the righthand mobile, one triangle is equal to 3 squares and a circle.
Seems easy until we begin to search for the value of the triangles and other shapes, and how to solve for unknown values.
It may all seem confusing in the way I describe it, but perhaps you just learned a thing or two!
Math 5: We graduated from finding a fraction of a whole number to seeing these kinds of problems as fraction multiplication. So a problem like ⅔ x 4, can be interpreted as ⅔ of 4 or ⅔ + ⅔ + ⅔ + ⅔ . We used this sense-making to then solve problems in context. Students are starting to explore the algorithm for multiplying fractions, numerator x numerator, then denominator x denominator. We also dipped back into whole number multiplication and division for practice and addition and subtraction of fractions.
Science 5/6: It was trout week! We began out week with some review of fish anatomy and did a Japanese Fish Print of a brook trout (using a mold). We also made stained glass trout and dragonfly nymphs. Mr. Merrill spent time making lures and learning how to cast! We then spent long block science in the stream searching for the macroinvertebrates. It was a great day!
Today we went to the Lewis Creek in Starksboro and released our fish. Unfortunately, we missed our fishing trip to Lake Iroquois due to weather. We will have a chance to fish at Camp Hochelega.
We began the week exploring polynomials, monomials, binomials and understanding their order. Learning how to manipulate these terms will lay the groundwork for working with quadratic functions. We also learned the F.O.I.L. method for multiplying binomials. We began a new book called "Frogs, Fleas and Painted Cubes," which investigates quadratic equations, their tables, graphs, and equations. Quadratic functions form parabolas.
CMP7
This week we finished up with Comparing and Scaling with a review, creating class records, and finally taking the unit test. We began our new book called "Moving Straight Ahead," a unit on linear functions.
Science 7th/8th
This week we began our Microscopic Creature Safari. The underlying mission was to explore single-celled and small multi-cellular creatures and what role they play in the ecosystem. We looked at paramecium, euglena, stentor, spirostonum, water bears and others and observed how they moved and interacted with their environment. We will continue to explore these creatures and others as we investigate how energy flows through the ecosystem.
Paramecium Stentor Spirostonum
Mr. Merrill - 5&6 Humanities:
Trout week classroom activities:
- Fishing short story read alouds
- Researching and presenting on information found in the Vermont Angler’s Pocket Guide
- Knot tying
- Casting practice and competition
- Vermont Fishing Guide and Regulations Scavenger Hunt
Mr. Roof - 7&8 Humanities:
This week, we began our independent reading of Holocaust literature. Students are reading The Book Thief, Survivor's Club, The Devil's Arithmetic, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, or Milkweed. As we finish up WWII, we will look at major events from the Holocaust and use our books to help us understand and expand our learning. For WWII, we examined the major factors that led to the Nazi state. These included the use of propaganda, radio broadcasts, creation of the the Hitler Youth, formation of the Gestapo, the scapegoating of Jews, and the implementation of Fascism. We read and researched each of these and then responded to prompts. In grammar this week, we continued our study and practice of using commas to separate clauses and phrases. Additionally, in our afternoon classes we worked hard to research and create arguments for and against three student generated topics. These argument outlines will next be used in debates.
Ms. O’Brien
Math 6: What a great week! My favorite math of the year is here, when students who struggle with computational math can relax and just focus on relationships! Our math this week included more investigations with numbers and letters, with a primary focus on writing equations that represent real world situations. Students looked at problems like:
Write an expression that would allow you to find the perimeter of a rectangle if the length is 5 units longer than the width.
In this example students need to understand a number of things. They need to know how to find the perimeter of a rectangle. They also need to understand how to assign variables to unknown. And we have a constant, 5 units, that must be considered. The great thing about this kind of problem is that there is more than one correct expression to describe the relationships and so students enter at a level that makes sense to them. They can use two letters, l and w, to represent length and width. They can also use one letter, say w, and create that expression based on the relationship with the other dimension. So width becomes w and the length becomes w+5. They can also use multiplication or repeated addition, both of which can be used when interpreting this expression.
We also began looking at mobiles, called hangers in the curriculum. So when we look at hangers like the ones below, we can begin to relate the left side to the right. Good understanding when we get to balancing equations, finding values for variables and graphing equalities and inequalities.
The lefthand mobile has a triangle that weighs more (or has a greater value) then the square.
Or
For the righthand mobile, one triangle is equal to 3 squares and a circle.
Seems easy until we begin to search for the value of the triangles and other shapes, and how to solve for unknown values.
It may all seem confusing in the way I describe it, but perhaps you just learned a thing or two!
Math 5: We graduated from finding a fraction of a whole number to seeing these kinds of problems as fraction multiplication. So a problem like ⅔ x 4, can be interpreted as ⅔ of 4 or ⅔ + ⅔ + ⅔ + ⅔ . We used this sense-making to then solve problems in context. Students are starting to explore the algorithm for multiplying fractions, numerator x numerator, then denominator x denominator. We also dipped back into whole number multiplication and division for practice and addition and subtraction of fractions.
Science 5/6: It was trout week! We began out week with some review of fish anatomy and did a Japanese Fish Print of a brook trout (using a mold). We also made stained glass trout and dragonfly nymphs. Mr. Merrill spent time making lures and learning how to cast! We then spent long block science in the stream searching for the macroinvertebrates. It was a great day!
Today we went to the Lewis Creek in Starksboro and released our fish. Unfortunately, we missed our fishing trip to Lake Iroquois due to weather. We will have a chance to fish at Camp Hochelega.
No comments:
Post a Comment