TA’s Notes:
Reminder that all snacks brought in for sharing need to be nut-free!
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Summer Faces: We are making a wall with photos of our Voyager students from the SUMMER 2015! Right now, we have about 8. We want to fill up the wall. No need for fancy printing, just a printed copy of a photo of your child with friends, family, on top of mountains, whatever! Thanks for encouraging your Voyager to make this happen!
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Jasmine and Kayla Cousino's uncle, Brendon Cousino, was tragically killed this summer in an auto accident, leaving behind a wife and three daughters. Many Voyager families have asked how they can support Brendon Cousino's family.
If you would like to make a donation, directly to the family, please send a check made out to Heidi Cousino and we will get the donations to the family.
There is also a gofundme set up for the family at www.gofundme.com/cousinofamily that is shareable on Facebook (gofundme and it's payment processor do take a small percentage the donation).
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Looking for Furniture Donations! Wesnak Core is looking for a couple pieces of furniture. If you have any of the following items just hanging around...we would LOVE to take them off your hands!
- A large coffee table
- Small fold-up “tray” tables
- Oversized comfy chair______________________________________________
It's time to talk up
the SPARK selections for the first session. 20 kids are signed up and we could
use another 20. Click here for the
registration form. It can also be found in the School Bell and the Enrichment
web page. Send this home to parents. Here's a list of the fantastic offerings:
Machine Sewing - Mrs. Goulette will be teaching you how to
"up-cycle" clothing from thrift stores, use a sewing machine to
create new clothing all your own style, and participate in a mini fashion show
on the last day!
Let's Go Biking with Mrs. Bartley - In this Spark session we
will review bicycle safety and rules, have fun on and off the road, using woods
behind WCS (maybe a trek to Catamount Family Center), play team building games,
both on and off our bikes. Students should bring their own bike, (a mountain
bike or hybrid only), properly adjusted helmet, closed toed shoes or sneakers, and
water bottle. We will meet at the bike racks, outside the gym doors to the
fields.
Nature Studies - Study field ecology with Mr. Dippel around
the school grounds and create a nature journal to keep track of all your wild
findings.
Computer Coding - Mr. Silber will open the door to block
coding (used for creating online games and activities) and apply those lessons
at Code.org and Scratch.
Cooking - Join Mrs. Datillio, baker extraordinaire, and
learn some new tips and tricks for baking delicious treats. Something new every
week!
Team Games with Mrs. Conry & Mr. Merrill- Teambuilding
games are a fun and active way to meet other students, build trust and learn to
work together. Do you want to meet kids from other houses, build relationships,
play games outside and have a lot of fun? Do we have the Spark Session for you!
Studio Art - In this session Ms. Baker will be helping you
create a piece of artwork in a medium that best suits your artistic passion and
needs.
3D Printing - WCS Librarian Ellen Arapakos will be taking you into the world of 3D printing through a web based application called Tinkercad. Tinkercad is easy-to-learn and you will be creating and printing your own 3D models in no time flat!
WCS 2015-16 Learning Expo/Curriculum Nights Sept. 19th 6-8pm
After school with Ms. Sherman:
The after school homework club will begin on September 8th. It will be every Tuesday and Thursday that school is in session, from 3:00-4:30. It will be facilitated this year by Jon Sines, our new house para. Mr. Sines has a background in Math and Science and is already familiar with many students as he has been a substitute teacher at WCS. Students will have access to the late bus if they need transportation home. ALL STUDENTS THAT STAY AFTER SCHOOL HAVE TO STAY UNTIL 4:30 WITH A TEACHER OR STAFF MEMBER!!!! Students are not permitted to leave early from the homework session unless their parent or guardian has come to pick them up.
The Week in Mr. Merrill’s Room (⅚ Humanities):
We started the week off with some name games in the morning and introduced the students to some important chromebook expectations. We spent some Kiva time reviewing digital citizenship and students played a game on Common Sense Media to explore some interactive digital dilemmas.
We organized our spiral notebooks for Humanities. Students should now have a Reading Response Notebook, a Humanities Notebook, and a Writer’s Notebook - all organized with tabs for specific tasks and assignments.
We also started preparing for Peace Day. Students watched a short film about the organization Peace One Day and we read about a variety of folks who have worked for peace in the world, brainstorming qualities and characteristics of these people who have sought change. Peace Day is September 21.
Students also had a 15 minute free write session, choosing from a variety of prompts to write their own story. We practiced self editing following the free write and had a short sharing session.
The Week in Ms. O’s Room (⅚ Math & Science):
Math 5 and Math 6: We have spent the week engaging in Jo Boaler’s Growth Mindset work at Stanford University. She has inspired us all with interesting brain research and tasks that demonstrate the capacity our brain has to learn math. We have been checking in with our “mathitudes” this week, to see how these challenging tasks feel, and students have demonstrated a willingness to consider that they too, might be mathematicians. I have posted these lessons and the week’s work on my google classroom account. Ask students to show you what we have done! Interested in learning more? Youcubed.org
Science ⅚ Highlights:
- Brainstorms for: What is science? What belongs in a science notebook? Why do we make our ideas public? What are the norms we will use when talking to each other?
- Roadrunner and Bugs video: Our Anchoring Phenomenon is a cartoon from your time and mine! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1kDXHvNZyE (section on the electromagnet)
- Magnet Circus: Our first taste of the science behind magnets!
The Week in Ms. Wesnak’s Room (⅞ Humanities):
Wow! Our first full week is complete! This week has been filled to the brim around excitement for our new Chromebooks, learning about what it means to be a digital citizen, and kicking off our Peace One Day unit.
This year I am starting a little weekly reflection called... “Tweet the Week”. We’ve created a real world (not digital world) Twitter board in the classroom (we may go digital later in the year). At the end of each week students are asked to “Tweet the Week” in 10 words or less. The goal of this assignment is to have table groups working together, have students consider and re-think word choice, and reflect on their week in its entirety. Their 10 word tweet needs to focused on what students have been “buzzing” about in the classroom. The added bonus of this activity is that it gives YOU the news of Wesnak Humanities straight from the source: The Students. So here we go...
Straight From the Students: TWEET the Week!
- #VoyagerDoesDigitalCompassBetter
- Finding our way with Digital Compass and chromebooks covered with stickers.
- Peace One Day introduction with videos and articles.
- Received chromebooks and used Digital Compass this week.
- Week one: got chromebooks, Digital Compass, Peace One Day movie.
- Voyager is bae! Much learned! Yes!!
- Chromebooks, Digital Compass, AND Peace One Day. OMG!
- OMG, new chromebooks, so fab!
- Be safe in the cyber world. Peace One Day. Yay!
- New Chromebooks, played Digital Compass, Peace Day movie, #sofun
I think the students have summed up our week pretty well, but here are my additions.
During our morning classes students focused their time on a game called, “Digital Compass”. This game was created by the lovely people at Common Sense Media with sponsorship from people like AT&T. The game is “choose your own adventure” and focuses on the possible real world scenarios students can encounter when using technology and having technology at their fingertips! On Friday students were asked to reflect on their learning and experience with “Digital Compass” by beginning their first graded writing assignment.
Interested in Digital Compass or perhaps playing Digital Compass? Log-in with your child here and check it out! Digital Compass Game
During the afternoon classes students created a contract for learning, and they also created student profile cards where they reflected on how they learn best, what they feel really strong in with academics, and what they feel they’d like to work on or set goals around. These profile cards were formatted to look similar to a sports trading card, so students were asked to do some kind of self-portrait on the front. As the week continued on we kicked off our Peace One Day unit by watching a TED talk, creating our own definitions for peace, reading “One Person One Powerful Idea” and beginning to watch the full, feature-length documentary titled “The Day After Peace”. The Peace One Day unit is taught throughout WCS as part of the social studies curriculum and is full of great activities, videos, readings, and mini projects.
Interested in Peace One Day? Take a look at the following links we’ve been using in class:
The Week from Ms. Q’s Room (⅞ Math & Science):
CMP7 and CMP8
This week both of my math classes took part in Mathematical Mindset Work based on several courses created by Professor Jo Boaler of Stanford University. Students watched a series of videos on such topics as:
· Messages we get about math from others and ourselves
· Fixed and Growth Mindset
· Importance of Talking about Math
· Using Drawings to Represent Math Thinking
· Using Intuition in Math Work
· Looking for Patterns and Connections to the Real World in Math
Students also had the opportunity to do a series of fun and challenging math problems that called them to talk to each other, draw representations and make connections. All of this work is part of our ongoing “Best Practice” in mathematics. It was a great way to set up our class culture for the year. Next week each of the respective classes will begin the CMP curriculum. It was a great week!
Science 7th/8th
This week began with setting up our science journals and reviewing expectations for class. Our science journals will be our “go to” for our investigations, scientific reflections, notes and general observations. Students were faced with their first engineering challenge “Captain Cork’s Descent”, a multi-step task that includes getting Captain Cork to the airspace above a drop zone and then safely landing the captain. Students were given very limited materials: cork, baggy, toilet paper roll, cardboard, rubber bands, Popsicle sticks, a push pin, brass fastener, string and 12 inches of duct tape. We began testing, building, and reviewing the physics behind falling and gliding objects. The competition will take place next week. Students will be required to connect their scientific observations, data and scientific concepts in a brief written piece next week. Readings will also be online with a website call “Birdbrain Science”. Students will have leveled readings and reflections.
