Week of September 19th - 23rd

TA’s Notes:

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

From Adam’s Apple Orchard:

Voyager students picked apples to donate to the Williston Food Shelf.

Dates to Remember:

• Wednesday, Sept 28th: WCS Picture Day (Order forms were put in students cubbies!)

***8th Grade Families***

Saturday, October 15th from 8am - 11am at WCS will be the first 8th Grade Trip Fundraiser, a Pancake Breakfast & Touch-A-Truck Event

8th grader students and families are needed as volunteers for this fundraising event in order to keep trip cost low or none!!  More info to follow- mark your calendar to volunteer and/or attend this event.

Voyager House Homework Club

Voyager House Homework Club started Thursday, September 22nd and continues every Tuesday from 2:00 - 3:30 and on Thursday from 3:00-4:30. Students will be able to take the activities bus home both days, which will leave at 4:30 on Thursdays and 3:30 on Tuesdays.  Homework Club is available to any student who would benefit from supervision and support while completing homework after school.  Stride Paraeducator, Jeff Merchia, will be in charge of the club.

Additional Support

Ms. O'Brien will be available by request for after school support on Mondays, 3-4pm.

Mr. Merrill will be available by request for after school support on Wednesdays, 3-4pm.

Please let us know ahead of time if your student will be staying after school for additional support.

Thank you!

Intergen Reading Program / A Monthly Book Group

What is it? FAP teams up with the Dorothy Alling Memorial Library to sponsor a fun book group that brings together WCS middle school students, seniors from our community and parent volunteers. Each book group will read and discuss 5 books over the course of the school year.

When? The program will kick-off in October with a “Get Acquainted” luncheon. The book groups will then meet during school hours once a month to discuss books in a relaxed and fun setting.

If your 5th-8th grade child is interested in being considered for this program, please register using this online link: https://goo.gl/forms/Zh0yJatqFE874oXH2

Google Classroom - Do I need a Gmail address to be invited?

No! You can use your current email address to receive an invitation. You will need to create a Google Account to accept the invitation, but you can do so with your existing email address. Learn more about invitations for Classroom guardian email summaries.

Do I need a Google Account to receive email summaries?

For security reasons, you need a Google Account to receive email summaries from Classroom. You don’t need Gmail to create the account—you can create a Google Account with your current email address. A Google Account allows you to set the frequency of your emails, update your locale, and view all students connected to your account.  Learn more about invitations for Classroom guardian email summaries.

So, those parents with Comcast, Yahoo, MSN, or other email addresses beside gmail.com will need to follow the steps above. It's a security measure.

Read more at the link to FAQs for this feature.

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

We finished the book,  A Long Walk to Water this week. Ask your student about how the two stories and main characters, Nya and Salva, came together at the end. Before and after our read aloud time, students added new information and thoughts to their character maps and diagrams.

We also added more vocabulary to our Tier 2 word lists. Many students have already filled up the Read Aloud section of their Reading Response Notebook. To wrap up the week, we watched the documentary, Just Add Water (https://vimeo.com/19003538) and student started to brainstorm ideas on how to help Salva’s non profit organization - Water for Sudan.

We also introduced our Election 2016 vocabulary list. Students made word maps and we performed our new vocabulary by playing “Overheard Conversations”. In this activity, students work in small groups to perform a word, without saying the word. The audience then tries to guess which word they are performing. Finally, we looked at all of the candidates this year, and students selected a candidate to make a campaign poster of to put on display for our upcoming candidate forum.

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

Math 5:  Highlights this week:

• Learned about what makes a rectangular prism.
• Discussed strategies for finding the volume of a rectangular prism.
• Discussed surface area.
• Generated claims about volume and surface area of rectangular prisms.
• Used ipads to “peel off” our surface area for our prisms and make visual models
• Did lots of talking with each other!
• Took a numerical expressions check up, to see where we are at with mental math following our work on problem strings (a series of related problems that lead to a distinct in your head strategy for multiplication eg. doubling one number and halving the other keep the product the same).
• Revisited properties of numbers by playing the Multiple Game.

Math 6: Highlights this week:

• Solidified the meaning of the word ratio and revisited the relationship between ratios and comparative statements
• Talked a lot about the differences between fractional thinking and ratio thinking
• Lots of talk in the classroom, turn and talk, turn and talk and on and on
• Began discussions on unit rate, a ratio in which one of the numbers is a 1.
• Talked about that fact that every ratio has two unit rates.

Science ⅚:  In case you haven’t heard...we began our ecology work this year by viewing two satellite images of a place in the Amazon rainforest, one from 1975 and the other from 2012.  The purpose of this launch, was to encourage the scientific process of wondering, what happened to this place and why has this happened?  Because the most shocking part of the images had to do with the color green (plants), we began a learning sequence on plants.  Why are they so important?  As part of this, I introduced four new science terms this week, all in the context of learning activities that kids could relate to.  We talked about what ecologists are and why they do what they do, allowing opportunities for a discussion about biotic and abiotic factors in an ecosystem.  We are using the outdoor classroom every day to dig at these concepts.   As we moved through the week, I introduced the term, biodiversity, as a way to begin discussions about why do ecologists want to know how biodiverse a place is? What does it tell us about that place?  We ended our week outside, engaging in a field study on the river trail of the Allen Brook (along the bike path).  Students were assigned a plot in which they were mapping the organisms living in the plot.  Without the need to name things, student used symbols to represent all the different organisms present in the plot. We had two woodland plots, a grassy field plot, two riverine plots, and one outer margin plot between the river and the rec fields.  A good practice for our little ecologists.  See photos below.

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

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

CMP8

We began the week looking at scatter plots with the focus of trying to find a model that would fit the data.  We have been fine tuning our idea of how to construct a line of best fit that is more true to the trend.  We learned how to calculate residuals which is the error calculated from the actual data and your model.  It is interesting, detailed work that is stretching their understanding of linear equations.

CMP7

We made some great strides this week with our question of how you can find the internal sum of any sided regular polygon.  Two equations were floated by several students (n * 180) - 360 or (n-2) * 180. (n= number of sides of a polygon) We did some moving in class with rotational angles 180’s, 360’s, 540’s and we learned how to use benchmark angles (45, 90, 180) to help us estimate angle rotation.  We continued to practice using protractors to construct and measure angles and to label them correctly.

Science 7th/8th

We continued our cart and ramp experiment with mass, force and speed.  Students showed grit as they had to redo tests that were skewed or improperly done. It was certainly a learning curve utilizing our new Vernier force probes.  This Force and Motion Lab will be the first graded assignment for the term. The Next Generation Science Standard that this lab addressed was to construct and interpret graphical data to describe relationships of kinetic energy to mass and speed of an object. The learning targets that this lab will address are:

1. When given a testable question, I can plan an investigation, including necessary controls, constants and clear procedures, which yield sufficient evidence to define the relationship between one set of variables.
2. When given data with multiple variables, I can write a summary that describes one relationship and uses evidence to support that relationship.
3. When given a set of data with multiple independent or dependent variables I can create a clear and accurate graph that best represents the data.

The final product will be collected next week.

Week of Sept 12th - 16th

TA’s Notes:

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

Dates to Remember:

• Thursday, Sept 22nd: Grades 5-8 Curriculum Night, Learning Expo & Parent Assembly

    6:30pm - 7:00pm Parent Assembly in Auditorium

    7:00pm - 8:00pm Curriculum presentations on house

    8:00pm - 8:30pm Learning Expo in lobby & dining room

• Wednesday, Sept 28th: WCS Picture Day (Order forms were put in students cubbies!)

***8th Grade Families***

Saturday, October 15th from 8am - 11am at WCS will be the first 8th Grade Trip Fundraiser, a Pancake Breakfast & Touch-A-Truck Event

8th grader students and families are needed as volunteers for this fundraising event in order to keep trip cost low or none!!  More info to follow- mark your calendar to volunteer and/or attend this event.

Permission Slip for walking field trip to Adam’s Apple Orchard and Farm Market is due back Monday, Sept 19th.  Field trip form Here

A Note from Ms. Sherman:

INTEREST SPARK IS STARTING!!!!!

Interest Spark is a free after school program facilitated by teachers and staff. Every session is different with exciting new offerings. There is still time and room to sign up for this session of Spark! THIS SESSION…...two of your very own Voyager teachers are running their own Spark classes: Mr. Merrill is doing Outdoor fun and games with a focus on team-building and I’m doing Floral Work and Natural Art. The sessions meet on most Thursdays from 3:00-4:30. There is also a late bus which leaves at about 4:35. So, transportation is provided to those that need it. Come join us! It's a great way to learn something new and develop  new relationships with peers from other houses and get to know new adults around the school. If you would like more information or the link to register, please contact Julie Rogers at: jrogers@cssu.org We

look forward to seeing you in one of our groups or enjoying another offering. Spread the

Word!!!!

Google Classroom:

We are using Google Classroom to post announcements, questions, assignments, work completion, and scores. The parent notification system in Google Classroom lacks the detail of our past system. In order for parents to see everything that their student is doing, including assignment expectations and scores, parents will need to use their students log in to access all the information available.  Please spend some time each week with your child looking over their Google Classroom site.

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

We continued our read aloud of A Long Walk to Water. Students added character maps, a venn diagram comparing life in Sudan to life in the US, tier 2 words, and word maps to their reading response notebooks. The hardships that our main characters faced are astonishing. Ask your student about Nya and Salva and each of their stories.

We also started our preparation for the WCS Candidate Forum. Students will be learning about the candidates, offices, and issues of the 2016 election. We brainstormed about the upcoming election, researched the elected offices of Vermont, and read an article about the presidential candidates. We will be doing more research and starting a candidate poster project next week.

Scholastic Reading Club - If you would like to use the Scholastic Book Club Flyer to order books for your student (flyers are in student mailboxes), my Class Code is: M3MYC

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

Math 5:  This week began with our first investigation in the Bridges 5th Grade Program, called the Product Game.  It was a great reminder of where students have been in 4th grade...the land of multiplication.  The game, similar to Connect 4, challenges students to use their understanding of factors and products to get four chips in a row.  Very good reminder of factors and products, and multiplication.  Lots of competition in the room!  We then moved right into work on rectangular prism, their dimensions, and the relationship to volume.  This allowed us to continue working on multiplication, except this moved us from 2 factors to 3.  The problem, Brad’s Baseball Shop, will be the context of our next few days of learning.  Ask your 5th grader about the work they did to help Brad ship baseballs.

Math 6:  Solidly in our first unit of Comparing Bits and Pieces, students are working on fundamental understanding of ratios.  We began the week by looking at the context of our 5 days of learning:  a fundraiser for groups of students in a school.  The work we did this week went beyond just observing fractions of the goal met thus far, but on comparing one group’s fundraising goals and progress to another group’s goals and progress.  When you compare progress within a group to comparing one group to another, you are thinking in fractions and ratios.   This is hard work!  Students thinking in ratios is moving toward proportional reasoning, a late 7th and 8th grade skill.  Please know that if your child is expressing confusion, we are aware of it.  Lots of exit tasks each week help us to assess and remediate in the moment.  

⅚ Science: Our first days of science this week were filled with color, pattern, and design!  Students choice a pattern in nature that they found beautiful interesting or puzzling, to sketch on canvas and paint.  Some wondered why we were doing this to launch the year and our unit in Ecology.  Students learned to look closely at something they saw, a phenomenon, and try to capture the characteristics of that pattern (as a close observer), so that they could wonder, question, claim about why things are the way they are.  Some patterns, like ripples in sand, may be caused by the forces of wind or water.  The pattern has no purpose; it is a result of a force.  Whereas, the patterns on a zebra truly allow for survival of individuals and a group, a very purposeful adaptation of nature.  So...looking closely at something helps to bring meaning.

We then sat for five minutes, eyes closed or opened, and listened, looked, breathed.  Corny right?  Well after a 2-3 minute reflection, you would have been moved to tears.  What taking a moment of time does for us in life, right?  This then led us to our anchoring phenomenon, two side by side photos of the same place over a 37 year period.  What happened and why has that happened?  We wrote questions about the changes, what we would need to know more about, etc. in order to drive some purpose to finding out about the 37 year photographic mystery.  This will help us dive right into plants and their importance to the Earth.

Important Note: During the long block science period, next Thursday (Merrill) and Friday (O’Brien), your child will be doing a plant investigation along the nature trail just off the rec field pathway.  We will be there for the entire 90 minute block, right up until the end of the day.  If you want to join us, feel free.  If you have to pick up early, please let Katie know by Tuesday.  That way we can have someone available to walk them back.  We will go rain or shine.  Watch the weather for help with clothing choices.  It will be a dirty day, so no fashion is all the fashion on this field day.

The Week in Mr. G’s Room:

This week in Humanities we began reading books voted on by each class. 7th grade chose The Great Wide Sea, and 8th grade chose And Then There Were None. We discussed Natural Rights and the responsibilities of individuals toward society. In the afternoon we focused on close reading preparatory material for a constitutional debate. We also began work on Personal Learning Plans and took a Briggs-Myer Personality test.

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

CMP8

We had some “aha” moments in class this week! It is moments like these that make you stop and celebrate.  This week we began looking at linear and nonlinear functions using paper bridge experiments from our “Thinking with Mathematical Models” book. In the midst of all of these tests we looked at our scatterplots and created “best fit” lines.  A best fit line is a line that captures the trend in data of a scatterplot. A single student had an epiphany that a linear equation could be derived by any two points on a line, a second one chimed in that it is just the ratio of any two points on the line and a third chimed in that finding the ratio of the rise/run finally made sense.  It was like an alignment of planets and we celebrated it!   We will continue to explore non-linear models next week.  

CMP7

This week we began by exploring polygons and the common properties they have.  We looked at regular polygons, triangles and quadrilaterals.   We learned how to utilize protractors to find the sum of the internal angles of shapes.  We also practiced constructing geometric figures.

Science 7th/8th

We began our unit this week with engineering a device that creates a sound like a bee.

This device, when quickly swung in a circle, creates the buzzing. Students needed to come to a consensus about changing one variable and hypothesize what would happen and why.  Students placed holes in the paper, changed the dimensions of the paper, changed the rubber band, shortened the string and changed the type of paper used.  Each experiment had its own outcome.  Most importantly students learned about the engineering/experimental design process.

We also starting working on our motion and forces unit by investigating the question. What is a force and what forces are acting on us?  We had the opportunity to utilize our new Vernier Dual Force Sensors to investigate the relationship between force and mass.  We used carts, weights and ramps to carry out a series of experiments.  We also took an online reading check-up  to see how we understood our science reading.  It was very informative to see what students had understood from the reading and I learned how to Google Forms.

Week of September 5th - 9th

TA’s Notes:

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

Grades 5-8 Curriculum Night, Learning Expo & Parent Assembly

Thursday, Sept. 22nd

• 6:30 - 7:00 PM Parent Assembly in Auditorium (Jump Rope & PLPs)
• 7:00-8:00 PM Curriculum presentations on house
• 8:00 - 8:30 PM Learning Expo in lobby and dining room

SPARK Enrichment After School ~ Session I

The first session of Spark Enrichment, an after-school applied learning program for students in grades 5-8, starts September 15th and ends October 13th. These small group classes will be facilitated by school faculty and staff. Please access the link to the sign-up form below by September 13th.

Sign-up form

More info, workshop options

Continental Math League information as well as the registration link went in the School Bell last week. Click here for the registration link. Click here for the informational article that is in the School Bell.

Homework Club

The Voyager House Homework Club will be starting soon.  Homework Club allows students to stay after to complete work with teacher help. We will announce to students and post the starting date in the Voice once we have the after-school teachers ready to go.

Google Classroom "Summaries for Guardians"

As many of you know, Voyager teachers will now be posting all assignments on Google Classroom, whether or not they are turned in by hand or on paper.  We now have the ability to provide parents and guardians with Google Classroom updates!  You can choose to receive either daily or weekly e-mail summaries of your child's assignments and whether or not any assignments are owed.  You may also opt out of e-mail updates if you wish.  We will be sending out invitations next week.  When we do so, you will receive an e-mail from Google Classroom prompting you for your preferences.   See further details and an example summary here.

Intergen Reading Program / A Monthly Book Group

What is it? FAP teams up with the Dorothy Alling Memorial Library to sponsor a fun book group that brings together WCS middle school students, seniors from our community and parent volunteers. Each book group will read and discuss 6 books over the course of the school year. When? The program will kick-off in October with a “Get Acquainted” luncheon. The book groups will then meet during school hours once a month to discuss books in a relaxed and fun setting. If your 5th-8th grade child is interested in being considered for this program, please register by Wednesday, September 14th using this online link.

WiSH

The WCS Leadership Committee completed work to minimize schedule interruptions and the implementation of the early release day on Tuesdays, the following changes will happen for the WiSH program:

• Students will not sign up for "WiSH" activities through a school counselor.
• Student participation in being a teacher/classroom helper will now be a part of a student's PLP, specifically a personal goal. This will enable core teachers to better manage which students can participate and miss time from classes, monitor progress, and allow students a formal way to provide some reflection on their work.
• Participation and work assignments will be made during their PLP advisory time with their core teacher.
• Students will continue to initiate work placements with elementary classroom teachers on their own.
• Their will not be transportation to ABS due to the early release day on Tuesdays and not wanting students to miss additional school time.

Welcome to Voyager Interns!  Here is an introduction from Mr. Menke and Mr. Maika!

Dean Menke is an intern with Colleen O’Brien as he works for his teaching license for 5th-12th grade Science and Math.  He comes to the classroom with over 20 years of experience in successful and rewarding careers as an engineer, environmental advocate, and baker. After living overseas in East Timor and Tonga, Dean and his wife Patti moved to Vermont to experience ‘the good life’ of the Green Mountains.  They now enjoy their little slice of paradise with their son, Henry, on the Huntington River.  He and his family love to travel.  When at home, they enjoy gardening, beekeeping, raising ducks and chickens, biking, skiing, and being outside for any reason.  Dean is most excited about engaging kids with hands-on, experiential opportunities...hopefully outside.  

David Maika is Aron Merrill’s intern for grades 5 and 6 Social Studies.  He is in the MAT program at UVM working towards licensure in Middle Level Social Studies.  He has studied History at the University of Hawaii for 7 years specializing in Pacific and European History.  Born and raised in Hawaii David met his wife Sarah (born and raised in Hinesburg) in a glass-blowing class at the University of Hawaii.  They now live in Hinesburg.  David looks forward to working under Aron this year and learning all he can.  He is also very excited to be working with the 5th and 6th graders of Voyager House!

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

We prepared some of our classroom materials this week. Students labeled binder dividers, turned spiral notebooks into a reading response notebook, and transformed a composition book into a writer’s notebook which they used to complete their first free write.

We also started our first book - A Long Walk to Water. A theme that we will be exploring in the book is government and the role it plays in our lives. Students sketched the cover of the book into their response notebooks and completed some sentence starters. They also did a quick outline map of Africa and South Sudan and made a list of new vocabulary words from the book. We then thought about and talked about government, defined democracy and noted that we would be comparing our government to the situation in Sudan. We read the first chapter of the book and will be continuing our read aloud on Monday during Reading Cafe.

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

Math 5 and 6:  5th and 6th graders did some math growth mindset work this week care of a great online learning system called You Cubed.  Click here if you are interested in the youcubed website:  https://www.youcubed.org/  .  Specifically we worked on how the brain learns and grows and then we together worked through three problems:  The first was a DOT pattern; The second was a hailstone sequence of numbers ; the third was a painted cube.  Kids learned about just how amazing they are as individuals and as a group when we shared strategies for the solutions.  Students are building great habits of interaction, by working on their own, then talking about their thinking with others, and then presenting ideas in front of the group.  This is hard to do, but most everyone has contributed out loud this week!  

⅚ Science:  We began our Energy, Ecology and Us unit this week by reflecting back on the work done by 6th graders this summer. 6th Graders were asked to take some photos of mathematical patterns in nature so that we could investigate those patterns our first weeks of school.  In addition we looked at photographs of bee hives, wind erosion patterns in sands, and peacock feathers as a way to ask the question, why are things in nature the way they are?  Patterns, it turns out, are critical for mating, survival, and function, among other things, and this was a new discovery for us! (As an aside, we even learned what seeds are, a total mystery to the groups!). This conversation allowed us to learn a little about how we will be using science notebooks and reasoning publicly in class, in the form of scientists’ meetings.  As we focus in on plants in the early part of the unit, we will learn a little more about patterns in nature.  In preparation for an engineering task later this month, we planted grass.  Not so exciting, but it will lead to some great engineering discussions when we build and test green roof systems later on...

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

We had a great first week of academics. We started instituting our class routines: independent reading, and class discussion. We discussed the recent controversy around Colin Kaepernick. Students read different opinions on the topic and were able to voice their own conclusions in a respectful way. We began our Civics unit with readings on the composition of the Constitution and began preparing for a series of role play debates on natural rights and state power. We also took time to do a Degrees of Reading Power assessment.

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

CMP 7 and 8th

This week we began with setting up “norms’ for our classroom.  This included reviewing how effective dyads work, how to keep a respectful and math-focused class, and organizing math journals and binders.  We also continued our work with Jo Boaler’s Week of Math.  Jo Boaler is a Stanford professor who has done a lot of research on the brain and math performance.  Her big take away in a “nutshell”  is that no one is born with a math brain, everyone can do math, mistakes help the brain grow, and when you believe in yourself, you can do anything.  We worked on some challenging problems, watched some fun videos and had great discussions.  We also signed into Google Classroom where all of our work related material will be housed.

7/8 Science

Science began with talking about what an effective class looks like and sounds like.  We set up our science binders and journals, reviewed what we are studying this year, and set up our Google Classroom.  We began with a series of demonstration experiments.  Students were asked to make accurate observations and come up with questions about what they saw.  We ended the class with a physics reading and strategies to leave tracks.  Next week we begin our new physics unit!

First Week of School!

TA’s Notes:

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

If your child has a change of plans for after school, is out for any reason or needs to be picked up early or come in late please let me know.

If you have questions regarding anything happening on-house or about the house I can usually help or point you in the right direction.  The teachers are very busy throughout the day preparing lessons or teaching and I am usually available and here for you!  

-Katie Fieldsend

My phone number is 871-6148 or KFieldsend@cssu.org for e-mail

Thank you to all the parents who joined us for the Voyager Breakfast Thursday morning.  A HUGE thank you to the Jones family for providing the most delicious Myer’s Bagels and for their generous donation!

Dates to Remember:

• Thursday, Sept 22nd: Grades 5-8 Curriculum Night, Learning Expo & Parent Assembly

    6:30pm - 7:00pm Parent Assembly in Auditorium

    7:00pm - 8:00pm Curriculum presentations on house

    8:00pm - 8:30pm Learning Expo in lobby & dining room

• Wednesday, Sept 28th: WCS Picture Day

Teachers:

The last few days have been very busy with team building activities,  our S.M.A.R.T. skills kick-off (Safe, Mindful, Accepting, Respectful and Truthful) and our annual Beach Olympics.  Next week we will begin our academic work.  I am asking students to pass in their summer math packets on Tuesday.  We will begin our math work with Jo Boaler’s Growth Mindset activities and in science we will set up our science notebooks and begin our physics unit.

Click for pictures HERE