Week of April 17th - 21st

TA’s Notes:

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

April 24th - 28th : No School (April Break)

May 2-5 SBAC testing for ⅚ students.

May 5th : Voyager Dance & Activity Night Fundraiser

May 9th and 10th: 8th Grade Science NECAP testing.

May 12th : 5th & 6th grade Trout Release @ Lewis Creek and Fishing @ Lake Iroquois

May 29th : No school (Memorial Day)

June 1st : 5th & 6th grade field trip to Fort Ticonderoga

June 1st - 2nd : 8th grade overnight to Ridin-Hy Ranch

June 8th - 9th : Voyager House overnight to Camp Abnaki

June 13th: Last Early Release Day

____________________________________________________________

Below is the Sign Up for the upcoming Voyager sponsored dance and Activity Night happening Friday, May 5th.  Please mark your calendar!

This is a fundraiser we need to do in order to raise the last $800 needed to send all of Voyager House on an overnight Camp Abnaki experience.  We have done this overnight in the past and it is LOTS OF FUN!

We really need chaperones and concessions!!  Attached is a sign up sheet with many ways to help and we are hoping between all of the students and parents we can make this a booming success.  Any help/time/items you can offer is very much appreciated!

Dance/Activity Night Sign Up

Any questions, please email Katie Fieldsend at KFieldsend@cssu.org

Student Teacher Gifts - Our incredible student teacher, David Maika, is finishing up his internship on Voyager. David has been an asset to our team! If your child would like to give him a small gift for the teacher’s bag we have purchased, they are welcome to bring it in. Mrs. Fieldsend is the collector. Ideas for the bag are items all teachers need in their new classrooms (coffee mug, Starbucks cards, water bottle, mints, cool pens/pencils/markers, post-it notes, chocolate, any organizers and Advil). The small gifts are meant to be fun! Mr. Maika doesn’t know about this bag yet; it will be a surprise that we’ll give him at a celebratory party on Friday, May 19th.  If you are able to help, we are in need of napkins, small plates, cups, forks, drinks, cookies, chips, fruit, or any other treats.

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

Highlights:

• Reading Cafe - Find and read a book to finish over the break

• Immigration Primary Resource Activity
• On Demand Argument Writing Assessment
• SBAC Practice Prep
• Narrative Writing Peer Review, Comments, Revision and Edit
• “Lock Box” Team Building Activity

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

Math 5:  Highlights from the Week

• Learned how to create a Factor Tree
• Learned that a factor tree when done correctly leads to a prime factorization.
• Every number has a unique prime factorization.  No two numbers share the same prime factorization. That’s why they are different numbers.
• Prime factorizations can be used to find all the factors of that number.
• Prime factorizations can help find the Greatest Common Factor of a pair of numbers.
• A lesson on Trash - http://robgreenfield.tv/trashme/

Math 6:  Highlights from the Week

• Continued work looking at tables, graphs and written notes.  
• Polishing our own graphing skills.
• Comparing data graphed on one graph.  When lines are above others, cross, etc., what does this mean?
• A lesson on Trash:  http://robgreenfield.tv/trashme/

⅚ Science:  Highlights from the Week

• Tested the thermal conductivity of materials.  Created a scenario where students needed to test one material’s ability to insulate a hot beaker of water over the course of 20 minutes.
• Graphed the 11 materials time temp. Data to compare thermal conductivity.
• Tested solids and liquids for their electrical conductivity.
• Thermal and Electrical are two physical properties of materials that can be measured.  This allows us to distinguish one material from another.

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

Students in Mr. G’s room have been working hard to get their World War I essays done in time for break. Students had the chance to explore independently an area of the Great War that they wanted to look into in more depth than we could cover as a whole class. We spent two weeks researching, brainstorming, mapping, and writing our essays. This week we motivated proofreading by playing Grammar Jeopardy, and musical chair peer edits. Students who finished early had the opportunity to do extra credit work, or to prepare for our next unit by doing personal history timelines. When we return from break we will be focusing on the 20 year period between WWI and WWII and we will be using timelines to connect the various themes that combined to launch the world into another cataclysmic war.

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

CMP8

“Function Junction, what’s your function....” We began a brief foray into transforming quadratic functions from our parent function f(x) = x2 by flipping, moving it vertically, making it wider or thinner, and moving it horizontally.   Each of these moves changed our parent function equation in different ways. We learned about another form of quadratic equation called the vertex form.

f (x) = a(x - h)2 + k, where (h, k) is the vertex of the parabola.This form allows you to find the vertex, y-intercept, whether it is wide or skinny and how it is oriented. (frown or smiley)  We looked at piecewise and absolute value functions and created a class record.  After our break we will take a short assessment and then we will move on to investigating systems of linear equations.

CMP7

This week we continued to work with ratios and proportions in different contexts.  We examined unit rates with distance and time and standard measurements.  We used a flow chart to help us understand how car dealers make their money through commissions.  Finally we created a class record with major concepts of this unit, played some jeopardy and began our unit assessment.  After break we will begin “Moving Straight Ahead”,a unit on linear equations.

Science 7th/8th

How do the biotic resources of an ecosystem affect the predator/prey relationship between foxes and rabbits?  We began the week with an investigation of foxes hunting rabbits in an ecosystem. This model allowed students to collect data from a fox hunt, by changing the variable of shrub size.  We looked at what happens to the ability of the fox to snag rabbits when bushes where they hide are, large and lush vs. small and skimpy.  We graphed our results, created claim and evidence statements on our data and discussed how loss of species in the ecosystem can affect the population of its inhabitants.  Finally, we launched our next project of creating a model or game based on the flow of energy through the ecosystem.  We will begin this project in earnest after the break.

Week of April 10th - 14th

TA’s Notes:

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

April 24th - 28th : No School (April Break)

May 2-5 SBAC testing for ⅚ students.

May 5th : Voyager Dance & Activity Night Fundraiser

May 12th : 5th & 6th grade Trout Release @ Lewis Creek and Fishing @ Lake Iroquois

May 23rd: Last Tuesday early release

May 29th : No school (Memorial Day)

June 1st : 5th & 6th grade field trip to Fort Ticonderoga

June 1st - 2nd : 8th grade overnight to Ridin-Hy Ranch

June 8th - 9th : Voyager House overnight to Camp Abnaki

____________________________________________________________

Below is the Sign Up for the upcoming Voyager sponsored dance and Activity Night happening Friday, May 5th.  Please mark your calendar!

This is a fundraiser we need to do in order to raise the last $800 needed to send all of Voyager House on an overnight Camp Abnaki experience.  We have done this overnight in the past and it is LOTS OF FUN!

We really need chaperones and concessions!!  Attached is a sign up sheet with many ways to help and we are hoping between all of the students and parents we can make this a booming success.  Any help/time/items you can offer is very much appreciated!

Dance/Activity Night Sign Up

Any questions, please email Katie Fieldsend at KFieldsend@cssu.org

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

Our narrative writing week kicked off with a short story read aloud that we mapped on a large story organizer. We introduced the elements of a short story and modeled the completion of the organizer after we read the story. Students were eager to use the same kind of organizer to map out their own narratives that they brainstormed last week. Characters, setting, conflict, and climax ideas filled their maps. Later in the week we practiced using sensory imagery and figurative writing techniques. Students also selected a point of view and a theme to use for their stories. We even managed to sneak in some mini lessons on using dialogue and transitional words and phrases in our writing..

Our last periods of the week were used for writing. The students were very engaged in their creative work and many students were “shaking out the cramps” as they wrote fast and furiously.

Have your student read his/her first draft to you over the weekend.

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

Math 5:  Students began their first 6th grade Connected Math Program (CMP 3) this week, by revisiting number and operations in the book, Prime Time.  We are essentially skipping the first investigation, as it is a repeat from parts of the Bridges program but did review math language like FACTOR, PRODUCT, PRIME, COMPOSITE, AND SQUARE NUMBERS.  Our main focus this week was on common factors and multiples.  We are working to answer the following questions, “How do you know when you have found all the multiples of a number? Are our generalizations relevant for odd and even numbers?  In case you don’t know, to find the factors of a number, you begin with 1 and the number.  The next highest factor is half that number, if it is even and less than half if it is odd.  By using a factor rainbow and “squeezing the factors” out, you can land on all factors of that number.  We then solved problems involving ferris wheels, cicada emergence, and snack bag real world scenarios.

Math 6:  Starting a new unit the week of the play was challenging, so we are redoubling our efforts on the first investigation with the CMI that will encompass much of our work, “What is the relationship between tables, graphs, and equations, and what does the relationship tell us about the patterns and trends we see in these formats?  When we see the equation, 55t = d where t is time and d is distance,we could say that a car drives 55 miles per hour (the rate) and we could then create a table for 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4 hours of driving at this rate.  And when we graph this data, we would see that the line is steep, especially compared to say, a bike that might travel at a rate of 23 miles per hour.  So the steepness of the line relates to the 55 in the 55t and we can see that when we compare one hour to the next, the pattern is + 55 to each subsequent hour.  This is a lot, I realize, but the kids are getting good at it. Lots more to learn in this heavy algebraic unit.

⅚ Science:

What a week!  We spent the week looking at the properties of substances.  Monday and Wednesday we looked at the properties of substances and how they change when mixed with other substances.  Then we looked at both thermal and electrical conductivity, properties of substances often not explored at this level.  Thanks to Dan, our resident engineer, we had a lot to do!  Our work next week will continue these explorations, during which we will look at the electrical conductivity of salt water.  See photos below.

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

This week students are beginning their informational essays on WWI. Students have chosen a topic that they find interesting or exciting, related to WWI. The topic may be something that we covered in class but the student would like to study in more depth, or something we did not have a chance to touch on. Some interesting topics include “Theatre During WWI”, or “Video Games Based on WWI”.  In the afternoons, we are watching a film about the Christmas Truce, a moment in 1914 where troops all over the Western Front laid down their arms and refused to fight. This event is one of the most touching examples of humanity overcoming strife in history, but it is also a key to understanding how WWI actually ended, with soldiers on all sides exhausted and demoralized, refusing to take part in a that seemed impossible to win.

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

CMP8

We began speaking a new math language this week. Function language or more specifically function notation.  For example f(x) = 2x +1.  This would be read “f” of “x”.  This is all about inputs and outputs.  f(2) for the above function would mean that the input was 2 and we would then place 2 in the “x” spot and solve the equation. The answer is......drum roll.... 2(2) + 1 = 5.

When the f(x) = 7.  That means that the output of the function is 7.  We set up the problem 2x + 1 = 7 and solve it.  The input would be 3.  We also looked at non-linear filling functions and tried to figure out what a behavior over time graph would look like for different types of vases.  We ended the week with graphical translations of functions. We explored  what part of our equations move a function to different positions on a grid. Vertical translation moves our functions up and down vertically.

CMP7

Finally....y=mx +b.  We unveiled our first linear equation and learned about slope, rates, and the constant of proportionality. Students graphed situations using food sales, oranges and car mileage.  We grappled with the difference between independent and dependent variables.   Did you know that it takes 10 pounds of milk (5 quarts)  to make 1 pound of cheese....who knew?!

We have been practicing our ratios and proportions and reviewed proper graph making with “My favorite no”.  This is where I replicate a student’s work and ask the students to find what is correct in the representation and what is not.  We ended the week with a Check-up.

Science 7th/8th

We completed our Biological Creature Investigation with students creating class records by describing the life functions we observed and researched.  We learned a large amount about very small creatures that play a very big role in our ecosystem.  We reviewed how to write a concise response to a science question using specific data and we had the opportunity to play several interesting and challenging food web games.

Week of April 3rd - 7th

TA’s Notes:

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

Important Dates:

April 24th - 28th : No School (April Break)

May 5th : Voyager Dance & Activity Night Fundraiser

May 12th : 5th & 6th grade Trout Release in Starksboro

May 23rd: Last Tuesday early release

May 29th : No school (Memorial Day)

June 1st : 5th & 6th grade field trip to Fort Ticonderoga

June 1st - 2nd : 8th grade overnight to Ridin-Hy Ranch

June 8th - 9th : Voyager House overnight to Camp Abnaki

Congratulations again to our Voyager students who received awards for the Be Money Wi$e Poster contest!!  Awards were presented in Montpelier this past Thursday.

Thank you to all who helped out with Voyager’s Recycle Sale!!!

The weather was not on our side, so our sales were lower than normal, but despite the April snow we still made $760.80!!

As great as that was we still need to raise more money for our Voyager House Camp Abnaki Overnight in June.  So- when Voyager sponsors the last dance of the year, May 5th, we are also hosting an “Activity Night” for 1st - 4th graders.  A sign up will be coming next week where we’ll be looking for fabulous chaperones, concession food & drinks to sell and decorating supplies for our Cinco de Mayo theme!  Students not planning to attend the dance are being asked to help volunteer with the Activity Night.  We need to raise at least $800 to make our Abanaki plan a reality!

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

On Monday we read a Revolutionary War short story and students completed a narrative pyramid diagram of the story. By breaking down the elements of a story, we prepared students for their own narrative writing later in the week.

Mr. Maika wrapped up his Revolutionary War unit with a final simulation on Yorktown (the final battle of the war) and students had a final journal entry to write for their character’s diary.

We kicked off our narrative writing unit on Thursday. Students will be writing their own historical fiction piece using the character that they developed with Mr. Maika’s unit. Students will pick an event from the Revolutionary War to base their story on and research it. We introduced students to the elements of narrative writing and students brainstormed plot and conflict ideas for their narratives. On Friday, students started working on a very detailed Narrative graphic organizer.

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

Math 5:  We wrapped up the Unit 6 Geometry unit this week by looking at volume and surface area.  Specifically we observed what happens the volume when side measures are doubled or tripled and also how this change affects surface area too.  We took a trip back to 5th grade math by looking again at multiplication of fractions.  The context was the area of the surface of a rectangular prism.  If we can multiply non-whole dimensions then we can find the surface area of any rectangular prism.  We focused on surface area, because area is a measure calculated from two dimensions, length and width.  We did not apply this same calculating strategy to volume, specifically because that would have meant three numbers multiplied, and put a few of the kiddos over the edge!  Unit assessments will be scored this weekend.  

Math 6:  Students wrapped up Decimal Operations. I have been so pleased with the growth that so many students have made in this area.  Calculating with decimals requires solid whole number calculation, which for many was a big challenge.  Even the most resistant of students made progress in this area!  Our next unit, on algebra, is a great prep for much of the 7th grade. Our work in this unit will build on tables, graphing, variables, and the shape of graphs as linear or nonlinear.  

⅚ Science:

Our week began with a self-designed investigation on the difference between hot and cold liquids.  Students discovered that water molecules move and they move faster in hot water than in cold water.  We then applied that to solids and gases, discovered the same thing. Ask your Voyager about the investigations we did this week, which included dye in water, heating air with a soap bubble and heating brass.  

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

We have jumped in to WWI with both feet now. In the morning we are covering battle strategies from the beginning of the War, the Schlieffen plan for Germany, and Plan 17 for France. We are looking at the conditions of trench warfare, the Invasion of Belgium, Serbian Resistance, and the influence of modern weaponry on warfare. In the afternoon students are applying what they have learned in an online battle simulation. Students are forming alliances, making and breaking treaties, and moving their armies across the map of Europe to see if they could have changed the course of history.

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

CMP8

This week in class was all about pulling together all we know about quadratic functions.  We worked on practicing multiplying binomials, creating area models of trinomials, finding the landmark of quadratic equations with and without our graphing app Desmos, and creating quadratic equations from tables.  Students sought time during core and break to check in with me about the content.  We created class records and played a few rounds of jeopardy.

CMP7

Students worked on their infographic and presented their findings from their surveys.  We experimented with Google Sheets and created graphs based on different aspects of our data so that we could compare and contrast and make meaning from our survey.  Students collaborated well.  We will be finishing up our Comparing and Scaling Unit over the next week.

Science 7th/8th

We had some “outside” visitors this week from Carolina Biological in form of tardigrades, hydra, planarian to name a few.  We began our Biological Creature Investigation by observing, drawing and researching the life processes of these small creatures. Our mission is find out what role they play in our ecosystem.  This information is all being documented in our science notebooks.  It was very exciting to see these creatures move, feed and interact with the environment.

Week of March 27th - 31st

TA’s Notes:

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

No school Friday, March 31st- 

Ms. Sherman:

VOYAGER SALE IS APRIL 1st!!!!

Donate some great stuff so we can make some needed cash!!

*Drop off your stuff on March 31st from 6-8

*Volunteer or shop between 8-2 (until 3 for pick-up/clean-up)

*Donate baked goods for our concession stand sales

*8th graders-get some community service hours in!!!

Parents of 8th Graders…...Want a night out? I’m willing to do an 8th grade fun night with Voyager students on April 14th from 7-10:30 (or 11:00 tbd.) In order for this to happen, at least 80% of the 8th grade class must be in attendance and have rides to and from the event. If this sounds like a good plan to you, please have your son/daughter let me know they can attend by April 3rd! There will be a behavior contract/permission slip going out soon. Student are allowed to show up late or be picked up early with prior notice. There is no cost to the students, only that they bring a good attitude with them as I am donating my efforts and personal time!

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

Week 3 of Mr. Maika’s Solo has been going great!  Students have done 3 more simulations as they make their way through the American Revolution.  On Monday students re-enacted the Battles of Lexington and Concord.  They had to make quick decisions that affected the outcome of the battle and the fate of their characters!  Although it ended in victory for the Patriots there were a few Americans who decided that their fortunes lay with the Loyalist side.  While there were one or two Patriot deserters there were far more Loyalists and Undecided Citizens who made the choice to join the Rebel cause!  On Tuesday students learned about the Declaration of Independence and what it said (we came to the conclusion that it was a very wordy break-up letter).  On Wednesday and Thursday students learned about the Winter at Valley Forge and designed their own military uniforms and regimental flags which they paraded and displayed for their peers.  Next week students will be doing the final simulation:  The Battle of Yorktown!  After that they will be writing the stories of their characters and what they experienced throughout the American Revolution!

Financial Literacy Poster Contest

Here are the results of the state wide Financial Literacy poster contest our students entered a few weeks ago. Many Voyager students were recognized for their excellent posters!

Elementary, 5th grade                   1st          Alex Zuchowski                           Williston Central School

Elementary, 5th grade                   2nd        Kevin Lahiri                                  Williston Central School

Elementary, 5th grade                   3rd         Gabriella Clark                             Williston Central School

                                                             

Middle School, 8th grade              1st          Isabella Gaffney                                Homeschooled

Middle School, 6th grade              2nd        Julia Lamorey                                    Williston Central School

Middle School, 6th grade              3rd         Joey Merola                                   Williston Central School

                                                             

HONORABLE MENTION recognition

Jasmine Cousino               Middle School Division                   Williston Central School

3D Vermont Competition

The Williston Central School 3D Vermont Team recently placed 2nd in the annual town history 3D competition at Vermont Technical College in Randolph. High School and middle school students from around the state are challenged to work in teams to research and recreate 3D models of historical buildings in their area. In the process they uncover and document the history of buildings and create a multimedia presentation to accompany their printed 3D models (3dvermont.org).

The WCS team selected the historic Catamount Family Outdoor Center to research and model for the competition. The team members were:

Joshua Perkins

Ethan Varricchione

Tyler Davis

Matt Zych

Addison Urch

Colin Zouck

Addison Hunter​​

Peyton Jones

Ananya Rohatgi

Julia Lamorey

Advisors - Ellen Arapakos and Aron Merrill

Here is a link to a nice blog of the competition created by the SketchUp team that attended from Boulder, CO.

https://spark.adobe.com/page/e04keIDo3PcMA/

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

Math 5:  This week students finished up the 2 dimensional unit by replicating a Swiss artist, Paul Klee, who uses geometric shapes to create cool art!    Here is Paul Klee’s work...

And here is some of our work…

We also practiced using the protractor!  For some this was a new skill while for others, an expertise.  Thursday quiz on geometry vocab and moving on to 3-D for next week!

Math 6:  Students are getting all jammed up in percents! This is a very hard skill!  We have finally arrived at the algorithm for percents of a number (multiply the decimal name of the percent X the number) and then I throw out this one - 76 is 80% of what number?  To solve these problems we used fact families.  We will be closing down the decimal ops book on Tuesday and then moving on to Variables and Patterns.  We will try to have a rigorous 3 weeks leading up to vacation, so that there is algebra exposure right before the SBAC testing after break.

⅚ Science:  Students explored water this week and discovered that it is sticky!  This characteristic helps to explain the popped water balloon phenomenon and why water droplets on wax paper are so difficult to split AND why two droplets dragged near each other will join easily!  See photos below of our work playing with water and designed new water experiments!

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

We have jumped in to WWI with both feet now. In the morning we are covering battle strategies from the beginning of the War, the Schlieffen plan for Germany, and Plan 17 for France. We are looking at the conditions of trench warfare, the Invasion of Belgium, Serbian Resistance, and the influence of modern weaponry on warfare. In the afternoon students are applying what they have learned in an online battle simulation. Students are forming alliances, making and breaking treaties, and moving their armies across the map of Europe to see if they could have changed the course of history.

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

CMP8

This week in math class we looked at the equation for jumping things.....frogs, fleas and people. We were asked to consider the standard quadratic form, ax2 + bx + c and equation that looked like this: -16t2 + 8t + .2, for a frog.  Each coefficient plays a part in how an object jumps.  In this case the -16x2 tells us that this is a parabola that looks like a frown and represents the pull of gravity on a jumping object with “t” representing the time in seconds squared.  The 8t is the initial velocity of the frog at “8” feet per second. Finally, we have the starting height of a frog, which is .2 feet from the ground.   We worked on reviewing our quadratic graphing, finding factored forms and multiplying binomials.  This unit will be wrapped up next week.

CMP7

The 7th graders were in desperate need of making ratios, percentages and comparison more real.  Students created survey questions, decided on a survey size, learned a little about Google Sheets and began taking data from their peers to fulfill their sample size.  Our next mission is to use ratios, percentages and measures of center: mean, median and mode to analyze our data.  Students are going to create a presentation of their findings.

Science 7th/8th

Where does a tree get the mass it needs to transform from a seed to a tree? If you put seeds into a sealed jar with water and a wet paper towel, will the mass of the jar increase?  We pondered these questions this week as we recorded the mass of our “Seedling in the Jar” experiment.  We also reviewed photosynthesis and looked at how energy flows through the ecosystem in a food pyramid.  Students participated in an online interactive investigation, which followed energy as it travels up the pyramid from plants to consumers (herbivores, omnivores and carnivores) . Students investigated a forest, lake, desert and ocean ecosystem. This investigation is a graded assessment for creating a meaningful graph, analyzing data, making numerical comparisons of energy transfer between different ecosystems and constructing explanations from multiple resources.