TA’s Notes:
***Please do not send in any food to be shared among Voyager students***
No School: Monday, February 27th - Friday, March 3rd
VOYAGER RECYCLE SALE
ALL Voyager Families:
The Voyager Recycle Sale is Saturday, April 1st! Save the date!
This is our biggest, most fun event of the year. A giant indoor yard sale!!!! Please start to gather anything you'd like to donate...household items, old artwork/posters, furniture, rugs, sporting equipment, books, toys, gently used jeans, dresses, jackets (any clothes must be clean, properly folded and ready to 'sell') costume jewelry, tools, working electronics. What a great activity for the upcoming February break! Spring cleaning!
The FAP Big Basket Raffle!
Collections for the 17th Annual Big Basket Raffle and Silent Auction are underway! This is one of FAP’s biggest fundraisers of the year, with proceeds funding FAP programs that support all WCS and ABS students, families and staff. Items donated by our Williston School District families will be made into beautiful themed baskets that will be raffled off at the BIG BASKET RAFFLE on Saturday, March 25th , 2017.
Mr. Merrill- Dog Days
Ms. O’Brien- On the Water
Mr. Godfrey- Gift Cards Galore
Ms. Quatt- Java Lover
FAPAC February 2017 Meeting Highlights Information
The FAP Advisory Council held its monthly meeting on February 9th. FAP is Williston's equivalent of a parent-teacher organization. We meet each month, our meetings our open to all, and you will receive an email like this every month with highlights of the meeting and a link to the FAP website for the full minutes. Check the full minutes in a PDF format by clicking here. Due to a technical difficulty there is not video recording for this month’s meeting.
You can now follow us on Facebook and Twitter (@FAP_Williston)!
Below are the meeting highlights:
FAP Annual Fund
We are accepting online donations for the Annual Fund until the end of February. Cash and check donations are still welcome after the end of the month. Alternative online donation sites are currently being researched. The link to donate to the Annual Fund can be found here.
Upcoming Events
Big Basket Raffle: March 25th @ WCS
Fliers are going out to teachers on February 13th and the baskets will be in classrooms on Feb. 17th in both schools. We have a list of around 250 businesses that we reach out to and have about 60 businesses committed so far, including Disney Tickets for the silent auction. Reminder to all that this is an Adult Only event. The Swift House will be hosting a Fun Night that children in grades k – 4 can attend during the event.
Williston Runs for Education: May 20th
This year is the 5th Anniversary for this event! Eighth grader, Sophia Cross, will work on this even for her 8th Grade Project. We are excited and grateful that Long Trail Veterinary Center is returning as Presenting Sponsor and Champlain Orthodontics is coming back as Fun Run sponsor.
Administrative Report
Penguin Plunge – The Penguin Plunge team raised over $11,000 this year. A special thanks to Sam Beatson for being willing to dye his hair pink if they raised $7000. Then he also took pies in the face in support of fundraising efforts. CVU had over 150 plungers and raised over $51,000.
Renovation Project – Tom Barden has been hired as the owner's project manager working with ReArch working as the construction firm. We are looking at a very aggressive timeline for completion of the project in 16 months, starting in June of this year. The construction firm has expressed interest in communicating with parents and use this as a learning project for students.
Safety Team Update – The WSD Safety team is partnering with Emergency Management and Homeland Security. They are going to come in and plan and facilitate a realistic crisis scenario. Parents were reminded to read the School Bell about what to expect as a parent in the case of a real emergency.
Please contact me at jnesbit938@gmail.com if you have feedback or questions on FAP. Thanks.
Have a wonderful Winter Break!
Julia
Pictures from Poetry Slam:
The Week in Mr. Merrill’s Room (⅚ Humanities):
We have entered week 3 of the stock market game. So far, our overall strategy of investing in stocks and creating a diversified portfolio has “paid off”. The top 5 teams in our region are from our class. Teams continued to research other potential investments this week, while checking their portfolios to be sure they have met the investing requirements for the game.
Students also finished the Everfi Financial Literacy program and their “Race to Savings Success” posters which will be mailed to the Treasurer’s office for the contest.
When we return from the break, we will be kicking off our American history unit. We will be focusing on the 13 colonies and the causes of the Revolutionary War.
The Week in Ms. O’s Room (⅚ Math & Science):
Math 5: We spent our week using the area model to multiply fractions. See the public record below! We advanced from fractions by fractions to fractions by mixed numbers over the course of the week, continuing to reinforce that the dimensions of a rectangle, when defined, can help us find the area of the rectangle, and therefore, the product of two fraction factors.
Math 6: This week we focused on decimal addition and subtraction in both straight calculation and in context. We used estimation to determine, is our answer reasonable? We also focused on equation writing, especially in single line equations, as a way to solve unknown values. If you didn’t here from your kiddo, 6th graders participated in a studio classroom, in which I taught, and they worked, in front of 8 teachers and administrators. They did a great job, being their best math selves!
⅚ Science:
We worked to complete gravity tests and our word maps (yes, they were due two weeks ago) and took a short gravity test. We are moving on to Gravity in the Solar System after break.
The Week in Mr. G’s Room (⅞ Humanities):
The Week from Ms. Q’s Room (⅞ Math & Science):
CMP8
The 8th graders are showing perseverance and grit as we work to understanding triangular numbers. Triangular numbers are a pattern of repetitive addition. Such as 1, 1+ 2, 1+2+3 etc.In a visual model they can look like stairs.
The numbers of squares 1,3,6,12,20 in the figures above have a difference of 2,4,6 and 8. If we were to graph the figure number and the number of squares, it would create a parabola. We also looked at different visual models used to explain “high-fives” at the end of a game and how many total high-fives were made in several different situations.
Students had a Check-up which was returned this week.
CMP7
We began our “Comparing and Scaling” Unit with a look into advertisement and how statistics are used to communicate information about a product. We took a taste test of several popular lemon/lime sodas and created some class statistics. We are reviewing ratios and percentages and comparing different ratios of juice mix to water to see which one is the most “juicy”. Students took a final entrance task and received feedback on their scaling projects.
Science 7th/8th
Just about 40 years ago, NASA launched Voyager 1 and 2 to explore planets within our solar system and to venture out into interstellar space. Within both of these crafts are the Golden Records which have greetings in many languages, music, sounds, images and information of how to find our planet. This week students learned about the Voyager Mission and then were asked to submit 5 items that they would like to have placed on a new record. They then described and defended their selections to the class. (Images from nasa.gov)
Incidentally, 40 light years away, a new solar system was found that has 7 earth-like planets revolving around a sun. These are rock-like planets could have water and be habitable for life forms. This is an exciting astronomical event. Here is the link to the news: Exoplanets Discovered
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