Week of February 4 and 11 Double Issue

Voyager House Breakfast Celebration on February 22, 2013

We will be making an egg dish and a gluten free option for all the kids.  We ask that parents contribute the following items for 6-8 kids.  If we have extra cups we will use them for another event.  Thanks for giving us a chance to celebrate before break!  Sign up beneath your child's grade level to donate an item. 

We would love some parent volunteers to help manage food!  Wanna join?

See the house wiki:
http://wcsvoyagerhouse.pbworks.com/w/page/57265244/FrontPage

FAP Update
Two great fundraising results to report!  The February Dance earned $942 and The Pet Food Warehouse Event earned $700 + (we don't have the final numbers yet because the 'coupon' portion is still underway!)  A huge thank you to all parents and students who provided a ton of baked goods to sell.  Most importantly, thanks for all the great energy put forth to drop off baked goods, work the table, shop for pet food and help 'spread the word.'  Voyager teamwork has raised $3,400+ dollars to date.  We still have a ways to go, but we are in great shape!  Mark your calendar for Saturday, April 6th, our Recycle Sale.  If you start Spring cleaning early, make sure you save your 'gently used' toys, clothes, housewares, etc. for the sale!  Thank you!!!!  
FAP reps Sue Scheer and Ann Schmidt

The Week in Ms.Wesnak’s Room
7/8 Language Arts: The past two weeks in Language Arts have been filled to the brim! Using biographies, autobiographies, and memoirs as our guide we plunged into the deep waters of grammar! Our focus this time was to look conjunction and semicolon use. Students were asked questions such as, when do you use conjunctions and what are they used for? Do you have a choice in your punctuation use when creating and building compound sentences? To answer these questions we did some quick in-class work, read sections of text from “The Diary of a Young Girl: Anne Frank”, and we also completed a review and quiz before the week came to an end. Once we finished up with conjunctions and semilicons we moved into our work on personal narratives and students began building timelines of their lives. Each student was asked to build a timeline of their life and then chose ONE moment from their timeline to use as the topic for their upcoming personal narrative. Students will be working on getting to the depths of their moment to make it explode and come to life. Using our 5 senses and our knowledge around the elements of a story, students will begin writing their personal narratives next week. We will also begin learning about how to weave the different types of figurative language into our stories to really create a creative and enticing story. Talk to your child about their chosen moment. You may be able to help them bring it to life!

7/8 Social Studies: We are wrapping up our work on World War 2 and our grand finale is going to be quite exciting. Each student will be taking their class back to the times of World War 2 through presentations of their point of view/perspective projects. These points of view span the globe! Seeing as this truly was a global war we have perspectives from Northern Africa, to Reporters at the London Blitz, to American Women of the WW2 era. So far the presentations are sounding like they will take many forms including: skits, read-alouds, videos, photo presentations, and scrapbook show-and-tells. I cannot wait to see all of their hard work come to life next Monday and Tuesday. To prepare for this project we did a lot of practice with taking notes and we used an amazing interactive map as our informational guide. Each student has been asked to complete a written element and a presentation element. They have been working very hard this week and using their notes from class to work in a lot of great information/facts on World War 2 along with some strong vocabulary. Talk to your child about their project, what they’ve been working on, and how they’re feeling about the upcoming presentations!

Mr. Merrill’s Wrap Up
⅚ Language Arts
This week we really started to get into exploring narrative writing!  We started a read aloud of the book “Chains” by Laurie Halse Anderson and looked at how she describes the characters, setting, and conflict to help the reader paint a clear picture in their mind.  After seeing how Anderson used descriptive words and adjectives, students worked on coming up with their own adjectives that were not “tired” to describe other characters and settings in short films that we watched.  We discussed how conflict is important to a story and how often times it involves the main character making a really tough choice.  We watched a short clip from "The Hunger Games" and students pulled out the conflict that the main character was going through and what her two decisions were.  We also started to talk about what conflicts you might face if you were a soldier in the Revolutionary War.  Students are preparing to start writing their own narratives next week.

⅚ Social Studies
This week in social studies, students explored the events leading up to the American Revolution, and continued to hone skills in deciphering and analyzing historical documents.  We started the week by discussing what students already know about the causes of the revolution and what led colonists to revolt against the British. Many students were familiar with The Boston Tea Party, so we spent some time as a class reading about the details of this act of protest, including specific causes and effects. At the end of the week, we put the Boston Tea Party in context by watching a video outlining the causes of the American Revolution from the French and Indian War through the Battle of Lexington.  Students then used primary sources to get a better understanding of differing points of view about the Stamp Act, discussing whether colonists were justified in their reaction to British taxes.



Ms. Q's Corner
Math 7
What would you do, if you ate a piece of chocolate and shrunk to 12 inches in height?  This was one of many proportional investigations we conducted over the last week.  We looked at various ways to find an unknown value "X"  when placed in a proportion:  3/12 = x/60.  Using mirrors, tape measures and sticky notes we attempted to use the angle of reflection and incidence to figure out the height of a point on the wall. This method of indirect measurement was quite a challenge....nothing that chocolate wouldn't help. Speaking of chocolate, we conducted an M and M biological sampling to see if we could ascertain the number of  green species in the population.  Using ratios and proportions we came very close to the actual number.  It was fun and tasty business. Our "Comparing and Scaling" unit was completed with a unit assessment  and we plunged into the next unit on proportional reasoning called: "Stretching and Shrinking".

Math 8
What is exponential growth?  What does it look like in a table, graph or equation?  What real world situations offer a glimpse of exponential growth?  Students compared the exponential equation from the mythical "rupa" problems to consider an equation for the rampant growth of the water hyacinth.  The water hyacinth is a fast growing invasive water plant that chokes waterways.  We watched a brief video about a Ugandan organization that has created a cottage industry which utilizes dried water hyacinths to make woven rugs, chairs and tables.  We explored bacterial growth and began a mold experiment. 

This week 8th graders took  the NAEP test in either math or English, and a number of  students took the algebra midterm.  

Science 7th/8th
Students received the results from their Thermal Energy and Light quiz. Students are welcome to correct them to improve their grade.   With the completion of light and thermal energy, we “moved on” to motion and forces.  We experimented with ramps, cars and washers to answer three questions:

1)Is there a relationship between mass and the distance a car travels?
2)Is there a relationship between the height of a ramp and the distance a car travels?
3)Is there a relationship between a car's mass and its ability to move a stationary object?

Students were asked to make claims based on quantitative evidence.  Students shared their results and we discussed anomalies in our data collection.  We finished the week with cartoon depictions of Newton’s Laws and a number of physics terms.
The experiment plan for the science fair is due on Monday, February 18th.  Our hope is that students will conduct their experiments during break or during the first week in March.  Students have been given a template for collecting background information on their topic. and a trifold will need to be purchased or students may recycle one from our project room.  

News from Ms. O
Math 5
We are wrapping up our geometry unit which has included quite a bit of learning!  Angles, 2-D polygons and 3-D solids, area, perimeter, and volume of all sorts of shapes and solids, properties of triangles and quadrilaterals, oh my!  We will finish our dip into geometry next week by building a geodesic dome out of newspaper.  Please send in your pile of newspaper!  We could use as much as possible.
If you could get your child a couple of extra pencils to get them through the school year, he/she would appreciate it.  We are low on supplies.

Math 6
We finished up an exciting unit on ratios this week and will be heading forward into the land of geometry.  I will be asking that students do some self learning during this unit, as we will not be covering extensively the properties of polygons.  Students are still responsible for them though, and I will provide some resources so that students can essentially memorize eg. what makes a right trapezoid.    These resources will allow students to practice and assess on this material, which is a review of last year’s work, but are still part of the 6th grade math standards.  We are hoping to be learning about circles by mid-March and coincide some events with  March 14, annual Pi day.  I believe that PIE will be in order.  We will eat pie and memorize as many digits of Pi as possible for a prize!  Start practicing now.  You can start by printing the first one million digits after the decimal.  Ha!  There are some amazing records for this!
We launched our geometry unit this week and will celebrate the beauty of geometry next week by building a geodesic dome out of newspaper.  Please send in your pile of newspaper!  We could use as much as possible.

Science 5/6
Last week...Students left the mechanical energy of catapults and rollercoasters and moved on to a type of thermal energy, called light!  Students explored a light circus, where they learned about how light behaves and made claims about light based on evidence.  We read about Omar, an Egyptian boy, whose ideas about lighting a stage during a blackout, arose from a conversation with a person studying Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.  And were based on what he knew about the transfer of light.  

This week...we investigated how materials and light interact, learning about absorption, reflection, and transmission of light energy.  The next engineering task will be to build a lighting system for a tomb in order to view all hieroglyphics well, when electricity is not available!  Seems hard to explain in this format!  Ask you kiddo about the task next week!
Start collecting your toys, game pieces, junk and anything else you can think of!  Students will be creating a Rube Goldberg mechanism during the week of break and the first week of March.  In order to do this, please help your child by considering the things in the house that he/she might be able to use for this purpose.  Something as simple as a set of dominoes, metal washers, a pendulum, or a ramp can all be used in a Rube Goldberg mechanism to illustrate the transfer or transformation of energy.  I am letting you know in advance, even though students have not been introduced to the project at all yet, so that you can consider transferring your junk to a think of energetic beauty!  More to come!

Week of January 28

Watch for the Flash Mob!  

Tonight’s Dance Moves brought to you by Voyager Advisories!  

From the Desk of Kim Russ
We are finding that many emails are being returned to us because email addresses have changed.  Let’s freshen things up!   Could you please print and send in the quick contact form attached, so that we can change our records to reflect new contact information. Thanks!

Hi All!
My name is Tara Furey and I'm a senior at the University of Vermont, studying Middle Level Education.  I've been interning in Mr. Merrill's room for the past few weeks and I will be starting a unit on narrative writing in Language Arts next week.  I'm excited to be a part of such a great team and to see what we will accomplish!

Mr. Merrill’s Wrap Up
⅚ Language Arts
This week, students continued to work on their “Revolutionary” Poetry.  By focusing on our senses and feelings, students used comparisons to make the image in their poem more vivid.  We worked on finding more creative versions of ordinary words through self and peer editing and by using a thesaurus.   Students enjoyed replacing the “tired” adjectives and verbs with new found words.  Students will write a final version of the poem next week and will include illustrations and decorations with the poem.

⅚ Social Studies
This week we took a look at what Vermont was like before it became a state.  We talked about how this land once belonged to the Western Abenaki and what happened when they came into contact with Europeans.  We then read a story about Benning Wentworth and the first towns in what is now Vermont and how the land came to be known as the New Hampshire Grants.  We looked at a number of maps from the period to see how a conflict started between New York and the first Grant settlers.  We had a lot of fun reading and talking about the Green Mountain Boys and their fight to protect the Grants from the “Yorkers”.  Next week we will be exploring the answers to these questions - How do you start a town in a place you’ve never been before?  What natural resources are important for a town?




Ms Q’s Corner
7th Grade Math
Students explored unit rates using different scenarios from buying different types of calculators, comparing bicycle rates to purchasing CDs from different stores.  We  utilized a variety of strategies to solve these problems including  creating ratios, proportions and cross multiplying to find an unknown “x”.  Figuring out taxes on our purchases and forming an equation was found to be a bit challenging. ...but  we persevered!  We also delved into different types of unit rates, how they can be interpreted and what rate works best for a mathematical situation.  

8th Grade Math
A very cunning peasant from the Kindom of Monterek, asked for a kingly ransom after saving the king’s daughter.  The peasant asked the king for a chessboard where “rupas” doubled with each square.  This problem began our exploration of exponential growth in a unit is called “Growing, Growing, Growing”.  It will  promise to be a fun unit of investigating, graphing and solving exponential functions.  Students completed their “Shapes of Algebra” assessment at the beginning of the week. Students should be correcting tests and coming in for extra help where needed.  Algebra seminar students are preparing for the midterm that takes place on February 15th.  

7th/8th Grade Science
Students are forming their ideas for the science fair and have begun to get their testable questions written.  This year, students may choose from any genre of science for their topic, however the testable question needs to lead to good data.

This week was the culmination of our unit focusing on light.  Students worked in groups to investigate a question having to do with a natural phenomenon or technology involving light.  Using hands-on investigations and independent research, teams sought to become expert "luminaries" in their topic.  At the end of the week, students taught their peers what they had learned by presenting their demonstrations and leading a class discussion.

8th Grade Challenge
The Mid-year 8th Grade Challenge Sharing is just around the corner.  On February 21/22 8th graders will highlight their focus questions, what steps they have taken on their project, and what they plan to do for a community connection.  We look forward to seeing their Power points.

News from Ms. O
⅚ Science
We began our week with a marble roller coaster engineering design challenge to firm up our understanding of MECHANICAL energy!  It was loud in our classroom!  We had a flurry of activity as students moved through the CREATE and IMPROVE phases of the engineering design cycle.  The challenge, to make a roller coaster with at least one vertical loop to roll the marble from beginning to end the slowest, proved to be quite challenging. The winning group had a 7.5 second ride!  And the coaster was cool!  We spent a day analyzing the task talking specifically about what math, science, and technology they needed to consider in order to be a roller coaster engineer.  Interesting stuff!  Moving on to LIGHT energy and a circus to explore it!  Ask your Voyager about the Apple in the Dark probe.

Math 5
Angles, angles, angles. Congruence and symmetry.  An explosion of words in Math this week.  Students have been discovering some interesting relationships amongst intersecting lines and able to predict angle measures without a protractor given some minimal information.  Next stop...a focus on properties of geometric shapes and area and perimeter.

Math 6
Sixth graders have been working their way through a ratio and rate investigation that is building foundational understanding of proportional reasoning ( a fundamental concept in algebra).  Students have been dealing with problems that address real life situations and working to solve them using understanding of equivalent fractions and unit rate.  Our next studio day is Tuesday, so students will be on stage again to show how they learn mathematics.  I appreciate their constant flexibility with this!  It is a great opportunity for me and a showcase of their commitment to learning math.

The Week in Ms. Wesnak’s Room
7/8 Language Arts:
This week we finished our reading of a short biography about Adolf Hitler. We held great discussions filled with questions, analysis, and overall fantastic connections between what students already knew about the holocaust/WWII era and what we are currently learning in Social Studies. After a few days of read aloud and journal writing we started to dig our heels into conjunctions. Asking questions such as: What are they? What do they do? and How do I use them? Students got the (oh so catchy) Schoolhouse Rock “Conjunction Junction” tune stuck in their heads, and we went to work on creating sentences using conjunctions in a variety of ways, along with identifying conjunctions in a short biography of Eva Braun, wife of Adolf Hitler.

7/8 Social Studies:
This week we have been getting serious about note-taking! Students have been working so hard and learning all about WWII. We are using a fantastic interactive map via history.com to take journeys across the globe, looking at WWII from the perspective of every continent that took part in this truly, world war. We travelled first to Europe and Africa. We learned about everything from D-Day to Panzer Tanks to the London Blitz. Leaving Europe after a few days visit, we just landed in North America. We will be kicking off next week learning about the draft and war propaganda from the time. I can’t stress enough how hard these students have been working! They are asking fantastic questions, digging deep into photos, videos, and audio clips. Please talk with your child about this time in our history because it is just filled with questions, stories, and information.

Week of January 21

Voyager Pet Food Warehouse Fundraiser
Pet Food Warehouse will donate $1 per transaction during the ENTIRE month of February to the WCS Voyager Field Trip Fund.  You must come in with the coupon....for every coupon they collect, we get $1 donation from that sale.  

If you come wash your dog on 2/9/13, Pet Food Warehouse will donate the ENTIRE fee ($12) to the Fund.  We need to be diligent about filling up every 'spot' for reservations.

Come in on 2/9/13 for the Voyager 'Love Your Pet' Bake Sale!

Voyager Dance - Friday, February 1st, 6:30 - 8:30 at WCS
We need parent volunteers to chaperone and help with concession sales.  We also need donations of snacks to sell and drinks.  All concession profits go to our house fund, we have to split the entrance feel with other houses.  Also needed are gifts for raffle.  
If any parents are interested in helping to come early and contribute to decorations, please let me know.

Our theme is 'Voyager Loves Pets' -- to kick off our month of fundraising with Pet Food Warehouse. Valentines theme, red tablecloths, hearts, etc.....
Here is link to wiki:
http://voyagerfap.wikispaces.com/home

Voyager Play
We will begin preparing for our play the week of March 18th. The performance night will be Thursday, April 4th.

Scripps National Spelling Bee Qualifying Test:  Wednesday, February 6th at 12:30 in the WCS Dining Room

The Scripps National Spelling Bee Qualifying Test is scheduled for 12:30 on Wednesday, February 6 in the WCS Dining Room. The highest scorer on this test will qualify to compete in the SCRIPPS State Spelling Competition scheduled forWednesday, March 13, 2012 at St. Michaels College. The individual champion of that state-wide competition will win an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C., to represent Vermont and compete in the 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee in May. Qualifying Test words will be taken from the Vermont Principal’s Association Grades 7/8 Spelling Word List which can be found at the bottom of the web page athttp://www.vpaonline.org/domain/42.  Copies of the list, along with passes to be released from the cafeteria (for those who need to buy a school lunch) can be found in the hanging pockets outside of the Enrichment classroom.  Students should plan to bring their lunches to the dining room that day.  We will eat and then take the test. Participating students will miss both lunch and recess that day.
Students do not need to sign up ahead of time.  Please contact Cris Milks with questions at cmilks@cssu.org or 879-5890.

Mr. Merrill’s Wrap Up
⅚ Language Arts: This week we started working on a poetry lesson that is connected to our historical fiction theme.  Using historical fiction sources, students explored the social and cultural issues of a character’s story and described the likely feelings and experiences of a person during the Revolutionary War.  From there we will learn to use figurative language to create moods, arouse expectations, and describe emotions to produce poetry.
Spelling/Vocabulary: Just a reminder that if your student is using a Wordly Wise 3000 book, he or she can access the website - http://www.wordlywise3000.com/ for games and additional instruction for each lesson.  

⅚ Social Studies: This week, students wrapped up our unit on the 3 Branches of Government with some review games and a quiz.  Mr. Eaton, the Clerk of Court at the U.S. District Court, was our guest speaker.  It was a great presentation with many fantastic questions.  Next week, we will begin our 18th century history unit.  Here is a history question to discuss/research over the weekend - what were the New Hampshire Grants?

Flynn Field Trip
FYI... the Flynn show - Flamenco Vivo was outstanding.  Ask your student about the performance!

Ms. Q's Corner
Math 7: It was with great chagrin that I realized a juice concentrate reference in our math book was not understood by the majority of the class.  My students are more familiar with juice out of a box and the reference of juice concentrate certainly threw the students for a loop.  Getting back to the math....students were asked to decide which juice recipe was juiciest based on the ratio or concentrate to water.  We also had to decide which dining room table we would sit at based on the number of pizzas placed on the table per person.  It certainly made us both hungry and thirsty.  We explored different ways to represent ratios, including part-to-part and part-to-whole.
 
Math 8: Elimination, combination, substitution oh my, elimination, combination, substitution oh my!  This week we practiced and practiced different methods of finding a solution set for a system of equations.  We needed to draw upon our skills with balancing equations to help us through finding the point of intersection of two lines.  We reviewed for our Shapes of Algebra test by solving and graphing inequalities, and writing different forms of linear equations. Our unit test began on Friday.

Science 7/8th: The week began with revisiting a science misconception that was clearly discussed in the majority of the Koke Chiller science experiments. The underlying science question: How does heat move?  Many students stated that the cold travels into the room temperature water making it cold.  Students performed a simple experiment where they placed a room temperature beaker into a beaker of cold water with with the same volume of water.  Over time, they recorded the change in temperature on the inside and outside beaker.  They observed that the temperature of the room temperature water decreased and the temperature of the cold water increased.  Eventually the beakers of water became the same temperature and thermal equilibrium was established.  I asked students to write one paragraph about this science concept in order to dispel our scientific misconceptions.  This week also began the preliminary search for science fair partners and questions.

The Week in Ms. Wesnak’s Room
First, I’d just like to say how nice it is to be back in Voyager!
 
Language Arts 7/8: This week 7th and 8th graders wrapped up their work on their Eyewitness to History Interviews. Our students interviewed a wide range of people, and we really can’t thank everyone enough for taking the time to work with us, tell your stories, and share your experiences. A GREAT number of students are submitting their interviews to Jr. Scholastic Magazine. Jr. Scholastic Magazine is running a contest for students to submit their Eyewitness to History Interviews to win a prize of $250, along with their interview being published in a Spring issue of the magazine! Wow! They will also be rewarding 2 second place winners with a $100 prize. Cross your fingers for a win! Once we all felt caught up and had completed our interviews we started learning about memoirs, biographies, and autobiographies. We are getting into our narrative unit, and we will be using stories from the second World War as our examples. Students will be reading a number of short biographies and memoirs from the time period, so Social Studies and Language Arts will once again be very integrated!
 
Social Studies 7/8: Voyager did some amazing work researching and learning about WWI while I was away. I heard their 5 W’s projects were fantastic and from what I saw earlier this week, students learned a lot! After we wrapped up our learning from WWI we flowed right into the second World War, which will be our focus for the coming weeks. We will be learning some key vocabulary terms, the geography and how much of the world this war took over, along with the timing of the various events that happened during World War Two. Please take some time to talk to your kids about this time period in our history.

News from Ms. O
Math 5:  The focus of our week has been angles. How do we describe an angle, how do we measure them and how are they created and related when lines intersect.  It has been interesting holding back the information on how to use a protractor.  When students use what they already know about pattern blocks and angle relationships to find the measure of an angle, they can then see how the protractor can be used to confirm that measure.    We will be having frequent quizzes on geometry language to help commit some of it to memory.  Geometry is a math discipline filled with language. I have been encouraging each student to make statements that  include the descriptive language of geometry.  This is intentional and designed to enhance the long term memorization of these terms.
 
Math 6: We wrapped up our unit on positive and negative numbers this week with an assessment and moved quickly into RATIOS!  We had a little lemonade testing today, thinking about what makes each sample of lemonade the lemony-EST!  Students made predictions based on this taste testing and then we got right to the math, looking at the ratios of mix to water.  Our taste buds didn’t tell the whole story, as students found that they could use unit rate to compare one ratio to another.  Some groups were close, getting three out of 5 samples in the correct order on the scale from least to most lemony!  We had a lemon good time!  We will spend perhaps two more weeks on this idea and then move into geometry!  Didn’t I say that the last time??  I changed the plan, given the opportunities to make real the ratio idea!

⅚ Science:  Students are preparing for a roller coaster event! On Monday, groups will design a roller coaster that fulfills certain design and engineering constraints and incorporates understanding of  the science ideas of kinetic and gravitational potential energy.  We are having a lot of fun.  We are participating in the E-week with IBM and are working to schedule some time with them before February break.  I will let you all know when that is happening, so you can join us if you like! Looking forward to roller coaster MONDAY!  Should be fun.

Week of January 14

Book Gift Cards
Many thanks to all of the parents and students that donated gift cards to Voyager over the holidays.  We have ordered over 20 books to add to our classroom bookshelves and we still have room for some more orders.  A great variety of genres and reading levels were purchased and will be available to borrow from Mr. Merrill’s room.  

Voyager Flynn Field Trip
On Friday, January 25th, the Voyager students will be going to the Flynn Theater to see Flamenco Vovo.  We will be leaving at 10:15 and returning by 12:45.  There is no charge for this field trip - Thanks to Williston Wins!

Voyager Dance!!
Voyager Dance is Friday, February 1st, 6:30 - 8:30 at WCS

We need parent volunteers to chaperone and help with concession sales.  We also need donations of snacks to sell and drinks.  All concession profits go to our house fund, we have to split the entrance feel with other houses.  Also needed are gifts for raffle.

If any parents are interested in helping to come early and contribute to decorations, please let me know. Our theme is 'Voyager Loves Pets' -- to kick off our month of fundraising with Pet Food Warehouse. Valentines theme, red tablecloths, hearts, etc.....

Here is link to wiki:
http://voyagerfap.wikispaces.com/home
Thanks!

FAPAC January Meeting Highlights
To:  Voyager Parents
From:  Ann Schmidt, Lori Mele, Sue Scheer, FAPAC Representatives

The FAP Advisory Council held an evening session of its monthly meeting on January 10th.  The focus of the meeting was the House Placement Process.  A number of parents attended this meeting and lots of great feedback was collected.  Check out all this feedback and other information on the House Placement Process in the full minutes in a PDF format by clicking HERE.  Below are a few other meeting highlights:

School Board and School Budget:  School Board is holding a meeting on January 24th at 6 pm to vote on the school budget.  Also, there is an Open Seat on the School Board.

Variety Show:  This great event with performances from school staff, students and community members will be held on March 22nd at WCS.  Check the School Bell for more information.

Big Basket Raffle:  Committee currently being formed to plan this important spring school fundraiser.  Event will be on April 13th.  Need volunteers to help with all aspects of this event.  If you are interested and have some time to help, please e-mail Liz Neeld at lneeld711@gmail.com.

Family Formal:  Hosted by CVU, this event is on January 26th and is a lot of fun, especially for K-4 families and is a Make a Wish fundraiser.  Information on this event can be found in the School Bell.

Next FAPAC meeting is on Thursday, February 14th at 8:15 am.  All are welcome!!!

Please contact me at apechaver@yahoo.com if you have feedback or questions on FAP.  Thanks.

Ms. Q’s Corner
Math 7
This week we completed our “Moving Straight Ahead” Assessment on Monday.  Please review the test with your child; they have the opportunity to correct it for a better score!  Our new investigation,“Comparing and Scaling” delves into proportional reasoning.  We looked at advertisements where ratios and percentages were used, and investigated the color gradient using different ratios of pigment to water.  Students also had their winter multiplication and division fluency test.

Math 8
We continued our exploration of inequalities in our “Shapes of Algebra” book. We looked at several problems where we needed to limit the amount of CO2 discharged in the air from two different cars.  It’s amazing how much CO2 our cars give off!  Students took a brief exit task on cars and motorcycles on Thursday.  Using substitution and combination students solved systems of equations. Students also had their winter multiplication and division fluency test.

Science 7th/8th
Light continues...This week students explored the visible light spectra using a diffraction grating.  They compared and contrasted different light sources and learned about the variety of wavelengths that each light source is emitting.  We observed  that some lights give off a complete rainbow of colors and others did not.  It was quite Illuminating!

Information on the Williston Science Fair was passed out and reviewed.  You child will be coming to you to let you know whether they plan on working with a partner or solo. If a partner is requested you will need to sign off on a permission form.   The science fair is on Thursday, March 28th and our expectation is that all 7th and 8th grade students attend.  Over the next few months, we will be working on pulling together research, investigable questions and an experiment plan. This is primarily an independent project done out of school. This year the Voyager House play  intersects with our science fair, so we need to plan ahead.  Please check out Jupiter Grades for information regarding deadlines and materials.  Voyager students have traditionally placed well in this school wide event.  Go SCIENTISTS!!

8th Grade Challenge Update:
All 8th graders will be presenting their mid-year progress on Thursday or Friday February 21st or 22nd.  Each student will fill out four PowerPoint slides that focus on the following information:

1) Introduction of the topic and focus questions
2) What they have accomplished so far
3) What needs to be finished before the final presentation
4) How this project will impact on a larger group of people ie. community connection

Mr. Merrill’s Wrap Up
⅚ Language Arts
This week students wrapped up their friendly letter to their future selves, hand writing the final draft after self/peer edits and revision time.  The letters will be mailed in January, 2014.  All letters were photocopied, and will be scored using a rubric.  These copies and scored rubrics will be placed in the portfolio.  

We kicked off a poetry lesson later in the week.  We will be writing poetry throughout the year, introducing various forms and devices as we go.  Students were encourage to be on the “lookout” for a poem that is meaningful to them.  We wrote acrostic poems at the end of the lesson in our composition books.  
Students are currently reading “historical fiction” books in  their literature group.  All students should be using a graphic organizer handout to record evidence that will be used for the final LEAF paragraph.  The theme for this round is - “What does it feel like to walk in someone else’s shoes?”

⅚ Social Studies
We finished our pro se court that was based on the Supreme Court case of Chicago v. Morales.
Students played the role of either a judge, attorney for Chicago, or an attorney for Morales.  Judges based their decisions on the the opening statements and arguments presented by each attorney.  All students now should have 3 column notes on each of the branches of government and a flow chart of checks and balances on each branch.  We will have a quiz on the three branches on Wednesday next week.  

News from Ms. O
Math 5
Our world is filled with Geometry!  This week, students worked specifically with angles, understanding what they are and determining the kinds of angles there are.  We will work on measurement of angles next week as well as looking at the attributes of angles in polygons.  We read Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland today to make connections to circles, a 360 degree angle!  

Math 6
We are wrapping up our work with integer operations and have made real life connections with money, temperature, and coordinate grids.  We have an assessment Wednesday on the first and second investigation in Accentuate the Negative and will finish the week with some algebra, relating positive and negative numbers to balancing equations.  I feel as though making explicit the relationship between integer operations and finding the value of the unknown (variable) is an important bridge to build right now.  Our next math stop...Geometry!

⅚ Science
Students engaged in their first engineering task last week, designing and building a marshmallow catapult.  We spent this week analyzing the task by learning more about technology and the engineering design process.  Students learned that not all technology is electronic! Who knew a knot could be considered technology!  See some photos from the marshmallow launch at the end of the blog.

Week of January 7

Happy New Year!  Hope you all had a great end to 2012!

Literature Group Note
We have begun new literature groups this week.  The big question is ‘What is it like to walk in someone else’s shoes?  The theme of this literature session is war and the idea of walking in someone else’s shoes.  ⅚ students are reading historical fiction about the Revolutionary War while ⅞ students are reading historical fiction books about World War II.

A note to Parents and Students from Ms. Sherman about the Literature group: Night!
Students were placed in new literature groups this week. About ten students were place with myself, reading the book, Night, by Elie Wiesel. While its an amazing account of what happened to many Jews in Nazi concentration camps, it’s also contains mature themes. The language is not inappropriate or graphic, rather the story details first hand accounts of the horrors witnessed and felt by Jews, at the hands of their captures. The theme of this literature group is: Walking in someone else’s shoes. Based on this theme, students will have discussions about the events that occurred in the book, and talk about their own thoughts and ideas surrounding the tragic occurrences. I am posting this to make you aware of the heavy content these students (10- 7th and 8th graders) will be reading about. If your son or daughter has been placed in the literature group, Night, and you have concerns or questions, please feel free to email me. I can be reached at: csherman@cssu.org.

Ms. Q’s Corner

Math 7
We finished our Moving Straight Ahead review with a rousing game of Algebra Jeopardy. It was a close race between several teams and it was a fun way to practice linear functions. Students began the Unit Assessment on Friday.   We will be moving onto proportional reasoning and geometry next week.  If you find your child with a few minutes to spare, please encourage them to visit Khan Academy to practice their math skills.  

Math 8
We buried and sought treasure this week in math class.  Students placed treasure on a specific point on a grid, then created clues to find the treasure’s position by plotting inequalities and eliminating area, for example  y< x+1 or y > 2x.   With each new clue, students got closer to the treasure.   We learned how to graph and find the solution set for all of the inequalities. It was both fun and challenging.  

Science ⅞
Last Friday was the  much anticipated “Koke Chillin Challenge”.  Students presented their Koke Chillers to the visiting dignitaries from Koka- Kola,  and a plethora of visiting students from WCS.  The visiting dignitaries included such high profile  stars as Fizzy Minaj, Ryan Seagrams, Fanta White, Sunny Dee, Ginger Kale, Dr Mariah Pepper and Fresca Taylor. The mission of each team was to design a portable device that would lower the temperature of “Koke” to a chilly and thirst quenching temperature.  Students designed, built and marketed their device utilizing the principles of heat transfer.  Awards were presented for the “Most Effective Chiller”, “Most Persuasive Presentation” and the “Most Well Noted Design”.  Good work Voyager design engineers!  

Ms. Cooper’s Light unit  began this week with the  exploration of the nature of light through several hands-on investigations.  Using their science notebooks, students recorded observations and generated questions for further investigation.  Students considered the relationship between light and thermal energy, how refraction affects how we view objects, and how the absorption and reflection of light impacts how we perceive color.  After demonstrating their keen scientific curiosity by making thoughtful observations and generating many questions, students shored up their background knowledge about light through reading and watching videos focusing on frequency and wavelength and the electromagnetic spectrum.  Students shared their thinking about investigations and background materials in pairs and as a whole group.  

News from Ms. O
⅚ Science
The big question in science is “what is energy and how do I know when something has it? has been the focus of our investigations this new year.  This unit, energy and engineering, is designed to expose students to engineering principles, as this is the emphasis of some of the new standards coming on-line in science in the next few years.  Students experienced their first design challenge this week, to build a catapult that could launch a marshmallow the furthest.  As part of this design challenge, students needed to account for the cost of the materials used and do the building of the design in 30 minutes.  It was interesting to watch the focus and the collaborative spirit.  I’m so pleased with how students approached this task.  It is so highly motivating that it was fascinating to watch the design and redesign process when it didn’t throw the marshmallow very far!  We will have our launching contest next week.

Math 5
Fifth grade math students have been working on building understanding of the attributes of rectangles and triangles with a focus on vocabulary. Using our word wall, we will begin to record all of the language we are using to understand geometry.  Specifically we are looking at the relationship between rectangles and triangles and ways that we can relate their area.  We have used the words subdivide and enclose as ways to think about area and so hopefully students will have multiple ways to represent the relationship between the area of rectangles and the area of triangles.

Math 6
Students have begun work with integers - positive and negative numbers.  The goal of our work is twofold.  We must first understand magnitude of a number, ‘which is bigger?’ when asked to compare two numbers.  The second goal is to understand operations with integers.  I will be sure to address some algebra concepts in this area due to the difficulty students in the upper grades have with connecting this skill with the idea of balancing equations.  We will also look at the coordinate grid, to expose students to graphing linear equations that include coordinate pairs that have negative positive and negative x and y points.
 

Mr. Merrill’s Wrap Up
This week students started a new literature group round.   The books are all from the historical fiction genre and for the ⅚ students, take place during the Revolutionary War era.  Ask your student about his or her book selection.  
In Language Arts, students reflected on 2012 and wrote a friendly letter to their future selves.  The letters will be mailed on January 1, 2014.  Students included highlights of 2012 and goals for 2013 in their letters.  
In Social Studies, students continued their study of the 3 Branches of Government, preparing for a mock trial that will be held next week.  Students will either be a judge or an attorney in this pro se court.