Week of February 14th - 17th

TA’s Notes:

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

No School: Monday, February 27th - Friday, March 3rd

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

Poetry Slam Week

Students participated in poetry writing workshops in the morning and worked with their poetry slam teams in the afternoon during our poetry slam week. We read and watched slam poetry to inspire our writing and slam performances. Students also learned about and used literary devices in their theme and sensory poetry writing. Slam teams participated in poetry slam challenges. They wrote simile/metaphor poetry that had to be performed by a teacher. They also had to create and perform a slam poem using a given set of words. Each challenge earned their team points during the week long slam competition. The final competition included both team and individual original poetry slams. Students performed their poetry in the auditorium to students and parents.  

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

The conference schedule has been emailed to you.  Please do your best to sign up for conferences as soon as possible.

Math 5:  Assessments went home this week.  Please ask your child for the assessment and cross reference scores on Jumprope.

We have begun our new unit on multiplication and division of fractions.  We will continue to work specifically on whole numbers x fractions this week and move to fractions x fractions next week.

Math 6:   A check up went home this week.  Please ask your child for the assessment and cross reference scores on Jumprope.  Also, students have completed their corrections on Covering and Surrounding Unit Test.  I will have scores in this weekend and tests will go home Monday.  Please take a look when you can.  The assessment was very difficult for many students and their corrections may have produced some improved results.

⅚ Science:  Just poetry this week.  We will continue our work with Gravity and the Solar System after break.  We will have only two science classes next week, which will be a review session on Gravity and a short assessment to wrap up what we have learned thus far.

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

CMP8

This week we had some significant traction with understanding the parabolic landmarks found in the standard form ax2 + bx + c and the factored form (x + p) (x + q).  We used multiple strategies to find the line of symmetry and how to find the vertex using that same line.  The process of finding these different parts of a parabola often requires multiple steps.  It assumes that students can use exponents, positive and negative integers and the distributive property.  I have been having many additional core time math sessions and encourage the students to come see me if they are struggling.  They are working hard and are definitely moving forward in their thinking.

CMP7

We are finishing up our scaling projects with wonderful results. This project challenges students to slow down, use a grid system to plot points and pay attention to detail when enlarging and shrinking their images. Creating a skewed or distorted image pushes students to create an image using a rule that either doubles the horizontal change or the vertical change.

Science 7th/8th

This week we participated in the Poetry slam, science will begin again next week.

Voyager Poetry Slam Competition Friday, February 17th!

Join us Friday for our Voyager Poetry Slam Competition from 1:45-2:45 in the Auditorium!  Come see original poetry presented in small groups and individually.  

Week of February 6-10

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

We kicked off two big projects this week. The stock market game officially started on Monday. Students put their research to use by making their first investments in the game. The rules require each team to purchase 5 stocks in the first 5 weeks and spend $50,000. The game runs for 10 weeks and teams win by having the highest total equity for their portfolios. Students are competing against teams across the state.

Voyager kicked off its Poetry Slam unit with a trip to the Flynn to see Mayhem Poets. This group of performance poets mix hip hop, theatre, stand up comedy and serious poetry together for an amazing show. During the unit, students will participate in poetry writing, performance, and interpretation workshops to create their own poetry performance for a Poetry slam contest at the end of next week.

Workshops on rhythm, voice, body percussion, public speaking, and choreography!

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

Important Note: Aron and I will need to change the spring conference day! I have an appointment in Boston on that day that cannot be changed.  We are sorry for this inconvenience.  We will be sending out a new schedule for conferences next week, so you can make advanced plans to attend.  Thanks for being flexible!

Math 5 and 6:

We participated in several days of studying the “math” behind the stock market.  This mathematical work was designed to provide mathematical skills and understandings to playing the game and making wise decisions as you take risks with the allotted $100,000.  The workshops focused on and potentially answered these three questions:  

• What causes stock values to change?  We looked at phenomena like decreased supply of good cocoa for making chocolate; how weather might be to blame for rising costs; how natural disasters or tragic events like Hurricane Katrina can favor some companies and hurt others.  
• How can the value of our money grow?  We looked specifically at interest bearing savings.  We looked at the Tale of Two Savers.  Ron started saving young and did so for 6 years.  He then left his money in his savings account, without withdrawal for another 9.  His friend, David, didn’t start saving until six years after Ron, and then saved for 10 years.  Who had more money after the 15 years?  RON!  The motto is SAVE for as long as you can!
• When do you buy, sell, or hold stock?  We looked at 6 companies and phenomena (like Martha Stewart goes to jail because of insider trading) to see how that might affect your decisions to buy, sell, or hold your stock.  This was fun! Ask your child what they decided given perceived risk and benefit.

⅚ Science:

We only worked on creating a Gravity Test this week.  This is the final project in our early gravity work.  We will get back to the Solar System after the poetry slam unit.  

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

CMP8

The 8th grade class is working hard on quadratic equations, equivalent expressions and finding landmarks on parabolas that are reflected in the factored form and standard form.  Through class discussion and utilization of Desmos, our online graphing calculator, we can create parabolas that are “thin” and “wide” due to the coefficient of x2, their maximum/minimum point (vertex), line of symmetry, y-intercept and x intercepts.

http://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/beginning-algebra/s12-05-graphing-parabolas.htm

CMP7

Students are deligently working on their “Shrink it Down and Blow it up” projects.  Many have gotten through shrinking and enlarging, but our the last task is to make a distorted image that uses a rule like 2x,y.  This means that the horizontal dimension is doubled, but the vertical dimension stays the same.  

Science 7th/8th

During the poetry unit, students will give up their science period through next week.  However this week students were working on thier “Life in the Universe” essay.  During our Alien Planet project students were given scientific articles, astronomy websites and videos as resources as they created their planets and aliens.  This 3-5 LEAF paragraph essay asked the question:

Why is the work of astrobiologists important? What would it mean to find life elsewhere in the universe? The deadline for this essay was on Thursday.

Week of January 30 - February 3

TA’s Notes:

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

The new deadline to order a Yearbook is Wednesday, February 22nd.  

Yearbook Order Form

Please note, no additional yearbooks will be ordered.

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

We started preparing for the Stock Market game this week. The Stock Market Game

Is an online simulation of the global capital markets that engages students in the world of economics, investing and personal finance. Students work in teams to invest 100,000 virtual dollars in stocks, bonds and mutual funds. Students practiced team building skills and how to make it to consensus. This will be important when they start making decisions about how to invest their money. In the first 5 weeks, teams must invest in at least 5 different stocks and spend a minimum of $50,000. Lessons on what is a company? What is a stock? What is risk? And what is diversification? Will be taught before the first orders are placed Monday afternoon.

Poetry Slam Competition - On Wednesday we will be going to the Flynn Theater to see Mayhem Poets. This is a poetry performance field trip that will kick off our 5-8 Poetry Slam unit. Students will work in groups to create their own poetry slam performance for Friday, February 17th. In morning classes students will write poetry based on a selected theme. They will the work with their group to write a final poem and performance during our afternoon periods. Students will work on crafting poetry with poetic language, a point of view,  and conveying human emotion. Vocal elements (tone, volume, pitch, pace, rhythm, gesture) will also be judged in the competition.

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

5th GRADERS! We spent every day this week enforcing a clean cubby policy. No snack

Math 5:  It was a busy week of dividing multi-digit numbers using ratio tables and area models.  The purpose of these strategies is to see that multiplication and division, albeit opposite operations, can be used simultaneously when solving problems. See the example below.

The idea behind showing students these interacting strategies is that they can then visualize division in different ways. Many students have a sense of the standard algorithm but haven’t yet mastered the process.  Keep showing them this if you like.  For now, students are having great success understanding the divisor represents groups of, as both the ratio and area model indicate.

Unit Assessment was today!

Math 6:  More Geometry this week!  We worked on coordinate graphing this week, reviewing x,y coordinate points and how to use coordinates to find area and perimeter of polygons in space.  We also reviewed Volume and Surface Area.  We will take our assessment on Tuesday.  

We will be taking advantage of some of the math necessary to play the Stock Market game by looking at decimals, daily trading options, and growth of money over time.  Students will keep regular watch over rising and falling stock values and graphing this data to look at trends and patterns. When do you sell?  What should you buy?  The graphs will tell us so!

⅚ Science:

Pictures speak louder than words! Take a look at our week’s worth of learning!

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

We worked on public speaking throughout this week. Students did research for a project of their choice relating to immigration, and then prepared a three minute speech based on this research. On Thursday we had two guest teachers, Stan Williams and Emily Rinkema, from CVU give a demonstration class for us. Students did work in separate groups on different challenges related to public speaking. On Monday students will present their speeches to the full class.

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

CMP8

Students started the week investigating the area of squares and what happens to the area of the figure when you decrease one dimension and increase the other dimension.  The expression we created was a quadratic. (x -2) (x +2).  We found that this equation, when expanded using the distributive property, is equivalent to x2 -4.  We watched a very cheesy rap video on the F.O.I.L method, check it out for yourself. Cheesy F.O.I.L. Method  Rap

Finally, using algebra tiles we used a hands-on approach to factoring binomials.  

CMP7

We completed our last investigations in our unit “Stretching and Shrinking”, played jeopardy, reviewed our class record and completed the assessment. We are beginning our “Shrink it down and Blow it up” scaling project.  Students have selected their images and project specifics have been added to Google Classroom.

Science 7th/8th

This week students completed their Alien World Project. During the week, they shared their ideas with each other and worked toward creating a scientifically accurate planet and alien species.  On Friday, Gold Class presented to Blue and then Blue presented to Gold.  There is a lot of creative science going on and many students have done extensive research on how different attributes such as low gravity, thin atmosphere and moons can cause interesting conditions on the planet.