Week of November 6th - 10th

TA’s Notes:

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

***Please notify us if your child has strep.  Thank you for this courtesy.***

Voyager Homework Club- Tuesdays (2:00-3:30pm) and Wednesdays (3:00-4:30pm)

Dates to Know:

• Fri, Nov 10th-  School Dance for 6th - 8th graders (Hosted by Harbor House)

• Nov 20th - 24th- No School, Thanksgiving Break

• Nov 27th - Dec 1st- Scholastic Book Fair at WCS

• Wed, Dec 6th (Slight time change with this event!)- Voyager Family Night / Variety Show 6:30 - 8:15pm at WCS in Dining Room & Auditorium

• Sat, Dec 9th- Voyager students can volunteer to be elves with the Polar Express from 4:00 - 8:00pm.  More info to come.  Please note the date if your student might be interested!
  
  

Thanksgiving Baskets

Voyager House has a tradition where each core collects donations to assemble a Thanksgiving Basket to donate to a local Williston family in need.  Students talked about what should be in this basket and who wanted to bring in what.  Lists from each core will be emailed out asap.  Donations are requested by next Wednesday, 11/15.

Thank you for anything you can contribute!

For 8th grade families:

Permission Forms for the May 24th - May 25th 8th Grade Celebration Trip to Ridin-Hy.  All forms must be completed and returned by December 15th so WCS can reserve enough beds at the ranch.  Students were also given paper copies of these forms.  Please return to Voyager TA.

1.Ridin-Hy Permission Slip

2.Ridin-Hy Eligibility

3.Ridin-Hy Medical Form

4.WCS Release Form

5.Ridin-Hy Release Form

Flashlight Drive for Puerto Rico at WCS

Ever since Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, over 80% of public schools in Puerto Rico have been closed, and still are! Tanner Wolpert and Asa Roberts are working with former Swift student Storm Rushford's and his family, to send flashlights to help these schools. Our goal is to send more than 450 flashlights by Friday, November 17th. These flashlights will help a school without power by bringing enough light for students to read and write as soon as they can.  The types of flashlights we are looking for are relatively cheap and light, and suitable for moving around the school.  Please drop off your flashlight donations in the box outside of the front office at WCS!

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

Highlights:

• Finished our Mystery and Spook unit. Students learned the LEAF format for writing a constructed response. We searched for evidence in the mystery/spook book that shows how the setting creates a story of mystery and spook and then used that evidence to write a LEAF paragraph.
• Completed our survey of the 5 Themes of Geography. Students prepared flashcards for a landforms vocabulary activity and searched a physical world map for landforms and bodies of water. We also learned about regions and identified the unique qualities that can make up a region.
• 6th graders wrote their second friendly letter to a pen pal in Hawaii and 5th graders started their first letter to a pen pal in Gambia.

WCS FAP Book Fair - Week of November 27th

Voyager 5th graders will visit the book fair at 8:15 on Tuesday, November 28th

Voyager 6th graders will visit the book fair at 9:15 on Tuesday, November, 28th

If you would like your student to purchase a book, please send your student to school with money on 11/28. I will also have an online wish list for classroom books, if you would like to support our classroom library by purchasing a book from the fair.

Enrichment opportunity: The American Mothers National 5th Grade Essay Contest is open to all 5th grade students.  There are monetary prizes available to the winners of each state, as well as a national winner who will read their speech at the annual American Mothers' Conference in Washington, DC.  Deadline: January 15th, 2018

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

Math 5:  It’s been a ‘big shift’ week for students.  As we have moved away from models for addition and subtraction of fractions (in clocks and money), I can already see some growing strategies for finding a common denominator!

We focused our learning on two problems, the River Trail Mapping Project and the Mr. Miles problems.  The first problem asked students to mark landmarks on a trail that was 30 km long.  This was helpful to see how students were using their understanding of fractions of a whole to mark certain locations. We called this model a double number line.   We then took this idea and applied it to the Mr. Miles problems where students got to choose the length of the trail, based on some noticings about common denominators.  The goal of both activities was to start to use a common denominator to add and subtract fractions.

We also worked with ratio tables to discuss problems that ask, “Which is the better buy?”  We worked with problems like, 5 granola bars for $8 or 6 granola bars for $9 to find the better buy.  Ironically, students believed that both deals were equally good deals which allowed us to then explore justifications for this.  

Math 6:  Students are fully immersed in fractions!  We spent our week reviewing the addition and subtraction algorithm for fractions and did a bit of practice on it!  In addition, we began investigating models that explain how to find a fraction of a fraction, and looking at limitations of these models.  We built a few public records to discuss noticings and limitations and used some modeling tools, the fraction multipliers, to see how these fraction of number problems can be modeled.   See photo of public record below.  We are coming up on a quiz next week to assess addition and subtraction of fractions.  I gave students 30 problems to do for homework and the average was a 66%, so if you can, give them some problems to solve at home this weekend!

⅚ Science:  This week, we paused on the introduction of phenomena and sunk into what we know about air.  Students were introduced to a framework last week, where I asked them to consider what happened and why it happened?, in order to make claims about air.  I have attached some examples so you can see what students were documenting.  We also began intensively studying new vocabulary from the unit and reading about air as it relates to weather.  I often give vocabulary and reading at the end of a unit and students articulated my reasoning for this - “because we already know the words and have seen them in action!” This is a way to let students build language along the way, and background knowledge, so that they can indeed connect with words and text and remember words and concepts for the future.  

We also built two weather instruments, an aneroid barometer and a water barometer, both designed to measure air pressure.  We have learned that air pressure is one factor that influences weather.  Students will keep data over the next few weeks to see if there are patterns and trends in their readings, and then compare those trends with barometric readings from BIA.  They can also compare sensitivities of designs, to see which is a better measure of the changes in air pressure, a barometer made with water or one made with air.  

We had a modeling and vocabulary quiz today.  I’ll have those scored and reported on Jumprope soon!

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

ELA 7&8

This week, our reading logs and narrative outlines were due on Monday. We began reading log 10 (due Monday), with a focus on subject/verb agreement and figurative language. In class, we used the week to turn our narrative outlines into a completed draft. This takes a lot of hard work The assessed draft is due next Friday, November 17th. We are focused on writing stories that have all of the elements of plot, in addition to excellent use of figurative language, descriptive language, and sensory details. We also worked on our understanding of subject/verb agreement by completing some online exercises in addition to class handouts. We scored and discussed the handout as a class.

Social Studies

This week, we continued our practice of summary writing and use of text evidence to support claims. We practiced our understanding and familiarity with world cultures and religions vocabulary. We also finished our preliminary work with the five themes of geography. This sets us up nicely for our in depth study of world cultures and religion, in which students will pick a world region to research, using the five themes as a guide.

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

CMP8

This week students have been exploring exponential functions through tables, graphs and equations.  We began to consider the exponential growth equation  y= a(bx), where a is the y-intercept, b is the growth factor and x is the independent variable.  All of the parts of the equation can be seen in the table and graph as “landmarks”.   We explored how the growth factor changes the shape of the exponential curve.  We practiced problems with exponents and writing numbers in scientific notation.

CMP7

The 7th graders began working with positive and negative integers.  We worked with number lines to add and subtract numbers.  These models help us to visualize our operations.

We learned about Spearfish, SD where on January 23, 1943 the temperature increased from -4 degrees to 45 degrees in two minutes.  It was a world record change.  Using temperature to understand adding and subtracting positive and negative integers is one way of using number lines.

Science 7th/8th

This week we have been very busy- more info in next week’s Voice!

Week of October 31st - November 3rd

TA’s Notes:

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

***Please notify us if your child has strep.  Thank you for this courtesy.***

Voyager Homework Club- Tuesdays (2:00-3:30pm) and Wednesdays (3:00-4:30pm)

Dates to Know:

• Sat, Nov 4th- Craft Show at WCS 9:30am - 4:00pm

• Fri, Nov 10th- DATE CHANGE!  School Dance for 6th - 8th graders (Hosted by Harbor House)

• Wed, Dec 6th- Voyager Family Night / Variety Show 6 - 8pm at WCS in Dining Room & Auditorium

• Sat, Dec 9th- Voyager students can volunteer to be elves with the Polar Express from 4:00 - 8:00pm.  More info to come.  Please note the date if your student might be interested!

For 8th grade families:

Permission Forms for the May 24th - May 25th 8th Grade Celebration Trip to Ridin-Hy.  All forms must be completed and returned by December 15th so WCS can reserve enough beds at the ranch.  Students were also given paper copies of these forms.  Please return to Voyager TA.

1.Ridin-Hy Permission Slip

2.Ridin-Hy Eligibility

3.Ridin-Hy Medical Form

4.WCS Release Form

5.Ridin-Hy Release Form

Work Completion Communication Friendly Reminder:

Assignments that are not turned in on Google Classroom are not necessarily late. JumpRope is updated every two weeks with a work completion score. We also email parents if students are missing assignments on a weekly basis.

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

We continued our study of the 5 Themes of Geography this week. Here is a quick look at the  themes we looked into…

• Place - We brainstormed the physical and human characteristics of Vermont. Students made a Place Map of Vermont - filling it up with the unique characteristics of our state.
• Human-Environment Interaction - We reviewed a powerpoint on the geography of Williston, viewing historical and aerial photos to come up with examples of how we depend on, adapt to, and modify our environment. We also looked at a bar graph of the history of WIlliston’s population and thought about how changes have affected the town.
• Movement - We explored products - where they come from, how we depend on them, and how they get to Williston. We also explored roots - students discussed what they know about the when and why their ancestors came to the United States and how they got here.

Mystery and Spook Books - As students wrap up their book, they are thinking about and finding examples of how the setting creates a story of mystery and spook.

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

Math 5:  This week we worked on clock and money fractions and finally made the bridge to common denominators. We started to see that the only way we can add and subtract fractions is to find a common denominator.  We made the connection from Least Common Multiples lists to using that number for a Common Denominator.  You will be seeing more equivalent fractions ideas, like you are used to, when adding and subtracting fractions.

It was fun to have 5th grade parents at the Open Classroom day. I will schedule another one, sometime soon, so you can all come in!  Really you can come any time.  Just let me know when you want to come!

Math 6: We began Let’s Be Rational this week and began to tackle the idea of using benchmarks to get close to actual sums and differences.  We also talked about times when it is okay to overestimate and times when it is not okay.  The list below was generated by students to identify those times when it is okay to overestimate and when it isn’t!

⅚ Science:  We added one more air phenomenon to our experience this week by looking at what happens when we heat and cool air.  We used soap film and glycerin to create a strong bubble that could withstand repeated heating and cooling of the air inside a flask in order to say that hot air molecules push on the soap film from the inside causing a bubble to form on top of the flask.  When those same air molecules on the inside of the flask are cooled the outside air molecules push on the film and cause the soap film to descend into the flask.  We will use this same design to build barometers next week in order to link the behavior of air to weather changes.  We finally named the pushing of air molecules as air pressure.

We also reviewed and evaluated our infographics!  Sorry this took some time.  Hard to squeeze it in!  

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

This week, we focused in on our narrative assignment, and by Monday, every student will have a completed outline, with many students already beginning the writing process. Ask your child about his/her idea!  Students received a complete description of the assignment, accompanied by support materials. We will be practicing discrete writing skills each week to support this assignment.  We began with subject verb agreement. We will continue with punctuation, capitalization, figurative language, sensory imagery, and maintaining verb tense. Students continued their independent reading, focused on using context clues to define unknown vocabulary, along with exploring the theme of their book. Students also continued work with summary writing from informational text, along with the five themes of geography, and basic geography practice. Specifically in regards to the five themes, students focused on human and environment interaction, and characteristics that differentiate regions.

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

CMP8

Students completed the “Thinking with Mathematical Models” Unit Assessment at the beginning of the week.  Results will be available next week.  We have moved onto exponent and created Step Books on many of the rules utilized when working with exponents.  Students completed their vocabulary from our new book “Growing, Growing, Growing” and we began to explore exponential graphs and tables. Finally, students have begun their IXL online math program.  The expectation is that students will work 45 minutes to meet the expectation and an hour to exceed the expectation which is due on Friday.  There will be other class related math problems during the week.  Please refer to Google Classroom.

CMP7

This week we completed our Shapes and Designs Unit Test and explored number systems and how rational numbers are related to integers, whole numbers and counting numbers.  We began our “Accentuate the Negative” book with our vocabulary study and talked about strategies  with adding positive and negative integers.  We used number lines to place a variety of numbers on our number lines and defended our reasoning.

Science 7th/8th

We had a very abridged science week with the wind storm, Swift play and the PBIS cell-a-bration.  We did get some great experimentation done in the time we had.  Students have been working on changing a variable from our original exothermic reaction in a series of experiments.  Students have been doing a great job at following their experiment plans and  

collecting lots of data, observations and creating graphs.  In the next week we will be completing a lab report on our findings.

Week of October 23rd - 27th

TA’s Notes:

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

***Please notify us if your child has strep.  Thank you for this courtesy.***

Voyager Homework Club- Tuesdays (2:00-3:30pm) and Wednesdays (3:00-4:30pm)

Dates to Know:

• Fri, Nov 3rd- School Dance for 6th - 8th graders (Hosted by Harbor House)

• Wed, Dec 6th- Voyager Family Night / Variety Show 6 - 8pm at WCS in Dining Room & Auditorium

• Sat, Dec 9th- Voyager students can volunteer to be elves with the Polar Express from 4:00 - 8:00pm.  More info to come.  Please note the date if your student might be interested!

For 8th grade families:

Permission Forms for the May 24th - May 25th 8th Grade Celebration Trip to Ridin-Hy.  All forms must be completed and returned by December 15th so WCS can reserve enough beds at the ranch.  Students were also given paper copies of these forms.  Please return to Voyager TA.

1.Ridin-Hy Permission Slip

2.Ridin-Hy Eligibility

3.Ridin-Hy Medical Form

4.WCS Release Form

5.Ridin-Hy Release Form

Williston FAP Notes:

The FAPAC Meeting Minutes from October’s meeting:

https://www.smore.com/s5rmj

Like us on Facebook!

Williston FAP Annual Fund

Please donate to the FAP Annual Fund. This is how your student's field trips are paid for.

$45 recommended per student. Any amount helps!

Send check to Williston Central School, Williston FAP, 195 Central School Drive

Annual Families as Partners Fund Campaign Flyer

Boys & Girls 802 Lacrosse Tryouts

Location: The Edge Field House 115 Wellness Drive Williston Vermont.  Players can choose to attend one of three tryouts.  You only need to attend ONE of the available tryout times for each age group.     802 Lacrosse Registration Link

Thank you to all who joined us for the PLP Cafe today!!

There were items left behind this morning if you have lost anything in particular please contact Katie Fieldsend, KFieldsend@cvsdvt.org.

Pictures below.

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

Last week we introduced the 5 Themes of Geography. This week we started going a little deeper into the themes. We started with Location. Students learned about latitude and longitude and how to find an exact location. We played some location games with US and World maps and beach ball globes. We also used the scale and compass rose on a map to describe relative location. Students wrote relative location descriptions for US cities using these two parts of a map.

Students also spent some time setting up their PLP sites this week. After naming, labeling, and adding some pictures, they reflected on their goals and collected evidence to show their progress and work to meet these goals.

5th graders were also introduced to the country of Gambia and will be writing friendly letters to their pen pals in Gambia soon.

A friendly reminder that all students should be reading 20-30 minutes a night. Every student has his/her own copy of a mystery/spook book. Please be sure your student is completing the assigned reading each week.

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

Math 5:  This week students wrapped up Unit 1, taking their assessments, reviewing and making corrections, and then writing a reflection.  This is a good loop for learning because it allows students to see errors in a timely fashion and then make corrections.  We also began our fractions unit, which is the first of several fractions units this year.  We began by using modeling as a way to understand fractions.  The clock and money models are great starts to understanding a huge misconception when operating with fractions - that you can add or subtract the numerators and denominators.  We spent a few days working on this misconception so that we could bust the myth!  

Open Math Classroom:  Thursday, November 2 9:30-10:30!  Come join the learning if you like!

Math 6:  We had a productive week with percents and learned a lot of things about how percents, decimals, and fractions are just different names for the same number.  Some students worked on the strategy of 10% and 1% first, then use those to help you get to 83%. Other students worked on translating the statement what is 23% of 45, as x = .23 x 45.  This is a push for the traditional model for finding percents of a number or identifying the number when a percent is given.

Open Math Classroom:  Thursday, November 2  8:30-9:30! Come join the learning if you like!

⅚ Science:  It was phenomena week this week!  We discovered a few more things about air this week while investigating syringes, competing in the “Biggest Sucker” phenomenon and finding way to blow up a balloon in a jar, the Balloon Jar Phenomenon.  I’ve included some photos below.

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

ELA and Social Studies: Students continued their practice of independent reading supported by reading log 8. This week, it involved using context clues to help define unfamiliar words. It also asked students to discuss the theme of their book, using text evidence to support their claims. It is exciting to witness the progression of literacy skills and to see students self select interesting, challenging literature and nonfiction. We spent a lot of time on our PLPs this week. Students designed their PLP websites from the ground up, using google sites. This involved choosing fonts, backgrounds, themes, and other factors of design so that the site represented them exactly the way they wanted. Next, students edited and revised their mini-autobiographies to include on the Identity page. This proved to be challenging, as we are hoping to be error free whenever we post something to an audience. Finally, students brainstormed, planned, and formed two SMART goals; one academic and one personal. These goals are meant to be on the short term side, meaning attainable in approximately three months. We are focused on reflecting often on progress made toward the goals, so please check in with your child about his/her goals.  The PLP is a great place for students to collect examples/evidence of who they are, so please feel free to remind them that taking pictures, collecting souvenirs/artifacts from events, and reflecting upon experiences are all excellent opportunities for enhancing and personalizing the PLP. Experiences such as performing, hiking, traveling, attending a performance, competing, etc, are great examples of possible additions to the PLP. One way of understanding the PLP is to think of it as an interactive, evolving resumé, with the added touch of a journal. It is meant to be shared and talked about with family and community members.

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

CMP7

This week we completed our “Shapes and Designs” investigation with looking at transversals that cut parallel lines, external angles of polygons and creating class records for our use during the “Shapes and Designs” Unit Test.  This unit test is a “leveled” assessment which allows students to show their understanding of the learning targets from level 1 to 4.  We will be moving on to positive and negative numbers next week.

CMP8

We have been exploring more multi-stepped algebraic equations this week.  We have learned to use the distributive property, collect like terms, and balance equations to find an unknown variable.  Inverse variations were explored briefly, but will be explored more when students move onto Algebra 2 at CVU.  Students create class records and completed a unit test review.  The 8th grade “Thinking with Mathematical Models” test is a leveled assessment which allows students to show their understanding on learning targets from level 1 to level 4.  We will be moving on to exponential growth with “Growing, Growing, Growing”.

Science

We explored the Law of Conservation of Mass by creating models of our exothermic reaction between Calcium Chloride, Baking Soda and water.  Students counted the numbers of atoms in the reactants and then counted the number of atoms in the product to see what happened.  It was Conservation magic that every atom was accounted for!  Students worked with their dyad partners to create testable questions and create experiment plans for changing one variable of our original exothermic reaction.  Every pair will conduct a series of experiments, collect data, make observations and analyze what they found.  Next week we will be writing a formal lab report from our results.