Week of March 3

Collections for the 14th 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, April 12, 2014.

We ask each family to donate one (or more) item(s) that relate to your class theme:

Ms. Wesnak- Teen Time

Ms. Quatt- Let’s Get Fit

Ms. O’Brien- Best of Boston

Mr. Merrill- Fondue Fun

Ms. Q’s Corner

CMP7 and CMP8

Due to the play unit, we had an abridged math class.  Our 7th grade students reviewed ratios, proportions and began looking at the meaning of slope.  In 8th grade we reviewed function notation and explored parent functions and their translations.

7th/8th Science:

We introduced our engineering task and students began working with their groups.  Next week we will have double science periods to design, build, test and redesign our cars, space landers, marshmallow projectiles and ziplines.  March 18th is the school wide engineering  competition, and Voyager students will be  competing for the “bragging rights” of best design for the task.

The Week in Ms.Wesnak’s Room: Brought to you by Olivia, Halina, Natalie, and Davis!

Words From Our Student Directors: The Voyager play unit has come to an end. As you have probably heard from your tired cast or crew member, this week was a little hectic. There were difficulties with sound, headsets and set changes, but we all came through and performed a great show! We would like to thank all those who participated in the production, whether cast, crew or staff. Aside from the bumps in the road, we all put so much hard work into making this play be “audience-ready” and a great success! Though Tuesday and Wednesday were a little stressful with full dress rehearsals and working with sets for the first time, Thursday’s productions were absolutely fantastic. It was truly an amazing experience to see our creation come to life and we thank you all for supporting Voyager in this process!

Words From Our Stage Managers: This week was performance week, and we all managed to get back from vacation and  get on track right away. Our lines were memorized, the red curtain was fixed and blocking was finalized, we were well on our way to being fully prepared for the show. There wasn’t a single person involved that wasn’t nervous, but that was natural. The nerves were good.

Before each of our performances, we warmed up together in the auditorium. One of the most important warmups was when we gathered together in a circle around the auditorium. We all held hands with the people next to us, and sent out a “heartbeat” pulse around to everyone. The warm up showed that without cooperation from even just one person, things wouldn’t be able to be accomplished. We needed everyone in the room, all of Voyager house, to pull this play off. Every person was essential to this production. Now that we have completed all of our performances, we can see that things have definitely come together.  We’ve come so far together as a house, and it’s going to be hard to say goodbye to it all.

The Week in Ms. O’s

Getting back to some regularity in our schedule, we set math goals this week related to Habits of Mind and Interaction.  Students have chosen one of four areas to focus:  Habits of Interaction, particularly the commitment to share thinking with dyad partner, Make Sense of My Thinking and the Thinking of Others (what is the same, what is different, does the thinking make sense based on what I know), Justifying (how do I show and explain my work so others can understand, how do I use models to explain my thinking) and Generalizing (what patterns do I notice, what conjectures can I make about the structure and regularity of the math, can my conjecture be generalized to all cases).  

Math next week...6th Graders should bring in a snack for a data analysis project on food.  If it can be an extra snack beyond the usual that would be great.  We will be using it to learn more about data and how to use data to make decisions.

Science:  We have a big independent project coming soon and wanted to give you a heads up.  Students will have the choice to:  virtually climb Mt. Everest, make a meal for your family, interview a doctor about disease, dissect a sheep or pig organ, build a prosthetic, or build a helmet in order to fulfill the goals of the project.  Students will be using iMovie as a tool to share their learning with others.  We will also have class time dedicated to this work.  We will choose these projects relatively early in the week as we investigate onion, cheek, and other kinds of cells.  This project is due, April 4th.  All documents will be shared with students and then with you!

Double Issue February 17

The Voyager Team Presents:

A VOICE DOUBLE FEATURE EXTRAVAGANZA

Featuring wrap-ups from the weeks of February 10th and February 17th

Enjoy!

VOYAGER THEATRE PRODUCTION: Performance Date: March 6th at 6:30

Important information about schedule changes and academics during the play production weeks:

On February 10th, 2014 Voyager started a three-week unit (February 10th -March 7th) of experience and study in producing our own play Lock-it and Key: Sometimes When You Snooze, You Win.  Our daily schedule has changed to accommodate rehearsals and technical work.  The casts and crews were finalized February 10th.  All students have a role or job for the play.  There is one large cast that will perform.  Parents are invited to help out in various ways before and during the production.  Look for a Needs List coming from the technical crew for what props, costuming, and help during the day are needed. This list will be posted on the Voice.

In terms of academics, all students will continue their independent reading during the times when they are not directly involved in the play (waiting for their scene, waiting for paint to dry, etc.) or during afternoon core time. We will still be holding math and science classes during the production weeks, and all students will have journal writing to complete on a weekly basis. All Voyager students will be responsible for completing a final reflection at the end of the unit, along with a final project. The list of journal writing expectations/prompts and final project choices and expectations are provided on the play rubric.

Eighth graders will not have any special or dictated work periods for their 8th Grade Challenge projects and will need to continue that assignment independently at home. All students have an 8th Grade Challenge folder at school that will have a copy of the final presentation checklist, as well as the final presentation rubric. With a lighter homework load now is a great time for eighth graders to put in some hours in order to start wrapping up their work.

Our play unit this year happens to be during a VERY busy time. We begin on February 10th, February Break is coming up, Parent Conferences are on February 21, grades close on March 7th, and the Voyager Dance is also March 7th. The play unit is a very unique, creative, and special time in our curriculum where all of Voyager comes together as a 5-8 community. We’re in an “all hands on deck” mode to help make this a memorable and exciting experience for all. All students have work to complete during this time whether that is for the play directly, academic work for the play, or academic work for other classes.

Below is a guideline that we wrote for the students to understand how the theatre production will be run.  We want you to have a copy so that you can support the process.

The house goal is to have all students participate in the play in some capacity. All roles must be filled. We understand that all roles in the theater unit are different, from lights and sound to cast to prop gathering, but every role is IMPORTANT and has MANY pieces to complete to be a success. Every student is busy during this time, and their role may change. Some students may start off with one project, but end up working on the set. Teachers will look out for the proper workings and success of the whole play and make decisions accordingly. It is a privilege to receive a lead role and appropriate behavior, attitude, and effort is required.  If you do not get the role you want, you will be assigned to another role. This means you may be assigned to a role you did not sign up for. There is no switching once assignments are made, unless the faculty initiates and decides the change. Accept the role you receive and give it your best effort. We all have much learning to do. Together, with good effort, we will all have a blast doing this project.

Please also review the play rubric which will be used to evaluate your student’s effort, cooperation, and participation for the next three weeks.

Tickets:  A letter will be going home about tickets on Tuesday, March 4, along with 4 tickets to the evening performance of the Voyager Play, Thursday, March 6 at 6:30 pm.  Please read the letter and return any unwanted tickets.  If you would like additional tickets beyond the 4 your family receives, contact Katie, Voyager TA, at kfieldsend@cssu.org.

News from Voyager FAP

Voyager Dance:

The Voyager-sponsored School Dance in Friday, March 7th!  It is the week afterschool break, so we have to get it organized and parent commitments a bit early. So, if you could read below and visit the link to sign up that would be awesome!

Our theme this year is 'Mardi Gras'.  The dance is a great opportunity for us to raise money for the house!  While we split entrance fees with all upper houses, we get to keep all of the concession profits. That said, we are looking for a few parent volunteers to 'run' a small station for profit.  If you have any ideas to share, please contact me! (run a face painting station, nail-painting, sell temporary tatoos????)

We will have lots of colorful beads and masks to sell and we'll need parent volunteers in 3 areas: bringing baked goods and drinks for concession, Chaperones (5th grade parents - this is a great opportunity for you to experience the dance and see how much fun your kids have!) and donation of prizes for raffle.

Here is the link to the Voyager FAP wiki which includes a space to sign up and more detail.  All you have to do is hit 'edit' to sign up.  

http://voyagerfap.wikispaces.com/

A fun night it will be!!!  

Thank you!

Voyager Recycle Sale:

ALL Voyager Parents!

The Voyager Recycle Sale is Saturday, March 29th!  This is our biggest, most fun event of the year!  A giant indoor yard sale!!!!  Please start to gather anything you'd like to unload...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 break!  Spring cleaning!

All items can be dropped off at WCS on Friday, March 28th between 6:00 and 8:00 pm.  The sale is Saturday, March 29th, 9:00 am - 3:00 pm.  If you are new to Voyager (parents of 5th graders, or new students) please make an effort to join us, this is a wonderful, community- building event and everyone has a blast. We'll have a food concession, bake sale, on-site DJ playing music.  It draws a huge shopping crowd and has become a Williston tradition.  It is a great way to clean out and recycle your unwanted items and find new treasures!!!

The Voyager FAP wiki will be updated immediately following the Voyager-sponsored dance.  After the dance, please check the wiki and volunteer for a shift.  Shifts are only 2-hours, so a great opportunity to help out!  We'll also be sharing a poster soon that you can post/print and share with your friends.   More to come!!! If you have any questions please feel free to contact me at apechaver@yahoo.com

End of 2nd Trimester

The trimester ends on Friday, March 7th.  Reports will be sent home on Friday, March 14th. Students are encouraged to review Jupiter Grades and complete any missing assignments.

This Week in Ms. O’s Class- 5th and 6th grade math moves on...6th graders doing some data and graphing work while 5th graders work on understanding of equivalent fractions.  Once the play ends we will get back to regular routines...ahhhh.

⅚ Science:  We  had high hopes for a reenactment of Honey I Enlarged the Insects this week but it didn’t happen!  We will get back to microscopes and enlarging bugs to human size after the break.

Mr. Merrill ⅚ Humanities Wrap Up

We kicked off the week with a great Reading Cafe, updating our Reading Response Notebooks with recently read books, and Me as a Reader reflections.  Students completed a current events lesson in the afternoon.  We then reviewed the vocabulary, stage diagram, journaling, and project expectations for the theater unit.  Students will be working on these assignments during “down time” of play rehearsals.  Students will have a supervised study room to use while not working on the play.  

The Williston Observer Kid Edition will be coming out in March, students have a variety of prompts to use in writing a submission.  A completed draft for the edition was due Friday.  Students will revise their pieces next week and submit final drafts after the play.

Ms. Q's Corner

CMP7  

How can you predict whether a relationship is linear from a table, graph or equation?  What patterns of change do you see in a linear relationship and how can you tell whether the line is increasing or decreasing?  Ms. Sherman and Ms. Wesnak have involved the class with lots of interactive activities like chalk talks  and entrance tasks that have pushed the class understanding of linear functions.

This week CMP7 students began to compare and contrast rates of change in linear models.  How can you predict when two people will come to the same point if they have different rates? How do different rates of change effect a graph, table or equation.

CMP8

Students from the Discrete math ventured into our CMP8 class to assist with our Frogs, Fleas and Painted Cube Unit Test Review.  We practiced using a visual model for quadratic equations that have  an “a” coefficient that is greater than one.   We strategized a number of ways to find the maximum or minimum point of a parabola, its x-intercepts and a  line of symmetry. Students took the FFPC Unit Test on Thursday and we are moving on to the next  book called “Function Junction.

We began Function Junction this week with understanding the vocabulary around functions like: domain, range and f(x) notation.  We are experiencing some disequilibrium while we shift our thinking to function notation.  For example instead of saying y = 3x + 1 becomes f(x) = 3x + 1. F(1) would mean 3 (1) + 1 = 4,  so F(1) = 4.

Science 7th/8th

This week we surveyed the class for dominant and recessive traits from free ear lobes, widow’s peaks, tongue rolling  to eye color.  We explored how traits are passed down from parent’s genes utilizing the Punnett square.  This quick overview of genetics concludes our study of cellular biology.  Students began working on their take home test during our theater unit.   Our next big event will be the schoolwide engineering competition.

Engineering  Competition Day- March 18th Save the Date!!!

This year in lieu of the school wide science fair, 7th /8th graders will be participating in an engineering competition between upper house teams.  The engineering problems  include a rubber band car, marshmallow slingshot, zipline and lunar lander. Each of these tasks will have specific constraints and  students will work in teams of 3-4 to design, build, test, and redesign solutions to an engineering problem.   Each team will be required to document their process, collect data from their testing, connect their task with scientific concepts, and submit a lab report.  The competition will take place throughout the day in the auditorium on March 18th and will be streamed  via the internet. Parents and students are welcome to view the competition  in the auditorium throughout the day. We will be having judges from the community and awards will be given for the top performers.  Please join us!

The Weeks in Ms.Wesnak’s Room

The news for 7/8 Humanities for the next couple weeks will be brought to you by our student Directors and Stage Managers for our house play unit! Enjoy the news!

-Ms.W

A few words from our student directors:

Hello parents! Olivia and Halina here! The play unit has finally begun! We have been anxiously awaiting this moment since mid July to share our work that has resulted in this year’s Voyager 2014 Play; “Lock-it and Key: Sometimes when you snooze, you win” We have had such a great time already with the work that will get the Voyager show up and running! We hope all of our team’s work and efforts shine in our final performances and most of all we hope you enjoy!  

-Love, Halina and Olivia

Week 1 (last week)- On Monday the 10th, we kicked off our play unit by distributing scripts to all the students and staff. Of course, a good understanding of the play’s theme and the plot was the best way to start. We split up for the read-throughs, one group went to the auditorium with the cast and the other group stayed in the kiva with crew. Ms. Wesnak made sure that we were prepared to split up through the course of the unit to work through different tasks and requirements. The week continued while the cast made strides with understanding their characters and their personalities. Blocking started and lines are slowly but surely being memorized. Sorry there was no Voice last week! A “little” storm got in the way...

Week 2- This week, the directors and cast have really immersed ourselves into blocking and stage direction. We made big strides towards our goal and love how things are turning out. Whether it was lighting, costumes, set check up or sound, everyone has a part to “play” in this play. It’s not all work though! This process brings many laughs and smiles to our faces and we really enjoy sharing our creation with Voyager. We have encouraged our cast members to keep practicing lines and blocking….and if needed, call on friends to practice lines. Also, if your child has been informed that they need to bring in costume pieces, please remind them to do so by the Monday after break. Our cast and crew have worked so hard on everything and we are so proud and happy to be a part of this! Have a great break! Please remind your child to practice what they have learned. We look forward to seeing the play come together more and more in the weeks to come!

A few more words from our student stage managers Natalie and Davis:

Week 1: In our first week of the play unit, we started with a dry run through of the play. After that, we started visiting the auditorium and began blocking the movement of the play. Getting the ball rolling, we think, is one of the hardest parts. Sharing something, even sometimes just an idea, to over 100 students, is really hard. After the concept was understood it was easier for people to get into character and for stage crew to work on the transitions. Stage crew also started creating lists of props needed, costume ideas, and sketches/ideas for the set. Though we are just beginning this production, we know it will be hard to ever let go!

Week 2: On our second week of our production, we’ve realized how close we really are to the performance. Near to the end of the week, we’ve shown progress in many areas. Characters have memorized lines and most are off script. Stage crew has worked on collecting props and furniture for our performance. They’ve also been working hard on painting and constructing set pieces. Most spaces on house have been transformed into art studios! Students have also been working on ways to advertise for our show, so they’ve created posters and also an iMovie Trailer. Now that we have lights, sound, and stage crew working directly with the cast in the auditorium, the play is really coming together! We are amazed at how far we have come in just the last four days. We believe that this is going to be one of the greatest plays Voyager has been able to perform! We are so excited for what’s to come!

Voyager Play Props Needed!

Dear Voyager Parents,

   

    We have started the play unit and are looking for some unique items you might have in your basements!  Nothing is set in stone, these are just initial ideas, but we are hoping you can lend us these things.  If it is precious to you, don’t offer to lend it to us!  These things are touched often, moved often, and carried often.  If fragile, they might get bumped around.  This does not include items like an old record player, which will likely be on a table but is true for stuffed animals, etc.

Thanks for sending these things in.  We will label your lended item so it can be returned to you.  

The Props Team

Voyager Play 2014

• Old looking Candlestick/Candelabra
• Record Player
• Cosmetics
• Hair Dresser Equip
• Mirror (medium size)
• Mirror mini pocket
• stuffed animals
• crystal ball kit
• fake parrot
• whistle
• long black boots
• top hat
• stuffed rabbit animal
• clock alarm
• eye patch for pirate

Week of February 3

SPRING CONFERENCES

PLEASE SIGN UP FOR SPRING CONFERENCES IN THE CORRECT ⅚ OR ⅞ GRADE LEVEL TABLE.  IF YOU HAVE TROUBLE WITH THE FORM OR ARE NOT INVITED TO WIKI, PLEASE LET US KNOW AND WE WILL SCHEDULE YOU IN!  SEE LINK BELOW.

http://wcsvoyagerhouse.pbworks.com/w/page/57265244/FrontPage

Mr. Merrill’s ⅚ Humanities Wrap Up

This week we explored the differences between the North and the South before the Civil War.  We used primary sources and readings to diagram these differences, as well as the advantages.  We also continued to learn about slavery and the Underground Railroad.  We read a true short story about a boy who worked as a conductor on the Underground Railroad.  Students learned about various events that also contributed to disunion.  Group activities and a play performance provided different perspectives on the division within the country.

Ms. Q's Corner

CMP8

Students in CMP8 have completed Frogs, Fleas and Painted Cubes.  We are extending our study of quadratic equations to include different forms such as standard, factored, and vertex form.  Students are investigating ways to interpret graphs, tables, and equations to be able to move seamlessly from form to form.  Next week we will have visitors from the Discrete Math class to work with our students to help us review and prepare for our unit test.  

CMP7

Students completed the Comparing and Scaling Unit assessment and we "moved" on to our new unit on linear relationships called "Moving Straight Ahead."  These investigations delve more deeply into linear equations and how they are represented on tables, graphs and equations.  We had the opportunity to  record our walking rate and extrapolate that over time to compare each of our walking rates with each other.  We have some speedy walkers in our group.

Science 7th/8th

We began our week with reflecting on the inner workings of the cell and how viruses can invade and utilize the energy of the cell to replicate itself, destroy the host cell, and move on to more destruction.  We shifted our attention to the comparison between mitosis and meiosis and how these cellular processes are similar and different.  Making connections between assexual and sexual reproduction was emphasized and students had a fast and cursory review of sexual reproduction in humans.  The overarching question - What are the advantages and disadvantages of the different forms of reproduction in terms of species survival?  Genetics and heredity vocabulary and reading rounded out the week along with a NOVA video called,  "Cracking the Code" which investigates and documents the quest to crack the genetic code.

The Week in Ms. O’s

Math 5:  MORE DIVISION.  I’m sure you are done hearing about it, but your kiddos are getting pretty good at it.  We didn’t do much else this week, other than continuing fluency work for those students still struggling with it (We really need to continue pushing the facts), while others did some early algebra practice and worked on graphing which is an underdeveloped skill.   Please encourage FASTT math and Kahn Academy for work in these areas.

Math 6:  We all know the rule for dividing fractions, but how do you explain it conceptually?  Well, the answer is you don’t try; it will be a miserable failure!  I spent the week working with students on a conjecture proposed by students on how to divide fractions using the common denominator strategy.  When you have 9/12  divide 1/4 rename fractions with the same denominator...9/12 divide 3/12 then divide numerators for a new numerator and divide denominators for a new denominator...your answer is 3/1, or 3.  We arrived at the number model following some interesting work building visual models and writing number sentences that matched these situations.  We attempted to discuss the algorithm we all know for division by considering problems like 9 divide 3 and ⅓ of 9.  Students can see the algorithm with unit fractions the best and so I chose to show them this method as an intro to the old fashioned way!  During the play weeks Mr. Merrill will be teaching 6th grade math.  I will be planning this work with him to stay on track.

Science ⅚-  We began our week finishing some open inquiry explorations from our UP CLOSE circus.  Students moved from station to station exploring water droplets, glass prisms, plastic and glass lenses, clear marbles and florist beads, as well as objects through glass beakers, test tubes and plastic specimen vials.  Oh the discoveries that we made.  Many students noticed images flipping upside down and backwards, text and other objects becoming larger as a result of a piece of glass, plastic, or water, the compounded quality of multiple lenses, etc.  Upon further investigation, we discussed the refractive quality of these materials (glass, water, plastic) and the ultimate effect on what we see.  It was cool!  And extra large!  These findings led to a discussion of how scientists and engineers use the principles of light and the properties of materials like glass to see objects that are smaller that what we can see with our eyes.  We identified the parts of a microscope and how they work.  And then Thursday, we participated in a 2 hour workshop using our eyes, hand lenses, and microscopes to view brine shrimp, fabrics, insects, salts, flowers, pond water, sand, and currency.  UVM hosted this program for us in our own classroom and it was spectacular.  Thanks to Lucy Jones, Kelly Desantos, and Nancy Gagne for volunteering in our classroom for the workshop.  

There’s been a murder!  We did some fingerprint analysis today using eye loupes/jewelry loupes and found our murder suspect!  Ask you kiddo about who done it!

The Week in Ms.Wesnak’s Room

7/8 Humanities: Our morning time together consisted of the 7th Graders working very hard on their historical fiction play projects, which are coming along great! They shared with their class the decade/event they are focusing on, along with their character maps or collages, and sketches of their setting. The 7th grade is creating plays around events spanning from the Titanic to Woodstock to the 1st Moon Landing. While the 7th Grade had time to work on their plays, the 8th Grade took some time for their 8th Grade Challenge projects. Their focus over the past few days has been their Mid-Year Presentation. The vehicle we decided to use to present their work so far was iMovie’s Movie Trailer Project! These turned out so well, and the students really worked diligently on these. With the help of Ms.Birdsall, we were able to put together some really great, reflective, fun, and informative movie trailers. We are going to be linking these to either The Voyager Voice or the 7/8 Humanities website, so that all families can see what our 8th Graders are working on for their 8th Grade Challenge. We’re thinking about linking 2-3 videos at a time, and having them rotate weekly. Our afternoon time together was spent learning all about the various events and people that were a part of The Cold War. The students did a great job with their presentations, and really brought them to life through videos and activities such as: simulations, brainstorms, speech writing challenges, and many others! It’s been a fun and busy week!

Week of January 27

Ski and Ride Academic Reminder:  If your child does Ski and Ride on Fridays, we would like to encourage you to support (and maybe nag a little!) about work completion.  We will try to check in all homework by Wednesdays so that you can plan each week as to whether your child should go or not.  Thanks!

CMP8

How do parabolas reflect their quadratic equations?  Using the IPad and the Desmos graphing calculator, we explored a series of quadratic functions to see what would happen when we changed the coefficients in front of the variables.  We then investigated tables from linear, exponential and quadratic equations to see what patterns we could find with first and second differences.  Finally, we explored jumping and falling objects using the rate of acceleration.  We will be finishing up this unit in the next week.

CMP7

Rates, ratios and proportions were the order of business in class this week. Students used proportions to find unit rates and solve problems with unknown values.  We investigated the “constant of proportionality” and reviewed for our Comparing and Scaling Unit Test that took place on Friday.

Science 7th/8th

What role do the organelles play in the life of the cell?  What happens if an organelle doesn’t function properly?   We saw an excellent Ted talk on the history of cell theory and read and took notes on cellular reproduction.  Students participated in a microscope lab on mitosis. Finally we saw some excerpts from the BBC movie on the “Secret Life of Cells.”  It was a very science filled week.   

The Week in Ms.Wesnak’s Room

7/8 Humanities: As this week unfolded so did both of our final projects for the trimester. For AM Humanities we’ve been focusing on stories. We’ve been asking questions such as: What is a story? How can stories be told? What makes a great story? To answer these questions we’ve been taking a look at plays and how stories are told through play form. We’ve looked at Broadway musicals through the PBS program “Broadway: The American Musical”, and learned about some of the stories that took the stage through 20th Century History. We learned about how important the characters and setting are in a play, and we also learned about how song and dialogue can tell the audience a lot about the story. After our work with musicals we took a closer look at what some may call one of the best stories of all time, and it just so happened to be originally written in play form. This story is “Romeo and Juliet”. Our classes took a look at one scene in particular: The Balcony Scene. Students did partner readings in class, and some took part in a performance for our class. We then learned that one story with a great plotline can be performed and told in many different ways, including being retold by garden gnomes in the movie “Gnomeo and Juliet”. Students are now working on their final project which is to work in a group and write their own historical fiction 5-minute play! So far I am hearing some very interesting and fun ideas! This project will be due after the Voyager Play Unit. What’s more fun than 1 project? 2 projects! Our PM Humanities classes are working on their Cold War projects. These projects are giving our students the chance to take a look at a specific person or event from the Cold War and learn a bit more about it! Students will be sharing out their gained knowledge through an interactive class presentation. Each presentation has to include a Google Drive Presentation covering the 5 W’s of their topic, a whole class activity, and the group needs to provide the class with some kind of handout. Students have been working very hard in their groups for this, and I can’t wait to see the outcome next week! Look for some of the presentations on the 7/8 Humanities website!

The Week in Ms. O’s

Math 5:  Multiplication menus and division.  Ask your child to solve 457 divide 13.  It will give you a sense why conceptual scaffolding works so well for students.  It’s been a week of practicing and relying on this strategy to understand the mechanics of a partial quotient method.

Math 6:  Students in 6th grade had their 3rd studio class of the year on Wednesday and experienced a lot of disequilibrium as a result of fraction division.  Now don’t go telling your kids that we multiply by the reciprocal.  We are building trust in the equivalent fractions strategy which may lead to some deeper understanding of the algorithm we all learned but can not explain!  Try doing it!  It’s impossible!  Students are ugghhing about math reflections.  Teacher advice:  They are learning how to explain their thinking and are doing an amazing job!  Just roll your eyes and ignore them!  

Science ⅚:  I apologize for missing so much class this week!  I had three professional days in a row and they all affected pm classes.  In my absence, students built some understanding of the physics and engineering of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.  Awesome videos on NBC Learn.  

We ended our week attending an UP CLOSE Circus.  Students worked with materials to see what changed when viewing objects through these materials.  Without telling them as much, we are moving toward microscopes and why they were such an important engineering innovation for seeing the MICRO World, our new theme and unit.

February 6 NEED Volunteers:  Want to help monitor some microscope stations? Two time slots:  9:30-11:30 and 1:10-2:50.  Let me know if you can help!

Mr. Merrill’s ⅚ Humanities Wrap Up

The mounting tensions between the North and the South in the 1850’s eventually thrust the United States into Civil War. This week, students explored slavery and some of the important concepts and events leading up to disunion.  We used primary documents - photos of slave quarters, Reward posters, and excepts from slave narratives to discuss life as a slave and the resistance movement during this period of time.  Students created word maps for some important vocabulary words, responded to prompts in their writer’s notebooks, and completed the Mission US - Flight to Freedom game.  Students had a vocabulary quiz and an “As I See It” discussion on Friday to wrap up the week.

Week of January 20

Literature Groups:  Slavery and the Holocaust have been topics of conversation in all literature groups this week.  There have been very meaningful conversations happening with students around these topics.  We have appreciated the interest and care with which students have been talking about these tragic historical events.  Please ask your child about what they are reading and learning during lit group time.

Advisory:  Many advisory groups have been focusing on character strength and we are moving toward a project where students will identify someone in the world (past, present, and maybe even you!) who they admire because of his/her strength of character. Ask about advisory time.

Mr. Merrill’s Humanities ⅚ Wrap Up

This week students focused on completing their informative writing papers.  Students completed a first draft, self and peer edited, received teacher feedback, and revised their papers.  We also started to prepare for our next unit - The Road to Disunion and the Civil War.  We will start with the issue of slavery.   Students participated in a number of activities that focused on cause and effect and the concept of resistance.  We looked at both real life examples and historical events to better understand these concepts.  We will be using the Mission US - Flight to Freedom multimedia interactive game to put students in the shoes of a 14 year old slave, when choosing to resist will have both individual and history making consequences.

The Week with Ms. O

Math 5:  This week we wrapped up Unit 3 with some revisions to our assessment and have moved on to estimation and division.  Our focus questions for the week were ‘how do we estimate and then compare that estimate to the actual solution to a problem?”  We spent many days estimating for simpler division problems like 26 divided by 4 and then moved into multiplication menus, designed to help us problem solve division problems that are more sophisticated like 108 divided by 15.   

Math 6:  We spent this week making sense of fraction of fraction problems and then searching for generalizations that might always be true.  For example with the problem ½ of ½, we stated a conjecture that this problem has a solution that is smaller than both original fractions.  This may not always be true, like in the case 1 ⅓ of ⅘.  We also conjectured that “groups of” might indicate multiplication and that maybe even the word “of” might mean multiplication.  We did not skip right to the algorithm for multiplying fractions but have arrived at that ourselves, through multiple solutions to a problem, searching for regularity (using 3 groups of 12 an example where multiplication is the operation to use to solve), and focusing on mathematical models to explain thinking.  These topics and others we are discussing this year, are designed to build deep conceptual understanding for use in upper level math.  Don’t be afraid to drop a fraction multiplication problem on the table and see what your son or daughter can do!

Science ⅚:  We worked hard on our Interactive Word Maps, a way to make associations with words in science rather than just getting a list and defining it.  They are great!  Amazing what those kiddos learn!  We have also taken a science assessment this week on Electromagnetism and will move on to microscopes/cells/human body concepts next!

Special Request:  I need helpers to come in and work with the UVM Project Micro team.  They are scheduled for February 6 from 9:30-11:30 and 1:10-2:50.  If you would be willing to staff a station, we could use your help!  Email me!

Ms Q's Corner

CMP8

What ways can we ascertain the "x" intercept, "y" intercept, line of symmetry and maximum or minimum point of a parabola.  We looked for strategies to seamlessly move about the landscape of quadratics.  We  created a public record of our work and explored  a pattern of triangular number which is an example of a quadratic function.

CMP7

This week our class explored unit rates and how they can be interpreted.  For example, we can determine the gas mileage of a car by finding the unit rate of miles per gallon.   However, we could also interpret the unit rate of a gallons per mile. We rounded out the week with  a check-up and began looking at the cost of cars related to mark-ups and commissions.

Science 7/8th

This week we delved into how materials pass in and out of cells and  the concepts of diffusion and osmosis.  Students performed a series of experiments using plant and  animal cells placed in different media. (saline or sugar solutions)  Using the microscopic evidences we were able to see what happens to cells  when the  external environment is changed and how osmosis works to try to reach equilibrium  inside and outside of the cell.  After the series of experiments, students created a claim and evidence statement and had a “scientist meeting” to discuss their findings.

The Week in Ms.Wesnak’s Room

7/8 Humanities: This week in Humanities we started our work around stories/narratives and looking at 20th Century history through the lens of The Cold War. In the afternoon classes we started off by having students walk through our “20th Century Timeline Gallery”. Students were able to actually see how long some wars went on for, noticing that some spanned decades. Students took notice of not only wars and conflicts, but of inventions and natural disasters spanning from 1900 - present day. Once our gallery walk was complete we started to dig into our study on The Cold War. Students all viewed a documentary while taking notes, and read an article from Junior Scholastic. In class we discussed should it really have been called a “war”? What other name would work for this major time period and all of the events that it consisted of? Students have also started to realize that The Cold War was the common denominator for a lot of other events and conflicts from our history. In the morning classes our studies have been focused around stories, and how stories can be told in a variety of ways. For our narrative unit we are focusing on how stories are told through plays and musicals. We are using the PBS series “Broadway: The American Musical” as the backbone of our studies. We started by listening to songs from “Oklahoma!” and “The Sound of Music” focusing on how songs can explain the characters and setting of a story. We also learned that plays can also teach some lessons from our own history, and can be used to help showcase the times. Students took a stab at creating their own Broadway show in the challenge titled “Insta-Broadway”. In this challenge table groups were asked to create a musical based on a historical event from a decade that they picked from our “Bowl of Fate”. Students were guided in their work to build this musical by creating the staples that are included in any story: the Plot (beginning, middle, end), the characters, the setting, and the lesson or moral. The 8th Graders even got to the final step, which was to write a song to go with their Insta-Broadway production! Yes, some of them even performed!