Monday, June 3, 2019

Fusion Communication: June 3

Hi all,
It’s getting closer! The final weeks begin. There are many moving parts over these final two weeks - please check in with your child about their schedule and final assessments.

8th Grade - Buy a Chromebook for $25!
The district is offering for students and families to buy their Chromebook for $25.  

8th Grade Great Escape Field Trip Update - Wed, June 5th
Please make arrangements to drop your child off at BRMS by 6:45 am on Wednesday, and to pick them up from BRMS around 7 pm.  We will ask students to call or text with a more precise arrival time on the way home. Lunch is included, but students will definitely need snacks for the drive there and back!  Please direct any questions to lisa.windhausen@cesuvt.org.   

8th Grade Boat Trip - June 12
The day of Recognition Night (June 12), 8th graders have the opportunity to join their classmates and select staff for a cruise aboard the Spirit of Ethan Allen III.  Students would be transported to the Burlington waterfront after the annual awards ceremony and back to school to take buses home.

7th Grade Jourasionville Economics Simulation
7th grade students will practice entrepreneurial, community and personal finance skills June 11th during the annual Jourasionville economics simulation. Students can choose from three options:
  • Business Owner (CANNOT spend more than $20 on materials for the project; that is for the entire business EVEN IF there are three owners)
  • Employee
  • Town Council, Police Chief and Mayor (Only )

Laptops stay at school over long weekend
Calendar:
June 3: Official Move-up Day - 8th Graders to MMU
June 4: 8th Grade French Final
June 5: Great Escape Field Trip for 8th Grade
June 11: 8th Grade Laptops are audited by no later than this day
June 12: Official! Recognition Night for 8th Grade; last “official” day of middle school for 8th grade
  Boat Trip for 8th Graders - Permission form attached
June 11: Changed Date! 7th Grade Jourasionville economics simulation (more information to come)
  All Laptops turned in and audited by this day!
June 13: Changed Date! 7th Grade Fusion/Journey joint field trip to Waterbury Center State Park (9ish-1:15ish)
June 14: Official!
June 17: Mostly Official Last day of school for grades 5-7





Curriculum Updates

LA
8 *** Assessments for LA are done! *** Students now are working on creating their own picture books -- some are working on their own, others decided to work in small groups. Participation in this unit will be reflected in their PD scores.

7 *** Assessments for LA are done! *** Students will be listening to a read aloud of I Will Always Write Back by Caitlin Alifirenka and Martin Ganda. There will be some light notebook work and we hope to be able to do some reading outside. Participation in this unit will be reflected in their PD scores.


Math
7th - Student continued with their probability unit by investigating how experimental probability can be used to determine the fairness of a game.  The culmination of this unit will be over the next two weeks as we introduce and complete a project in which students will design, create, and analyze their own probability game.  

8th - Students continued their work with combining expressions and extending this work to combining and solving equations.  We will continue our work with solving equations as the schedule allows next week and finish with a quiz on the topic.

Science
7th - Students created and analyzed models of food webs and energy pyramids of ecosystems.  This week, they made a claim of which species impacts a marsh food web the most, and supported their claim with evidence and reasoning.  They are currently preparing for our river study next week, with the goal of determining if the Brown’s River is healthy enough to release our brook trout!  Please note that students must plan to be outside at the river - Group C on Thursday, Group D on Friday.

8th - After considering the balanced and unbalanced forces involved in falling objects, students are now exploring the transfer of energy and momentum when objects collide!  They will use information on car crash safety designs to engineer a safety cage for their car crash dummy (egg) which I will drop from the top of the school someday soon! Please review the Great Escape info above to prepare your child for this field trip on Wednesday!

SS
7 - Students are putting the finishing touches on the last assessment called Perspectives: Past, Present and Future; the unit is current events based and requires students to research a topic affecting the world today.  Then, students explain how the development of the issues in this topic have affected culture in the past, the present and possible impacts on the future.  Students were allowed to choose from a variety of topics revolving around the theme of climate change. In addition, the focus of the class is now shifting to the final activity of the year: Jourasionville! If you have not heard much about this activity, please check in with your child - depending on their plans, family participation will be essential.

8 - Students are in the final stages of a unit entitled Causes of the Civil War. After completing the last current events unit Memorials: Why are Civil War monuments controversial?, students are researching three, self-selected causes of the Civil War to prepare for the district assessment. Because of scheduling and field trips, some 8th graders have only THREE hours of social studies left in the year:) This week is a very good time to check in about those last assignments.

Enjoy your weekend.

The Fusion Team