2nd grade Expedition

We asked one teacher from each grade to share what the kids have been learning about this year. The following post was written by our second grade teacher Miss Farley.

Voyage Academy 2nd Grade has been working hard on their 
Bison Expedition! 
This started in Early October and will go until Christmas Break. 

Many of the 2nd graders had no idea what a bison was when we began this expedition and now they are incredible experts on BISON. The students have learned and studied about their habitat, characteristics, food chain, and life cycle. Our expedition began with bison games, songs, and activities outside as a 2nd Grade. We even changed the words to "Home on the Range" so that instead of saying "Oh give me a home where the BUFFALO roam..." , we said, "Oh give me a home where the BISON roam..." They have learned many interesting facts and are quick to tell you that BISON AND BUFFALO ARE NOT THE SAME! Everyday was focused on memorable activities involving  reading, writing, art, etc. to celebrate the wonderful shaggy beast that lives right here in Utah!  Plus we focused on why Utah makes a good home for them.

Photo courtesy of Christa Lysager 


The 2nd graders participated in rotations with the 2nd grade teachers, each focusing for a week on different learning target focused on Bison. The 2nd graders even made their own bison out of clay and created a habitat to put it in.


 In October, the 2nd grade (and many wonderful parents, grandparents, siblings, and awesome helpers) visited Antelope Island. The students were able to observe 600 bison in their habitat. They played games, learned many wonderful facts, and took field work notes detailing what they saw and learned. The most exciting part of the field trip (just ask any 2nd grader) was when we were driving in the bus and we had to stop because a bison was crossing the road. The bus was full of many screams and happy children at that moment!





 We had a wonderful guest speaker come, Mr. and Mrs. McFarlane, who help raise Bison and work for the state environment programs. They are the grandparents of one of our wonderful 2nd graders. They brought bison skulls and hides for the children to look at. They answered many of the 2nd Graders questions about bison and were blown away by the knowledge that each child had on bison. We were so grateful that they could come! 



Our expedition will end with the students creating a 2nd Grade coloring book full of Bison pictures, facts, and information that will be printed off and sold. All the proceeds will go to Antelope Island in helping preserve good areas for the bison. Parents will be notified soon of when we will have a small little party as a 2nd grade to show their amazing work they've completed (put together in a book for each child) and have some treats. The 2nd Grade sure loves Bison and we appreciate all the hard work that so many people have put into this to make our expedition a wonderful success! 


We are lucky to have wonderful second grade teachers; Ms. Farley, Ms. Richardson and Ms. Caldwell  do an AMAZING job planning and preparing great learning opportunities for the kids. We also have AMAZING second graders who are smart and eager to learn. 


We LOVE our wonderful 2nd grade! 






Happy Thanksgiving

THE KINDERGARTEN CREW AT VOYAGE ACADEMY WOULD LIKE TO WISH YOU AND YOUR FAMILY A HAPPY AND SAFE THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY! 


We asked Voyage Kindergartners two questions. 

1. What are you thankful for?
2.What does Thanksgiving mean? 

Some of their responses were....

I'm thankful for my house, my family, my teacher, and for Voyage!

I'm thankful for my mixer (smoothie maker), pots and pans, food , my bed, books and my mom and dad and sister.

I'm thankful for my mom, my dad, my family, and hanging out eating thanksgiving dinner with my family.

I'm thankful for Wolverine!


Thanksgiving means eating a lot of foods and pumpkin pie with Nana.

Thanksgiving means eating turkey with my mama!

Thanksgiving means my family!

We love our sweet Kindergartners!






Kyle Johnson assembly

Today Voyage Vikings had the opportunity to hear from motivational speaker Kyle Johnson. Kyle was in a bad long boarding accident in 2010. An accident that almost took his life. Kyle was able to overcome the tragic accident and now travels around the country sharing his story with others in hopes that they too will believe that no goal is impossible if they will believe in themselves. 

Kyle has s fun interactive personality and does a great job keeping his audience laughing. Today he taught the kids to not listen to the negative things people might say to them. Those things do not matter what matters is that we believe in ourselves and that we can overcome anything we set our minds to  He said we should encourage one another and surround ourselves with others that will believe in us too. He encouraged the kids to be cheerleaders for one another. Miss Kap's first grade class did a great job applying this lesson in their own class today when they surprised Principal Phillips with a thank you card and lots of hugs for all the hard work she does for Voyage Academy.  



After Kyle's accident, that nearly took his life, he set a goal to snowboard at Snow basin. His hospital room had a perfect view of the Ogden mountains. After lots of surgery, physical therapy and the loving support of  family and friends Kyle was able to accomplished his dream and now encourages others to accomplish their dreams as well. He told the kids to always remember the following..

No jump is to high- Nothing is unattainable. Anything is possible if you set your mind to it. 
Get your heads together- Work as a team! You will need the support of others to accomplish your dreams.
Spot your landing- Know that sometimes you might fail and that's okay. Get back up and try again. 
Feel the rush- It's a great feeling when you accomplish a goal! Enjoy it! 


If you would like more information about Kyle Johnson you can visit his website.

Soldier Homecoming

On Thursday, a very special event took place at Voyage Academy. Our front office received a phone call around 1:30pm, two of our student’s dad was coming home from Afghanistan. His plane had arrived, and he would be at the school in one hour. His girls thought he was coming home the following day. In true Voyage fashion we went to work to call an impromptu Community Circle. Mrs. Stanton (our secretary) called the city and they were able to get us 75 flags in a matter of minutes. Other staff members jumped in to get the Standard Examiner called. The Fire Fighters just happened to show up, and then went back and got more fire fighters, an ambulance, and police officers. Sixth grade students created a sign. Fifth and Sixth grade students were given a crash course in flag etiquette. Maki (our wonderful janitor) and others went to work to get flags up outside, and many more things were happening.



There was excitement in the air. Mrs. Coleman called a "Community Circle" and started it out by talking about our great country and how many people “Strive for Excellence” to make it so great. The students then sang "Count on me" by Bruno Mars. They had no idea what was about to happen.The fifth & sixth grade students were lined up along the gym walls holding flags. The song "God bless the USA" began to play over the loud speakers, and an American soldier entered the room. Sitting on the floor in the front row was fourth-grade student Ashtyn. As soon as she saw that it was her dad in the uniform, her face crumpled in tears. She ran up to him, completely melting herself deep into his hug. His first-grade daughter, Attley, sat in shock staring at her dad until her teacher nudged her forward. It had been almost a year since they had seen their dad. The room was filled with tear streaked faces, and everybody sat watching humbly as this family was reunited. It was an amazing opportunity for all the students to witness such a special event in this family's life.




Voyage Academy would like to thank our US troops and their families for all of the sacrifices they make for our Country. Vikings are proud to be American and are grateful to have all of the freedoms we have. God bless the USA!

Link to video
Welcoming a hero home

Link to Standard Examiner article:

Viking Lego Club and Arts & Crafts Club

At Voyage Academy kids have the opportunity to sign up for after school clubs. The clubs are held once  a week for six weeks. These clubs are to help students find common interests, build friendships and to encourage unity and team work at Voyage Academy.
Our Fall clubs included:
"Lego Club" and "Arts/Crafts Club"

Lego Club

 Voyage Academy partnered with Bricks for Kids to teach the students engineering skills. Students were put into teams of two and had to work together to follow instruction plans and create electric powered Lego creations. Some of the things they built were windmills, spinning tops and art wheels.


The last two weeks of Lego club were challenge rounds. Students were challenged to build the tallest tower working in teams of four. They then had to create something using only one cup of Legos and their final challenge was being able to create the object written on a paper they drew from a hat. 

Many friendships were formed and the kids learned to work together to complete a task. It was a fun six weeks of Lego building!  












Arts and Crafts Club

This club was for the creative students of Voyage Academy who enjoy making crafts. Some of the things they made were a snowflake picture frame, snowman coasters, and a colorful sunshine pillow. On the last day of Art club each student was given a "How to draw" binder with colored pencils to take home to continue to develop their artistic talents. 

Arts and Crafts club was a lot of fun and the older kids were great to help the younger kids with their crafts. New friendships were formed and the students loved being able to dip into their creative side together.  

Our next set of clubs will begin sometime in March 2014 with the exception of "Cheer Crew" which will begin November 22, 2013.
Contact Christy Barton for more information about "After school clubs" bartonfamily2001@gmail.com

November 15th Community Circle

Community Circle is where the entire school gets together for a morning meeting. Voyage Academy's first Community Circle was led by our wonderful first graders. They did all of the talking during the Community Circle. Some first graders talked about the weather, some talked about our monthly design principal, and some were able to spotlight people in our school who were following the design principals. The first graders decided to have the whole school sing “You Can Count on Me” by Bruno Mars as our first community song. They knew the lyrics of the song would help build a sense of community and crew at our school by knowing we can all count on each other. They also choose “It’s a Wonderful Kind of Day” by Ziggy Marley because it sings about working and playing with each other, and getting along with everyone you meet.

Mrs. Coleman surprised us all with a flash mob dance to Thriller in the middle of the meeting! Students, teachers, parents, custodians, lunch ladies, everyone danced along!!! We also had our Voyage Cheer Squad perform a cheer routine.

Then, the first graders had a chance to spotlight something special from their plant expedition. They chose to sing “The Plant Cycle Song.” The song goes to the tune of “Call Me Maybe.” Here is a sample of the lyrics…
The Plant Cycle Song
There is a story we learned about the way plants are formed
We want to share it with you and plant it in your mind
Picture a tree in your head with flowers blooming in beds
Colorful petals abound… Why are there bees around?
They smell the fragrance and they see the colors
They are getting hungry… Where you think they’re going now?
The pollinator visits the flower
It sucks the nectar and picks up pollen
It then travels to the next flower
It drops the pollen and makes a seed
And fruit develops around the seed
And then gets eaten by you and me
The seeds will get dispersed around the land
Then germinate into a plant
It then grows roots, stems, and leaves and flowers now can you see
The way some plants come to be

The first graders wrapped up the meeting by leading the school in our Viking Chant. The first graders did an amazing job at showing leadership and building culture.

Voyage Academy would like to thank our amazing first grade teachers: Mrs. Troyer, Mrs. Barker, and Miss Kap for putting all of this together.


We love our first grade team!
To watch the full November 15th "Community Circle" click HERE
Subscribe to: Comments (Atom)