Merry Christmas from Voyage Vikings

Voyage Vikings would like to wish you and your family a safe and Merry Christmas! 

Vikings gave back this Christmas and donated many acts of service both in school and the community.

We love our Vikings and their eagerness to always help others in need.

2nd Grade Community Circle

Today our Community Circle was hosted by our second grade. Voyage Academy's Design Principle for this month is Service and Compassion. The 2nd graders presented three Compassion and Service awards. One to Ms.Kap's 1st grade class for helping a classmate when she was in a wheelchair after having surgery. The second award went to Anna from 3rd grade for always helping with the lunch bins and Mrs. Douglas (our Curriculum Director) received the final award for helping the 2nd graders learn new ways to do things and always being so nice to everybody.

Ms. Kap's class

 for being so kind to Hannah

Anna  

for always helping with the lunch bins

Ms. Coleman and Ms. Douglas 

for helping kids learn new things and always being so nice and encouraging. 

Other Voyage Vikings who have displayed Compassion and Service this month are

George

Rain, shine or SNOW he's helping direct traffic in our parking lot to help keep kids safe. 

Ms. Abshire

Always finding fun ways to celebrate the holidays and give fun / healthy treats to the kids.

Ms. Nichols

For helping the 2nd grade learn how to draw a Bison

Ms. Maki

Always willing to lend a helping hand to keep our school looking clean. 

Ms. Richardson 

Helping wrap gifts for needy families

Our Kindergartners collected and donated warm gloves for the Homeless shelter and our 1st grade collected can food for the food bank.
All the names from our Angel tree were taken within the first two days of putting them out and we raised over $500 to donate to needy families this year.
 Voyage Vikings are AMAZING with Compassion and Service! 

The next thing that happened at Community Circle was our Cheer Crew performed some fun cheers for the students. You can watch their performance by clicking HERE 

The second grade then shared what they have learned about Bison during their expedition this year. They showed a cute video they made about Bison (VIEW HERE) and then invited everybody back to their classroom to see their Bison projects and have some snacks.

Presenting Bison projects to their 5th grade buddies 

The Community Circle ended with a Christmas surprise! The whole second grade performed Mele Kalikimaka with leis and Hawaiian dancing. You can watch the dancing by clicking HERE

A generous donation for an AED machine

We would like to give a HUGE THANK YOU to Dana Thomas and Mike Thompson who got together with Tender Heart Beats to get Condie Construction in Springville to donate an AED machine to be kept here at the school! It was presented to us yesterday. This is a wonderful gift since we have two students at our school with heart conditions and almost our entire Staff and Faculty are trained on how to use this machine. Even though we hope we never have to use it, we all feel better knowing it's here. Thank you once again to all involved in making this happen!

6th Grade Community Circle

Community Circle is a celebration about the students and what they have been learning. Last Friday our 6th Grade hosted our Community Circle. It kicked off with our Cheer crew performing Viking cheers to encourage students to strive for excellence. The students then joined in singing "Count on me" by Bruno Mars. Next the 6th grade students shared what Compassion and service means to them and presented an award to the kitchen staff for all they do for the students at Voyage Academy. The Kitchen crew does an amazing job cooking tasty and healthy breakfast and lunches. We LOVE our lunch crew! They also spotlighted 5th grade student Gage Abshire for always being caring and compassionate and always helping and caring for others.

Afterwards Mrs. Coleman took the stage and led the entire school in the Cha Cha slide. The students have been working on it in their Life skills class. Voyage Vikings love to dance! Mrs. Coleman reminded the students that when people work together they become stronger, they become better. She encouraged them to continue to work together to be the best they can be.

The meeting ended with the 6th grade sharing what they have learned about Ancient Greece. They invited everyone to a Celebration of Learning by their classrooms where they displayed projects and explained what they were all about.

Community Circle is held twice a month. Everybody is invited to attend. Be sure to check in at the front office, you will need to show a valid ID before entering the school.  We like to ensure the safety of our students and thank you for your patience and understanding. Our next Community circle will be held next Thursday, December 19th @ 2pm. 

1st Grade Expedition

Our First Grade has been busy studying the life cycle of plants this year. Ms. Barker was happy to tell us all about it!  

The first grade students have been studying “Plants in our Community” for their current expedition.  To start off, first graders had to think about what makes something living.  We kicked off our expedition by have them analyzing gummy worms and earthworms.  They were able to notice the differences between living and nonliving worms.  We then discussed how something that is living needs nutrients, water and air to grow.  The first graders went outside and studied living and nonliving things.  They drew a picture of what they saw and had to check off whether it fell under the category of living or nonliving.  The expedition then turned into studying plants.  We discussed what a plant needs to live.  We studied how a plant needs air, light, nutrients, and water to live.  The first graders then studied the process of photosynthesis and how the oxygen that plants release, in turn helps us to live.   The life cycle of a flower was next on the list to dive into.  We talked about how a seed goes through the process of germination.  We looked inside of a lima bean and examined the start of a plant. We then went into how a plant grows roots, a stem, leafs, and petals.  The first graders were able to see how a flower goes through the process of pollination and a new seed is made.  First grade students learned a song about the life-cycle of a plant and nailed it for their community circle!  They sang and learned about how the cycle is never ending. You can hear the song by clicking HERE. 

Community helpers came in and talked to the kids as well.  We had police officers come in and teach us the importance of safety and following the rules.  We also had an expert from a nursery come in and teach us about his job and answered questions that we had about plants. We then went and did some field work at Packs Farm Pumpkin Patch.  Kids listened as the farmer talked to them about his job and why it is important for him to do his job.  He also talked to us about how there are various kinds of pumpkins, but they all go through the same life cycle.  Before heading out to the farm, the kids came up with some questions that they wanted to have answered.  They were able to ask the farmer questions at this time. The farmer helped them understand how pumpkins get from the farm to the grocery stores.  When we got back from the farm, we examined the inside and outside of the various kinds of pumpkins we received from the farm.  First graders were able to go through the life-cycle of a pumpkin and relate it to the flower life-cycle.  We have been studying nonfiction and fiction stories about pumpkins and are currently writing an informational book on our expedition for our final project!

We love our First Grade students and teachers! They bring lots of love to Voyage Academy. 

5th Grade Expedition

We asked our 5th grade to share what expedition they have been working on. Our wonderful 5th grade teacher Ms. Steab wrote the following post. 

When we use the term “expedition” in an Expeditionary Learning school, we are referring to an in-depth and rigorous study of a specific topic.  5^th grade is doing our first, of two, expeditions on: Being an agent of positive change.  We will be looking at US history and finding examples of how our Founding Fathers and others made the world a better place.  We are excited to have some local examples of people who have made a positive change in our community. 5^th grade had a wonderful time at the Leonardo museum in Salt Lake.  We got to do a workshop in simple machines, examine the exhibits, and students filled out a fieldwork guide as they explored the human rights exhibit on the “Green Revolution”.  This “kick-off” activity highlighted how people today are trying to make changes that will better our world.

After debriefing the fieldwork, we discussed what might be some positive changes we can make as a 5^th grade.  The students presented their ideas to their 5^th grade peers and the grade then voted to that the positive change they want to make this year is improving the school grounds.  After some brainstorming and more voting, they have now narrowed it down to three areas of improvement: planting more trees and flowers, getting more playground equipment (particularly for indoor recess), and painting a map of the USA on the blacktop.  We then let the kids tell us their top choices of which task force group they wanted to be in and we were happy to able to give most of them their first choice.  We are now dividing into our task force teams a few times a week to create a plan of how to make this positive change, to do research, to write persuasive essays, etc.    

As teachers, we have been proud of our students and are excited as they progress toward making a lasting improvement in our school community! 

You can be apart of the excitement, too!  We are also hoping to have a few guest speakers talk to the kids about examples of people who have made a positive change in our community or from history.  Do you know of anyone who is a history buff or who is an example of making our community a better place? If you know of anyone (including yourself!) who would be a good expert for our kids to work with, or guest speaker on positive change, please let me or the other 5th grade teachers know.  If you would be willing to try to find someone to work with us as an expert, or speak on positive change, that would also helpful. 

Thank you for all you do in supporting our 5^th grade as we STRIVE FOR EXCELLENCE!

Voyage Vikings beheld a beautiful site as they entered school this morning. A twelve foot Christmas tree, fully decorated, stood in the center of the foyer. Attached to the tree are ornaments with the names of families that are in need this Christmas. 

A big thank you to Sara,  Kaitlin,  Abby and Nicole,  

for the beautiful job decorating the tree.

Students are welcome to pick an ornament from the Tree.  Each ornament specifies a child’s need and a want. We ask that parents come in with your children to choose an ornament off the tree. Please DO NOT have your children pick an ornament without an adult present. 

Once you choose an ornament, bring the attached colored paper to the office and fill out the appropriate information.

All donations are DUE no later than end of school Monday, December 16th. If you take an ornament, PLEASE complete the entire donation request shown on that ornament. You do not need to wrap the gifts.

Voyage Academy encourages their students to think of others and help where they can. In November the school held a "Dollar dress down day" and collected over $500 from student donations to help families in need this holiday season.

  

We are proud of our students at Voyage Academy and the generosity they show to others. We have amazing kids with big hearts and their love radiates through the  halls of our school. 

3rd Grade Expedition

We asked a teacher from each grade to share what the kids have been learning about his year. The following blog post was written by our 3rd grade teacher Ms. Thompson. 

3^rd Grade
May the Force, Motion, and Gravity be with YOU!!

3^rd grade has been busy learning all we can about our guided question “What makes things move?”-Force, Motion, and Gravity.  We started with our kickoff at “Get Air”. We finished learning about the moon and connected it to Force and Gravity. We learned that Moon jumps are 6 times farther than an earth jump. We jumped and then measured six times farther on our Voyage playground. Students then cut a string the same length and headed to “Get Air” to see if we could actually jump our moon jump string. Some students said it was impossible. Other students said they almost made it. Overall it was an amazing day, especially when students got to see Mrs. Packer, Mrs. Rea, and Mrs. Thompson jumping on a trampoline. 

 As weeks went on we completed many experiments on Force and Motion. Students understand the effects of the forces of push and pull on motion. A student favorite was the Zoom Ball. This was created with 2-two liter bottles put together, string pulled through the middle, and handles tied onto each sides. (See photo) Students pulled the strings outward and the Zoom Ball went flying toward the other person holding the other strings and handles. The pushing of the strings, against the opening of the bottle, set it in motion. The opposite student pulled their strings and the ball reversed its direction.

Another student favorite was the lever and fulcrum. Students understand that there are 3 types of levers. We were able to create the 3 types of levers using a piece of metal, a ruler, and two cups.

Students were able to move the metal piece to different measurements under the ruler to create the different types of levers. 3^rd graders were able to discover how many paperclips it took in one cup to bring down an eraser in the opposite cup.

                3^rd graders had a visit from an amazing Volunteer from Hill Air Force Base named Larry Henkles. He came to our school with his force and motion equipment ready to teach our students. He came to our school requesting help in creating fun and exciting force and motion experiments for the HAFB Children’s Museum. Students have become so excited and have an ongoing list of experiments that they could create and donate to HAFB. They are planning on writing detailed procedures to go with each experiment.

3^rd graders have also dived deep into Newton’s Three Laws of Motion-inertia, acceleration, and action and reaction. Ask any 3^rd grader and they can probably tell you all about them. We have also had amazing experiences going to do field work at Discovery Children’s Museum. Students went and discovered many high quality experiments and determined what makes an effective experiment or demonstration. We wanted them to come away with an understanding of an exceptional experiment. We came back and created a list of what makes a great experiment/demonstration.

We were also given the opportunity to attend field work at HAFB with Larry. Larry and his fellow workers taught us many things about force, motion, and gravity. Students completed field work by discovering force, motion, and gravity in the children’s museum, creating rockets, and completing a scavenger hunt throughout the aircraft museum. 

We are completing experiments on gravity in the weeks to come before Christmas. Each class will complete a final project/experiment to donate to HAFB children’s museum. Students will use their knowledge of procedural writing to complete detailed explanations of each project. Mrs. Thompson’s class is leaning toward creating a working lever and fulcrum to donate to the museum. Mrs. Packer’s class is leaning toward Zoom Balls, Pinwheels, or Beehive. Mrs. Rea’s class is leaning toward Zoom Balls. There will be a third grade project celebration in the upcoming months. Parents will be able to attend and observe student learning in action.

For more information about our Force, Motion, and Gravity Expedition please come and visit the 3^rd grade hall. There are many photos and pages to view about our learning. You may also want to ask a 3^rd grader,too!

We love and appreciate all that our 3rd grade teachers and students do! The 3rd grade Crew at Voyage Academy rocks!