September 25, 2015

Homework Club

Good News! Swift can start homework club on Monday 9/28. Claire Hanafin a para-educator from Harbor House has agreed to host our homework club on Mondays and Tuesdays from 3-4:30. Students can stay either or both days and are able to take the late bus home.

Wednesday and Thursday afternoons will be available if core facilitators are available.  We will check in week by week to determine availability.  This week we are available to supervise Thursday after school.

Supermoon Eclipse- Sunday Night

We shared the following video in kiva this week.   Hopefully students will be looking for this rare supermoon eclipse, with a total eclipse starting at 10:11 on Sunday night.  The weather forecast even predicts clear skies for the night!

Fun Night Sign-Up~ October 2nd

Student and Parent Volunteers Still Needed

Our October 2, Fun Night is quickly approaching (click here for School Bell announcement)!! This is a very successful fundraiser for Swift House. We need volunteers to help facilitate a fun evening for the kids. Please take a look our sign-up sheet for the many areas in which you and your student can volunteer & donate items. Add your name(s) in the designated spot to sign on. We could not pull this off without the wonderful support from all Swift families.

The funds raised through Fun Night go towards our NYC trip in June. All families attending the trip are asked to help with multiple fundraisers before the trip. Fun Night is honestly a fun way to start this process. We also need small toys, gently loved stuffed animals, stickers and various trinkets for our prize table. What a great chance to clean these things out of your house! Please leave in WCS front office or Swift House project room.

Swift House Theater Festival- Save the Date 

Save the date for our annual Swift House Theater Festival: Thursday, November 5th at 6:30 pm in the Al Myer's Theater. There will be two performances: Twelfth Night and Alice in Wonderland. Twelfth Night is an adapted version of Shakespeare's classic. Alice in Wonderful is adapted from Lewis Carroll's classic novel and holds true to the characters and plot.

Auditions will be held on October 5th (or even at the end of next week). Students choose whether or not they audition for a speaking role. Either way, all students will have a part on the stage. They may also apply to have a technical role, helping with costumes, sound, lights, directing and stage managing. Rehearsals will begin on Tuesday, October 6th.

For the first three weeks of the Theater Festival the bulk of rehearsals will take place during our literacy block, as reading, analyzing and rehearsing a script is the ultimate performance task! Student directors and those with large speaking roles will start rehearsing full time on October 6h, while those with smaller roles will spend their first weeks completing a literary study of the plays and themes. This is always an exciting time of the year and we thank you in advance for any help with rehearsing lines and sending in costume pieces!

Tessellations

While studying angles and patterns, seventh grade math students explored tessellations.  They discovered a mathematical rule behind all shapes that tessellate, whether they are polygons or something much more intricate.  They went on to apply these rules while creating their own tessellations worthing of displaying proudly!

Shahin A

Shelby H

Maggie B

Matt Y

Dylan L

Claire G

Ruben S

Lilly L

Jupiter Grades

We have attached Jupiter Grades passwords to your child's Greensheet this week.  Jupiter Grades serves as the on-line gradebook for all WCS students.  When you log in you will have access to grades posted by your child's teachers.  You can also have the site alert you when an assignment is marked as missing.  The World Language teachers ask that parents and students log-in to Jupiter Grades weekly to check on work completion.  

Here in Swift House the Greensheet is still our first level of communication between home and school, letting you know that work is complete.  Also, logging into Google Classroom with your child will give you a very detailed look at the work s/he has completed and the work s/he has due as well.  Finally, as we build e-portfolios, you will have access to student-selected work that supports their goals.  In short, we provide the Jupiter Grades log-in to add to give you options and access.  Please e-mail your child's core teacher with any further questions.

Student Leadership Opportunities

There are a number of excellent student-leadership opportunities at WCS, facilitated by our guidance counselors.  The paragraphs below provide detailed descriptions of the groups.  We have asked 7th and 8th grade students interested in AWOD or LEAD to e-mail their core teachers about why they would be a great candidate.  New members will be selected next week.  Any 6th, 7th and 8th grade students interested in supporting younger students should get an application for WiSH from the Direction Center.

AWOD - A World of Difference (Houses choose reps for this group) 
The group is made up of 7th and 8th grade students from each house (4 per house, 8 from Harbor) and is an opportunity for your students to learn leadership skills, help keep our school climate positive, and work to eliminate bullying and harassment in our school. The AWOD program is a part of the Anti-defamation League (ADL) and provides students with the training and resources to combat prejudice, stereotyping, and all forms of discrimination in schools. In addition, students will learn skills to facilitate interactive anti-bias classes with 5th grade students in the springtime. This group meets on Fridays at core time. In addition, students get formal training from the ADL at the end of october 27-29 (4.5 hours each day). Our first meeting will Friday, Oct. 2nd,

LEAD - Leadership Education, the Anti-Drug (Houses choose reps for this group) 
The group is made up of 7th and 8th grade students from each house (4 per house, 8 from Harbor) and is an opportunity for students to learn leadership skills, be positive role models, and educate others about an relevant teen issue. This group identifies an important teen issue, takes time to research and learn about the issue, and then prepares 3 classes that they facilitate to their 6th grade peers in the Spring. This group meets on Tuesdays at core time and our first meeting will be Sept. 29th.

WiSH - Williston Student Helpers (open to anyone that is interested) 
The WiSH program is a community service program for students in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. The program places students in PreK-4 classrooms (including RA classes) as a teacher helper. Students make a commitment to work once per week, all year long, in this classroom. Students can work in either WCS or ABS. For those students wanting to work at ABS, a bus will take kids over on Wednesday afternoons at 1:20 through the end of the day. Parent and Teacher permission is required. In addition, new WiSH students need to attend an after school training to learn more about the program and expectations. Students previously in the program will get a letter asking if they would like to participate again. New students can pick up a registration form in the Direction Center.

 

Continental Mathematics League 2015-2016 

Registration deadline is extended to encourage more participants!
Continental Math Online Registration 2015-2016 
Grade 4-8
Meet dates: Nov. 12, Dec. 10, Jan. 14, Feb. 11, and March 17
Grade 3 Meet dates: Jan. 14, Feb. 11, and March 17

 he Enrichment Program administers the Continental Mathematics League (CML) for motivated students seeking an additional math challenge. Interested students in Grades 2-8 participate in the Euclidean Division, which means “students participating require average reading comprehension and analytical reasoning capabilities. Their computational skill should be appropriate to their grade level.”

CML is a competition in grades 3-8. For students in grades 4-8, there are five tests. They are given at ‘meets’ which are held during school hours, beginning in November and ending in March. Third graders participate in the meets in January, February, and March. In each 30 minute meet, students work as individuals on six problems; calculators are not allowed. Medals are awarded to the two students with the highest cumulative scores per grade level. Although this is a competition, the emphasis is on developing a love of mathematics while learning new strategies with other eager mathematicians. Julie Rogers is the contact person for grades 2-8. jrogers@cssu.org

Parent Volunteers Grades 5-8: In order to limit interruptions to regular academic classes 5-8th grade practices and meets will be held first thing in the morning at 8:00 or during lunch/recess time. Volunteers will need to contact the teams to set up times and a practice space. The success of this program depends on volunteers who work with small groups of students, during school hours. Ideally, all students will participate in a parent-led weekly practice group. These groups begin in October for grades 4-8 and may begin in November or December for 2-3rd graders as their first Meet isn’t until January. The Enrichment Program provides materials and training, while the time and place are determined by the teachers and volunteers. The practice groups provide an important component of the Continental Math program. This gives the students a chance to explore different solutions to problems, gain support from other group members, and benefit from small group instruction.

We encourage both veteran and novice volunteers to attend the Volunteer Leader Training on Friday, September 25th at 7:45 AM in the Enrichment room at WCS. Volunteers can indicate their interest on the student registration form and will be contacted with more information in mid September. This training will provide valuable information about the Williston math initiative, Best Practices in Mathematics, which is being used in all of our math classes. To register your child using the online registration link here.