Field trip to MRF

As part of our integrated unit called Garbology, Sterling will be traveling to MRF (Materials Recovery Facility) on Monday, November 26th.  Permission slips will be going home this week.

Volunteers Needed for the Craft Show, November 3rd

CRAFT SHOW - NOVEMBER 3

Join us to "shop local" on Saturday, November 3rd as Williston Central School hosts the 27th annual Craft Show sponsored by FAP.  

Find over 100 crafters/vendors showcasing their handicrafts and specialty foods.

When:  Saturday, November 3

Hours:  9AM - 4PM

Where: Williston Central School 

Delicious breakfast and lunch selections available in the cafeteria during the show.  Start your holiday shopping or treat yourself!  More information on our website www.WillistonCraftShow.org or find us on Facebook @Williston CraftShowVT 

WE NEED VOLUNTEERS!

The Craft Show is one of FAP's largest fundraisers.  Proceeds from crafter booth rentals help fund the many programs that FAP supports within the Williston Schools. Please help us make this a successful show by signing up to help us set up on Friday, November 2nd or for a 2 hour shift on the day of the show, November 3rd.  Here is a link to the sign-up page and to descriptions of the shifts.  http://signup.com/go/rUkLHGt

Contact Karen and Paula at wsdcraftshow@cvsdvt.org if you have any questions.  Thank you for helping with this important school fundraiser!

Fall Curriculum Night

Thank you to all adults that were able to make it to our Curriculum Night last week. It was a pleasure to meet you and show you around the Sterling rooms. For those of you unable to make it, please feel free to view the presentation here.

Also, a 1-page document was handed out with quick access to the Sterling Website and Blog (use your smartphone camera and point it at the QR Codes) and expectations to a few recurring assignments that happen in ELA and Math. That 1-page doc is linked here.

Be on the lookout for Fall Student-Parent-Teacher Conference Sign Ups as well. Those will come from your core teacher and will be emailed to you in the next few days. A reminder that on Sterling, your student is expected to attend the conference as well, so we ask that you find a time that works for them and you!

Regards,
Jared Bailey on behalf of Sterling

Science Update 10/8

Hello Families,
We have been busy working on the ideas of Newton's Laws of Motion. We have been lucky enough to have many hands-on activities where students can see first hand how the laws work. Students will be modeling the three laws through a final assessment where they will demonstrate how the laws can apply to an everyday activity.
We will wrap up this unit near the end of October. I plan to do some Halloween science on October 31st and then move on to a unit on temperature where students will learn about measuring and analyzing data.

Regards,
Amy

Curriculum Night Thursday, October 4th

Reminding everyone that tomorrow is Upper House Curriculum Night   6:30 PM at WCS.

Tess Littledale Introduction

Greetings Sterling families!

My name is Tess Littledale and I am interning with Joy Peterson this year. I'm in the Middle Level Master's program with the University of Vermont and come May 2019, I'll be licensed to teach ELA and Mathematics. During the Fall semester, I am at WCS three days per week and on Wednesdays I facilitate Homework Club. In the Spring, I'll be with Sterling every day!

I am so excited to have been placed at Williston Central to complete my student teaching! I've been met with nothing but enthusiasm from both the students and the teachers and it's made my transition an easy one. I can hardly wait to have my own classroom where I can incorporate some of the fabulous aspects of Joy's classroom, and of the Sterling team in general. I'm lucky to have the opportunity to learn from such a cohesive team.

On days that I'm not with Sterling, I like to stay active by getting to the gym, riding horses and taking my rescue hound, Wentworth, to the dog park. As a principle, I try to read a little every day to keep my mind active.

Thank you for taking the time to get to know me a little through this blog post!
All the best,
Tess Littledale

5th and 6th grade Math

  It has been a pleasure getting to be part of a new Team and four classes of new mathematicians!  We spent the first three days of school focusing on classroom culture and habits of math interaction.  I used the work of Jo Boaler from Stanford University to refresh the students on Growth Mindset and her "low floor, high ceiling" tasks to get students thinking and talking about math again.  Here's a link to her site with more information than you can use:

YouCubed

5th Grade

   The 5th graders will be using a combination of Bridges In Mathematics and Connected Math 3 as tools to get at the Common Core Standards and our Learning Targets.  The first unit we are working on deals with Multiplication Expressions, Equations and Volume, with an brief trip into division.  Students had a great deal of work with multiplication facts and using area models last year in 4th grade, and we are hitting the ground running.  A great deal of focus is being put on manipulating equations and efficiently representing multiplication different ways.  It's great number sense work!  

Here students are manipulating numbers in an equation that will allow them to later on deal with larger, more complex equations. 

   Students have started to approach volume through multiplication and the use of their favorite manipulative so far!  They explored the different ways to make 24, building upon area concepts and going 3D!

  Your child can expect explorations in class that will foster whole group conversations about concepts.  They will also be completing class work that will be turned in and tracked using JumpRope.  Exit tasks will be used as Formative Assessments so I can adjust my teaching as needed, and a Summative Assessment (Unit Test) will be used to wrap up the unit.  These scores will be tracked in JumpRope as well.  Here is the Unit overview from the Bridges Site:

Unit One Letter

6th Grade

   The 6th graders are starting off the year with the Decimal Ops unit in Connected Math.  Early work has been on making sense of decimal place values, estimating, and using ratio tables with decimals.  Current work includes adding and subtracting with decimals, and then we will move into multiplication and division with decimals.  Finally the unit wraps up with percents.  

Here is student work on finding the unit rate, or one, with decimals "disguised" as money!

Here is more student work around ratio tables with a more complex decimal relationship.

   Your child can expect explorations in class that will foster whole group conversations about concepts.  They will also be completing class work that will be turned in and tracked using JumpRope.  Exit tasks will be used as Formative Assessments so I can adjust my teaching as needed, and a Summative Assessment (Unit Test) will be used to wrap up the unit.  These scores will be tracked in JumpRope as well.

   Let me know what questions you have and I look forward to the challenge and inspiration of working with new levels of math with new math thinkers.

Michael