Humanities Greek unit

These past three and half weeks Team Sirius has been learning about Ancient Greek mytholagy and how they lived back then. We started with a project on an greek gods where we learned about them and wrote a couple paragraphs on what they're like. 

Next we started learing about actual Greek times and what their lifestyle was like. We started a project on either and event, a person, or a place in ancient greek times. Next week we are going to be having a Greek walk in our core classes with costumes, food, projects, and some different plays about Ancient Greece.

Team Sirius Playing with Dry Ice!

On Friday December, 11th team Sirius got to play with dry ice in science class. Mr. Rosenburg showed us what happened when we put dry ice in water and in soap water. We learned that dry ice is frozen CO2. We also learned that when a solid, like dry ice, turns in to a gas without being a liquid first its called sublimation. The picture below is dry ice in water.

CC v.s. ML Science Lab

In science class we recently finished a lab called CC v.s ML (cubic centimeters v.s. milliliters.) In this lab we tested the relationship between liquids and solids.  We used a graduated clinider and filled it with water at different levels (different milliliters). Then we would drop a little 1 by 1 cubic centimeter block into the water and see how much the water rose by. After many trials and recording our data, we concluded that every time we added 1 block the water rose by 1 centemeter.

PLP movie

Mr Maquire's SST made a movie on the PLP. We watched this film during the all team meeting. The students who helped make this film are as follows: Jason Tomasi, Davis Hart, Ben Gambill, Lillian Winters, Olivia Henessey, Juna Nagle, Bella Parento, Evan Rohan, Lila Markow, Azwala Taylor, Anja Sampsom, Emmett Kolber, Lily Gingold, and Milo Zeankowski-Giffin. This is a proccess which all middle school student will be doing.

Science unit: global warming

       In science we have started a new unit. This unit is be about global warming and the effects it has on our planit.  Our world is going through a serious problem that will impact us all globally.  Global warming is basicly when us humans pollute the air and the atmosphere gets thick with CO2. Then the earth can not radiate the heat and then the the earth warms up. 

8th grade Algebra Studies

In Team Sirius Algebra Classes, taught by Mr. Scott,  we are learning how to solve for X by undoing expressions. We are learning this by taking problems like 5-5(x=+2)/ -9 + 22=27. We are also learning to undo problems. By learning these two key math concepts we will be able to excel at geometry, the PSAT's, and SAT's.

Aris Editor S. S. T.

In one of the student support time class periods you could be grouped in the aris editor programming S.S.T with Mr. Rosenberg. Aris is a online programming system. On Aris you can create games, choose your own adventures and even story walks. In the S.S.T you create your own. When your Aris is finished anyone can play. Aris can be used to to give information in museams or just to have fun on a weekend story walk.

PLP

The Sirius students in Mr. Maguire's SST are hard at work making a video all about PLPs. In a quick interview with Lila Markow, she informed me that this video is being made to help students, teachers, and parents understand the PLP and how we are going about applying them in curriculum more often in classes. She said that they are trying to make an informational movie that entertains everyone in their audience. Olivia Hennessey told me that their process was first to decide on a theme. They went with

the now popular TV show The Office. In the movie you will hear The Office theme song playing and some of the interviews will be themed like the office for comedy relief. The interviewees are 8th graders in Team Sirius and Summit, asking what they know about the PLPs, what they like or dislike, and how they want the PLPs to change. Mr. Maguire's SST is now editing the video in Imovie and I personally can not wait to see the final product.

Mythical God, hero and monster poster

 Past week or two team sirius has been studying greek mythology in humanities class. One of our assignments was to read a greek myth about a god, hero or monster after that we wrote a paragraph that rewrote and told the story in our own words. After we had done that we drew a picture of the hero, god or monster we chose and then we drew a picture and made a poster of the two. here are some examples

Rocket Launch

Sirus seventh and eigth graders recently made and launched homemade bottle rockets. We were put into groups of three or four people, we had a few class times to plan and make our rockets. The rockets were made out of 1 and 2 liter plastic bottles, constrution paper and mylar. The design and overall structure was up to the group to decide. Next we went and launched our rockets. We launched them with 1/2 full of water, 1/4 full, 3/4, and all the way full. We collected the data to see which made the rockets go further. We figured out that having the water filled up half way made the rockets go the furthest. what a great time.

2015 Craft Fair

Guess what, MSMS. We're having a craft fair on Saturday the 14th! They're will be a cafe with a whole bunch of treats from our F.C.S, lots of stuffed animals, jewelery, and more! It goes from 9am to 3pm, so help support local businesses and our school by coming to the craft fair.

7th and 8th grade straw rockets coming soon

     Starting today in science class we are planing our straw rockets. Straw rockets are a fun indoor activity made of straws that our launched out of an air pressure cannon.  The first thing we did to build these rockets is to make a plan.  We planed our rockets to a pre determand measurement of centimeters. Finaly when planing was over we could build. We built the fin the nose the body and when your finaly done you can have the trouble of putting cut up q-tips in your rocket to act as astronauts.. Keep reading and dont miss a step of theway.

Friday Parent Teacher Conferences

Last week school was let out two days early due to parent teacher conferences. Students throughout thursday and Friday would come to school and meet with a teacher of their choice and talk about their goals. However there was a water main brake and Thursdays confrences were canceled! So this week, on friday the 13th 11:15am, school will be let out early and the second half of the day will be spent making up the missed parent teacher conferences. Also between the time of dismisal, 11:15am, and 11:45am lunch will be available for any student.

The Halloween Dance

                 On Friday, October 30th, the night before halloween there was a 7th and 8th grade dance at MSMS. People dressed up in a variety of costumes including cats, witches, Kermit the frog and gonzo, vampires, a traffic light, skelotons, minions, a harlequin doll, a yeti, and many more. There were awesome decorations and a costume contest. The winners were the yeti and the traffic light. Everyone had a great time!    By Havvah

PLP and Conferences Coming up soon

Some new and exiting things in team sirius. In humanity class right now, we are working on PLP's or Personal Learning PLans. They are plans designed to meet our goals, and a place for teachers and parents to learn about things we are interested in. If you want to learn more about them or to see your childs PLP, you can go to the mpsvt.org/msms and go to core teams, and go to the Sirius website. Also, confrences are coming up soon. November 5th and 6th are for parents to sign up to meet with any of the teachers on team Sirius. Everyone should have gotten an emial, and if you didn't, feel free to email any of our core teaachers.   

Global Food Crisis

We have been studying the global food crisis. We have found many factors and solutions for this crisis. We waste up to 300% of our food in the U.S. We are also writing an informational paper to learn and discuss this topic.  As well as what solution is the best and how we can change this way of food consumption to make a better world.

Science rocket unit!

Here in science class, team Sirius is having a rocket unit! The students will be working in groups and creating their own rockets using bottles and other materials. We are learning about what we can do to make these rockets go far. For example, will adding water in the rocket or the size of the bottle affect how far it will fly? After we are done creating these rockets we will all go outside and launch them! We are very excited to see our results and how well our rockets will fly.

Radar Run

Mr. Scott took the Algebra students to go on a radar run. We took the speeds of cars with radars to find cars that speed. We were with Officer Nysly. We took the speeds of cars passing with a light radar as well as a laser radar. The highest speed we saw was 30 mph.

All Team Meeting

On Monday, October 20th, of this year, Team Sirius held an all team meeting. We had a Dogstar Drama performance and birthdays. The six kids who went to the Teal Farm presented their slideshows to teach Team Sirius about the Teal Farm, a self sustainable farm, and how the farm functions and produce the food there. In conclusion, we in Team Sirius had a all team meeting that taught us about farms and also entertained us with a Dogstar performance. Check out the Dogstar Drama blog.

Jacqueline Woodson Visit

Jacqueline Woodson, author of many award-winning books, such as Brown Girl Dreaming, Feathers, Each Kindness, If You Come Softly, and many more, came to visit our school on tuesday, the thirteenth of October. The school gathered for an all-school assembly, where she read from some of her books ( including Feathers, Locomotive, and The Other Side), before answering some questions that the students and teachers here at MSMS had for her.

Math Marble Roll

In 8th Grade math class we did a math marble roll. Each group of 4/5 people used math books and put two meter sticks together with tape and put one end on the top of the books so that the marble would roll down. There was a bullseye with a big square, a medium sized square in the big one, than a smaller square in the medium sized one. they could choose how many books the group wanted to stack. The distance between the bullseye to where they released the marble was around 250-300 centimeters.The big square was worth 1 point, the medium sized square was worth 2 points, and the small square was worth 3 points. The group that got the most points wins. Each team got three rolls and between each roll they made a conclusion, they did a data and analysis and a hypothesis before each roll.

Team Sirius field trip to Ben and Jerrys!

Last Friday team SIRIUS took a  field trip to the Ben and Jerry's factory! On this field trip we learned about food distribution. Ben and Jerry's was definitely a fun part to Friday's field trip, especially with ice cream involved!

Adams apple adventure

Team Sirius went apple picking at Adams Apple Orchard in Williston on Friday September 25th. We will be making and donating several apple products to different organizations thoughout Vermont. The apple products that team Sirius will be making/donating are applesauce, apple cider, and also delicious plain apples. We are not only donating the apple products, we will also be tasting and enjoying the things we make here on Team Sirius. 

Team Sirus adventure to Adams Apple Orchard

Team Sirius is picking apples at Adams Apple Orchard in Williston on Friday September 25th.
We will be making and donating several apple products to different organizations thoughout Vermont. The apple products that team Sirius will be making/donating are applesauce, apple cider, and also delicious plain apples. We are not only donating the apple products, we will also be tasting and enjoying the things we make here on Team Sirius.

Mount Philo!

On Friday May 22, the Sirius 7th and 8th graders went on an amazing all day field trip to Mount Philo. Sirius students hiked up and once on top the students played different activities such as mad libs, a geography test, a modified version of Mr.Griffiths basketball, and acting out different rock phases with cookie crumbs, yum! It was a great experience and was lots of good exercise. Lunch was spent at Oak Ledge Park with a huge field where students were playing and practicing hand stands!  

SBAC Testing

Starting next week, May 4, 8th graders will start the new, online SBAC test. May 11, 7th graders will start and the 6th graders on May 18. The tests are used to measure how much students have learned and grown during the year and not primarily how many questions each student gets right. Students are asked to bring headphones from home for spoken tests. Get a good night's sleep each night and start your breakfast off with a nutritious meal.

7th grade Earth Day rotation

On Monday the 13 and Tuesday the 14 Team Sirius and Team Summit 7th grade students joined for an earth day rotation. Mrs. Scott read a story and showed a Ted Talk to the students. She had them write a small skit to preform about the actions and outcomes that you could take and what it really does. Mr. Taylor taught the 7th graders about what citizenship means and helped them create their citizenship pages on their PLP's. Mr. Scott brought the students to different places to pick up trash. He had them do a data collection about the amount and what the trash was. Mrs. Kimball had the students create decorative art for our entryway out of recycled materials.

Food Justice Presentation

On Friday the 10th of April Kristen Andrews presented to team Sirius's seventh and eighth grade students about food justice. Kristen explained that homeless people do not choose to be homeless or are not just lazy but usually have fallen on hard times. She said that there are things more that we could do then just donate food, we need to search for ways for the people to be able to provide for themselves, such as community gardens, teaching how to prepare fresh foods.

Dog Star Preformance

This week another all team meeting took place on Monday 13, 2015. There were birthday celebrations, announcements of the coming week, and a very entertaining, yet informing skit. Dog Star Drama had it's third all team preformance, and showed a skit they wrote about homelessness. In the skit Ryan McSweeny, a philanthripist, gave Joseph Mensa, a homelss person, lots of money. Jo-jo, in turn went and gave the money to other homeless people (Remi Savard, Luke Hawley, and Warren Cossett). The message of the story was that not all homeless people want to be homeless, and they are nice people too. The story was thoughtful and entertainting at the same time. Another nice day on Team Sirius.

Food Drive

The Food Drive ends tomorrow, April 15th! Bring in food items quickly! Canned vegetables, toilet paper, pasta, and any other non perishable foods are accepted! The Food Drive truck is on the main floor, in front of the guidance office, and there are other collection places in Mrs. Moody's room as well as in room 6&8. Even one food item is greatly appreciated.

STAR- The *Fifth* Owner

Daniel Jestes, Sirius eigth grader is the fifth recipient of the Sirius dog, Star. Mr. Rosenberg's TA takes the mascot with pride and will keep Star safe for the next month. Daniel is described as a giving, funny, spirited, and an introspective human being who is worldly smart and intelligent. Daniel helped with this year's sixth grade Robotics club, and is always super helpful to all those around him. Daniel Jestes is this month's Star winner, but who will be the next?

Sirius Sheep Heart Dissection

March 26, 2015: During science classes, the Sirius team has been studying about the human body, and exploring the realms of different systems such as the digestive, circulatory, respiratory, etc, along with studying the many working parts of a cell and their functions. After examining diagrams and taking notes about working systems in the body, it was time to do some hands on interaction involving the dissection of a sheep's heart. Small groups of two or three students worked together to discover parts of the circulatory system in the heart to further our understanding. Students were pleased overall with the experiments results! Good job Sirius!

Invisible Presence Work

The week of the 23rd, the lyrics group worked with Evan to create music to be preformed on April 11th. Now, the sets groups are working on the backdrop of the show. They are going to be creating visual representations of data on hunger and income inequality.

Cell Batik Analogy

On the week of March 9th we made cells by using Batik.  These cells were made to be models to show how a cell gets and uses energy, and how a cell builds proteins.  We made analogies using many artistic values such as contrast, shape, hue, etc.  Then we recorded an oral explaination that described each organelle and what it does.

Math Racers

In the Math SST with Mr. Scott, students are using Lego dragsters to calculate linear averages and approximations. They will later use the data they collect to design a lab.

Invisible Presence Presentation

On Monday, March 23, Evan Premo and Gowri Savoor came in and gave a presentation on song writing and set building. In math you took a survey asking if you would rather build sets or write songs. Team Sirius was then split in half and then divided in to 4 groups. Each day every group will miss one core class to work on set building or song writing. This week people are working on song writing and next week will be set building. During the presentation they told us about them selves and Gowri Savoor talked about what types of sets we would be building. This unit will definitely be fun!

Monday SST Visitor

  On Monday, March 16th, we had a visitor, Jeremiah M. Eckhaus. He's a local family physician at Montpelier Health Center and he came to talk about the western lifestyle and diet. He told us about how to stay healthy and eat what's best for our bodies. He also talked about the decrease in nutrients in our food and the increase in unhealthy, sugary, fatty food and how it has increased the rate of diabetes by leaps and bounds. He said the best way to keep healthy is to be active and eat lots of fruits and vegetables. Carbohydrates and sugary foods should never replace them.   

3/16/15

Invisible Presence Unit

In LA class SIRIUS students are working on short poems and poetic sound bites for our artist--in-residence Even Premo. Even is going to be working with students to create a song about community and our home town. Gowri Savoor will also be coming to our school to create theater sets that
highlight our town. This is made possible by Paul Gambill and the Community Engagement Lab.

http://www.gowrisavoor.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/gowri_cv.jpg

http://static1.squarespace.com/static/5244838ce4b09e5a1a64ae60/t/52506953e4b078f550722220/1381001582573/Evan+Premo,+double+bass.jpg

Science Fair 2015

Friday of March 11, 2015, we had our bi-annual Main Street Middle School Science Fair. Parents, sixth grade students, and people from our community came to see our awesome projects. We had projects from Vermicomposting to Slingshots. Plus, not only did students put their projects on boards, but they also had slide shows and hands on activities. Parents were allowed to come and see for themselves how the whole process works. Next Science Fair: 2017.

Pi Day 3/14/15!

                 On Friday the 13th SIRIUS students will be celebrating Pi Day which is on Saturday the 14th.  Some of the activities that will be happening include eating pie in TA and trying to remember as many digits of pi as you can. Another contest will be where students in groups of about eight will be presented with small plates of whipped cream with a piece of bubble gum underneath. The object of the contest is to get to the bubble gum without out your hands and blow a bubble before anyone else. This will all be happening during our SST time at 10:00 to 10:35, during which we will probably play pi music.            

     

Star!

STAR has found a new home in Mrs Brace's TA, SIRIUS's mascot, Star! was voted by band of SIRIUS teachers and the former owner of Star.  If you're interested in earning Star at the next all team meeting, then remember to be an involved, enthusiastic student!

The Outsiders

In Language Arts we are reading a book called The Outsiders. It is by S.E Hilton, and is based on a true story that she experienced when she was a teenager. The main characters, Ponyboy, Sodapop, and Darry, belong to a group known as the Greasers, none of which have much money. Their rival gang, the Socs, live on the other side of town and have considerably more money. Throughout the story, Ponyboy discovers that the Greasers and the Socs are not so different.

Leading Up To The Science Fair

Only 28 days till the science fair! We've had 70 days to work on our science projects. The type of projects vary a lot. People are doing experiments with worms and and seeing how the weight of a ball effects how high it bounces on a trampoline. There are many creative science fair projects and I can not wait to see all the ineresting projects.

Dog Star Drama

Dog star drama had their second preformance on Monday, February 9. This play was about animals that are genetical modified and continued our endless discussions and talks about genes and genetics. The dog start drama members only worked on this play/skit for and couple of days, but still managed to create a fun and exited preformance for team Sirius.

                Hippogator, One of the geneticaly modified animals.

                Zebrarrot, Another one of the geneticaly modified animals.