- January 19 – MLK Day of Service
- 5th Grade to WCDS Soup Kitchen
- DROP OFF (opens at 8) AND PICKUP (Begins at 2:30) AT WV NORTHERN BRANCH CAMPUS
- January 30 – Freedom Friday and 8 am Parent Coffee
- Friday, February 6 – 11:30 Early Dismissal – Winter Long Weekend
- Monday, February 9 – No School
- Tuesday, February 10 – No School
We are excited to invite our 5th-grade students and families to schedule a Middle School Student Shadow Day! This visit gives your child the opportunity to spend part of the day shadowing a middle school student, attending classes, meeting teachers, and experiencing a typical middle school schedule at WCDS. Shadow days help students feel more confident and excited about the transition by giving them a firsthand look at what middle school life is like. If you are interested in scheduling a shadow day for your child, please reach out to Mrs. Ochap at cochap@wcdsedu.com. We would love to welcome them and help make this next step a positive experience.
This week, we held an SEL-based school assembly where Mr. Joe discussed our MLK Jr. Day of Service on Monday. (Reminder that 5th grade is to be dropped off and picked up at Northern so we can walk to the Soup Kitchen). Each grade shared what they are doing, along with the items or supplies they hope to collect. That was followed up by the incredible Mr. Ron Scott (Cousin Ron), as the kids refer to him now. Mr. Scott discussed the importance of one of our WCDS values, respect. Through his playful and engaging storytelling, the kids learned about respecting others, materials, and themselves. We are extremely grateful that our kids were able to learn from him this week and hope to welcome him back soon!
WEEKLY RECAP
Language Arts:
- Students learned the “how-to’s” of internet research by learning how to narrow their search, what websites are valid sources, and how to check for bias
- Started to develop our thesis statement, narrowing down the specific subtopics of our informational research essay
- Students are devloping their ideas for their creative choice project – a show what you know opportunity that showcases the new information they learned through their research!
- Participated in the Spelling Bee – Congratulations to Ani for placing in 1st out of 3rd-5th grade and making it to the next round at the middle school!
- We began our Literature Circles, where each student is placed in a small group, mixed with fourth graders and fourth-grade teachers for a three-week novel study. We love this chance to read and discuss with small groups and different faces!
Math:
- Learned how to compare and order fractions
- Practiced and reviewed simplifying fractions and converting mixed and improper numbers in small groups
- We will have a quiz next Wednesday on everything we’ve learned so far in fractions! Students can find online links to use for practice on Google Classroom, have a review packet due Tuesday, and should be bringing their math notebooks home as a resource for studying.
Robotics
- This week, we began our deep dive into Robotics!
- We discussed the basic concept of flow charts, and how it relates to programming.
- They are learning the new vocabulary words necessary to understand code writing – blocks, loops, velocity, rotation, etc. and started to explore the program we will soon be using on our robots
- Special shoutout to Mr. Mike Harris, retired former Robotics teacher from Wheeling Park, who not only prepared our tournament table, but has also provided the class with valuable insight into Vex Robotics, which is new to us all this year.
Social Studies:
- On Tuesday, we decided to Learn on Location! After learning about the Industrial Revolution and the advancements that came with the National Road, we had to get out and see what was in our own backyard
- Mr. Jividen took us on a historical tour of the Suspension Bridge, National Road markers, and the Madonna of the Trail statues to add some modern-day visuals to everything we learned about historically
PE and Wellness:
- In Wellness, students are researching the main health food groups and creating presentation boards to help showcase their research to the rest of the class
- The chilly weather has kept us inside a lot of this week, but there has been no shortage of games in PE. Even with absences for snow and flu, we’ve been able to play rock paper scissor tag and frisbee golf!
QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR KIDS:
- What part of historical Wheeilng did you think was the most interesting?
- Did you learn something new this week about your research topic?
- How are you feeling about fractions? Have you made sure you have all your notes in your notebook before the test?
- Are you enjoying doing your reading discussions in a smaller group this month?
- Learning how to code is an entirely new set of skills. What do you think of it so far?
- Do you think you will like building the robot, or doing the coding more?
