6th

Our trip to the Cathedral of Learning was fantastic! The kids were so engaged with the information the guides shared with us, and they were incredibly polite and well-behaved in the common learning areas where college students were working and studying. We wish you all safe travels if you are travelling, and rest and relaxation if you aren’t!

 Middle School Important Dates

• March 2 – 6 – No School, Spring Break
• Monday, March 9 – Classes Resume
• March 11 @ 5:30 MS “Youth Show of Hands” Exhibition – River City/Heritage Center 
• March 13th @ 8am – 8th grade field trip to Jamie Peck Production Studio

CLICK HERE FOR UPCOMING WCDS EVENTS

English w/ Mrs. McFadden – 

• Upcoming Tests/Quizzes-  none scheduled
• We continued reading The Parker Inheritance. This book is set in dual time periods: the 1950’s and 2017. The kids are enjoying the 1950’s setting more, as that is where the mystery and the history take place. We watched a video on Juneteenth, and are learning about segregation and integration.
• We also continued to practice finding the theme with the picture book The Spider Lady – Nana Songer and Her Arachnid WWII Army.

Math w/ Mrs. McFadden – 

• Upcoming Tests/Quizzes – None scheduled
• Students finished chapter 5 and took the test.
• We began chapter 6, which is a review of prime factorization, GCF and LCM. 

Music w/Mrs. Chelsey – 

• Upcoming Tests/Quizzes – 
• This week 6th and 7th grade got to experience a short sound bath presentation Friday morning, given by the 8th grade. Their journal entry was to respond to this!
• We combined art and music in a short exercise that asks students to draw how the music sound/makes them feel/what thoughts come up as they listen to different songs.

Deep Dive w/ Mr. K, Mrs. McFadden, Mrs. Ochap, Mr. Jividen – 

• Join us on Wednesday, March 11, for an exciting Youth Show of Hands event! From 5:30 PM to 7:00 PM at RiverCity, young participants will have the chance to share their ideas, showcase their talents, and make their voices heard in a fun and supportive environment. Admission is $5, which gets you a vote, so bring a friend and be part of an inspiring evening filled with creativity, confidence, and community with Wheeling Heritage and WCDS Middle! 

Social Studies w/ Mr. Jividen –

• 6th grade wrapped up their unit on exploration and colonization
• Will begin a new unit when we return from Spring Break

Elective –

New Electives will begin after break!

 Middle School Important Dates

• February 20th – Trimester 2 Ends 
• February 25th – 6th and 7th grade field trip to The Cathedral of Learning @ Pitt 
• March 2 – 6 – No School, Spring Break
• Monday, March 9 – Classes Resume
• March 11 @ 5:30 MS “Youth Show of Hands” Exhibition – River City/Heritage Center

CLICK HERE FOR UPCOMING WCDS EVENTS

It was an impressive week for our middle schoolers! 6th grade had a clean sweep in the OCPL Awesome Author’s contest (congrats again to Zoe, Parker, and Kaya), with Helena winning the overall award for the county! Then, Helena and Isabelle place 3rd with their duo piece at the middle school speech and debate tournament at Park. Lastly, Connor B. (and Johnny) went to the county spelling bee and finished in the top five. Way to go, kids!

English w/ Mrs. McFadden – 

• Upcoming Tests/Quizzes- Daily Dose quiz Tuesday
• We continued reading The Parker Inheritance. and listened to our peers present their culminating projects on their literature circle books. From the quality of the projects, it was clear to see that they were invested in their books. They were able to talk about them and answer questions in a very natural and genuine way.
• We are working on finding the theme in a piece of literature. We read the picture book Salt in His Shoes about Michael Jordan’s childhood. This was an easy introduction to  finding the theme, as several are directly stated in the text. We will continue to read stories and pick out themes next week.

Math w/ Mrs. McFadden – 

• Upcoming Tests/Quizzes – Chapter 5 quiz Monday
• After realizing that inequalities are still a little tricky, the chapter 5 test has been moved to Monday. We need one more day to practice! Students who are ready to move on have begun to try some enrichment activities.

Music w/Mrs. Chelsey – 

• Upcoming Tests/Quizzes – 
• This week students presented their classical piece body percussion routines, and shared their ten facts about their composer. There were a lot of great rhythms created!!!
• We filmed our Mozart “Rondo Alla Turca” body percussion routine and will be sharing it soon!!
• Our journal today was a response to the piece “Rhapsody in Blue” by George Gershwin.

SEL w/Mrs. Ochap – 

• Students this week are learning about growth and fixed mindsets. Essentially, a fixed mindset is the idea that what we know and can do is fixed so why try to get better at something. A growth mindset is an idea that with practice, hard work, and dedication, along with setting realistic goals we can grow and learn new skills. Talk to your students about how you use a growth mindset. 

A big shoutout to our mathletes, Greyson, Connor B, Sero, and Preston who competed in Math Field Day on Tuesday on their day off! Special kudos to Connor B., who won the estimation room and first place for all of 6th grade!

Middle School Important Dates

February 16th – Bring a Friend Day (More details to follow)
February 20th – Trimester 2 Ends
February 25th – 6th and 7th grade field trip to The Cathedral of Learning @ Pitt
March 2 – 6 – No School, Spring Break
Monday, March 9 – Classes Resume
March 11 @ 5:30 MS “Youth Show of Hands” Exhibition – River City/Heritage Center

CLICK HERE FOR UPCOMING WCDS EVENTS

English w/ Mrs. McFadden –
Upcoming Tests/Quizzes- Daily Dose Quiz Friday
This week we dove into The Parker Inheritance. It is my favorite book to teach in February in honor of Black History Month. The book referenced both the KKK and the Jim Crow laws. We watched videos meant for their age on both topics. It is eye opening for our children to learn about these unfortunate times in our history.
We also had our monthly visit from Mr. B, who taught the kids a few tricks about improv. Shout out to the 6th graders who were brave enough to try it!

Math w/ Mrs. McFadden –
Upcoming Tests/Quizzes – Chapter 5 Test Thursday (if all goes well next week).
Practiced translating word problems into inequalities.
Practiced keeping the ever-tricky <, and > signs straight!
Learned how to read and write inequalities on a number line.Finished our Valentine math cubes.

Science w/ Mrs. McKay –
Upcoming Tests/Quizzes –
On Thursday, students continued work on their solar system poster, collaborating within their group to design and convey interesting facts about their planet.

Art w/Mr. K-
We are wrapping up our Styrofoam sculpture projects, and I am incredibly impressed with the creativity, craftsmanship, and designs students have shown in their work.

Deep Dive w/ Mr. K, Mrs. McFadden, Mrs. Ochap, Mr. Jividen –
We are excited to share an update from our Youth Show of Hands experience! After an impressive round of student pitches, four finalist teams have been selected and will move on to the final stage. A link to all of the pitches presented is included so our community can see the creativity, innovation, and hard work that went into each idea.
Teams that did not advance to the finals are still playing an important role in the event. These students have been reorganized into new groups and are taking full ownership of the evening—leading key elements such as food and entertainment, social media promotion, and logo design and branding for the event.
We invite everyone to join us for the Youth Show of Hands Exhibition on Wednesday, March 11, at 5:30 PM at River City, where the finalist teams will showcase their ideas and the entire student effort will be on display.
We hope to see you there as we celebrate student voice, leadership, and creativity!
“Youth Show of Hands” Pitch to Judges

SEL w/Mrs. Ochap –
This week, students participated in an SEL lesson focused on kindness, where they explored how small actions can make a big impact. Through discussion and reflection, students learned how showing empathy, respect, and appreciation can strengthen relationships and create a more positive school community. For our Kindness lesson, the students put together baskets and made appreciation cards for three groups of people they come in contact with daily here at school.
6th – WP Cleaning Crew
7th – Cafe 1925 Workers
8th – Main Office Crew at WP

Elective –
Robotics – The students continue to build their freeze tag robot. We ran some mini-competitions on Friday. We’ll continue adding on building skills to these freeze tag bots and will add a new challenge before we leave for spring break.

• February 10th- Math Field Day 
• February 15th National Anthem @ Nailers Game (6th/7th Grade) 
• February 25th6th and 7th grade field trip to The Cathedral of Learning @ Pitt 
• February 9th and February 10th – No School for students, February 10 – Teacher Professional Development
• February 16th – Bring a Friend Day (More details to follow) 
• February 20th – Trimester 2 Ends 
• March 2 – 6 – No School, Spring Break
• Monday, March 9 – Classes Resume
• March 11 @ 5:30MS “Youth Show of Hands” Exhibition – River City/Heritage Center

The 6th graders were bounced around a bit this week, as I had jury duty. They still had a normal week, and their well-established routines made it easy for the various subs. I missed the announcement of the awesome authors, but I was thrilled to see that we had 4 finalists!! Congratulations to Zoe, Parker, Kaya, and Helena! I’m sure some of you are wondering about what Valentine’s Day looks like in middle school. It is not the same as elementary, in that we don’t have a party, there are no boxes, and not everyone brings things in. However, if students wish to bring in valentines or treats for their classmates , they are more than welcome to.

English w/ Mrs. McFadden – 

• Upcoming Tests/Quizzes- none scheduled
• This week, students worked on their culminating projects for their lit circle books and completed the open note test on their books. They learned about types of conflict and how to find the theme in a book. We also began our new class novel, The Parker Inheritance. Next week, they will present their culminating projects to the class

Math w/ Mrs. McFadden – 

• Upcoming Tests/Quizzes – none scheduled
• Students completed the progress check for chapter five, and continued to learn more about equalities. They also reviewed one step equations.

Art w/ Mr. K- 

• Middle school students have been creating styrofoam abstract sculptures, demonstrating motion and fluid shapes that transition with the void of the time and space continuum. Just kidding, but they are working on sculptures, and they look amazing!

Music w/Mrs. Chelsey – 

• Upcoming Tests/Quizzes – 
• Students continued working in their groups on their classical body percussion routines and composer facts. We also did the National Anthem from memory and it looks like we will get to perform it on the ice at the game, so that is exciting!!
• We played “Pass the Beat Around the Room” and “clap, 2, stomp” – ask your child to play the latter with you – it’s a fun mind/body rhythm game!
• Our journal prompt this week was “Tell me about a song you’re liking/listening to right now”

Deep Dive w/ Mr. K, Mrs. McFadden, Mrs. Ochap, Mr. Jividen – 

• Students in the Youth Show of Hands Deep Dive class took center stage as they pitched their original ideas to a panel of teachers. Each presentation showcased creativity, problem-solving, and confidence as students worked to bring their ideas to life. After thoughtful questions and discussion from the panel, the top presentations were selected to move on to the Final Four, marking an exciting next step in their entrepreneurial journey.  Students will find out the results on Tuesday. 

Social Studies w/ Mr. Jividen –

• Introduction to Black History Month
• Students chose an Influential figure and wrote a biography 

Elective –Robotics – Last week, we had the opportunity to observe the robotics competition up at the Highland Sports Center. The students that attended got to see high school robotics teams in action. Thank you to 7th Grade parent, Dana White and Ella’s sister Mya, for taking some time during the competition to share her knowledge about the competition.  

• Math Field Day – February 10 @ WP
• National Anthem @ Nailers Game (6th/7th Grade) February 15th
• Tuesday January 27 – PFA Meeting on Zoom at 7:00 pm
  • If Interested in being on the PFA, please email pfa@wcdsedu.com to get added to the list so you can hear about volunteer opportunities on campus throughout the year
• Friday – 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 

The 6th graders were so helpful at the House of the Carpenter on Monday. They organized the food pantry and sorted the toy closet. Once they finished, they enjoyed some well earned play time in the gym! By Wednesday, the cold weather and the move to the White Palace left us all feeling a little squirrely, but we showed resilience and made the best of it until the sun came out again on Thursday! We also held our 2nd annual Middle School spelling bee. We had two 6th graders advance to the whole-school finals on Thursday, and we wish Connor B all the best as he moves on to the county regionals!

English w/ Mrs. McFadden – 

• Upcoming Tests/Quizzes-  Daily Dose quiz Wednesday, -ous/-us spelling quiz Friday
• Wrote and edited paragraphs of the week
• Comma practice and more comma practice. There are many rules for correct comma usage!
• Continued with lit circle books. Practiced the skill of “reading is thinking” in order to facilitate meaningful discussions
• Learned that the suffix -ous is used for spelling adjectives (such as jealous) that end in that sound, and -us for nouns (such as cactus) that end in that sound. 

Math w/ Mrs. McFadden – 

• Upcoming Tests/Quizzes – Thursday Chapter 5 check your progress
• Reviewed the concept of equations being balanced. Introduced the properties of equalities, and the concept that what you do to one side of an equation, you must do to the other in order to maintain balance. Learned how to isolate the variable in order to solve an algebraic equation. Played games and did an equation scavenger hunt to practice.
• I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly they caught on to these concepts!

Music w/Mrs. Chelsey – 

• Upcoming Tests/Quizzes – 
• This week we finished learning all of our Mozart body percussion routine. We will continue perfecting it and be recording soon! 
• We continued our dive into rhythm as we began a small group body percussion project. Each group was given a Symphony to come up with their own thirty second routine to present. They also will be researching the composer of their Symphony and sharing ten facts.
• Our music journal entry this week was “Imagine that you are on stage about to play your favorite instrument for a huge crowd. How do you feel and why?
• An email has been sent out with information about the Nailers game we are singing the National Anthem for. Please be sure to read it and mark your calendar!!

Middle School Important Dates
Middle School Spelling Bee – Rescheduled: Tuesday, Jan. 20
MLK Day of Service – Monday, Jan. 19
6th Grade – House of the Carpenter- Drop off at middle school. Transportation will be provided.
7th Grade – YWCA
8th Grade – Elmhurst House of Friendship
Math Field Day – February 10 @ WP (More info to come)
National Anthem @ Nailers Game (6th/7th Grade) February 15th

CLICK HERE FOR UPCOMING WCDS EVENTS

English w/ Mrs. McFadden –
Upcoming Tests/Quizzes- Comma Quiz – Wed
This week we continued to practice correct use of the comma, and how to correct the comma splice.
We finished the Aimsweb winter benchmark testing
We continued to read our lit circle books. Yesterday and today, each group came up with a skit to act out an important scene from their books. They did a really nice job with this, considering it was their first time!

Math w/ Mrs. McFadden –
Upcoming Tests/Quizzes – None scheduled
Finished Aimsweb
Finished Chapter 4
Began chapter 5, which will cover using variables to write and solve equations and inequalities.

Science w/ Mrs. McKay –
Upcoming Tests/Quizzes – acid base quiz Thursday 1/22
Students conducted lab testing pH levels of household products and also a virtual lab on how to adjust pH. They also had a quiz on the periodic table of the elements.

Music w/Mrs. Chelsey –
Upcoming Tests/Quizzes –
This week we continued working on the National Anthem in preparation for performing it at a Nailers game on Sunday February 15th. Information about this will be going out to you soon!!
We continued learning our Mozart body percussion routine. Once it is completed, we will be filming it and uploading it to youtube, so you can see what we did!
Our journal entry was a response to hearing the opera aria “Der Holle Rache” (Queen of the Night) from The Magic Flute by Mozart.

Elective –
Robotics – The students have completed the first part of their robot build for our Freeze Tag unit. They did a mini-driving competition to see who has the driving skills with their robot. The “driver” position will change throughout the trimester. This is not the only driver for the group. The students continue to work together on all of the skills which include building, modifications, and notebooking.
Speech and Debate – Now that we have our pieces for the competition, we are spending each class rehearsing and refining the presentations. The quicker the kiddos can memorize their pieces, the better off they will be.

Middle School Spelling Bee – Friday, Jan. 16
MLK Day of Service – Monday, Jan. 19
6th Grade – House of the Carpenter
7th Grade – YWCA
8th Grade – Elmhurst House of Friendship
Math Field Day – February 10 @ WP (More info to come)
National Anthem @ Nailers Game (6th/7th Grade) February 15th

CLICK HERE FOR UPCOMING WCDS EVENTS

English w/ Mrs. McFadden – 

• Upcoming Tests/Quizzes- Grammar Quiz – Thursday
• We began literature circles this week. We will have our first discussion meeting on Monday.
• Practiced comma rules, and reviewed why punctuation is important to reading comprehension.
• Learned about dependent and independent clauses, subordinating and coordinating conjunctions

Math w/ Mrs. McFadden – 

• Upcoming Tests/Quizzes – Quiz Wed – properties, formulas for area and perimeter, equivalent expressions
• This week we practiced identifying and using the distributive property, the associative property, and the commutative property. 
• We learned what makes an algebraic expression equivalent. You must use those properties to create an equivalent expression that will be equivalent if you substitute  any value for x.

Music w/Mrs. Chelsey – 

• Upcoming Tests/Quizzes – 
• This week we started working on The Star Spangled Banner, which we will be performing at The Nailers game on February 15th. There will be information about this being sent out next week!
• We also began learning a body percussion routine to Mozart’s “Rondo Alla Turca”. In preparation for this, students broke into small groups and had to come up with their own 8 bar body percussion routine. They then presented them to the class. It was fun to see what they created!!
• This week’s journal entry was a response to what we have done so far this year and the Holiday Show.

Deep Dive w/ Mr. K, Mrs. McFadden, Mrs. Ochap, Mr. Jividen – 

• Students have come up with some amazing ideas for the Youth Show of Hands. This week they finalized their logos and branding, their business plans, and their budgets. They began working on their pitches as well.

Elective –

• Robotics – The students continued working on their robots for their first competition, Freeze Tag. They are learning about parts, assembly, and how to keep track of their progress with their engineering notebooks. We hope to have them all assembled next week in order to start the competition.

Speech and Debate – We spent all day today at Wheeling Park High today for the speech and debate workshop. The kids learned more about their competition category and picked their pieces for the competition in February.  They got to work with many WCDS alumni who are now part of the WPHS Speech and Debate team.

December 12th – 30th Anniversary of Wheeling Park High School’s “Festival of Sound” @ WP High School 9:30 am – 11:30 am (Transportation Provided)
December 15th– Middle School Holiday Show 6:00 pm @ Main Campus (Drop-off that morning will be at the main campus for a run-through.) We will transport the kids over to middle school for the afternoon. Pick-up that day will be at the middle.
December 19th – Winter Break Begins @ 11:30 am (Return to school on Jan. 5th)

CLICK HERE FOR UPCOMING WCDS EVENTS

English w/ Mrs. McFadden – 

• Upcoming Tests/Quizzes- Spelling test Wednesday on ch/k/ words (in binder)
• This week we tried out one of the ideas from the recent reading conferences at Oglebay. Students made cards with the words, visualize, predict, question, clarify, evaluate, connect and summarize on them. We practiced using the cards with the whole group to encourage discussion during our reading. Then the real magic happened whe we broke into small groups and used them. The kids had the best discussions within the safe confines of a small group, and it was great to hear from the kids who usually don’t want to speak in front of the whole class. 
• Google classroom is up to date. The kids looked today to check for any missing assignenments. I put zeros in for anything that is missing, since we have talked about it throughout the week. They may still turn assignments in this weekend and I will grade it, but anything that is still missing Monday will remain a zero

Math w/ Mrs. McFadden – 

• Upcoming Tests/Quizzes – Quiz Wed (Order of Operations, exponents parts of expressions, translate expressions, distributive property)
• This week we continued to practice all of the skills mentioned above. , For the quiz on Wednesday, there are Delta Math assignments on all of these skills. Your child has an account they can use to practice. We will have some time to complete these delta assignments in class, and during Tuesday’s tutorial time.

Science w/ Mrs. McKay – 

• Upcoming Tests/Quizzes – quiz on moon phases Tuesday
• Students reviewed moon phases and eclipses and hopefully enjoyed viewing the super moon this week. We also took measurements of a “growing” toy in water and observe as it expands in the next week.

Music w/Mrs. Chelsey – 

• Upcoming Tests/Quizzes – 
• This week we focused on the details of our songs! We worked on adding in scenes and props. We are in the home stretch and I am so excited to share what we’ve been learning so far this year!

Deep Dive w/ Mr. K, Mrs. McFadden, Mrs. Ochap, Mr. Jividen – 

• Youth Show of Hands is up and running! Students have been tasked with designing an idea or project that would have a positive impact on our community. Students watched some episodes of Shark Tank to understand how an idea is pitched for funding, then a few brave souls pitched some preliminary ideas. Some of the ideas are ones that we would personally endorse! We have begun to assign students to interest groups such as music, art, food, community improvement, sports and animals.

Art w/Mr. K

• Students have finished their texture painting, and we moved on to a fun little project before break called a cartoon mashup. They will draw two characters separately and then combine them into a crossover. Think of SpongeBob and Batman mashed together!

SEL w/Mrs. Ochap – 

• This week, students are learning about self-talk. Self-talk is just that: how we talk to ourselves inside of our heads. Inside their heads, children (and adults) are often much harder on themselves than encouraging and kind. It takes five positive thoughts to make up for one negative one. Ask your students what are some positive and negative messages they said to themselves this week and encourage them to practice positive self-talk.

Elective –

• Robotics – Students are learning about the parts and components of the Vex Robotics system. They are eager to get their hands on their robots! We will continue to introduce elements of robotics, which concentrates on critical thinking, math, engineering, and organization, aside from simply building the robot.
• Beyond the Book – Our little book club is a highlight of my week! Walking to the cafe and reading our book is truly a treat. The book we are reading has an intricate cast of characters, so this week we had to map it all out to figure out who is who. It’s so nice to have informal discussions about a book!

• November 25th – Thanksgiving Luncheon @ Main Campus 12:30 pm early dismissal (Drop off and pick up @ Main) 
• December 1st – 5th  – Middle School Book Fair @ Middle School 
• December 12th  – 30th Anniversary of Wheeling Park High School’s “Festival of Sound” @ WP High School 9:30 am – 11:30 am (Transportation Provided)
• December 15th– Middle School Holiday Show 6:00 pm @ Main Campus (Drop-off that morning will be at the main campus for a run-through.)  We will transport the kids over to middle school for the afternoon.  Pick-up that day will be at the middle.
• December 19th – Winter Break Begins @ 11:30 am (Return to school on Jan. 5th)
  

CLICK HERE FOR UPCOMING WCDS EVENTS

English w/ Mrs. McFadden – 

• Upcoming Tests/Quizzes- none scheduled
• Trivia, cabin quizzes and Wanted Posters were some of the book extensions we did this week.
• We watched videos of Hercules, Medusa and the furies to build background knowledge and help bring the book to life.

Math w/ Mrs. McFadden – 

• Upcoming Tests/Quizzes – none scheduled
• We are halfway through chapter 4. This week, students continued to work onorder of operations, translating  words into expressions, and evaluating expressions.
• Students enjoyed a gimkit and some logic puzzles this week as well.

Science w/ Mrs. McKay – 

• Upcoming Tests/Quizzes –  none scheduled until after break
• Students completed lesson on moon phases and solar and lunar eclipses.
• On Thursday, students used different masses to cause helium balloons to hover above ground.

Art w/Mr.K-

• Students have been focusing on textured paintings and have the freedom to use any material at their disposal. 

Music w/Mrs. Chelsey – 

• Upcoming Tests/Quizzes – 
• This week we worked on our three holiday songs being memorized – we’re almost there!! We also added the finishing touches on our piece “cold snap”! It’s got some fun surprises!
• Our music journal entry this week was responding to the piano piece “Moonlight Sonata” by Beethoven. It’s known as one of the most beautiful pieces for piano ever written – take a listen!

Deep Dive w/ Mr. Jividen, Mrs. Ochap, Mrs. McFadden, & Mr. K- 

• This week we introduced our new deep dive to the entire middle school.  We have chosen to do a Youth Show of Hands.  The students will get to hear from previous winners and then try their hand at entrepreneurship. 

Social Studies w/ Mr. Jividen –

• 6th Graders started a unit on Native Americans
• Early Focus has been on regional tribes surrounding the Ohio River Valley

SEL w/Mrs. Ochap – 

• This week, students learn more about the development of an adolescent’s brain. Through hands-on learning and discussion, students explore the different challenges teenagers face and how many of their thoughts and feelings are completely normal for their age.

Elective –

• Robotics w/ Mrs. Boldrick & Mrs. Bishop – Students will learn and use the VEX robotics system. They will work in teams to build a robot and follow a curriculum using the robot. We will also build two competitive robots which everyone will learn to use. These competition robots are used in the VEX Robotic Competitions held all over the United States.

Beyond the Book w/ Mrs. McFadden – We started the Inheritance games today, and so far, everyone seems to really enjoy it! We have decided to meet at the cafe on Fridays, so the girls may purchase a treat if they would like. It is so much fun to meet with them in this small group to share our thoughts and connections!