General

ClImportant Dates:

• Wednesday, December 17 – Elementary Holiday Show @ 6:00 PM, Students report to the 4th-grade classroom by 5:30 PM
• Friday, December 19 – Early Dismissal @ 11:30 Dismissal 
• December 22 – January 2 – No School, Holiday Winter Break
• Monday, January 5 – Classes Resume

Click the link below to stay up to date on more whole-school events! 

Reminders:

• Holiday Show Information – The Holiday Show will take place on Wednesday, December 17, at 6:00 PM in the school gym. 4th Grade students will wear any Red and White clothing. Please stay tuned for more details.
• Winter cold temperatures have arrived! Please make sure that your child has a coat, hat, gloves, and boots to go outside. The students must be dressed for the weather to go outside for snack and recess. Also, please label ALL items with your child’s name.
• Student laptops should come to school fully charged. Please make this part of your child’s homework routine.

ELA:

• Students started their novel study of, “Family Under the Bridge.” They are learning to annotate their book highlighting characters as well as the setting. This novel is set in Paris, France so they are enjoying learning about the city! 
• In writing, students are continuing to work on their “When I Grow Up” contest pieces. They learned how to write a story from the inside out and will continue to make edits next week before we send them off! 

Math:

• The students have been reviewing their multiplication facts. It’s important for them to know these facts fluently as we move into multi-digit multiplication. Please have your child practice their facts at least 10 minutes every day.
• We introduced multiplying two digit numbers by one number. They use a “road map” to remember where to go next. They are really having fun with this skill!
• Next week, we’ll continue to practice 2-digit by 1-digit, and move to 3-digits by 1-digit.

Digital Discovery:

• The students started researching landmarks in Paris as part of their novel study with the book, The Family Under the Bridge.
• We will teach them how to use reliable and safe websites to find information about places in Paris, such as the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame Cathedral.

Character Ed:

• Research shows that it takes five positive messages to make up for a single negative message when it comes to self-talk. This week, our students are learning the importance of cultivating positive self-talk messages. 
• Ask your students what are some of the strategies they can use to stay positive even when times get tough?

Ohio County Library time with Mr. B

Middle School Important Dates

• 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)

How lucky are we that we have all this outdoor space in the winter time? Check out the photos of kids having some fun in the snow.

English w/ Mr. Rouse – 

• Upcoming Tests/Quizzes- none.
• We continued our reading and discussion of Maze Runner.
• We reviewed in-depth sentence structure, and I had students write their examples on the board and diagram them. 

Math w/ Mrs. Bishop –

• Upcoming Tests/Quizzes- None
• We finished Chapter 2 this week. Overall, my kids did well with equations. I’m going to continue to give them practice with these problems because it’s an important skill for 8th grade and high school algebra. 
• Next week, we’re starting with inequalities. 

Math w/ Mrs. Boldrick –

• Upcoming Tests/Quizzes- None scheduled.
• Students started learning about algebraic expressions and equations.
• They also used the distributive property and adding like terms to simplify expressions.
• The second trimester grades are available to see as the students turn in their assignments.
• Next week, we will start with solving one-step algebraic equations.

Science w/ Mrs. McKay – 

• Upcoming Tests/Quizzes – none until 12/16
• Students continued learning the names of super scientists and filled out bingo card to use to recall them.

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!

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. McFadden – 

• 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.

Important Dates:

• Tuesday, November 25 – Alumni vs. Faculty Annual Kickball Game
• Tuesday, November 25 – Thanksgiving Lunch, and Early Dismissal at 12:30, No Aftercare
• Wednesday – Friday, November 26th-28th  – No School, Thanksgiving Break
• Wednesday, December 17 – Holiday Show @ 6:00 PM
• Friday, December 19 – Early Dismissal @ 11:30 Dismissal 
• December 22 – January 2 – No School, Holiday Winter Break
• Monday, January 5 – Classes Resume

Click the link below to stay up to date on more whole-school events! 

Reminders:

• Holiday Show Information –  The Holiday Show will be on Wednesday, December 17, at 6:00 PM, in the school gym. Students should arrive to classrooms at 5:30. 4th Grade students will wear any Red and White clothing with dark pants; girls may dress up if they prefer. Please stay tuned for more details.
• Student laptops should come to school fully charged. Please make this part of your child’s homework routine.

ELA by Carson Albright:

• This week we worked on finishing up our I Survived novel studies. We will be turning those books in on Monday, November 24th. 
• In writing we are workong on our When I Grow Up essay contest pieces. Students are researching careers to find the best fit for themselves!

Math by Marley Hicks:

• Our class is continuing learning to count money. We have been practicing buying our Thanksgiving dinner with $100.00. Then we drew our dinner out on a piece of paper.

Science Deep Dive by Lily Kurtz:

• In science, we learned about how far things can be thrown based on their weight. 
• We learned that smaller and lighter objects go further than larger and heavier objects. The lighter objects do need a little weight so they don’t float like a feather. 

Digital Discovery by Lily Kurtz:

• The 4th-grade class has made a huge improvement in typing, because let’s face it, typing is hard! We’re learning to type words and starting sentences. It’s very exciting but a little stressful at the same time, because we’re going to cover our hands while typing soon. By the end of the year, everyone should be amazing at typing.

Character Education by Ben Stack: 

• In  SEL we partnered up with second graders to read their books that they brought over to us so they could practicing their listening skills. There were some ups and downs but overall everyone did a nice job. 

Digital Escape Room during Digital Discovery

Middle School Important Dates

• 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)

At WCDS, we do not shy away from failure, in fact, we promote the idea of risk taking and failure being necessary steps for success. Well, every year, the alumni return for shot at the faculty in the faculty/alumni kickball game. This year won’t be an exception when it comes to the faculty enforcing the very principles we strive to instill in every student.

English w/ Mr. Rouse – 

• Upcoming Tests/Quizzes- none.
• Students wrapped up their Gratitude Letters.
• Students continued their reading and discussion of Maze Runner.
• We warmed up every day this week with sentence fluffing, and we wrapped up the week with WeWillWrite.com.

Math w/ Mrs. Bishop –

• Upcoming Tests/Quizzes- None
• The class continued working on equations and began solving for an unknown in formulas. The class is continuing to make progress in understanding how to solve for a variable. 
• The chapter 2 test has been pushed back to after Thanksgiving to allow for more time to practice and sort out any confusion/mistakes.

Math w/ Mrs. Boldrick –

• Upcoming Tests/Quizzes- None scheduled
• The students learned about the Converse of the Pythagorean Theorem, which determines if a triangle is a right triangle or not.
• The students also worked on Pythogorean Theorem word problems. They had to draw a picture of what was being describe and solve for what was missing.
• We’ll start solving equations with multiple steps when we return from Thanksgiving break.

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. 

Science w/ Mrs. McKay – 

• Upcoming Tests/Quizzes – No quizzes scheduled until after break.
• Students began lesson on types of scientists and their careers
• On Thursday, students used different masses to cause helium balloons to hover above ground.

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!

Social Studies w/Mr. Jividen – 

• 7th Grade students began the second trimester studying relationship between humans and the environment
• Adaption, modification, and dependence 
• Groups explored real world examples of this via case studies

Art w/ Mr. K – 

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

SEL w/ Mrs. McFadden – 

• 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.

Middle School Important Dates

Nov. 17th – 7th/8th Grade Around the World Exhibition 5:30 pm @ Middle School

Dec 1st -5th – Middle School Book Fair!

Dec. 15th – Holiday Show 6:00 @ main campus. Morning Drop off will be at main campus for practice. Pick-up will be at Middle School

CLICK HERE FOR UPCOMING WCDS EVENTS

English w/ Mr. Rouse – 

• Upcoming Tests/Quizzes- none.
• Students continued their reading and discussion of Maze Runner.
• We started professional letter writing, and as a chance to practice it, students will be writing a letter expressing gratitude for an influential teacher/coach in their life.
• We worked on voice while using different dialogue prompts.

Math w/ Mrs. Bishop –

• Upcoming Tests/Quizzes- Chapter 2 test on Friday
• While learning one step equations, the kiddos for the most part know which operation is needed to isolate the variable. 
• They’re able to add and subtract integers easier. With all the work we do, they will continue to do better with this. 
• We started two step equations. The students will need to undo two operations to isolate the variable now. With more practice, they will continue to improve in this also.
• We will continue two step equations next week and will finish chapter 2 with formulas.

Math w/ Mrs. Boldrick –

• Upcoming Tests/Quizzes- None Scheduled
• The students have been working on using the Pythagorean Theorem to solve for the missing length of a triangle.
• They are using what they know about perfect squares and square roots to simplify their answers.
• Next week, the students will apply their Pythagorean Theorem skills to real world problems, a.k.a word problems!

Science w/ Mrs. McKay – 

• Upcoming Tests/Quizzes – None scheduled
• Students finished up study of matter with lab making a colloid that acts as both a solid and a liquid. They tested it for viscosity, ability to bounce, ability to flow, and others.

Social Studies w/Mr. Jividen – 

• First Trimester Review
• Previewing upcoming second trimester topics

Elective –

• Cooking w/ Mrs. McFadden – We made some outstanding recipes this week, like pecan pie truffles, carrot cake muffins, spicy roasted pumpkin seeds, pumpkin no bake cookies, pumpkin chai lattes, and pumpkin donuts!  

Important Dates:

• November 19-20 – 29 Hours of Giving
• Tuesday, November 25 – WCDS Alumni vs. Faculty Annual Kickball Game
• Tuesday, November 25 – Thanksgiving Lunch, and Early Dismissal at 12:30, No Aftercare
• Wednesday – Friday, November 26th-28th  – No School, Thanksgiving Break
• Wednesday, December 17 – Holiday Show @ 6:00 PM
• Friday, December 19 – Early Dismissal @ 11:30 Dismissal 
• December 22 – January 2 – No School, Holiday Winter Break
• Monday, January 5 – Classes Resume

Click the link below to stay up to date on more whole-school events! 

This week began with a salute to our veterans on Veterans Day. The students created cards and letters for some of our troops overseas. This project was near and dear to our hearts because Mrs. White’s husband, the one and only Mr. White, is an Army veteran. We thank him for his service!

We also gave Mrs. White a send-off to Charleston, WV, as she took her Wheeling Central girls’ volleyball team to compete in the WV State Playoffs tournament. The students created posters and filmed an exciting cheer to wish her luck in the playoffs. 

ELA:

• Students continued to work on their independent novel studies as they worked toward completion. If students have not finished reading their novels, they have been asked to do so by Monday, November 17th. 
• Spelling and dictation tests have greatly improved since their first tests! Although the skills are changing, they are learning new ways to study, along with how they are as test takers. 
• Students have been sent home with a writing contest form. Please return those no later than next week, as we start with their stories on Monday! 

Math:

• This week, we started learning about money.
• The students are using counting skills to count change.
• They are also learning about the decimal point used in money.
• They are currently adding dollar amounts. Next week, we will subtract dollar amounts.

Digital Discovery:

• The students continue to type words without looking at their keyboard and using all of their fingers to type. (No hunting and pecking!)
• Some of the students are challenging themselves by covering their hands.

Character Education:

• This week, students are learning strategies for better listening. Through classroom conversations and activities, students practice the skills necessary to fully listen and to be present in a conversation. 
• True listening goes beyond what we notice with our sense of hearing; it’s both hearing and receiving a message. Receiving messages requires us to pay attention.
• What is listening like at your home? Take a moment to reflect on how listening is modeled in your home. What lessons has your child learned about listening just from watching other family members? What might you keep or change about how listening is modeled in your home?

Reminders:

• Thank you for the help with the trinkets and toys being brought to school. We are seeing fewer distractions in the classroom. We’ll continue to remind the students to keep any extra items (toys, etc) in their backpacks or at home.
• Also, thank you for reminding your child to keep their laptop charged. This saves time in the classroom and also helps with the students’ executive functions.

Important Dates:

• Tuesday, November 11- Veterans Day and No School for Students
• Friday, November 14 – Trimester 1 Ends 
• Tuesday, November 25 – Alumni Kickball, Thanksgiving Lunch, and Early Dismissal at 12:30 (No Aftercare)
• Wednesday – Friday, November 26th-28th  – No School, Thanksgiving Break
• Wednesday, December 17 – Holiday Show @ 6:00 PM
• Friday, December 19 – Early Dismissal @ 11:30 Dismissal 

Click the link below to stay up to date on more whole-school events! 

It’s hard to believe that it’s already November! Before we know it, the Thanksgiving holiday will be upon us, and then weeks later, we’ll be off for the December holiday break. Until then, we have a lot of learning to do! We have another novel study to start, holiday math projects, and so much more learning fun!

Reminders:

• Having a fully charged computer is part of each student’s daily homework. Please include charging their computer each night as part of their daily homework routine. Pink homework slips are being sent home for any incomplete homework, which also includes not having a fully charged computer.
• We’re seeing a lot of little trinkets and toys being brought to school. During class time, we ask that students keep their desks clear of all items except their yellow folder and their novel study book. Please help us keep distractions to a minimum by reminding everyone to keep toys and other items at home or, at the very least, in their backpacks. We also want to keep their belongings safe and prevent any lost or missing items. 

ELA: 

• Students have begun their independent novel studies of various I Survived Books. While a lot of the reading is accomplished at home, we do give students time to read throughout the week and track their progress! Independent reading is vital for students to build stamina for all kinds of independent learning. We will slowly increase their time to continue growing that stamina. 
• The students are splitting into small groups to concentrate on writing, independent work, and grammar. They are enjoying the work and activities done within a small focus group, and are receiving more one-on-one opportunities to hone their ELA skills.

Math: 

• The students are mastering the subtraction process with borrowing across zeros. 
• They use their “borrowing from the next-door neighbor” story to move through the process.
• Next, we will concentrate on subtraction word problems. We are also heading into using money and using a budget. Look for a Thanksgiving math project in the next couple of weeks.

Science Deep Dive:

• We spent the first week reviewing essential science terms: Hypothesis, Research Question, Variables, Materials.
• We did field experiments as a chance to categorize and use our science terms. We did a partnered egg toss, an egg drop, and a distance throw. We tried to make educated guesses involving the durability of the egg and the distances we could manage.

Digital Discovery:

• The students are improving their typing skills and are trying to type using all of their fingers.
• We added some exercises to their typing program where they have started typing words. Next, we will add complete sentences.

Character Education:

•  The amygdala, or the “lizard brain,” is responsible for processing threats and emotions and is known for the ‘fight-or-flight’ response. The prefrontal cortex, or the “wizard brain,” is a part of the brain responsible for complex thought, planning, decision-making, impulse control, and self-awareness. 
• Students learn what it feels like when a certain part of the brain takes over and how they can use tools to regulate their emotions to make responsible decisions inside and outside of the classroom.

Math: Subtraction Across Zeros Kahoot