The Roughneck Book Club kicked off today with a special message from author Chris Grabenstein.

Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library will be our first book to read this year. After reading the first chapter, the students are hooked. They cannot wait to read about the shenanigans Kyle, Mark and Curtis Keeley get into next. As we read, the students will submit their predictions and questions about the book to Mr. Grabenstein.  Book club members are also looking forward to the release of the movie in October.

For the second year, we have the opportunity to team up with our friends from the Medina Middle School Book Club in Medina, Tennessee. The book clubs are busy introducing themselves using Flipgrid. The students are sharing their favorite books, hobbies, and more. Our WOMS students are curious about Tennessee and eager to share fun facts about Texas.

Would you like to be our pen pal?  We are looking for classes to connect with this year.  Check out the information below. If you are interested, let us know!

We are excited about the year of ahead of us!
Happy reading!

What a joy it has been to welcome back our Roughneck Tech Club. We delved into the 3D design process with Tinkercad this week.Our students learned how to position objects, scale objects to size, and design their own unique creations.  

The ultimate goal of tech club for this year is to print artificial limbs for children in need. Earlier in the summer, I  attended a We Teach CS training with Joy Schwartz as the instructor. She introduced us to Enabling the Future, a website that specializes in using 3D printers to create artificial limbs. Enabling the Future,  provides all the resources and files to get started.  The Roughneck Tech Club has begun the process of printing an artificial limb as a prototype. We have chosen the Raptor Reloaded design.

Our first prototype!

Stay tuned as we enter the next chapter of our journey.

Happy printing!

Mrs. Cooper

WOMS would like to invite all parents of middle school students to a Lunch & Learn once a month in the library. Come hear about upcoming events and ways to help your student(s) be successful this year. Below is the invitation and you may RSVP at the following link by September 6, 2017.  

https://goo.gl/forms/KNmToeI6LtX5x0Kq1

As our second Great Maker Challenge begins, one of our most creative students provided a tutorial on movie making.  Bryce taught our tech club how to plan, create and film an original movie using the free Stickbot Studios app.

Students learned how to film their stickbot characters to show movement by taking a series of pictures. The students were surprised to learn at least ten to fifteen pictures are needed to show one movement.

The greenscreen app and special effects feature help enhance the videos and are especially easy to use!

Students learned how to finalize their videos and share their creative works.

After the tutorial, students began to brainstorm ideas for a storyline, plan out their characters, and decide what type of props would be needed to create their masterpiece.

Happy filming!

The Roughneck Book Club held its first book tasting this week.  The fantasy genre was featured this round, and a book tasting for every genre soon will take place soon.  Participants enjoyed an appetizer, entree and dessert round featuring books fresh off the library shelf!

To begin, we discussed book tasting etiquette.

Next, everyone dived into the menu!

The students enjoyed sampling books that they might not ordinarily try out.

Recently, our sixth-grade students had the opportunity to Skype with Mr. Maxwell’s students in the United Kingdom.  The students loved getting to know each other.  Even though they live thousands of miles apart, 4,671 miles to be exact, they discovered many common interests including sports, music, and a love for Diary of a Wimpy Kid books!

After each class took turns reading a favorite children’s book, the students had the opportunity to ask questions of their classmates in Surrey including, “How much homework do you have?” The answer from Mr. Maxwell’s class was, “Loads!”

In order to learn more about each other and stay in touch with our new friends, we have launched a postcard project.  White Oak students in Mrs. Kelley’s class chose postcards with facts and interesting information about Texas and U.S. landmarks to mail. Each postcard includes a message with book recommendations, favorite songs, and more. The students were extremely creative with their questions and thoughts!

Stay tuned as we share postcards from our friends ‘across the pond’ soon!

Celebrating Read Across America

White Oak Middle School celebrated Read Across America by inviting community members to read children’s books to our students. Please view the video below to see all the fun!