Mr. Wilmes's 7th and 8th Grade STEAM Art students considered the importance of 3D functional pottery and its role in society. Students gained an understanding of decorative and functional pottery as they emphasized balance, pattern, texture and scale. Students' aesthetically pleasing Monster Mugs were required to be a minimum of 6” tall or 6” wide, hold 12 ounces of liquid, and have a functional handle. Finally, the mug had to be functional for drinking from.
Congratulations to Heartland 7th grader Autumn Guest, who was inducted into the American Association of University Women Girls Hall of Honor yesterday. Teachers nominate 7th grade girls for their leadership qualities, and those girls complete an application that describes their activities and leadership skills. Each year the AAUW selects one 7th grade student from each Edmond Middle School for this award. Edmond Mayor Darrell Davis spoke at the event and provided each girl with a letter of commendation. At the reception, each girl gave a presentation touching on the topics of leadership, interests, activities and future plans. Congratulations to Autumn for this well-deserved recognition.
Heartland students raised $7,038 for Double Pup Dare Week, a part of Santa Fe High School's Double Wolf Dare Week. Teachers and students participated in a variety of fundraisers and events during February to help raise money for Project 66, an organization that provides food and resources to people who are facing food insecurity in Edmond and surrounding areas. From a 3v3 basketball tournament, to a movie night, to a masked singer competition and selling Valentines Grams, takis and other items, Heartland pulled out all the stops to raise as much money as possible, culminating in the Dare Assembly on Thursday. At the Dare Assembly, students paid to pie teachers in the face - don't worry, they were willing volunteers! Students taped teachers to the wall and some brave teachers even waxed their legs or shaved their beard in front of the student body! We are grateful to the Heartland community for going all out to support a great cause!
72 STEAM Art students created stop motion videos outlining a solution to an environmental issue that they’re passionate about. Topics include cleaning the air, restoring the ocean, protecting nature, reducing waste, and addressing climate change.
Representatives from the Oklahoma Alliance for Geographic Education (OKAGE) stopped by Heartland last week to drop off prizes. As a result of participating in the contest, students received either a globe, an atlas, or a pair of eclipse glasses.
Way to go Thunderhawks!
On February 22, Heartland hosted its second annual Black History Month Program - I AM: Celebrating the Beauty and Contributions of Black Artists. Dr. Sandra Thompson, Artistic Director of The Ambassadors’ Concert Choir and Professor Emeritus at the University of Central Oklahoma was the keynote speaker. The program also featured student performances of dance, song, poetry and more. Heartland teacher Mr. Perry even surprised the students with an energetic step performance. As always, the program was an uplifting experience highlighting the important contributions of Black Americans.
Heartland art students have been exercising their creativity and engineering skills as they have crafted paper mache masks. Some of the masks are more decorative and meant to be hung, while the FatHeads are oversized paper mache heads that are a type of self-portrait and are meant to be worn.
At their choir competition yesterday, the Thunderettes (Heartland's Show Choir) received straight superior (a I) from all three judges and scored 555 of 600 possible points!
They won trophies for Best In Class for 6A Junior High as well as Junior High Sweepstakes for scoring the highest among all the Junior High Show Choirs, regardless of class.
They are doing some great things! Choir director Ms. McKinzie will be working with the Thunderettes to add new songs to their competition set over the next month or so before their next competition in April.
New York Times Bestselling author Jennifer A. Nielsen visited Heartland on January 29. She spoke to 8th grade students about her books and the creative process. She also conducted a writing workshop for a small group of student writers nominated by their teachers. Jennifer is the author of more than 25 books. The False Prince, the first book in her fantasy series The Ascendance, won the Oklahoma Sequoyah Intermediate Book Award. Two of her riveting historical fiction books have also been nominated for the Red Dirt Book Award, including Lines of Courage, a current nominee. She was a phenomenal presenter and was so encouraging to our students, especially our young writers, in whose work she took a genuine interest.
Congratulations to Miss McKinzie - Heartland's 2024 Rookie of the Year! Miss McKinzie teaches Choir and has a long list of accomplishments in her first year of teaching, which isn't over yet! For more information, see the Rookie of the Year page on this website. (In the Faculty menu, under About our School)
Mr. Wilmes's STEAM Art students participated in the second annual Slingshot Challenge. The National Geographic Society, with support from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation and the Oklahoma Alliance for Geographic Education sponsored the contest. Students were asked to create a one-minute video outlining a solution to an environmental issue that they’re passionate about. Topics could include cleaning the air, restoring the ocean, protecting nature, reducing waste, and addressing climate change. Mr. Wilmes's students responded to the prompt by creating their own stop motion videos.
Because of icy and dangerous road conditions, Edmond Public Schools will move to remote learning for all schools for Monday, January 22nd. Students should refer to information sent by their school site for assignments that will need to be completed for attendance to be counted.
Due to inclement weather, all Edmond Public Schools will move to remote learning for Tuesday, January 16th.
Congratulations to Mr. Wilmes and Ms. Bri! Mr. Wilmes was named a District Teacher of the Year Finalist and Ms. Bri was named a District Support Employee of the Year Finalist! Read more about Mr. Wilmes and Ms. Bri by clicking the About Our School menu, selecting Faculty, then choosing either Teacher of the Year or Support Employee of the Year. We are so thankful to have so many wonderful educators working at Heartland!
Mr. Wilmes's 6th grade STEAM Art students along with Devon Energy and the Oklahoma City Thunder considered the importance of static electricity and its effect on aluminum. Mr. Wilmes's hope was to challenge his students to think outside the box and develop problem-solving skills around questions that focus on electricity. They explored static electricity by creating an imbalance of positive or negative charges and seeing how that imbalance is used to power an objects like future vehicles. They also considered momentum, texture of the surface, distance between the can and the balloon and how that distance affected its speed. Using iPads and Procreate software, students uploaded and modified their dream cars. They tested their theories and used static electricity to see how far and how fast they could pull their aluminum pop can race cars. …to the victor goes the spoils!
https://www.nba.com/thunder/explorers
Mr. Wilmes's 8th grade STEAM Art students considered challenging the rule of thought and the importance of topographic images for documenting the environmental changes in our world such as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and the Polar Ice Caps. Students explored a wide variety of geographical locations using maps and images such as aerial satellite, weather, precipitation, humidity, temperature, multispectral, and thermal. Their images were simplified and colors were altered to create large mixed-media abstractions.
Winter Break: No School December 21 - January 8
We will see you back at school on Tuesday, January 9!
Congratulations to Bri Akins, who was named Heartland Middle School’s 2024 Support Employee of the Year! She works as a Classroom Assistant at Heartland and has worked at Heartland for three years.
One teacher had the following to say about Ms. Bri:
Ms. Bri is the most dedicated and supportive Classroom Assistant! She is loved by all staff and students alike, which is so apparent by how everyone flocks to her side. She makes sure that all of our students are using their accommodations, she keeps them in line behaviorally, she's always searching for new ways to connect with our kiddos and to build success with them each day, and she builds relationships with every kid that she meets, regardless of their background. We love Ms. Bri!
For more information, please see the Support Employee of the Year page under the Faculty menu on this website.
Heartland art students recently completed a Fauvism self portrait assignment.
Students explored colored pencils and oil pastels as they considered their visual language.
Heartland art students created Cherokee single wall baskets this week to celebrate Native American Indian month. Art teacher Mr. Wilmes was inspired to do the project after attending a fine arts professional development where Sydna Yellowfish from Oklahoma Indian Education presented a lesson on basketry and beadwork.
Mr. Wilmes also incorporated a little STEAM learning as students considered how tension plays a vital role to structure and how an over-under pattern secures connections without knots, tape, or welding.
On November 13, New York Times Best Selling author Max Brallier visited Heartland and spoke to all 6th grade students. He gave the audience unique insights into his popular series The Last Kids on Earth, which is also an Emmy award winning show on Netflix. Max also shared stories about what he was like as a kid and how his excessive daydreaming then turned into a successful writing career now. He made time to answer questions from students at the end of his presentation. Heartland students love The Last Kids on Earth series and thoroughly enjoyed his presentation. Many students submitted artwork for a fan art contest and Max spent time looking at each illustration. He posed for a photo with the winner of the contest, sixth grade student Makaio S. We are so appreciative to local bookstore Best of Books and Max Brallier and his team for providing Heartland students with this wonderful experience!
