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!
There were so many great entries this year’s pumpkin decorating contest. The annual contest is hosted by the media center and all pumpkins designs are inspired by books. Winners this year were as follows. There was a tie for Most Creative and Artistic pumpkin which went to 8th grader Katie H. for her pumpkin inspired by Homunculus and to 6th grader Ethan T. for his pumpkin inspired by The Wolf’s Boy. Funniest pumpkin was awarded to 6th grader Ella B. for her Baby Shark pumpkin. Cutest pumpkin went to 6th grader Winnie W. for her Biggie-biggie-biggie pumpkin. Most Accurate pumpkin went to 6th grader Maggie R. for her Hedwig the snowy owl pumpkin. There was a tie for Best Paper Pumpkin, which was awarded to 7th grader Clara B. for her Giving Tree pumpkin and to 6th grader Elise B. for her Tune it Out pumpkin. And the grand prize winner was 6th grader Ethan T. for his pumpkin inspired by The Wolf’s Boy. The winner of the teacher division was Mr. LeBlanc's Jabba the Puppett pumpkin. Congratulations to our winners!
Thanksgiving Break: No School Nov. 20-24
Sixth grade literacy students presented their Buyer/Seller projects this week. For this project, students spend time reading a book of their choice, then create a presentation about the book and bring a token to share with their classmates. The token can be purchased or handmade, but should be an object that relates to their book in some way. On presentation day, students tell each other about their books and hand out their tokens. Some tokens this year included handmade paper crowns, handmade magnets, store-bought brownies, tiny plastic babies, drawings, and more!
Did you know that November 8 is National STEM Day? If you're looking for a way to support STEM education in Edmond Schools, consider donating to one of Heartland's STEM projects on Donors Choose.
2 Heads Are Better Than 1 (https://tinyurl.com/wbtxp7x5)
STEAM-Inky (https://tinyurl.com/4tvh64zn)
Chicken Nuggets Need a Home Too (https://tinyurl.com/4zhu9v3x)
Mr. Wilmes' art students are working on their Monster Mugs this month. For this assignment, students design a mug featuring an imagined creature, whether humorous or scary. Their mugs must have a functional handle, be at least 6" tall and hold approximately 8 oz of water.
Heartland's STEAM Art students considered the importance of Structural Engineering during their latest project. Students created a large 3D paper mache’ masks from cardboard, tape, newspaper and paper mache glue. Students considered how to interlock support beams (cardboard) for strength as well as how the interlocking beams can be used to form and shape their designs.
Other challenges students explored were layering of the newsprint for strength, functionality of wearable art, constructing a 360 degree self portrait, and whether they would be able to physically see from under their structures.
Congratulations to Tracy Wilmes, Heartland's 2024 Teacher of the Year!
Read more at https://heartland.edmondschools.net/o/heartland/page/teacher-of-the-year
