Walnut Grove Middle School
Spotlight
7th grade Texas history students brought their studies to life recently by reenacting key battles in the fight for Texas independence from Mexico. Students were assigned roles of the key figures of each side and made speeches and commands based on their characters.
Recent Spotlight Stars!
As part of School Board Appreciation Month, Walnut Grove Middle School honored MISD School Board member Jay Roberts with a catered luncheon.
Congratulations to the WGMS Dodgeball Champs! The team of Landon Chamberlain, Charles Hoard, Cooper Harris, Conner Henderson, Thomas Halcomb and Andrew Catala were crowned the new Dodgeball Champions of Walnut Grove as they went undefeated in the double-elimination tournament held at Cat Night. All the teams and players were very competitive throughout the three hour tournament but only one team came out victorious in the field of 28 teams entered in the competition. WAY TO GO CATS!
Congratulations to Jonathan Anderson on winning the WGMS campus Spelling Bee. The word "acquaintance" was the winning word this year. Noah Blair & Jaida Spencer took 2nd and 3rd place, respectively. Jonathan will represent WGMS in the Ellis County Spelling Bee in the coming days. Great job by all the participants!
Over the winter break, WGMS band teachers Justin Wood and Laurencio Arroyo delivered a check from the WGMS Band, who collected donations from students and parents for the KLTY Christmas Wish. The band collected $1200 to help a family in need have a brighter Christmas. This makes the fourth year that the band has donated to this worthy cause. This is a great lesson for our band students to learn in helping those who are less fortunate.
The Walnut Grove bands performed a Christmas concert for their family and friends. The Beginner Bandstarted the evening with some classic holiday favorites. The Symphonic Band continued the melodious cheer and the Honor Bandwrapped up the evening in grand fashion.
The WGMS Choirs entertained parents and friends at the annual Christmas dinner & dessert theater. The performance included many solos and group performances by the Varsity Treble Choir, JV Treble Choir, Tenor/Bass Choir and the 6th Grade Show Choir.
8th graders in Mrs. Miller's Reading/Language Arts class practiced and reinforced vocabulary skills by playing Words With Friends.
WGMS sent two robotics teams to the FLL North Texas Regional Qualifier Tournament. Each team had to program their robot to accomplish various missions that are worth different amount of points based on difficulty. They had 2.5 minutes to complete as many missions as possible for points. They competed in three rounds and took their highest score of the three. The teams performed well and made adjustments throughout the day to improve their scores. In addition to the robotics challenge, the teams each had to do a research project and presentation for the judges and also had to explain their robot design and programming techniques to a different set of judges.The teams received high marks for mechanical design, strategy, teamwork and programming. Robocats Team II finished 11th overall, narrowly missing the top ten by just a few points. Both teams did a great job representing WGMS!
Members of the Cat News Crew traveled to Minneapolis, Minnesota, to present a session titled "Get Out From Behind the Desk" at the National High School Journalism Convention. The students also entered the carry-in and onsite competitions to put their skills to the test. They held their own in each of their categories competing against high school students.
Amanda Penwarden participated in the Broadcast Sports category while Max Wilson and Carolina Caballero entered as a team in the Feature Story contest. The team of Becca Robbins and Jojo McDonald competed in the Broadcast Package competition in which they had 4 hours onsite to script, shoot, edit and submit their video about the Minneapolis skyway system.
The team of Jared Nix & Rachael Boudreaux received one of only 4 awards given in the the Commercial/PSA division and were the only middle school students to receive an award of the nearly 1700 students entered in all the Write-Off contests.
The WGMS choir and theatre departments will present "Beauty and the Beast" on Friday at 7pm, Saturday at 2pm and Saturday at 7pm. Tickets costs $7 for each performance and can be purchased at the door. All performances will be in the WGMS cafe.
WGMS students and staff honored local veterans at the annual Veterans Day Assembly. The program included the posting of the colors by the Arlington Jr. ROTC, a performance by the Lancaster Orange Crush Precision Drill Team, a three-screen video presentation by Cat News, the WGMS Choir singing "Mansions of the Lord" and leading the attendees in a rendition of "God Bless America". A moment of silence for all fallen heroes was dedicated as Mr. Steve Pruitt played "Amazing Grace" on the bagpipes. The WGMS Honor Band played "Marches of the Armed Forces" while veterans stood as the flags for each branch of service were brought in by students. The program concluded with individual recognition of each veteran in attendance. The veterans and their spouses were treated to a catered lunch following the assembly. Thank you, veterans!
Pictured is Mr. David Kersh and his brother. Mr. Kersh works in the maintenance department at WGMS
Students in Mrs. Benesch's classes had a "Words with Friends" competition in the library to stretch their vocabulary.
As part of Education: Go Get It! week, WGMS students dressed in theme for each day. Tuesday was "Say 'Aloha' to your future" day and also the Beach Bash pep rally.
6th Graders Are Scientists!
The students in Mrs. Davis' 6th grade science class completed a classification assignment and presented them in the form of lab coats.
