December Newsletter

Dear Parents/Guardians/Students:

On behalf of the Waldwick Middle School faculty and staff, I would like to wish all of you a happy and healthy holiday season.  

I hope that you all have the opportunity to relax and enjoy the company of your family and loved ones.  Hopefully you can use this break to catch your breath, recharge your batteries, and enjoy yourself. 

To provide our students with an enjoyable break, there will be no homework assignments or projects given over the break. 

Be safe, be smart, and be well. 

Happy Holidays!

Sincerely,

Michael J. Meyers

Principal 

Eimy Mora Valverde is this year's Lions International Peace Poster 2025 - 2026 winner! We here at WMS are so proud of her!  She did an amazing job. Congratulations, Eimy!

Math

In Ms. Vesper’s and Mrs. Fitzgerald’s Math class, students are currently working on adding and subtracting mixed numbers with unlike denominators. We are also learning how to multiply mixed numbers and fractions, as well as the importance of simplifying before and after multiplication. We are moving into these next questions: Do you really divide a fraction, or do you multiply by its reciprocal? What is a reciprocal and how does it work? We are also learning about how to make reciprocal fractions.

In Mrs. Varcadipane and Ms. Vesper’s Math classes, students learned how to solve decimal problems with all operations. Students practiced solving both skill problems and real-world scenarios in which they would use decimals.  The students also used their estimation and rounding skills as well to make sure their answers were reasonable given the situation.

In Mrs. Varcadipane’s Honors class, students have completed their integers and coordinate plane unit and have started learning about algebraic expressions. The students used a hands-on approach using cups (unknown quantities) and chips (whole numbers) to set up equivalent algebraic expressions. Using these materials has given the students a more concrete representation of an abstract idea.

Earth Science

Students in Mrs. Maul’s Science class have been learning about the different components of air masses and weather fronts. Students completed a humidity lab to help understand why warm air masses hold more water vapor than cold air masses. Students also received their Science Fair packets and have begun to look up possible Science Fair questions they want to answer.

Reading

Mrs. Del Piano’s classes are in their short story unit. They just finished a small dystopian section using Ray Bradbury stories, with “The Veldt” as the main focus. As a project, students then designed their own dream home including futuristic technology. Lastly, students analyzed the themes and looked at both the advantages and disadvantages of our increased use of technology.

In Miss Hartmann’s Reading class, students have just wrapped up a fiction unit and are now transitioning into a nonfiction unit. We began by reviewing the differences between the genres and key clues to determine which one any given text is. Students proved their ability to distinguish between fiction and nonfiction by sorting texts, short excerpts, videos, etc., of each. Students also had the opportunity to choose nonfiction topics that they want to read and learn about later in this unit, including several athletes, historical events, science topics, and activities.

Mrs. Spiridakis’s class began the month with a wrap-up of their nonfiction unit. Following the nonfiction unit, we investigated and started our new unit of short stories. We have further investigated point of view, tone, and mood, as well as types of irony. We are looking forward to starting the short story “The Veldt” in January. We will be investigating the Polar Express before we finish in December.

Language Arts

December has been a busy and exciting month in Ms. Allison’s Language Arts class! Students successfully completed their personal essays and continued strengthening their understanding of essay structure, including introductions, body paragraphs, and conclusions. They have also been doing a great job with their vocabulary practice, showing growth in both understanding and application. As we head into the winter months, students will begin exploring realistic fiction in writing, using creativity and real-world experiences to develop engaging stories.

In Mrs. Fitzgerald’s class, students have started their unit on realistic fiction. To better understand the components of realistic fiction, students investigated different media (movies, tv shows, and books) to identify what made something a “believable lie.” Once students understood the meaning behind realistic fiction, they brainstormed three separate stories before beginning their flashdraft.

In Mrs. Spiridakis’s class, students have been experimenting with Canva, a digital resource that allows students to creatively put together presentations. Additionally, students have worked toward finishing up presentations and have started going through the process of writing a personal essay. Students will use the information from the presentations to create their own personal essay. In January, we are looking forward to completing personal essays and beginning our investigation into a realistic fiction unit.

Enrichment

In our Courtesy and Respect Unit, students have been working on their sportsmanship projects, describing how lessons learned on the field/court can be translated to daily life. Students will create a project of their choice (poster, Slides, Canva, video, animation, skit, essay, comic strip, etc.) demonstrating the message they chose relating to sportsmanship. As a culminating activity, students will present to the class.

Global Studies

Classes have been studying early humans and hunter-gatherer societies. Students have learned about the famous discovery of Lucy the Australopithecus afarensis, and about the importance of the discovery of fire in human history.  Moving forward, students will start working on performance tasks to display what they’ve learned throughout the unit.

Spanish

Students are progressing through all the material and different activities very nicely. Students recently presented a short autobiography in Spanish using what they learned. It was impressive to hear them say all this information in Spanish, considering that we only have a week for every topic. In this presentation, students incorporated greetings, numbers, months, age, birthdays, as well as physical and character traits. We also started working on the basic conjugation of the verb "ser" as well as personal pronouns. This is a complex topic, so we are going to work on it for more than one week.

French

Madame Ralston’s class just watched the classic French short film: Le Ballon Rouge (The Red Ballon). The students are creating a story from it using illustrations. We also just finished our short unit on family, adjectives, and describing people.

Full STEAM Ahead

In Full STEAM Ahead, we finished Unit 2 on Research and Citation. Students learned how to conduct online research to find credible sources for a research topic of their choice. We are currently in Unit 3 and working towards the famous Paper Airplane Competition. We learned about the 4 principles of flight and how to fold a perfect paper airplane. We also learned how to calculate the speed of an object (such as a paper airplane) through the formula distance/time.  Lastly, students chose their favorite design and were able to customize their plane before the big day! Results to come.

Art Appreciation

In sixth-grade Art Appreciation, the students have been learning about the Elements of Art. While creating our Starry Night grid drawings, we discussed color, line, space, and texture. Students created a foreground, middleground, and a background in their Starry Night landscape, drawing the viewer’s eye into the two-dimensional space. Once the drawings were completed, the students moved on to adding color with oil pastels.

Pre-Algebra Apps

In Mrs. Brennecke’s and Mrs. O’Brien’s Pre-Algebra classes, students have been learning how to write, graph, and solve inequalities. They explored how inequalities are used to represent real-life situations, such as age limits, budgets, and time constraints. Students practiced graphing solutions on number lines and interpreting what the solutions mean in context. This unit helped strengthen students’ algebra foundation while emphasizing critical thinking and real-world problem solving.

In December, Mr. Kelly’s Pre-Algebra class began working on the unit on Expressions and Equations. Since this is such a crucial skill for their math foundation, we have been taking our time to make sure we get the processes right! The students are working hard learning how to combine like terms, use the distributive property, and simplify and evaluate expressions. Next up is learning how to write and solve equations. Bring on the math fun!

Life Science

Ms. Runz’s and Ms. D’Amato’s Life Science classes have begun our exploration of cells and life. We explored the characteristics of living things, the different types of cells, and the organelles that make up our cells, and how they keep us alive. Additionally, students enjoyed “Cell-Bucks”, an activity where students compared the different organelles in a cell to the different parts of Starbucks. This served as inspiration for their cell analogy project, in which students chose something such as a restaurant, a school, or a town to compare their cell to. Moving forward after winter break, we are looking forward to learning about why cells are so small, the mechanisms cells undergo to divide and reproduce, as well as viewing different types of cells under a microscope!

Reading

Mr. Kelly’s, Ms. Magner's, and Ms. Gallagher's Reading classes spent the month of December exploring the Charles Dickens’ classic, A Christmas Carol. They looked at the story through different mediums: the original text, a drama (play) version, and a graphic novel version. They even watched several different movie productions, including A Muppets Christmas Carol. Through the visitations of the three spirits, they examined the themes of redemption and social justice. The students discussed what it means to always strive to be a better person. Hopefully, the students learned lessons that they can take with them throughout their lives.

Language Arts

In Mrs. Edreos' and Ms. Gallagher's classes, students have been studying Literary Analysis through the review of various fiction works. We are focusing on developing skills for essay writing through the study of characters’ actions and themes. Students are organizing their ideas through outlines, which is part of the first step of the writing process. As we progress, students will draft their essays, followed by collaborative editing and revision to help improve our writing. As we work on wrapping up our unit, we will focus on a final draft to show the proficiency in our writing. We are looking forward to seeing how the final outcome of our writing work is viewed.

In Mrs. Krysa’s Language Arts classes, students are working on narrative writing and an introduction to literary analysis by comparing two works. The focus of studying the mentor texts is on characters’ actions and themes. We have also been doing word study with a focus on prefixes.

Beginning of the US & Civics

Our class has moved forward through the Revolutionary War unit and into the Constitution Unit. The kids continue to do an excellent job with current events, as we have detailed debates every two weeks. The next major assignment will be reordering the Bill of Rights and writing a justification for it. Happy Holidays.

Spanish

In Senora’s Barrios class, December was a fun month to introduce -ar, -er, and -ir verbs. We played charades, we sang Spanish caroling songs, and we are finishing the month with the choice of a role play or a puppet show. Students were very enthusiastic to perform and talk in Spanish about their favorite activities for the holidays. Moving forward, we are going to learn the verb “gustar,” which means "to like" when we come back from the break. Happy Holidays!

French

Madame’s class just wrapped up a long unit of forming questions and “-er” verbs. The students can now ask any question and have a vast knowledge of French verbs. They will be starting the family unit in January when we return after the break.

Medical Detectives

In Medical Detectives, students began their discovery of Viral Agents…things that can make us sick. We ended our unit with a lab on antibiotic effectiveness: students first had to swab a safe strain of live E. Coli onto an agar plate. Then they were given three different paper discs soaked in three common types of antibiotics to place onto the bacterial culture. Over the next few days, we were able to learn about and observe the zone of inhibition for each antibiotic. The most effective antibiotic against the bacteria would have the largest zone of inhibition!

Financial Fitness

In Financial Fitness, we are finishing Chapter 1 of the Ramsey text book and discussing how important it is to stay out of debt. We took our one and only test in the class and are now moving on to Unit 2, which involves career exploration.  We also had our first banking day, where they learned how to deposit money into a bank account and the process of keeping a bank account balanced. We also worked on how to withdraw money and how important it is to keep accurate records, especially when your own money is involved. When we deposit money, we do not write in pencil on our bank logs, or it could accidentally disappear, and then we won’t ever have any record of the transaction.

Art Appreciation

In Art Appreciation, the students are working on mixed media paintings of the ocean. For this assignment, we used both watercolor and acrylic paint. The students first started by drawing out their ocean picture in pencil. Then they painted all their fish, seaweed, and coral using opaque acrylic paint. Next, they will go in with a very wet application of watercolor paint, creating a soft, flowy, transparent watery background. The soft watercolor, paired with the opaque bright colors of the acrylic paint, will create the perfect contrast and a beautiful painting. Everyone is doing a great job.

Exploring Food & Nutrition

Chef Lafferty’s Exploring Food and Nutrition students have been busy working on their nutrition knowledge, ingredients used in healthy cooking and eating, and cooking techniques that can improve their health. They’ve also used the USDA MyPlate website to calculate their daily caloric needs and how much of each of the five food groups they need to consume on a daily basis. The students continue to build their cooking portfolios, which include the recipes that they’ve cooked in class and reflections on what they’ve learned. The most recent food labs include French toast, pasta with tomato sauce, and cookies.

Algebra

Mrs. DeLorenzo’s classes wrapped up their unit on angle relationships and are moving into writing and graphing linear equations. During this unit of study, students will explore the relationship between independent and dependent variables and how we express them using equations, tables, graphs, and words. This will be a major unit of study in our Algebra course, as we continue with linear equations and functions for the next few chapters.

In Ms. Vespers and Ms. Hartmann’s Math class, we are wrapping up Unit 2, which involves all transformations on the coordinate plane. We learned how to translate, rotate, reflect, and dilate figures on the coordinate plane. We practiced how to find scale factor, and we also had a refresher course on how to use a scientific calculator. We also started Unit 3 with a review of what an angle is, what they are classified as, and how to use a protractor.  

In Mrs. Del Vecchio’s class, we are wrapping up Unit 2 with a unit test this week. During this unit, we discussed the difference between the different types of rigid transformations and dilation. We also explored shapes that are similar and congruent. After break, we will be moving onto Unit 3, which involves angle study and parallel lines cut with a transversal.

In Algebra Honors, students spent most of December working on linear relationships and then studied nonlinear graphs and equations. After completing their unit on writing linear equations, we spent time practicing word problems and problem-solving skills so they could apply their knowledge to higher-level thinking questions. Our next unit of study will be on formulas and functions.

Physical Science

In Ms. Vacchiano’s Science class, students are learning about noncontact forces. They learned about the similarities and differences between magnetic and electric forces. Students have learned about how the Earth acts as a magnet, and some migratory birds depend on the invisible magnetic field lines of the Earth to help navigate their migration patterns. Students also used Snap Circuits to learn more about Series and Parallel Circuits.

Students in Mrs. Presinzano’s classes studied how energy is constantly being transferred between potential and kinetic energy, such as thermal, electric, chemical, elastic, and more! Students completed an Energy Skate Park digital lab to understand the impacts that mass and height have on potential energy, and how the Law of Conservation of Energy shows there are always energy transfers happening around us! Students also created a 3D model of their dream roller coaster ride using cardboard tubes and masking tape. Students applied the 4 C’s of engineering (collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and communication) and used their knowledge of Kinetic Energy and Potential Energy and Newton’s 3 Laws to create successful designs!

Reading

In Ms. McCann’s Reading class, students are finishing their Dystopian book clubs and evaluating how an author can present a theme of a story through conflict resolution. The students practiced identifying conflicts as they read the stories and used their notes to determine the lesson or message from the author as the conflicts were resolved at the end of the book. Students are also evaluating how fictional texts are adapted to multiple media, such as films and graphic novels. They are evaluating how director and illustrator choices change the audience's interpretation of the story’s characters and main events.

Mrs. Del Vecchio’s Reading class is reading a variety of Dystopian short stories. They are reading and annotating them together in order to interact with the text. Students are analyzing and identifying different elements of Dystopian literature and comparing and contrasting how the Dystopian societies are different from ours. We are continuing our work on identifying and analyzing the characters, setting, and conflict in our stories as we read. We are also working with Horror literature and looking into dthe ifferent ways the authors use to build suspense.

Language Arts

In Language Arts, students have been honing their literary analysis skills. All students completed a genre analysis of the short story “The Pedestrian,” which focused on the correct parts and organization of a literary analysis essay. Students in Language Arts then read the short story “The Monkey’s Paw” and choose from a list of prompts for their essays. This second round of essays focused on the students’ analysis skills and explanation of evidence. Humanities students have been reading the “short” story “Flowers for Algernon” and will be developing their own writing prompts for a literary analysis soon.

Students in Mrs. Del Vecchio’s Language Arts class studied the biography of Edgar Allan Poe. They were also “medical detectives” and learned about how tuberculosis was the most deadly disease of Poe’s time and greatly influenced his writing. We have now started analyzing some of Poe’s short stories and poems for evidence of horror, suspense, and romantic-gothic influences.

Early World History

In Social Studies, students are wrapping up their unit on Ancient Egypt by analyzing historical sources and completing a multi-step Document-Based Question (DBQ) mini-project. They are practicing close reading, using evidence from texts and images, and explaining how geography, beliefs, and leadership shaped Egyptian civilization. This work is helping students strengthen their critical thinking and historical writing skills.

Spanish

Mrs. Wohlberg’s students presented their vacation project almost entirely in the target language and finished reading Tumba, their first Spanish language mini novel. Next, they will learn vocabulary and grammar to describe clothing items, fashion, become familiar with fashion designers, and to talk about past events.

French

Madame’s class just finished a very fun and informative unit on French clothing and designers. Students learned to describe what they and others are wearing, including colors, etc. Then each student researched a famous French designer and did a project on him/her, and shared it with the class.

Creative Coding

After spending the first part of the course learning about computers and technology careers, the students were eager to move into the main coding unit. We’ve learned about programming shapes and lines, and moved up to manipulating props and characters (called sprites). We’ve learned how to fine-tune the scale and positioning of sprites, as well as adding looping movements. In the New Year, we have a greeting card project, followed by our game unit and project.

Design and Modeling

In Mr. Blatt’s Design and Modeling classes, students are being introduced to the engineering design process and the impact of technology. They are always looking at how technology and tools impact everyday lives. They are currently learning engineering drawing concepts with computer software to help generate 3D drawings of objects. Next week, they will be introduced to the woodshop and learn about safety issues before creating their final project.

Next month, students will work on engineering drawings and eventually design and build, applying the design process hands-on in a woodworking project. In groups, they will be creating a wooden pull toy for children using power tools like the drill press and bladerunner. They will be finishing the toy with chosen stains and paints.

Foundations of TV Production

As the students say, we are “cooking”. During the second marking period, students have learned to plan, produce, film, and edit news stories for our YouTube Channel “WMS TV.” After the break, we will be publishing a new batch of news reports produced by our students.

Art Appreciation

In Art Appreciation, we had fun exploring Surrealist Art. Students created five different mini surrealist compositions using images and text cut out of magazines. They combined the images they found to create a bizarre little world on each page of their books. Then they added the high contrast zentangle background to each little work of art and finished it up with a strange jumble of words. Each picture was glued into an accordion book that the students made themselves. I always love how these books turn out!

In Mrs. Gutierrez’s Science class, students are learning about states of matter. After our discussion of the properties of matter, we made Oobleck. Students examined the properties and determined that Oobleck can appear to be both solid and liquid. We had so much fun getting messy!

All of the ESP students are wrapping up reading a popular science book this month: Where are the Aliens? (6th); World Without Fish (7th); and Fashionopolis: The Secrets Behind the Clothes We Wear (8th). When we come back from break in January, students will work on video essays or podcasts based on topics discussed in the books. Also this month, ESP worked with LittleBits to create simple circuits. (Photos: Abandoned projects at the end of the period.)

ESP 8 went to their second Bergen Brain Busters meet. Each month, eight students (two teams of four) get to compete in academic trivia. We practice during some ESP periods. At this point, every student has gotten to go at least once.

What a wonderful Winter Concert! Thank you to all of the student performers for sharing their music with all! Everyone worked so hard to learn their music and bring joy. Thank you to everyone who attended. Your support is much appreciated!

Band students performed in excellent fashion at the 2025 WMS Winter Concert! The Concert Band (6th Grade) & Symphonic Winds (7/8th Grade) all worked extremely hard to be able to perform in such a mature, disciplined, and professional manner.

Art Club

In the Art Club, we finished up our time together by using our imagination to create.  Students were given a whole bunch of different supplies and allowed to make whatever they wanted. Pipe cleaners, pom poms, feathers, wiggly eyes, and glue guns were spread out around the art room as students got to work creating. They had the best time!

WMS Cooking Up A Storm Cooking Club

A Winter session of Chef Lafferty’s “Cooking Up a Storm Cooking Club" will start sometime in January, with sign-ups happening shortly before the club starts. Chef Lafferty will try to accept students who haven’t participated in any previous clubs. If you have any questions, please stop by Room #215 and speak with Chef Lafferty.

Thank you in advance,
Chef Lafferty