Discovery Days 2023

“Discovery Days” is an annual event for Middle School students and provided a stellar start to the 2023-24 school year. After only one week in class, students ventured off campus for two-three days to participate in a variety of hands-on, real-world experiences in the wider community.

Sixth graders spent one of their Discovery Days at the National Ability Center in Park City, and enjoyed the team building activities – the giant swing in particular. They spent the next day at Antelope Island, studying brine shrimp, oolitic sand, and plant life at the Great Salt Lake. As part of the experience, they carried canopies and hauled wagons of supplies one mile across the desert sand.

Seventh graders did a two-day immersive acting workshop, with Sugarhouse Park as their stage. Actors from the Egyptian Theatre ran the entire program, which covered acting, staging, costumes, props, and performance techniques. At the end of the last day, each seventh grade class performed a different play for peers.

Eighth grade students spent three days at the acclaimed Utah Shakespeare Festival. They attended performances of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” and “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and Lorraine Hansbury’s “A Raisin In The Sun,” which all happen to be in these students’ Middle School curriculum at WSD. They also attended the Play Seminars for each play, the Props Seminar, and The Greenshow. “Our students had a fantastic time,” relates Nathan Florence, WSD teacher and chaperone, “and actively participated in all the seminars with great questions and comments. Some actors even took time out to thank our students for their response to the play that day and to thank our school for bringing them to see Shakespeare!”