24-25: Week 1 Classroom News

Hello Families,

The school year is off to a great start! Read on for updates and messages from the teachers.

Whole School:

• Construction Update: We will be using the Community Hall for the second week of school. Unfortunately (but not surprisingly) the construction delay has increased and the building will not be ready next week. The crew is working 10 hours a day, 6 days a week to make up time and we are hoping our students will be in the building by Monday Sept. 23rd.
• Wednesday Art Club: Our 2nd-7th grade students will have an opportunity to particpate in a ceramics class on Wednesdays in October. Details about this program and registration will be sent by the end of the week.
• Sept 17 – PTO Meeting, 3:15pm: Parents meet at the picnic tables while kids can play on the playground.
• Sept 20 – School Campout: This annual tradition is around the corner. BBQ dinner provided by PTO. Join for the meal and s’mores, or camp for the night. Sites reserved at Jack Creek Campground.

From Ms. Steele: ssteele@blackbutte.k12.or.us

• 5th-7th Class: Hey Parents and Friends of the Upper Grade Class, We are settling into our new space and new routines.  We have spent most of this week doing activities that will help us bond as a small class.  We had a race to see who could make the longest paper chain and got together in groups to try to draw pictures sharing one pen.  Later in the week we will come up with a class name and secret handshake.  Parents should know that there will be homework this school year, but it won’t start until later in the month or possibly at the start of October.  And it won’t start until I have sent home clear expectations on how you can support your students.

• K-1 Class: We have had a great start to the year with a lot of time playing outside and getting to know each other.  We are so grateful to have the community hall to house our work and play until we can move into our new classroom. Work and play is a theme I will be using with the K-1 students throughout the year and I will share how we are working and playing in the classroom so you can try out some of the fun at home!
  • It was wonderful to see families who could make it to our Back to School event on the first day. I put some of the main points I shared below:
    

1. Please send me an email for the fastest way to communicate with me. You can also catch me after school (more so once we are in the building) for a quick face to face. I am happy to set up a time to talk, zoom, or meet in person as well.
2. Please email Mr. Sharp and myself if a student will be absent. I will need to know and Mr. Sharp keeps track of attendance. If your student isn’t at school and we haven’t heard from you Mr. Sharp (or myself) will send you an email or give you a call to make sure everything is a-okay!
3. Once we are in the building I will give students purple folders as a way to help get papers back and forth from school to home. Students will bring home work they have completed and want to share with you monthly. This is also a great place to put any school forms/registration that need to come back to BBS. I do not check students’ folders regularly, so please send me an email or have your student try to remember to get the forms to me.
4. Also once we are in the building we are going to try to have inside shoes. These will be shoes or slippers that students can keep at school to help transition our bodies to being inside as well as helping to keep our new classroom tidy 🙂

• Work and Play to try at home
  We have been singing lots of songs our first few days. We will have a good morning song that we sing each day. Invite your kiddo to sing it to you along with the hand motions. Here are the words if they need a little help.

Good morning dear earth
Good morning dear sun
Good morning to the stones
And flowers, everyone
Good morning to the bees
And the birds in the trees
Good morning to you
And good morning to me

From Mr. B: ebarrons@blackbutte.k12.or.us

• 2nd-4th Class: Mr. B’s Nine (still referred to as Bebop, until further notice) have been considering what measurement means, looks like and how it shows up in our daily lives. They also have been discussing themes around differing abilities, the value of teamwork, the pain of exclusion and how to solve problems by working together (using everyone’s strengths).
• The opportunity to use the community hall has also given shared time with Ms. Kassie’s K-1 group for warm ups, checking in about safety, the definition of work, name games, stories and curiosities (see how long K-4 are below…23 Mr. B Paces = 30 Josie paces!!)

From Mr. Sharp: dsharp@blackbutte.k12.or.us

The new school year is officially off and running! There was a lot of positive energy this week as we got back to school with old friends and new. It was awesome to see so many families on Monday to kick things off at the Back to School event. I am really excited to work with this group of students this year and open up our remodeled school with a bang.

• Field Studies & PE: This year I am teaching in the afternoon and we are spending our first week focusing on building school culture, establishing expectations, and bonding as a group. So far the vibes are great and there have been lots of smiles from the students. We have some fun plans in the coming week including building bark boats (a Camp Sherman tradition) at the youth fish pond and participating in a citizen science restoration project at Lake Creek Lodge. Keep sending students to school ready to be outdoors with me in the afternoon until we move into our new classrooms.

From Ms. Sharp: jsharp@blackbutte.k12.or.us

• Performing Arts Class: Performing Arts started off this week with teambuilding and co-creating our group norms. I shared the goals for our class and what we’ll learn about. It’s all about working hard and playing hard in Performing Arts! We’ll be learning about acting and theater skills, how to perform & sing, percussion, costumes, and characters. Mark your calendar for the winter performance December 12th at 6pm!