24-25: Week 6 Classroom News

Hello Families,

Photo above is an outtake from picture day. Portrait order forms will be sent home soon! Read on for news & updates.

Whole School:

Thurs Oct. 17 – Community Open House 5-6pm: This is a chance for the public to see the completion of Phase 1 construction. Spread the word to your family, neighbors and friends!
Tues Oct. 22 – Bow Making class 5:30-7pm: PTO will host a workshop for those interested in making holiday bows for the wreaths. Contact Kenzie for details.
Fri Oct. 25 – Field Trip on Metolius: We could use chaperones for this one – please contact Delaney if you’d like come!
Halloween costume guidelines: Please no weapons or blood/gore! If costumes will restrict or distract from learning during the day, kids can change into them before the party.

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

Administrators (5th-7th)

Hello Family and Friends,

The Administrators have been busy learning about our three branches of government and the electoral college. We have explored the idea of why we hear so much about the presidential race when it’s our state and local governments that are most important to our daily lives. Without our school board saying yes to the budget we wouldn’t get the ski and ride program we all love.

This week is digital citizenship week and we have been working through some lessons from Common Sense Media, talking about AI and how technology supports or interferes with our value system. They have been interesting conversations.

Homework this week has been one night of math. I asked the class to see if they can carve out 30 minutes to do some math. We talked about how to do that if you have extra curricular activities. Hopefully it went well for everyone.

Take care the rest of the week. Enjoy some family time if you can.

From Ms. Kassie: kdemarsh@blackbutte.k12.or.us

K-1 Literacy & Math: Over the last 2 weeks in both literacy and math we have been working on computers for the first time this year. Students are doing I-ready diagnostics. This is a benchmark for us to see what they know in both math and literacy. As with any assessment, this is just a snapshot of what students are showing they know. I take this into consideration along with their participation, classwork, and other assessments to see where their strengths and areas of growth are. All of this is used to set goals, which we will be working on setting next week. Our goals are not just academic, we also set goals around being students, social skills, and growth mindsets. It is all based on what we see. I will be sharing these goals at conferences and students will use them as one tool to see their progress over the weeks, months and entire school year.

⇒ Work and Play to try at home:

Have first grade students try reading nonsense words with short a and i –
- Examples: fab, raz, tib, pax, mif…
- Reading nonsense words helps to focus on just the sounds without guessing and then seeing closed syllables in bigger words like cuc/tus and ban/dit or wis/con/sin
Have kindergarten students work on rhymes for words like cat, pig, goat…
For both kinder and 1st students, practice counting on or back from different numbers. Look for even and odd numbers around you.

K-2 Science: We have started to learn about plants. We are just starting to make connections to plants and animals, what they need and how they survive. We started work in our scientific notebook and students are working on showing what they already learned about animals.

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

Bebop (2nd-4th)

Mr. B’s October TOP TEN: Ask your child about the following!

1. Class Folders – they are making the work much more manageable AND keeping us organized!

2. Math and Literacy Portfolios – a great way to take a snapshot of each child’s learning for that day.

3. R.E.M – Murmur (whoops…wrong TOP TEN)

4. HD Word Kits…these decoding magnetic kits are AWESOME!

5. Array(s) of the Day (gettin’ good at building up our factors sense)

6. Mad Lib Mondays (pretty funny, even without potty humor!)

7. Math X-Words…(spelling math words?…Mr. B is nuts!)

8. Table caddies (Bebop has kept them organized and not a distraction in morning classes!)

9. Class windows (looking out at the changing colors…)

10. Art Journals (a quiet study win)

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

Field Studies: We have been learning lots of fascinating things about birds in Field Study class this week. We learned about their wings and how the different shapes of wings are designed for specific behaviors. We have also been learning about bird’s brains and how intelligent they are. Students have enjoyed a video we are watching about some of the science experiments researchers have done on birds to show their ability to learn, problem-solve, and cooperate.
PE: In P.E. class we have learned some basics of volleyball this past week. Students have also been doing balancing exercises, strengthening their core muscles, and getting out on some trail runs with the beautiful fall colors.

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

Performing Arts: This week we continued to work on voice. The 3rd-7th graders learned how fluency and emphasis can help make a joke funny–ask them to tell you their joke! All the kids had silly conversations in gibberish–you might hear some around your house.