Week 35 Classroom News

Hello Families,

Read on for news and updates. Photo Album from the upper grade Oregon History Road Trip available here!

Whole School:

• Thursday 6/6 Spring Program {SO}UNDS + W{OR}DS: The show starts at 6:00pm at the Community Hall and there’s no need to come early. We will celebrate the end of year with poetry, acknowledgments, and graduation!
• Friday 6/7 – Trail Raking, 1:00pm:
  • Students, please bring a rake if they have one (BBS has rakes but not enough for everyone).
  • Families and neighbors welcome to join this effort in beautifying our local trails. BYO rake & gloves, meet at BBS at 1:00pm and we will finish with popsicles at 2:30pm.
• Field Trips next week: Watch for an email from Mr. Sharp about early bus drop offs for Sisters families. Please apply sunscreen, bring a water bottle and wear appropriate shoes.
  • Monday – High Desert Museum
  • Tuesday – Sisters Library & Paulina Springs Books
  • Wednesday – Metolius River
  • Thursday – Blue Lake
• Friday 6/14 – Last Day of School + Groundbreaking Event:
  • Field games begin at 9:30am – families welcome to join at that time.
  • Groundbreaking Ceremony 11:00am – 12:00pm. Spread the word to neighbors and friends!
  • Day ends at 12pm and bus service will run as normal.
  • There will be light snacks but no BBQ lunch this year.

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

• Bebop (2nd/3rd) Math: Bebop math students completed a fun investigation around palindromes. Using different colors on a 0 – 99 chart, they discovered patterns and were able to take short cuts. We like those in math. Every number can essentially be turned into a palindrome if you add its opposite enough times.  Ask your student about palindromes.
• Hodag (4th-8th) Math: Last week the Hodags completed an investigation around round and square houses.  We figured out which type of house would use more material if they both had the same square footage of floor space.  The story originates in Africa where a village houses the women in round houses and the men in square houses.  This week we are working on our final district math assessment.  Tomorrow is our last math class of the year.
• Health/PE Class: PE the last week has been a mix of classic games like kickball and four square, outdoor school challenges like hide the egg and a short work period of tidying up the PE shed for next year.  

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

• K/1 Math: In k-1 math we have been wrapping up all that we have learned as mathematicians!
  • Some students have already brought home work from their star work folders. Please take the time to review some of the work they are so very proud of.
  • This week students will also bring home their math workbooks. Much of these pages are not done. That is not because your student didn’t finish them, but rather we learned the material through games, group projects, or other means. I encourage you and the students to work on some of these pages over the summer to keep their mathematical thinking fresh
  • Lastly, students will bring home their portfolios next week. These are their way to show some of the big concepts they have worked on this year. There is about a page for each month of school.

• K-3 Science/Social Studies: In science and social studies we reviewed all that we have learned through our 7 units. We read and reviewed the topics, big questions, and daily goals for the units. Each class the scientist of the day came up with at least one question, something they learned, and/or a connection. We counted those up and had 159 for the year! See the picture below of our untis from this year.
  
  • Ask students what they remember about the different units as you look through their scientific notebooks and be sure to take a look at the weather and climate work. All of this went home on Monday.
  • I asked students to use their scientific notebooks this summer to draw pictures and write notes about what they see or do through their scientist perspective.

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

• Mr. B’s Literacy classes (all): All…err…most students are attempting to rally for Thursday’s performance and celebration. Mr. B is hopeful.

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

• Humanities: We are wrapping up our last assessments and activities in the classroom this week. The Hodags are writing their final journalism articles and participating in a debate about dam removal. We are also finishing a book we have been reading this spring titled “Shooting Kabul.” 
• Field Studies: Our final week still has a lot of learning left in it. I believe these field trips are going to be very valuable and provide our students with a chance to connect and grow before summer. We are exploring locations in Camp Sherman, Sisters, Bend, and Blue Lake during our final week of school. We are excited to get our students out of the classroom and give them some hands-on learning adventures before we start summer break.