Hello Families,
We welcomed back the students today with the treat of (nearly) fresh snow! We hope you had a great winter break and ready for all the adventures of the new year.
Whole School:
- Students went home today with important Ski & Ride paperwork regarding liability waivers and rental info. Please sign and return to school this week!
- Snow is in the forecast and we are planning to be ready to begin Ski & Ride on time! The first day January 12th. Please get in touch if your student needs gear. We have extra clothing, gloves, goggles, etc.
From Ms. Steele: ssteele@blackbutte.k12.or.us
Hello Families and Mathematicians. Welcome back!
- Bebop (2nd/3rd) Math: Today we read a really interesting article from NPR about how our brains struggle to understand large numbers. The article is called “Why big numbers break our brains.” The students really were thinking deeply about these ideas. Ask them what they remember about it. I would be curious to hear what they say.
- Hodag (4th-8th) Math: I am going to have the grade levels all go back to working on different topics. There are always some challenges to this, the biggest one being that students need to be strong, independent learners. They will need to use their text as a resource when I am helping other grade levels. Hopefully you can have a conversation with your student about what that means.
From Ms. Kassie: kdemarsh@blackbutte.k12.or.us
- K/1 Math class: We reviewed some of the work we did before break. We are building on adding 3 numbers for first grade and will start really focusing on teen numbers for kindergarten.
- K-3 Science: In our afternoon class we are switching from social studies to science. We reviewed what we learned in our economics and marketing unit and started our invisible forces unit. Our big question for the unit is to figure out how forces on an object affect its motion. Try to help students “see” the invisible forces around them.
- A note about purple folders: It is important to keep purple folders in your student’s backpack for sending work to and from school. I sent Hoodoo forms home with students today and many did not have purple folders. Especially with wet snowy gear, worksheets and forms can get destroyed in backpacks. Please look for that paperwork and return it (in the purple folder please) as soon as possible. The ski and ride program is around the corner!
From Mr. B: ebarrons@blackbutte.k12.or.us
- Mr. B’s Literacy class: The K/1 literacy crew will be working in and around The Tales of Squirrel Nutkin while Bebop literacy will be exploring life in a big city in Jamaica Louise James.
- Art Literacy class: Students will be working with lines and shapes to create an imaginative place based on the art of Alexander Calder and Joan Miró.
From Mr. Sharp: dsharp@blackbutte.k12.or.us
We are back! It was refreshing to see all the students come through the door this morning. I hope it was a nice break for everyone and the students got a chance to relax. I was happy to get back to our school routine this morning and kick off the new year.
- Humanities class: We are starting a new unit on early Oregon history. We will learn about Lewis and Clark, the Oregon Trail, and the early pioneer settlers of Oregon. This is a topic that is one of my favorites to study and teach so I am really excited to dive into it with the students. There are so many fascinating stories and adventures from the early days of Oregon. I hope to get my students excited about this story as well.
- Field Study class: We started a unit on Climate Change. After studying weather and climate in December this unit is an extension of what we were learning before break. In the next few weeks we will learn what climate change is, what causes it, how it is affecting our planet, and finally what we as humans can do about it. This topic can generate a lot of debate and interest so it will be exciting to see where the students go with this topic.
