Week 9 Classroom News

Hello Families! Read on for news and reminders.

Whole School:

• Look for the November Bulletin in your inbox tomorrow with details on upcoming events.
• Parent Workshop next Wednesday 11/8 at 5:00pm. All caregivers welcome. Learn how to navigate keeping kids safe with technology use.
• LAST CALL for picture order forms!
• THANK YOU VOLUNTEERS for a fantastic Halloween Party!
• Don’t miss this Halloween Bonus Blog: Story & Artwork by Bebop and Musical Accompaniment by K/1 courtesy of Mr. B’s Literacy Class.

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

• Bebop (2nd/3rd) Math: We have been having a lot of fun in Bebop math.  Probably because we got to bake and then eat warm cookies right out of the oven.  Everyone was super helpful and learned a lot about measurement and accuracy.  And since we baked sheets of 12 cookies we practiced our multiples of 12 by writing the answers in flour.  I was pretty amazed at how far the students counted up in their heads.  We were well into the hundreds.  And the next day everyone solved the challenging problem of “would we have enough cookies for everyone to eat 2?”
• Hodag (4th-8th) Math: Today in math it was amazing!!  The students were super focused.  I have been sharing with them some of the things I learned at my conference.  We talked about how we need to learn new concepts concretely, then representationally and then abstractly.  So with that in mind, we solved a problem using manipulatives and I can definitely say we understood the concept so much better.  The problem was about putting together snack packs using trail mix and apples.  Ask your student if they can share with you something from today.  I would be curious to hear what they say.

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

• In K/1 Math class, kinder students are working with numbers 0-10. We are learning how to write them tidy and work on our 1 to 1 counting. First grade students are working closely with number bonds to start thinking about using addition for subtraction.
• In K-3 Social Studies unit we thought about celebrations this time of year and the different perspectives around celebrations. We read a great book “They All Saw a Cat” which shows the different perspectives of how animals view a cat. We also all looked at the same stool with objects on it, recognizing that from different perspectives we saw different things. Today we tied the idea of different perspectives into Halloween vs. Day of the Dead. Students learned about Dia de los Muertos and made paper marigolds. Ask students some of the similarities and differences between Halloween and Dia de los Muertos. See pictures of fall art and paper marigolds.

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

• Mr. B’s K/1 literacy class has been focused on the importance of vowels (and their sounds) along with the value of rhyming words. The kinder crew has been busy delivering letter sounds from the slate board letters they’ve practiced. They’re beginning to make three-letter words (many of which rhyme…hurrah!) The first graders are gettin’ real tidy with their lowercase letter review and are helping explain how rhyming words work! Sentence writing abilities also abound!
• Mr. B’s Bebop (2nd/3rd) literacy crew is hard at work on proper nouns (full names, writing our addresses…almost!), words with ‘ai’ and ‘ay’, plus Mr. B just intro’d the spelling game Quiddler, which has potential to elevate problem-solving skills across the board! 
• Don’t miss this Halloween Bonus Blog: Story & Artwork by Bebop and Musical Accompaniment by K/1

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

It was a pleasure to meet with all our families last week at conferences. At BBS we take pride in providing a personalized experience for our students and families. Part of this is dedicating time to meet with every student and family each year. We reached our goal this year of meeting 100% of our families during conferences. This shows our students that their education matters and that they have a team of adults working together to support their growth. Kids need caring adults in their lives to help them through tough times and inspire them to grow and learn. Hopefully conferences were a time for students to feel that support and know that they are seen and valued.

• We haven’t had too much class time this week but there were a few items of note. In Field Study class the Hodags began a new unit of study on Monday: Climate and Weather. We will be exploring these topics through December and plan to install our own BBS weather station soon.
• In Humanities class students will be presenting their book reports today. They have all read a book of their choosing this past month and made posters. They will give a short presentation of their poster and book today. One of the primary goals of this assignment is to create a culture of reading where reading books is normalized and conversations about what we are reading become a regular part of school.
• On Friday (11/3) the Hodags are going on a special trip to Ms. Kirstin’s pottery studio on Sisters. They will be creating clay prints of items they collected in nature. We plan to sell these creations at the Holiday Bazaar later this month.

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

• In Performing Arts class this week students were treated to some fun spooky halloween drama games. They all moved through a “deep, dark, forest” as various characters or in spooky environments. The Littles made a pretend potion, and the Hodags said condolences at a funeral for a pretend character they created. On Thursday we are beginning to work on our performance songs with Ms. Hollie!