We hope everyone had a relaxing and refreshing spring break. There was a lot of positive energy from the kids as they came into school yesterday and got back to work. We are looking forward to a fun and productive spring at BBS. 

One exciting adventure coming up this month is the annual swim program. As usual we will be heading to the Redmond Aquatic Center for our lessons. The five swim days are on the school calendar; take note there is NO early release on Wednesday April 15th.

We will be on our East Side Field Trip bus schedule (see bus schedule) those days which means we will do the Sisters stops first and then finish with the Camp Sherman route. Students will be split into lesson groups based on an initial swim assessment. On swim days make sure students bring-

• A lunch they can eat on the bus (not crumby and no microwave)

• Swimsuit (make sure it fits)

• Towel

• Plastic bag to put wet suit in afterwards

• Brush for long hair

• Goggles (optional)

Let us know if you have any questions about the swim program.

In Field Study class we are wrapping up our Astronomy unit this week. The students will have their unit test on Friday. Next week we will work on the yearbook and then begin our final unit on Agriculture and Food. 

We wrapped up Health class before spring break and are back to outdoor P.E. for the rest of the year. This spring we will learn to play baseball, lacrosse, disc golf and many other spring sports. We are even hoping to end the year with some fly fishing lessons at the youth fish pond.

It has been a great start to the week as we welcome back all the students from what was hopefully a restful week, or possibly one filled with adventure/travel, or maybe some of both.

We dove right back into our Humanities studies with this being our last week focusing on ancient Greece. The students have received their new vocabulary list for the week and should be studying for a spelling test on Friday. They just took a comprehension test on their book, either The Wanderings of Odysseus or Black Ships Before Troy. The students received their responses from their African pen pals and wrote a letter back to them. Additionally, as our world geography studies continue, students are getting ready for a quiz on the countries of South America coming up this Friday. 

In Math, Blue Bay students have jumped right back into our daily rhythm. During the whole group warm up this week, we are focusing on mental multiplication techniques, and measurement/unit conversion. Today, the students experimented with Vedic Multiplication, which was a multiplication technique used in ancient India. Right now 4th graders are working on drawing and measuring angles, shapes, and lines. 5th graders are still plugging away at decimal multiplication using ‘multiplication magic’ and place value strategies. 6th graders have been benefiting from reviewing analog math operations, as they take a step away from their calculators and practice multiplying and dividing decimal numbers by hand. 7th graders are working with operations involving positive and negative numbers, and our 8th grader is solving equations for a variable using algebra techniques, and graphing to represent relationships.

During the Art block we had local volunteer Karen Ellis lead a watercolor class. She will be working with Blue Bay students every other week throughout the spring.

We are happy to be back together after the break. Students are doing well and jumping in right where we left off. Thank you for having them ready to go!

Math: We are starting to find different strategies to add 2 digit numbers.

Literacy: We are reviewing VCE words and spelling – like, brave, globe

Games to try at home:

• Math- See if students can mentally add 2 digit numbers. Start with adding either a 10, 20, 30 to any 2 digit number. 

• Literacy- Look for vce spellings in books.

We are still exploring building with mud and how that relates to property of matter. Ask your students what a foundry has to do with what we are learning in science.

Green Ridge Math: Students are wrapping up their unit on even and odd. Expect to see how your student fared on their final quiz later this week. Next up, Green Ridgers will begin exploring multiplication and division. Huzzah! 

 Green Ridge Literacy: Students are revising their 100-word narrative (reading these aloud required some vulnerability!), finishing the last tracking sheet on Julian’s World, splitting two and three syllable r-controlled vowel words with other spellings of the /or/ phoneme, and listening to Caldecott Honor Books to assist Mr. B with his reading endorsement coursework project!

 Creative Movement w/ Mr. B: Both Green Ridge and Rose Hip classes are working with Mr. B on ways to move their bodies without talking (harder for the boys!). This class aims at…

• Developing coordination, muscular strength and awareness
• Understanding concepts of space, time, force and movement
• Boosting an awareness of and relation to music
• Using body movement(s) to explore and develop artistic spontaneity!