This week we are learning about how we express emotions and sensory experiences in our body, face, and hand gestures.

This Monday we started our yearbook class, which meets with Ms. Sharp once per month through May. Students in Mr. Sharp’s Field Studies class participate in creating our yearbook, but all kids at BBS will be represented in the yearbook. The goals for the class are for kids to learn basic computer skills, learn about and apply graphic design principals, and to create a super awesome yearbook to remember their 2025-26 year at Black Butte School.

Parents of new students should have received an email this week inviting them to join Treering, the software we use to create the yearbook.

On Treering you are able to purchase a yearbook for your child(ren), as well as help them to create custom pages that will be printed ONLY in their yearbook. This can be a special way for them to add personal stories and photos to their yearbook. May 15, 2026 is the due date for submitting custom pages and ordering yearbooks.

Until October 31st, you can purchase a yearbook at an early-bird discounted rate (10% off). We have an ongoing fundraiser specifically for yearbook, so if you are unable to purchase a yearbook, your kiddo will still receive one.

Thank you to Molly who takes the majority of our photos, edits, and organizes them for us! If you are a parent volunteer who takes pictures of a school event, please coordinate with Molly to get her the photos to be used in yearbook class.

The upper grades classroom is working hard to stay on top of their tasks and responsibilities. A recent task has been completing the i-ready district assessment in reading and math.

In Humanities, they have been reviewing and studying for an upcoming test on ‘Early Humans’ as we wrap up our prehistoric (Paleolithic and Neolithic) era unit. Help them by quizzing them on their Orange Review Sheet. We also had a guest speaker, Jessica Lyons, visit the class to talk about journalism.

In Math, the 4th & 5th graders are working on their division skills, among other disciplines like finding the average (mean) of a set of data and understanding order of operations. 6th & 7th graders are wrapping up the scale factor unit by finishing their scale drawings of the school and taking a quiz on the concept tomorrow.

We started our week off with an active listening activity in which they had to recount stories that were told to them by their peers. This class is a busy, competitive, and fast-paced group and are all motivated by doing well in school which makes my job exciting. There is never a dull moment here. However, there is something to be said for slowing down, listening, thinking ‘we’ and not ‘me’, and focusing on quality over quantity.

These are all themes you can help us reinforce at home. Another good one for minimizing academic nerves and stress is not expecting perfection, but remembering that mistakes are usually how we learn best.

Students have been bringing home some literacy work in their purple folders. Please make sure you check it out.

I encourage joyful reading at home. The hope is that students are excited to bring home some of their work and are sharing what they are learning to read. Please encourage your kids to show you what they know, and it is totally a-okay if they need help with reading it, or maybe you can read some parts to them. At this age reading should be something that is seen as fun, joyful, and a skill they are excited to learn. It is important to remember research has shown the importance of kids being read to for their own reading growth, so I hope you all are finding some fun books to read to your kids at home. If you need suggestions, let me know. 😉

In literacy we just started learning digraph sh.

In math we started our first portfolio page and will have another ready to share with you at conferences.

⇒ Games and activities to try at home

• Math: Have students show you why we read number sentences in math like how we read letters in words.  See if they can explain why this matters, especially with subtraction.
• Literacy: Look for digraph sh in words around you!

In science we have started to learn about unique schools around the world and that education is a basic right.  Ask students about the school in Bangladesh and how they are ensuring students can have access to education.

Math: Beyond our daily cumulative review, students are practicing expanded form with three-digit numbers and are working on writing two true and one false statements about a three-digit number of their choosing.

Literacy: Students are group reading and writing words with digraph blends. Today, they completed their 15th writer’s notebook entry. Their writing stamina is growing!

Expect to see homework in your child’s purple folder for this three-day weekend!

We had a great field trip to Clear Lake last Friday with the upper grade class. We went to the “Great Spring” that feeds the lake to continue our studies of the local hydrology and volcanic rocks. The fall colors were out and the students seemed to have a wonderful time.

I spent Sunday-Tuesday this week in Bend at the Wide Open Spaces conference. This was my 3rd time at this conference and it is one of my favorites. It is a gathering of tiny rural school leaders, mostly from eastern Oregon. It was a great place to connect and learn from others in similar positions to myself. I got some great Principal tips and learned more about AI in schools. It was fun to be back today with the kids and I appreciate our wonderful staff who stepped up and covered for me while I was away.

Students are continuing to learn soccer skills in PE class.