This week in performing arts we officially began our rehearsals for our show, Winter Joy! Rose Hips are choosing jokes to tell. Green Ridge and Blue Bay both read through their scripts and teachers are now making the decisions on who to cast in what role. It’s always a very exciting time! We will have much more information for you about the show and how you can support your kiddos get ready for the performance next week!

In Humanities, the Blue Bay students have selected topics for their student journalism article and have begun brainstorming and creating an outline, with the hopes of being published in the upcoming BBS Fall Newsletter. During PALS (Peer Assisted Learning Strategies), they have begun reading The Epic of Gilgamesh, which is the oldest piece of writing in recorded history. We are continuing to emphasize solid organization and focus on text structure within their writing. 

In Math, Blue Bay students in 4th and 5th grade are working with exponents, and graphing ordered pairs on a single quadrant coordinate plane. 6th and 7th graders have been adding and subtracting negative and positive integers and working with the 4 quadrants of the coordinate plane. We did an active outdoor lesson early in the week, using cones to represent the x and y axis with students moving to different coordinates on the ‘plane’, and now they are working to apply that concept by graphing with paper and pencil. 

During Buddy Time, pairs of students worked together with materials provided to create a custom paper airplane. They entered their planes in a competition with awards for ‘longest distance’, ‘best trick’, and overall ‘style’. The awards consisted of brand new, never before used, pencils.

In literacy we learned digraph th like in thumb, which is our key word for that sound. 

In math we have spent a lot of time with fact families and using addition as a way to solve subtraction problems.  

⇒ Games and activities to try at home

• Math: See if students can show you 4 number sentences for 2 numbers that add to another number. You can make it as hard (32+49) or as easy (3+1) as they would like. 
• Literacy: Look for digraph th in words around you! 

In science we learned about tent schools that were set up in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake that destroyed much of the country. Students are working on understanding all that communities do to support education as a basic human right, but here and around the world. Ask them what their community does to support their right to education.

We have all been enjoying some beautiful fall weather this past week at BBS. The fall colors are in full swing which has made for a picturesque setting for our learning and activities. 

In Field Study class we got out to Smith Rock on Friday to learn about the geology of the park by getting up close and personal with the rocks. We strained and grunted our way up several rock climbs with the help of Chockstone climbing guides. What a great day! The students were super positive and supportive of each other. Everyone had success on the climbs and seemed to enjoy the challenge. This day was a great mix of Field Study and P.E. class. Back in the classroom on Monday we learned more about plate tectonics and the rock cycle. Today we headed back outdoors to do some restoration work with Trout Unlimited on the Metolius. We planted native plants to help prevent erosion and rehabilitate an old road.

In P.E. class we have been continuing to learn some basics of various fall sports. Last week we played a little volleyball and this week we got the footballs out and tossed them around.