I spent a couple days last week in Eugene at the Oregon School Law Conference. This conference provided valuable professional development on new updates from the state legislature as well as the shifting legal landscape for schools. There was lots of discussion around the concern of budget cuts to the state school fund and how to navigate the new legal interpretations from the federal government, including the dismantling of the Education Department. A big thanks to the rest of the staff for covering things while I was away.

Please review the 2026 Ski and Ride Handbook with your child and return the signed contract (last page) this week. 

It was great to see many of you at the Holiday Bazaar. Thanks to everyone who volunteered their time this last month. We are looking forward to seeing everyone at Winter Joy.

We only had one field study class this past week and continued our lessons on AI. We spent time discussing why AI chat bots sound like humans and how to craft better prompts for AI tools. We had a lively discussion about whether generative AI will be more harmful or helpful for society as a whole. Opinions were varied but the conversation was very rich and helped the students get a better idea of both perspectives. This would be a great conversation to follow up on at home. 

We have gotten our P.E. steps in this week by walking to the Community Hall for rehearsals. We also got out the stacking cups and had a great time speed stacking and making a huge stack of cups in the commons. Ask K-4 students about this fun activity.

Hello families,

Rehearsals so far this week have been very encouraging! The kids are working so hard! And thanks to everyone who helped with creating and collecting props and scenery and helped set up. Everything is looking so good in the hall!

 Just some quick reminders about the show on this Thursday December 11th…

5:30 Students arrive at the Camp Sherman Community Hall dressed for the show (those with costumes for plays will change before they come on stage as their character – wearing clothes that the costume can easily fit over is ideal since we have limited private changing room)

6:00 Show starts

After show: Dessert Potluck

Once Lights go up: Clean Up Jobs

 Some notes on the clean-up jobs:

– Right after the show, you and your kiddo(s) will enjoy the dessert potluck and celebrate their performance. Once the lights are turned up, you’ll know it’s time to begin clean-up jobs.
– Their first clean-up job is to retrieve all of their personal items and costumes.* Please also retrieve any dessert potluck treats left over and/or your serving dishes.
– Students will then check in with the assigned teacher to complete their clean up job. Jobs should take 5-10 minutes. If you need to leave early, please make sure your child checks in with the assigned teacher before leaving.
– Please make sure you take home any props you lent.
– Please encourage your child to perform their clean up job by themselves and with the rest of their clean-up crew to the best of their ability. 

Winter Performance 2025 | Information for Families

In Humanities, we have been working on the correct use of the apostrophe to show possession and abbreviation. This week, students have mainly been preparing their Ancient Egypt research topics and they all presented their slideshows to the class on Tuesday. 

In Math, 4th graders have been working with conversions for units of measurement in the metric system. 5th graders have been working on place value, exponents, and base ten multiplication strategies. 6th grade has been exploring ratios, and 7th grade has been studying proportional relationships and using variables to form expressions. We have been getting used to the new routine as this is our second week using the Zearn curriculum. 

In literacy we have learned to double trouble and chunk all rules. The double trouble is teaching students to double up the letters f, l, and s in a single syllable short vowel word when the sound comes right after the short vowel sound. (staff, off, puff- bell, pill, doll- pass, toss, fuss). We are teaching the chunk all as one sound that says “all” like in ball, small, wall.

In math we are working on using what we know about doubles to solve other problems like if we know 10+10 is 20 then we know 10+11 is 21, or 6+7=13 since 6+6=12. 

Games and activities to try at home

• Math: Look for doubles or close to double problems around you.
• Literacy: Find the double trouble or chunk all spelling in books at home. 

Science/Social Studies: As we continue our art unit we have been reading “Beautiful Shades of Brown” about the art of Laura Wheeler Waring. Ask your students what type of artist Laura Wheeler Waring was and why her work was important. (She was a painter who specialized in portraits. Her work was one of the first to represent people in color in art museums.)

Green Ridge and Mr. B are hard at work preparing for the winter performance!