Week 29 Classroom News

Hello Families,

Read on for news and updates.

Whole School:

• Parents of K-3: Plan ahead for no bus service May 20-24. Gary (and the bus!) will be gone that week for the Upper Grade Oregon Road Trip.
• PTO reminder: Drop off your blue bottle drop bags this week through May 4th and funds will be matched 20%! Contact Koli if you need more blue bags: ptotreasurer@blackbutte.k12.or.us.
• Order your yearbook! Use this link to create your account, add custom pages (due 5/14) and purchase with Treering. All BBS students will receive a yearbook.

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

• Bebop (2nd/3rd) Math: Bebop mathematicians have been working on lots of number sense activities.  From estimation to recognizing benchmark numbers like 25, 50, 75.  They also completed an assessment about division.  Last week we did an exploration with raisins.
• Hodag (4th-8th) Math: Some of the students are working on an escape room activity where they have to solve order of operations problems to be able to go on to the next room.  Other students are wrapping up a unit on solving proportions and will have a test at the end of this week.  All students have a ratio poster project that is due on Monday 4/29.  There will not be any class time for this assignment, so hopefully they plan accordingly.
• Health/PE Class: Yesterday everyone in the school ran the mile.  It was great to see the students’ dedication to showing what they could accomplish.  We had some pretty darn fast times.  Now everyone has a good idea for their goal for the jog-a-thon. (See photos below).

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

• K/1 Math class: Students are working on breaking apart (decomposing) teen numbers (17=10+7). First grade students are adding and subtracting with tens (23+40=63 and 63-40=23).
• K-3 Social Science: In our Equity and Justice unit we had a guest speaker on Monday who taught us about how to take care of our river. Students brought home drawings of how they will take care of the river on Monday. Today we started wrapping up the unit by thinking about something that is not fair, understanding the cause, the unfair effect, and the action for justice we can take. Look for students’ final work to come home by the end of this week or early next week based on when we finish presentations.

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

• Mr. B’s K/1 Literacy: K/1 Literacy has become a poetry generating station! Check out a few Animal-Snapper Clappers students wrote this morning. They also have begun to write their first haiku!

• Bebop Literacy: Bebop hasn’t been slackin’ either! They are currently working on poems that focus on an object in nature and connecting it to a moment in nature. Haikus are also to come shortly! Both classes are reading a story about the great Langston Hughes. 
• Art Literacy: We have Cut Up poems to share! See below and enjoy!

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

• Humanities class: We had a fun visit from local poet/songwriter Beth Wood on Monday to help us with our poetry unit. Beth has come out to work with our students the last few years and always warms the room with her music and energy. She will be back next Monday to help students create more original poetry. Otherwise the past week has mostly been dedicated to our essays on what we have learned about how poems are built. Students will finish up those assignments by the end of this week. 
  
• Field Studies: We have taken advantage of the nice weather to get outside in Field Study class this past week. On Friday we went to Lake Creek Lodge to learn about Beavers with some folks from Think Wild. They gave us a private screening of the film “Beaver Believers.” Then on Monday we headed down to the Metolius to collect water samples to view under the microscopes. We are nearing the end of our Microbiology unit. Ask your child what they have learned about microscopic organisms and cells this month.