SIUSLAW NEWS SCHOOL NEWSLETTER ❚ MAY 2015 SCHOOL ZONE A Monthly Newsletter for the Siuslaw and Mapleton Schools and Florence Community PTA NERD SQUAD Film class wraps morning announcement shoot Civil War comes alive at SMS “Vent!” “Vent on!” Students cup one ear, leave their mouths open slightly and try to brace for the explosion. BOOM! The 12- pound cannon, brought by the Sons of Union Soldiers, fires off a tinfoil ball filled with four ounces of black powder. The blast and smoke are most satisfying. Even the students who wish a real cannon- ball was being fired, are pleased to see little bits of foil fluttering through the air. The Sons of Union Soldiers, a Civil War history group, comes each year to help bring the past to life for the eighth graders of Siuslaw Middle School. This is a highlight, with students looking forward to the “can- non” all year long. To get ready for the event, students spend nearly two months delving into different aspects of the Civil War. The students read the fictional story “Bull Run” as well as jour- nals and letters from the Civil War. They look at the many events, beginning with the advent of the Slave Trade, that led up to the Civil War. They also look at the economic and social differences between the North and South. The unit culminates with a debate, the 1989 film “Glory” and the Civil War Field Day. This year three stations were present: infantry, medical and artillery. As mentioned, the artillery station is always popular due to the explosions and the student involvement. The cannon needs five people to load it, and the students get to volunteer to help. See CIVIL page 3 COURTESY PHOTOS Siuslaw Nerd Squad crew films this school year’s last morning announcement. Summer school program available T he Siuslaw Nerd Squad recently filmed its last video morning announce- ments for the year. The middle school crew includes Alicia Labelle (eighth grade) and Hannah Rasmussen (sixth grade) in front of the camera, Skyler Loomis (sixth grade) and Matthew Fusaro (sixth grade) behind the camera, and J.P. Tanikawa (sixth grade) on the teleprompter. “Nerd Squad Techies” include Levi Spencer (sixth grade), John Rau (sixth grade), Logan york (seventh grade), Nathen Morgan (seventh grade) and Ross Richmond (sixth grade). One day a week, the squad video records the next morning’s announcements: “Order of the day” business, upcoming events, positive behav- ior awards and announcements, daily menu for lunch and even the Pledge of Allegiance, all examples of what they broadcast. Broadcasts take all of about an hour and a half to film and another hour to edit. This yields about a four- to five-minute long broadcast. The Siuslaw Nerd Squad is an after-school activity connected with the Twilight program. In addition to the morning announcement video, the squad has been busy filming and edit- ing a feature film about how an “accident” in a robot lab at a middle school results in evil robots attacking students. The “nerd” students rise to the occasion and save the day. Keep on the lookout for the premiere of “Robotapocalypse,” to be released soon. Keep clipping ‘labels’ to support local education “Labels for Education” labels have been coming in neatly clipped with the UPC code showing, mak- ing the job of sorting and counting so much easier. Students at Siuslaw West have been handling the job of tallying up the different labels. There are boxes for label collec- tion in the office at Siuslaw Elementary School and the Siuslaw Public Library. This year Siuslaw West will ben- efit from orders made with the Label Points. Currently, the Florence Community PTA account has 21,684 points and will be send- ing in more before June 15 in order to get a double point bonus. —Submitted by Button Watkins A year has already flown by and the end of regular school Twilight/Indian Education will be on Thursday, June 4, only to begin gearing up for another amazing summer school program. On Monday, June 15, at 8 a.m. the doors at the Siuslaw Elementary School south build- ing will open for the beginning of the four- week, four-day summer school program that will end each day at 2 p.m. A myriad of classes will be offered, which include reading, math and writing in addition to art classes with Mrs. Kim Pickell, STEM/STEAM classes, Karuk language class and an American Indian culture class each day. The last day of fun is July 9. Enroll students in this free summer school as soon as possible to have transportation available on the first week of summer school. Transportation takes three to four days to set up from receipt of registration forms. Note that students can still attend on the first week, but transportation may not be available until the second week if they are not registered in advance. Registration forms can be picked up in the Siuslaw Elementary office or at the Twilight/Indian Education after-school pro- gram in the south building from 3 to 5 p.m. For more information, contact Indian Education Program Director Lynn Anderson at 541-997-5458. MAPLETON OUTDOOR SCHOOL TRADITION CONTINUES Mapleton students study soil and water as part of the edu- cational activities offered during outdoor school. The program was first started in 1962. Oregon’s oldest outdoor school program combines education, camping and fun for students B Y J ACK D AVIS Siuslaw News PHOTOS BY JACK DAVIS/SIUSLAW NEWS Anyone who ever said school was boring never attended the Mapleton School District outdoor school program, held last month at Camp Lane, a 15-acre Lane County group camp facility locat- ed just off Highway 126 along the bank of the Siuslaw River, approxi- mately eight miles east of Mapleton. According to kinder- garten teacher Carrie McNeill, the Mapleton program started in 1962 and is the oldest continu- ous outdoor school pro- gram in the state. McNeill, along with teachers Jeff Greene and Mandy Werner, were this year’s camp directors, overseeing nine Mapleton High School student coun- cilors and 30 elementary fifth- and sixth-grade campers during the four- day camp. The boys and girls slept in separate dor- mitory units. “The primary purpose of the outdoor school is to teach the kids about living outdoors, with lots of sci- ence and hands-on activi- ties and team building,” McNeill said. See CAMP page 2 CYAN MAGENTA YELLoW BLACK S UBMITTED BY H EATHER W IGGINS