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