THE SIUSLAW NEWS SCHOOL NEWSLETTER ❚ December 2017 ❚ 3
SIUSLAW
Candy Gram Wishes for SES
Perfect light
No child was left
out this holiday,
thanks to local busi-
ness owners, families
and school staff who
made sure, through
generous donations,
that every Siuslaw
Elementary School
student received a
Candy Gram greet-
ing before leaving for
Winter Break.
Th e
following
sponsors
donated
towards the eff ort
to ensure that every
student received a
special greeting card:
Coast Road Con-
struction, Skyline Roofi ng, Western
Lane Ambulance District medics,
Scott Ryland Plumbing, Evergreen
Concrete, Harrison Plumbing and
the Huff Family. Other individu-
COURTESY PHOTOS
Students in the Siuslaw Middle School Science Club are gearing up to start building Underwater ROVs. A
grant from Ocean Guardians has allowed Siuslaw Middle School to continue to build the Underwater ROV
program and give students the opportunity to engage in STEM activities. As a part of the design and build
process, students must build a circuit board by soldering the circuit board components for the ROV control-
ler. Before beginning to solder on the actual controller circuit board, it is good to get some practice in. So,
in the spirit of the holidays, students began to practice their skills by soldering LED Christmas Trees. As a
group, we learned where to put the resistors, the transistors, capacitors and the LED bulbs. The students
soldered their trees and troubleshot any problems, such as soldering components to the wrong spaces.
Overall, the students were successful and ended up with nice decorations to light up their holidays. They
will be ready to begin building their ROVs when they return from Winter Break. — Submitted by Alexis Wells
Spreading
Christmas cheer
On Dec. 8, 11 members of Siuslaw Middle School’s So-
cial Justice Club visited Elderberry Square, an assisted
living facility in Florence. Students, such as Elizabeth,
Madison, Bailey and Natalisha, spread holiday cheer
by giving gifts of homemade cookies and ornaments
to the residents and sharing in their company. Sev-
enth-grader Madison proposed the idea to give pres-
ents to the elders at a club meeting the week before,
and students immediately pitched in to help. The
Social Justice Club at SMS strives to promote kindness
and equality throughout its school as well as the Flor-
ence community. — Submitted by Hilary Roach
COURTESY PHOTO
SUPPORTING
NEWSPAPERS IN EDUCATION
Thank you to the following supporters of this special monthly section
Ada Grange
Dorothy Allen
Tom and Sharon Armstrong
Dollie Austin
Diane Bailiff
Bob and Sophie Baker
Mr. and Mrs. Bill Bauer
Virgile Bechtold
Band Of Brothers
Anne Caples
Catling
Virginia Carroll
Barbara Cavarno
Donald Chapin
Don And Ginnie Chehak
Dick Childs
Evelyn Cloyd
William and Kay Craig
Mrs. Joanne Crippen
Joan Daoust
Sharon David
Marjorie Dalby
Denise Dee
William and Phyllis Dickson
Mike Dixon
Joseph and Frieda Doyle
Jim and Sharron Dwiggins
Donna Edgeworth
Juanita Edwards
Ivan and Diane Ellington
Denny and Barbara Ellis
Jacqueline Evans
Don And Rhea Forum
L. Furby
Paul Gargis
Kent & Teresa Gibson
Leo Goddard
Becky Goehring
Alan Golob
Dave and Becky Gould
Dave Gruesz
Bruce Hadley
GL Hale
Jerry Hammond
Jim and Dee Hartley
Vicki Higgins
Robert and Barbara Hix
Sharon Hobart
Sally Hodgdon
Barbara Holler
Paul Holman/Tracy Smith
Aaron Holmes
Archie Hornfelt
Delores Hopkins
Lillian Hunter
Laena, Ethan Brandon Jagoe
David and Benita Jefferis
Hazel P. Jennings
Fred Jensen
Brian Johnston
Carol Jolley
Frankie and Harry Jorgensen
Ginny Kelly
Eric Kirsten
Elton Knutson
Leroy Krzycki
S. Lacer, B. Mealer
Barbara Lamb
Floyd and Deborah Larson
Andrew Latoma
Teresa Lichti
Lloyd Little
Aaron Longo
Clarence & Nancy Lysdale
Judy Madsen
Don Mahardy
Giles Maloof
Doug and Deborah Manthe
Raymond Manthe
Jim and Carolyn Markle
Nancy Mattice
Peggy Mccullum
Daniel McDivitt
Bill McDougle
Sharon McLeod
Craig McMicken
Ken Melnychak
Sheldon and Mary Meyer
R.g. Meyser
Jim Moe
Jack and Colleen Moore
Sharon and Wallace Morey
Harry Morgan and Scherrie Halfacre
Leo Moyer
Gerald Mulvey
Mr and Mrs Wm Munzer
Jim Murphy
Teri and Mike Myers
Natalie Nagrone (Key Realty)
The Necklason’s
Keith and Joanne Nelson
Larry Newman
Lanny and Roxy Nivens
North County Lures
Edward Ogle
Don Olson
Joan Owens
Julie Peak
Al Pearn
Rachel and Paul Pearson
Karen Peck
Aubrey Pendergrass
Karen Pendergrass
John Pino
Roger Poirier
Linda Pugh
David Rankin
Martha Ransom
Roger Ranta
Patricia Reno
Dusty Rhodes
Dix Richards
Gloria Richardson
Fran and John Rickaby
Larry Rosenbalm
Lynn Ryan
Diane Sábado
Ronald Sherriffs
David Smith MD
Robert Spencer
Leo and Shirley Stapleton
John Stead
Bill Stone
Carol Thompson
Ginger Timberlake
Londi Tomaro
Gary and Marian Trueblood
Arils Ulman
Clare Vanriper
Lynda Verscheiden
Susan Weathers
Paul Webster
Western Lane Ambulance
Siuslaw Valley Fire And Rescue
Heather Wiggins
Rhode Willard
George Williams
Edward and Delores Wilson
Veronica Zecchini and Tom Jackson
a positive school cul-
ture, celebrating suc-
cesses while support-
ing staff and students.
Th rough PBIS, every-
one works together to
create and maintain a
productive, safe envi-
ronment in which all
school community
members clearly un-
COURTESY PHOTOS derstand the shared
Coordinators helped make sure that ev- expectations for be-
ery SES student received a candy gram. havior.
als sponsored entire
A variety of posi-
classrooms of stu- tive reinforcements are used to
dents.
encourage expected behaviors at
Crystal
Osburn, Siuslaw Elementary School, and
fundraiser extraor- the program is widely successful.
dinaire and Classi- A net profi t of $1,445 was raised
fi ed Staff Hero of the Year, led the through this fundraiser, which
campaign to raise funds for the will go towards providing train-
school’s Positive Behavior Interven- ing for teachers and funding in-
tions & Supports (PBIS) program. centives and supplies for the pro-
Th e program is designed to create gram.
Students excel at math in contest
On Nov. 9, 23 students from Siuslaw Elementary
School, led by Kassy Keppol, competed in the semi-
annual Noetic Learning Math Contest, a national
mathematics contest for elementary and middle
school students. Th e goal of the competition is to
encourage students’ interest in math, to develop
their problem solving skills and to inspire them to
excel in math. More than 23,000 students represent-
ing 526 schools across the country took part.
Th e following are team winners:
• Wyatt Kafi tz, Mrs. Cargill’s team, 3rd Grade
• Danin Lacouture, Mrs. Stokes’ team, 4th
Grade — perfect score
• Kaden Wood and Dylan Jenson (tied), Mrs.
Riggs’ team, 5th Grade
Th e following students won the National Honor
Roll title. Th is title is awarded to approximately the
top 10 percent of participating mathletes.
• Wyatt Kafi tz, 3rd Grade
• Camden Linton, 4th Grade (only missed one)
• Danin Lacouture, 4th Grade
• Kaden Wood, 5th Grade
• Dylan Jenson, 5th Grade
Th e following students received National Honor-
able Mention. Th is title is awarded to approximately
the top 50 percent of participating mathletes.
A special
thank
you...
• Leo Whisler, 3rd Grade
• Jonathin Soiseth, 3rd Grade
• Arlo Lauderdale, 3rd Grade
• Brogan Hadd, 3rd Grade
• Lance Peterson, 4th Grade
• Olivia Moore, 4th Grade
• Vegas Fell, 4th Grade
• Gregory McCabe, 4th Grade
• Alison Hughes, 4th Grade
• Reid Harklerode, 4th Grade
• Jordan Pitcher, 4th Grade
• Lara Bullin, 4th Grade
• Micah Blankenship, 4th Grade
• Megan Alberty, 5th Grade
• Joey Greenwood, 5th Grade
• Holly Chen, 5th Grade
• Ashlyn Hart, 5th Grade
•Macali Lade, 5th Grade
Congratulations to all the winners! Th e contest
results demonstrate our students’ great problem
solving skills and math talents. Th ey also show that
our students can rise to the occasion and can meet
the challenge.
For more information, visit www.noetic-learn
ing.com/mathcontest. — Submitted by Diane Mc-
Calmont
“Th anks to everyone who put Labels for Education in our collection jars,” said
Coordinator Button Watkins. “We will receive $175 worth of Visa cards for the
Florence Community PTA from our fi nal order with the program. Th e Labels for
Education program offi cially ends Dec. 31, 2017. “We appreciate all of you who
took the time to save and bring in the labels for our PTA. Th ank you,” Watkins
said. For more information, visit www.fl orencepta.org.
Pianoforte: A jingle story
We have all listened to music
and liked a certain song. Some-
times, we want to learn how to
play that song on an instrument.
Some want to learn it on a violin.
Others want to try it on a saxo-
phone, but for me, I wanted to
try the piano. According to an
article on listontrap.com, the pi-
ano is ranked number seven on
the top 10 hardest instruments to
play, which I didn’t know about
when I fi rst wanted to play the
piano, but I was destined to learn
how anyway.
On Christmas Day 2010, my
family opened our gift s together.
When I looked at the long pres-
ent, I assumed it was for some-
one else, but when I read the tag,
it was for me. I decided to open
it last, and when I did, it was an
electric piano.
At fi rst it was very exciting.
I now owned an instrument. I
gave it a couple of whirls. How-
ever, I eventually became bored,
and it ended up stored away un-
der my bed.
About a year later, while I
was spending time on our fam-
ily computer, I stumbled upon
a video that showed the history
of the Intel jingle. At the time, I
was interested in Intel, as I really
liked their iconic jingle you hear
at the end of every Intel commer-
cial. Th e video showed the music
notes. I already knew how to
read music so I quickly grabbed
my piano, set it on the table and
learned to play the song.
Later at dinner, I told my par-
ents I learned how to play the In-
tel Jingle, that’s when my mother
asked me if I wanted to take pia-
no lessons. I decided it would be
a great experience to learn how
to play the piano, so I accepted
the off er, however there was one
problem. Where can we fi nd a
piano instructor? We looked for
a long time until August 2012,
when we found one. Jason Wood
would be my fi rst piano instruc-
tor. At the time, he was the mu-
sical director of CROW, and we
already knew a lot about him at
the time. I studied with him for
four years.
In the fi rst year, I was intro-
duced to Alfred’s piano lesson
books, and that would be my
learning base. Over our time to-
gether, I learned how to count
notes, time signatures and dif-
ferent music symbols, such as
dynamics, slurs, ties, sharps and
fl ats. In 2013, I performed at my
fi rst piano recital, which would
be during my vocal showcase. I
was a quick learner and I then
became the most advanced piano
student.
In 2016, I was fi nally reaching
Jason’s level in piano. Th is caused
lessons to be a little bit longer,
and a bit more stressful. Even-
tually, I reached a point where
we would need to fi nd a new
piano teacher. I then knew that a
teacher that taught at the middle
school could help me advance
my piano learning abilities. Her
name was Ms. Debra Young. She
used to teach at both the middle
and high school, but left this
school year. However, she was
able to help me and we made a
great duo.
Th ere was one small change
though. Instead of only learning
with the Alfred system, I would
be learning classical music too.
Th is would then make piano
more interesting, as I would now
start learning more music. We
learned great pieces, including
the famous “Für Elise.” We had
good times together. Sometimes,
we would talk about funny piano
parodies, such as “Twinkle Twin-
kle Little Star — 1 Million Notes
Edition” and “Ode to Insane Joy.”
In June 2017, I once again had
to fi nd a new piano teacher. At
B Y R AMIRO R AMIREZ
Siuslaw High School Student
fi rst I thought it would be the
end of my music pursuing, as I
already retired from taking vocal
lessons. Th en my mother said she
knew someone who also taught
piano. When she was looking
for a piano teacher in 2009, she
found Florence resident Kathy
Parsons as an option. However,
Kathy said she only taught in-
termediate students. My mother
decided to try again if she would
accept me as a student. Th is time,
I was accepted. So now I would
be taught by a very good teacher.
For my fi rst lessons, I brought
over all the music that I had
learned previously with Ms.
Young and Jason Wood to give
her a taste of what I was currently
learning. Aft er I had showcased
all of the music I had learned, she
decided that I should start learn-
ing new music and a little bit of
classical.
Th e fi rst piece I learned was
“Overcome” by David Nevue.
It then became challenging, fun
and convenient to learn new
music. Th en I learned other
pieces like “Wonderland” by Da-
vid Nevue, “Vesuvius” by David
Lanz, and “Have yourself a Mer-
ry Little Christmas.” My favorite
song that I learned was another
song by David Lanz, “Behind the
Waterfall/Desert Rain Medley.”
Lately, I fi nished a piano recital
and am now learning a new piece
by David Lanz, called “Return to
the Heart.”
Overall, piano has taught me
to be a critical thinker and keep
on trying until it is perfected.
Sure, piano may be the seventh
hardest instrument to learn, but
once you learn to handle it, it
doesn’t even feel like it’s so hard
at all. I encourage everyone to
give piano a try. It is a beautiful
instrument that if played in the
right way, can attract a bigger au-
dience than you expect.