On September 8th our ASB met with current retired NFL Professionals for the Character Playback Launch on zoom. Also, your student leaders have approved the fall concessions budget, and are planning for a Halloween party. They are also continuing work on the details to provide students and staff at Almira Elementary and ACH Middle School with new t-shirts, and organizing commemoration of Veteran's Day. ASB student leaders worked at the home football game on Friday, October 14th, and together with the Columbia Basin Foundation, served nearly 200 meals to raise funds for the Warrior Strong Fund!

left to right: Lainee Baergen, Mallory Isaak, Grace Okamoto, Isaac Whitaker, Zach Booker, Brody Pitts and Tucker Bayless

Front row: Brody Pitts, Noah Erickson, Porter Wood, Landon Jorgensen, Ryan Hernandez and Ian Young. Back row: Coach Victorino, Noah Butler, Marcus Buchanan, Donny Dormire, Max Grindy, Tucker Bayless, Ian McWalter, Owen Helland and Assistant Coach Manning

Front row: Faith Parrish, Keira Cunningham, Kiana Hoffman, Camryn Peha, Grace Okamoto, Sadie Whitaker, Mallory Isaak, Josie Emerson, Joey Maes and manager Allie Edwards

2nd row: Ava Blue, Katie Poe, Lily Hendrickson, Abbie Edwards, Dani Isaak, Lainee Baergen, Lizzy Jensen, Madison Brink, Addie Wright and Alexia Entrup.

3rd row: Coach Jessica Boutain, manager Clasina Brummett, Madison McCall, Savannah Monson, Josie Bayless, Hannah Brummett, Jayden Hubbard, Lexie Evans, Grace Erickson and Coach Angie Hunt.

Mrs. Coffman's Middle school's Language and Culture class is learning about China. They made "lucky" Tiger hats for all of the Kindergarten, First, and Second grade students to wish them a "Happy year of the Tiger."

The Kindergarten and First Grade class had a great time with their special guests at our Grandparent's Day celebration! After choosing a Reading Pillow cover, we stuffed our pillows with help from our special guests. We use these pillows in the classroom during story time and while reading books in our classroom library. A special "Thank You" to Karen Ertz for sewing our pillows!

We have spent the last month exploring earth's materials and how they change over time. We have had plenty of hands-on experiments to help us make hypotheses and test our predictions. The second graders were also able to join the third grade class for an amazing chemistry lesson at Mobius Discovery Center in Spokane. Students were able to learn about chemical reactions by creating balloons from vinegar and baking soda, checking the Ph levels of natural chemicals, and creating elephant toothpaste. The students were then able to conduct numerous experiments through exploration and play.

All middle school students opened the school year researching three persons of science

of their choice. They made a poster, a Google slideshow, a persuasive speech or a biographical

skit to teach us about one person.

The beginning of each week kicks off with “Mystery Monday!”, where students are

presented with an object of some kind, and they guess what it is. So far they have learned about

a Mango seed, flag grommets, Giant Water bugs, otoliths and winged gourds. All grades participated in a lab involving Fortune Teller Fish!

6th grade is working through a Living Things unit within their new McGraw-Hill

curriculum. They have made their first slides (onion cells and their own cheek cells) and looked

at them under the microscope. They have learned about the largest organism in the world which

is a giant mushroom colony in Oregon! Currently they are honing their microscopy skills and

learning about the components of scientific investigation with a week long Tardigrade study.

7th grade is completing a States of Matter unit in McGraw-Hill, and they are about to

begin reviewing the beginning chemistry that was introduced last spring. They took solid

crayons and changed their state to liquid by melting them. Then, they observed rapid and slow

state change by dripping liquid crayon into ice water as well as letting it cool slowly in the pot.

The next lessons were about Isaac Newton’s three laws of motion. They made their own

oobleck and examined the qualities of oobleck as a non-newtonian / dilatant liquid. They

reviewed heterogeneous and homogeneous mixtures by sorting (or trying to sort) the two types.

8th grade has been studying geologic time in McGraw-Hill starting with glacier runs.

They made their own glaciers in ziploc bags by adding water to sand, wood bits and stones they

collected. Then, they removed the frozen glaciers from the bags and placed them on tilted

boards with fixed stone obstacles to represent mountain terrain. As the glaciers melted, 8th

graders observed deposition, absorption, erosion and change. Following that lesson, the

students studied eons, eras, periods and epochs. They made 20 foot labeled yarn models to

represent that time. They marked every foot as a chunk of 230 million years as well as some of

the major events, like extinctions, within that theory. They are set to finish this unit with a local,

focused study on Eastern Washington geological events that created the basalt rock we live on

and shaped the landscape.

Mrs. Okamoto's STEM class has been hard at work learning about engineering as well as building and coding Lego Spike Prime robots. Earlier this month they took a tour of the school building site. They did some calculations (like the difference of weight limits between the small crane and the large crane), looked at the building blueprints, and compare the measurements of the gym on the blueprints to the actual measurements of the gym that is being built! STEM in action! Next quarter we will begin learning how to design with a CAD program, and use our 3D printers.

The ACH 6th grade started the year off with a fun Teach the Teacher project. The students taught Mrs. Sample everything from how to ride a dirt bike to how to make a fruit tart. It was a great way to build our growth mindset and get to know more about each other. We have since started our ELA Module 0. In Social Studies, we have been learning about early humans. Our first art project was a fall pumpkin.

The Art Elective classes started the year off learning more about each other with our “Through Our Eyes” project. Since then, we have been learning about the 7 elements of art. We are currently doing a review project showcasing the elements. We will soon be exploring more about color using watercolor paints.

The 3rd grade class has been having a fun start to the year!

To start the year off, students were able to get acquainted with the classroom library by doing a “book tasting”. This is a time where students explore different books to see if they would like to read it at some point during the school year.

(Jayden S. and Titan exploring and recording the books they find.)

In math, students have been working on their place value skills with rounding, addition, and subtraction. They have really enjoyed the fun games that help them improve their math skills, as well!

(Finn, Maddax, Karlee Jo, and Jayden S. are playing the game “Shut The Box” which helps them work on their number sense.)

One of the things the students have most enjoyed is their Monday journal write. This is when they get to make observations in their science journal about how the new building is progressing. Gene Sementi was kind enough to take the class on a tour of the new building site at the beginning of October. The students enjoyed getting an up-close look at the progress and a chance to ask all of their questions!

(Karlee Jo, Hazel, Jaidyn J., Honor, Parker, Maddax, and Finn observing the construction at the new school.)

4th/5th Science has been working on a unit all about Matter. They are learning about physical properties and how to determine if a reaction is chemical or physical. We have had a lot of fun with hands-on activities and using new Science tools, like a pan balance.

In this lesson, students learned the difference between Mass and Volume.