• Tomorrow is also the last day to read and record minutes.

• Please begin to total and collect any per-minute donations after Read-A-Thon closes tomorrow

• All reading logs, manual pledge sheets, and physical money collected (not necessary if you fundraised using 99Pledges) are due Monday, November 7th.

The Oregon Battle of the Books (OBOB) is a statewide voluntary reading motivation and comprehension program sponsored by the Oregon Association of School Libraries. Students in 3rd- 5th grades at Bethany Elementary are invited to form teams and participate in this program. The 16 books for the elementary level has been picked by OASL to introduce children to quality literature representing a variety of literary styles and viewpoints.

OBOB’s mission is to encourage and recognize students who enjoy reading, to broaden reading interests, to increase reading comprehension, promote academic excellence, and to promote cooperative learning and teamwork among students.

OBOB is a student driven activity supported by parent volunteers. The students need to create their own teams of 4 members from their own grade. They will compete first among their grade and then other grades to find the winning team to represent Bethany Elementary School at Regionals in Feb-March 2023. If they win at Regionals they go on to compete at the State level mid April 2023.

The books can be read by the student, read to the student by a family member or listened to audibly. Books will be made available through our school library, through Washington County Community library system( Cedar Mill and Bethany public libraries have many copies) and through our electronic library Sora. This is a fun way to introduce new genres and authors to your child!

I am introducing this program to the students in 3-5 grades during their library specials period. We are discussing the importance of trying new genres, learning new perspectives through reading and “ reading with a purpose”.

Form your teams, find a unique name for your team, start reading and look for more updates in the school newsletter about registering your team!

Ms. Hussain

This is the list of books for the elementary grade division for the year 2022-2023.

3rd to 5th Grade Division

• The Best of Iggy by Annie Barrows
• The Dragon with a Chocolate Heart by Stephanie Burgis
• From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks
• Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson
• Kinda Like Brothers by Coe Booth
• Letters from Cuba by Ruth Behar
• Me, Frida, and the Secret of the Peacock Ring by Angela Cervantes
• Measuring Up by Lily LaMotte & Ann Xu
• Rescue on the Oregon Trail by Kate Messner
• Shirley and Jamila Save Their Summerby Gillian Goerz
• Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio by Peg Kehret
• Snapdragon by Kat Leyh
• Spark by Sarah Beth Durst
• The Trouble with Weasels by Rob Harrell
• A Wish in the Dark by Christina Soontornvat

We are in the process of creating a Bethany Family Directory, that will be shared with the families at Bethany. If you would like to be included, please fill out this form:

Bethany Family Directory

If you do not fill out the form, your information will not be included.

Once it is ready, it will be sent out to those families who participated.

The Read-a-Thon is one of two primary fundraisers for the Bethany PTO's general budget. The other is the Jog-a-Thon, which typically happens in May. Each of these events encourages students to participate in a healthy activity while raising funds for the PTO and earning individual, class, and school prizes. The general budget primarily pays for classroom supplies and support, student enrichment, teacher appreciation, student scholarship funds, community events, and more. The detailed 2022-23 PTO budget is available on our website.

You'll also see a few fundraisers throughout the year that are designed to support specific initiatives. As mentioned above, the Haunted Hallway on Oct 28 is put on by 5th grade families and raises money for the end-of-year 5th grade party. The Scholastic Book Fair raises money for the school library. The Playground Improvement Committee is selling Bobcat Bling and facilitating a Dollar Wars competition later this year to raise money for new playground equipment.

In previous years, we have promoted a number of "Dinner Nights Out" - specific evenings where local restaurants would donate a portion of the proceeds to the BSPTO. At the end of last year, we reflected that the dinner nights made up a large portion of our communication, but provided a very small amount of our actual funding (4.3%). This year, we would like to focus our communication and efforts on two primary fundraisers to make things simpler for families.

Applications for the 2023-2024 school year will be available starting Monday, October 17. Current BSD students are able to apply online using their BSD student ID.

Information About BSD Learning Options and Application Process

Please do some early investigation of our option schools and programs online and plan to attend one or more of the upcoming open houses. Please know that students may only apply to one option school or program. Please give careful consideration to your choice of school. Once an application has been submitted, no changes are allowed

See In Person Open Houses Dates Below

We've had several inquiries about birthday celebrations at school. I wasn't able to find a written policy for Bethany and all schools have slightly different rules. In my 24 years in schools, I have seen a variety of policies and the impact on individual students and the class as a whole.

For a variety of reasons, including health, safety (COVID and allergies), disruption to instructional time, and hurt feelings, we will NOT be celebrating individual student birthdays at school. Teachers acknowledge students with birthdays in a variety of ways (class singing, a sticker, birthday pencil, special jobs, etc). We want every child to feel special on their birthday without having a potential negative impact on the rest of the class.

We know the requests to celebrate your child come from such a beautiful and loving place. ❤️ One thing you might consider is donating a favorite book to the class library in honor of your child or having them bring a favorite book to be read aloud (arrange with the teacher first). Party invitations may not be distributed at school (even if they are for the whole class). Thank you for understanding.

We are working with the PTO to publish a school directory. If you would like to be included please fill out this link: Bethany Family Directory

Parents/Guardians: Please note if your child will be out of school for an extended period of time (10 days or more), you must fill out a Notice of Pre-Arranged Absence form, which you can pick up in the office. This form must be turned into the office at least ONE WEEK before the date the absence begins. Please contact the office if you have any questions. Thank you!