Santa’s little helpers have arrived in the CPE cafeteria! If you haven’t been down to see the “Cafeteria Elves” created by our Room 15 fifth graders, please make an effort to stop in and seen them before they scamper back to the North Pole on December 21st. (You can also see them from 2nd Street as you drive by after hours, but it’s not the same as seeing them up close and personal). The elves’ arrival is an annual event that’s been going on for fifteen years. Although they’re all cut from the same template, each one is unique, wonderfully reflecting the individual personality of its creator.
CPE 5th graders are scheduled to head to Charleston on the Oregon Coast on May 31st promptly at 7 a.m. After a slew of activities, they’ll return exhausted to you at around 6 p.m. on Friday, June 1st. The kids have been getting all the info and printed material in class, but just in case some of it hasn’t made it to you, here’s is everything you need at this time:
Thanks to some grants, Oregon’s taxpayers, and the CPE PTO, the coast to attend the trip is just five bucks! Five bucks!
Adults planning on attending should plan on joining us for an organizational chaperone meeting on Tuesday, May 22nd, at 6 p.m. in Mr. Hadley’s classroom. Students will also have a cargo packing demonstration on Friday, May 25th, leaving them the weekend to get organized.
Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns.
CPE’s Exhibition Night has become a big deal both at CPE and around the school district. Students spend a big chunk of their school year collaboratively developing a challenging, class-wide project that emphasizes “real-world” skills.
This year the focus in my class is on video production, which requires from the students extensive planning, script-writing, communication, cooperation, and the use of technology to film, edit, and produce a final product.
For many years now my students have created episodes of CPETV, which highlight “what life is like inside and outside an American public school.” If you haven’t seen an episode, click here. Some of these episodes have actually been picked up by Southern Oregon Public TV.
For Exhibition, I’ve asked each small group of students to independently produce an episode of their own. These shows take hours and hours to create. In the past, though students did a lot of the filming, I took on the bulk of the work planning, directing, and editing. This year, however, the students will handle every aspect on their own. In fact, students have already begun working with video editing software, and my first groups started filming segments of their episode this week. Others are busy writing scripts and getting logistics ironed out. With any luck, they’ll all be able to premier their episode at Exhibition Night on April 27th.
Let’s address your safety concerns. These episodes will appear on the internet. We do a couple things to protect students. Whenever possible, we post final products in an Mp4 format directly on the school webpage only. That way only people with a connection to CPE are likely to see them. When videos are too large to do that, we use a privateYoutube channel. That way the shows will not turn up on a Youtube search. Viewers can only get to the video through the CPE webpage. Finally, we do not use last names of students nor the school’s address in any of the videos. If you have any concerns about this, please contact me.
The classroom is buzzing with excitement over our project. I’ll check in with you frequently with more details. In the meantime, thanks for your support!
It was a exhilarating day at Sams Valley School on Halloween. Congrats to all the fourth and fifth graders who competed in the annual Sams Valley Mini Marathon! Room 15 kids performed exceptionally well. Nathan W. took second place for the boys, while Ella H., Jacky B., Daisy R., and Emma H. took 2nd through 5th respectively for the girls. Thanks to their strong finishes, CPE won the team event for the first time in six years. Special thanks once again to West Orthodontics for sponsoring this year’s event. For more fantastic pics, be sure also to check out the Medford Mail Tribune‘s photo gallery here.
On behalf of 800 fourth and fifth graders from the Central Point School District, we’d like to invite you out to the Sams Valley Mini Marathon this Tuesday morning, Halloween Day. The race officially starts at 9:30, but get there well early for best parking. Carpooling is encouraged, and if you’ve submitted a background check/volunteer app, you can join us on the bus as a chaperone.
The Mini Marathon was established in 1974, making it among the grand-daddies of southern Oregon running events. In fact, many of this year’s runners are the children and grandchildren of former participants.
While Halloween is normally a day of candy and costumes, the Mini Marathon represents our community’s commitment to health and fitness. True, the kids will still be in costume: Imagine 800 highlighter pens jogging down Sams Valley’s back lanes. All 800 kids—the entire population of D6 fourth and fifth graders—will be donning the neon-colored race shirts bearing the “Sore Today Strong Tomorrow” message: Patrick Elementary in neon yellow, Mae Richardson in neon orange, Jewett in neon green, and so on. The “color rush” of the mini-marathon is always an amazing spectacle, especially when juxtaposed against fields of excited horses and barking farm dogs.
On hand for the event will be mascots from all five elementary schools. They’ll compete in a dance-off prior to the awarding of medals and trophies. (Last year, Mae Richardson’s Ram “sprinklered” its way to winning the event, but rumor has it that CPE’s Roadrunner, Jewett’s Jaguar, and Sams Valley’s Hawk have all been practicing their moves.)
Crater’s championship cross country team will also be hand. The majority of these high schoolers, including Andy Monroe, Grace Hokenson, and Janz Tostenson, got their start running the Mini. This year’s favorite to win the boys’ race is Janz’s little brother, Josiah. A Jewett 5th grader, Josiah often runs with the high schoolers and as a 4th graders won last year’s Marathon in record time. But Josiah isn’t the only one who has been training. Nearly all the elementaries have fitness programs built into the school day or after-school running clubs or both.
Thanks to the generosity of our sponsor, West Orthodontics, this year’s event will be chip timed for the first time in the mini’s history. Previous events have been hand-timed, with results painstakingly compiled manually. West Orthodontics has contributed approximately $7500 to make the event possible. Dr. West will fire the starting pistol at 9:30. Come join us for this incredible District 6 event!
CPE fifth graders braved the snow and wind to visit Lava Beds National Monument last Friday (Oct. 20th). As it turned out, the light dusting of snow at the monument itself made for a unique adventure. Click on the replies/comments below to read our students’ reflection on their trip.
Here are the latest letters (one to class, one to Maya and Kelsey), artwork, and report card from our lovely student in Nepal. Each year Room 15 kids collect small change in order to sponsor Riva’s education in Nepal. Last year’s kids went over and above, exceeding the $300 goal by twenty bucks. Can this year’s class equal that success? For more info about Riva and our sponsorship, click on the Nepal Project link at right.
Take note of Riva’s excellent report card. It says she was ranked fifth in her 5th grade class and she earned the highest level, “Distinction.” Her excellent report card also meant she graduated to a new form, which isn’t a guarantee in Nepal like it is here.
No, these aren’t dead bodies or sleeping people. We’re stretched out on the docks so that we can sea the amazing sea creatures below the surface. It was one of my favorite moments of the trip–a quiet respite with just a handful of kids. To see a bunch of great pics from the 2017 Oregon Coast Excursion, click on the picture at left, or go to the tab under “Special Events” marked “2017 Coast Trip.” Have fun!
One of the most exciting and engaging events of the school year is the annual Sportsmanship Floor Hockey Tourney. This year was especially enjoyable for Room 15 kids in that one of our two tourney teams, The Hockey Warriors, won the championship, beating the Pizza Sharks from Mrs. Torrey’s class, 3-2. While winning the tourney was great, the emphasis is clearly focused on sportsmanship. Before and after each game, we “debriefed” by talking about how we demonstrated good sportsmanship and what we saw from our opponents, both good and bad. Hopefully, our kids walk away from this tourney with a healthier attitude about sports and “winning.” Following the tourney, all the 4th and 5th graders cast votes for the classroom that demonstrated the best sportsmanship over the course of the tournament, and this year they selected our class. Congrats to all the Room 15 kids on winning the sportsmanship trophy. Great job!
Congrats to the 700 kids who proved there’s a healthy alternative to candy this Halloween by participating in the the Sams Valley Mini Marathon! Fantastic job! We saw kids overcome stomach cramps and skinned knees to gut it out and finish strong. The 5,000 meter (3.1 mile) race was started in 1974 and is part of the fitness program for all of D6’s 4th and 5th graders. Kudos to first place finishers Josiah Tostenson from Jewett Elementary (Boys, 19:29) and Reese Bautista from Richardson (Girls, 22:41). Applause also for CPE’s top finishers, Bennett Palodichuk (2nd), Ethan Johnson (6th), Cody Dutkiewicz (11th), Alexis Silva (12th), and Tyson Chubb (14th), and among the ladies, Ella Heppner (3rd) and Lindsay Siebert (6th). Way to live up to this year’s theme by showing grit and determination! Thanks also to all our sponsors including Ravassipour Orthodontics, Storage Emporium, Lori Magel Homes, Eagle Home Mortgage, Rogue Meats, Ashland Greenhouses, Elias Hearing & Speech, Sweed, Rainey’s Corner, Goodlett Automotive, Expert Pressure Wash & Supply, and John Warekois CPA, as well as to our local PTOs and school District 6. UPDATE: to see a video of the start of the race, click here.
Santa’s little helpers have arrived in the CPE cafeteria! If you haven’t been down to see the “Cafeteria Elves” created by our Room 15 fifth graders, please make an effort to stop in and seen them before they scamper back to the North Pole on December 21st. (You can also see them from 2nd Street as you drive by after hours, but it’s not the same as seeing them up close and personal). The elves’ arrival is an annual event that’s been going on for fifteen years. Although they’re all cut from the same template, each one is unique, wonderfully reflecting the individual personality of its creator.
