DINE OUT on Tuesday May 7th, at McMenamins’ Barley Mill Pub (Hawthorne & 17th).  From 5PM-11PM, 50% of all meals and drinks will go to the Buckman Foundation! This is our last Dines Out for the year, so let’s pack the place!

Barley Mill Pub Menu

Greetings Buckman Families,

Our Writers’ Fair will be held on April 25th at 6:30 in the cafetorium.

We have a lot of things planned and it should be a great time for everyone. I am attaching an explanation of the writing work we have been doing in all grades so you have a better understanding of what we do with your children in writing. We have always been passionate about writing and the power that words bring to our students. Through our dedicated professional development and partnership with Nike last year, we discovered that although we were teaching writing at all grade levels, our students were still struggling with writing, especially boys. We analyzed data as a staff and determined that we needed to dig deeper into how we taught writing and really focus in on one area of writing that was causing our students the most trouble, sentence fluency. By narrowing our focus and committing to one writing strand we have been able to commit to, collaborate on and take ownership in improving sentence fluency in our students writing from kindergarten through fifth grade. As a staff we have collaborated and identified the common core standards related to sentence fluency and created a rubric to measure our student success and track their progress throughout the year. By taking a closer look at our data, we have identified where our students weaknesses are and have worked together to create lessons and share ideas on how to make students more comfortable with sentence structure and fluency. As a result, we have built a library of mentor text to inspire writers, shared and created anchor charts to guide our students writing, and found resources on how to explicitly teach sentence structure. It is a research based fact that students need explicit teaching and practice to achieve writing success. Through our continued dedication and collaborative work, we have developed a way to support, measure and explicitly teach students the skills necessary to achieve writing success, in regards to sentence fluency and structure, from kindergarten through fifth grade.

Helpful Definitions directly tied to our work:

• Sentence Fluency: The varying of the rhythm and flow of language, including the length of sentences and the transitions between sentences, to create writing that is pleasing and natural to the ear
• Sentence Structure: The grammatical arrangement of words in sentence
• Simple Sentences: Simple sentences contain no conjunction (i.e., and, but, or, etc.)
• Compound Sentences: Two statements that are connected by a conjunction (i.e., and, but, or, etc.)
• Complex Sentences: Complex sentences contain a dependent clause and at least one independent clause. The two clauses are connected by a subordinator (i.e, which, who, although, despite, if, since, etc.)
• Compound/Complex Sentences: Compound/Complex sentences contain at least one dependent clause and more than one independent clause. The clauses are connected by both conjunctions (i.e., but, so, and, etc.) and subordinators (i.e., who, because, although, etc.)

Thank you Diane and her wonderful SUN team for coordinating this event!

We hope to see you all there and look forward to continued growth in our students’ writing.

• April 11 – Budget Hearing from 6:30-8:30pm, Montgomery Park, 2701 NW Vaughn Street.
• April 17 (late opening day) – City Council Meeting at 9:30am, City Hall, 1221 SW 4th Avenue. (Arrive early — last year Buckman parents and students showed up en masse and had a dramatic impact!)

Please let the Mayor and City Council know your views by attending these meetings or in writing: www.portlandonline.com. Contact Diane Meisenhelter in the SUN office (meissun@hotmail.com), call 503-858-0230, or find her at SUN when you’re picking up your child for more details on how to participate or testify at these meetings, and for “Save SUN” rally signs.

PTA Needs You!

No Experience Necessary! PTA officers help support the great Buckman staff and students and can influence school policy at the City or State level!

This is a wonderful opportunity to apply your expertise and/or learn new things alongside other wonderful Buckman parents.

Contact us at pta@buckmanelementary.org>.

Join us on “Cart Row” from 7-11pm on May 4 and 25 percent of all proceeds go to the PPS Foundation! Cart Row is a collective Superpod of Portland’s favorite food carts, including Potato Champion, Pyro Pizza, Big Ass Sandwiches, KOI Fusion, Burgatroyd and Nikki & Lefty’s. The May theme is “German.” Each cart creates a single course, so for $15, you’ve got a six-course meal! Cocktails and beers can be purchased separately on site and music will be provided. Come have a great meal and a fun time for a great cause.

What do you MEAN there’s no school tomorrow!?” Late Starts, Training Days, etc.