Month: April 2026

Happy Monday, and May the Fourth Be With You!
Another successful auction this past weekend! A big thanks to all of you who were able to make it–I hope you had a good time, I certainly did. Also, thanks for all you did to support the art projects and the auction in general!

Many months ago we offered the opportunity to have the Mountain View High School Theater Group come to Amity and perform. Of course I jumped on the opportunity…I just haven’t shared the info with you yet. On May 11 the theater group will be here to perform Snow White and the 7 Endings from 1-1:45pm. This will obviously impact Invitations for that day. We can have kiddos come right from afternoon recess to the gym for the performance. Apologies for not letting you know sooner!

A few notes to get you rolling…
1) Todd Wells from Fidelity is here Monday morning. If you haven’t made an appointment and you want to, check your email for how to do it.

2) Grade 3 will have their annual Train Your Brain presentation on Tuesday morning. They will be using the gym for this.

3) SIW this week is site based. We’ll use the time to discuss Chapter 11 in our Neurodiversity Affirming Schools book, and we’ll have another look at the progress reports in hopes of creating a Characteristics of a Creeker section.

4) Cafe Amity on Wednesday, Grade 5 hosts (their final time!).

5) Grades 1 (Friday) and 2 (Thursday) have their Spring outdoor ed trips.

6) It’s Cinco De Mayo on Tuesday. In case you are not familiar, Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Mexican’s Army surprise victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. Fun facts: Unlike in the US, in Mexico Cinco de Mayo is not widely celebrated as it is not a major holiday-it’s often mistakenly believed to be Mexico’s Independence Day which is actually September 16. In the US in the 60’s and 70’s the day became popular for celebrating Mexican heritage and culture, and in the 80’s alcohol companies launched massive marketing campaigns to turn the date into a commercial holiday.

Upcoming
May 4: Todd Wells from Fidelity will be here
May 6: Cafe Amity, Grade 5 hosts (for the last time…)
May 7: Grade 2 to Fall River Tubes
May 8: Grade 1 to Bentham East
May 11: Snow White and the 7 Endings (Mtn View Theater Group), 1-1:45pm
May 12: Grade 3 to Caldera Arts
May 12: Grades 4/5 to Tower Theater, 12:30
May 13-15: Grade 5 Coast Trip
May 15: Bread and Jam
May 20: Cafe Amity, Grade 4 hosts
May 22: RPA here to do Readers Workshop, AM
May 25: No School, Memorial Day
May 26: DIBELS, in AM
May 29: Bread and Jam
June 1/2: Camp Amity!
June 4: Family BBQ
June 8: Children’s Museum at Amity, AM
June 8: Curriculum ordering for next year with Julie, 2:30pm
June 10: 5th Grade Graduation, 5pm
June 11: Last Day of School!

Here’s to a great week ahead!
Andy

School wide theme: Collaboration (Perseverance starts next week)

Hello All,
I hope you had a fantastic weekend! I was in LA to celebrate my mom’s 85 birthday–it was so good to be with her to celebrate this milestone!

It’s crazy to think that May arrives at the end of this week! You’ll notice that I am now including June dates in the “Upcoming” section below…

A few notes to get you going…
1) Thanks for talking with your classes about the wood cookies–it’s making a difference!

2) Taking Care of this Place: It’s always good this time of year to revisit how we work together to take care of this amazing little school that we inhabit. In particular I am noticing a lot of things being left in the hallways at the end of the day, tons of lost and found being left everywhere, garbage on the playground, and the stage being left pretty messy. Please take some time in the coming days to chat with your classes about the importance of taking care of this place. Thanks!

3)Amity Eats tonight at Mountain Burger.

4) Fire Drill on Tuesday at 9am.

5) SIW this week is a Teacher Work day. I have an admin meeting starting at 1:15 so I will ducking out as soon as the dust settles.

6) Please remember to email me when you are done with Erin’s Law lessons.

7) As you know, the auction is this Saturday–hoping to see y’all there! We’ll be doing a little auction promotion at Community Time each day this week. Best if this can happen after birthdays but before whatever your class is doing. It will be short and sweet!

8) A group of students from REALMS High School will be here Friday to lead some activities with our kiddos. Brian is coordinating the effort so be on the look out for communications from him.

9)Bread and Jam on Friday

10) I’ll be out on Friday, Brian will be covering for me.

Lastly, I have been able to set aside enough funds for one sub day for each of you that you can use for Memory Books and/or Grows and Glows between now and the end of the year. Let me know when you’d like to use your day!

Upcoming
April 27: Amity Eats at Mountain Burger
April 28: Fire Drill, 9am
April 29: SIW, Teacher Work Day
April 29: Kinder Outdoor Ed
May 1: REALMS High School group at Amity
May 1: Bread and Jam
May 2: Auction, Jungle Theme
May 4: Todd Wells from Fidelity will be here
May 6: Cafe Amity, Grade 5 hosts (for the last time…)
May 7: Grade 2 to Fall River Tubes
May 8: Grade 1 to Bentham East
May 12: Grade 3 to Caldera Arts
May 12: Grades 4/5 to Tower Theater, 12:30
May 13-15: Grade 5 Coast Trip
May 15: Bread and Jam
may 20: Cafe Amity, Grade 4 hosts
May 22: RPA here to do Readers Workshop, AM
May 25: No School, Memorial Day
May 26: DIBELS, in AM
May 29: Bread and Jam
June 1/2: Camp Amity!
June 4: Family BBQ
June 8: Children’s Museum at Amity, AM
June 10: 5th Grade Graduation
June 11: Last Day of School!


Here’s to a great week ahead!
Andy

School wide theme: Collaboration

Greetings All!
I hope you had a wonderful weekend!

I hope by now you have all met our new night custodian John Whitson. John is a Bend local, with family roots that go deep in the community. Please be sure to give him a big, warm Amity welcome! (And remember to empty your own garbage and recycling!)

A few notes to get you going…
1) Please take a moment to talk to your classes about the wood cookies (and all the small pieces) and the importance of keeping them in the wood chip/natural playground area. The district maintenance team will begin their Spring mowing schedule soon and if we have wood scattered about it’s going to be a BIG problem. Thanks for taking a few minutes to discuss with your class.

2) SIW this week is in house. We’ll use the time to dive back into our book study and we’ll have a good look at the progress reports we’ve been working on.

3) Cafe Amity this week, Kindergarten hosts

4) Lots of field trips this week:
Mon: Grade 2 and 5 to BSS
Tues: Kinder to BSS
Thurs: Grade 1 to Sunriver Nature Center, Grade 5 outdoor education

5) There will be a few elementary admin folks on campus Thursday morning. We’re doing quick visits at each other’s schools and peeking in on K-2 literacy.

6) We could use a little help from classroom teachers promoting the Class Baskets for the auction. Below is a note that went to class leads late last week and we’re hopeful they get things moving. It would be great if you could include a little info about the basket and the theme for your classes in communications this week and next. Thanks!

Hi class leads,
We need your help! Our class baskets for the auction raffle are looking very sparse 😩Could you please make a real push to encourage families in your class to contribute items? This weekend might be a great time to do it while they’re out and about! Feel free to get creative with some ideas or to make suggestions to give some inspiration. Or if you have the ability, you could even collect money and buy items on behalf of the class & those families who don’t have the time to shop.

The auction is fast approaching in just 2 weeks, and we’d really like the baskets to be completed by the end of next week if possible. As a reminder, here are the themes for each class:
Kinder—Arts & Crafts
Grade 1—Book lovers
Grade 2—Family night
Grade 3—Pampered pets
Grade 4—Keep it local
Grade 5—Summer fun

Let’s make these baskets as exciting as possible so that we can raise money to support our amazing school!

7) FYI, our end of year DIBELS is set for the morning of May 26. Remember, this is for all K-2 students and selected students from 3-5. We’ll need to talk soon about end of year ROAR and mClass!


Upcoming
April 20: Grade 2 and 5 to Bend Science Station
April 21: Kinder to Bend Science Station
April 22: Cafe Amity, Kinder hosts
April 22: SIW, in house
April 23: Grade 5 to Benham East
April 27: Amity Eats at Mountain Burger
April 29: SIW, Teacher Work Day
April 29: Kinder Outdoor Ed
May 2: Auction, Jungle Theme
May 7: Grade 2 to Fall River Tubes
May 8: Grade 1 to Bentham East
May 12: Grade 3 to Caldera Arts
May 12: Grades 4/5 to Tower Theater, 12:30
May 22: RPA here to do Readers Workshop, AM
May 26: DIBELS, in AM
June 8: Children’s Museum at Amity, AM


Here’s to a great week ahead!
Andy

School wide theme: Collaboration

Hey Everyone!
I hope you enjoyed the rather soggy weekend, we can certainly use the rain we got! Big thanks for all the birthday wishes last week, much appreciated! And big thanks for the mini eval meetings last week, I always really enjoy having the time to chat with each of you! You truly are very special humans!

A few notes to get you going…
1) New Buddies start this week and run through the end of the year:
K/1st; 2nd/4th; 3rd/5th

2) Auction art projects continue this week and probably right up to the auction. As a reminder, the auction is Saturday, May 2. Hoping to see as many of you as possible there.

3) SIW this week is Educator Network, please be sure you have signed up. FYI, Lori will doing a workshop on Amplify centers here at Amity.

4) Grades 1 (Friday) and 3 (Tuesday) are headed to Bend Science Station.

5) Bread and Jam this Friday

6) I know that quite a few of you are starting your child abuse prevention lessons this week. As a reminder, these need to be completed by the end of the month. Please email me when you have completed the lessons. Thanks!

7) I will be away from school on Thursday and Friday, as usual Brian will be covering for me.

Upcoming
April 14: Grade 3 to Bend Science Station
April 15: SIW, Educator Network Day
April 17: Grade 1 to Bend Science Station
April 17: Bread and Jam
April 20: Grade 2 to Bend Science Station
April 21: Kinder to Bend Science Station
April 22: Cafe Amity, Kinder hosts
April 22: SIW, in house
April 23: Grade 5 to Benham East
April 29: SIW, Teacher Work Day
April 29: Kinder Outdoor Ed
May 2: Auction
May 7: Grade 2 to Fall River Tubes
May 8: Grade 1 to Bentham East
May 12: Grade 3 to Caldera Arts

Here’s to a great week ahead!
Andy

Howdy All,
I hope you enjoyed the beautiful weather this weekend! I had an amazing weekend over in Corvallis with my kids and grandkids. Spring has definitely sprung in the valley! This may be the shortest Monday AM notes of all time…

A few notes to get you rolling:
1) Cafe Amity this week, Grade 1 hosts

2) I sent an email at the end of last week for teachers to sign up for Mini evaluation meetings. Here’s that link again, please sign up ASAP:
Mini Eval Mtg

3) SIW this week is a Teacher Work Day–enjoy the time!

4) New Buddies start April 13 and run through the end of the year:
K/1st; 2nd/4th; 3rd/5th

That’s it, not too much going on this week!

Upcoming
April 8: Cafe Amity, Grade 1 hosts
April 8: SIW, Teacher Work Day
April 14: Grade 3 to Bend Science Station
April 15: SIW, Educator Network Day
April 17: Grade 1 to Bend Science Station
April 17: Bread and Jam
April 20: Grade 2 to Bend Science Station
April 21: Kinder to Bend Science Station
April 22: SIW, in house
April 23: Grade 5 to Benham East
April 29: SIW, Teacher Work Day
April 29: Kinder Outdoor Ed
May 2: Auction
May 7: Grade 2 to Fall River Tubes
May 8: Grade 1 to Bentham East
May 12: Grade 3 to Caldera Arts

Here’s to a great week ahead!
Andy