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Inside Billings
September 5, 2024
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🎒 What's Happening at Billings? 📚 | |
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To all our new families, welcome! And to all our returning families, welcome back! We are so glad to have the students back on campus.
This is our weekly bulletin with important information about classes, school functions, trips, community events, and clubs - Fall A club form due today, rosters go out tomorrow! This issue has a lot of info for the new year, so please read it in its entirety. Future bulletins will be shorter and sweeter!
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Mike on the Mic 🎤
We had an excellent first day of school yesterday, full of joy and enthusiasm! All students have now experienced almost all of their classes and 7th and 8th graders learned about and ranked choices for their Arts Electives for fall trimester.
It was wonderful to connect with so many families during orientation on Tuesday. Whether you are new or returning to Billings, we know that there are lots of new procedures to learn for both students and families. We have made a number of important updates to the Billings Student-Family Handbook this year and we will be reviewing the handbook with students in the first week of school. We also strongly encourage all families to review the handbook to be familiar with important policies and expectations. Also, to revisit the information we presented in New Family Orientation, please see the New Family Orientation Presentation.
Please join us each week for Billings Spirit Fridays, where students, staff, and families can show their Billings pride by wearing blue and green and/or Billings apparel. We’re excited to introduce our online Billings Apparel Store where you can order all kinds of spirit wear/gear. Look out for staff wearing green pants!
We look forward to seeing you at the All School Welcome Picnic Potluck tonight from 5:30 – 7:00 pm at Billings. Finally, a reminder that we have our first Billings Family Association meeting this Friday at 8:30 am.
Thank you for your support,
Mike
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✒️ Deans on the Scene 🎓
Please click the link below for Dean Rob and Dean April's update on Advisory, All School Meeting, and planners!
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👩👦 Admissions Team 👨👨👧👦
Please click the link below to read Stephanie's letter about important dates for Sibling & Community Applications and upcoming Admissions events!
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Upcoming Events: 📅
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Thursday, September 5: All School Picnic Potluck, Billings Campus 5:30pm-7:00pm
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Friday, September 13: Convocation 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
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Tuesday, September 24 – Friday, September 27: 8th grade Fall Leadership Outing overnight
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Thursday, September 26 – Friday, September 27: 6th grade Overnight to Deception Pass
See our full calendar below:
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Advisory
Sixth grade students are in the process of getting to know one another and the building. Students are already hosting Gaga Ball tournaments, playing Dungeons and Dragons games, and meeting students in other grades during lunch. Sixth grade students have received their planners, and they will receive their Chromebooks on Friday along with a technology tour so long as the Technology and Chromebook Agreements are signed on Alma. Please ensure Back to School Forms have been completed.
Seventh graders had a terrific orientation day on Tuesday. We started the day playing several ice-breaker games and students were fully engaged! After breaking the ice, we split into smaller groups to talk logistics, hand out planners, and go over schedules. We ended the day with a short written reflection for the upcoming year and a silly game involving old shoes and a water bottle.
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8th Grade students met on Tuesday to reconnect, play games and begin to set goals for the new school year. Students received their academic planners and competed in Advisory groups to answer trivia questions. The Fall Leadership Outing (FLO) backpacking trip is coming up soon and students will be going over a gear check as well as reviewing or learning essential skills for this awesome adventure.
Humanities
Emma’s 6th and 7th grade ELA students are spending the week getting to know their classmates, crafting Play-Doh sculptures to express their interests, starting to brainstorm a classroom contract, and even saving ten strangers from a deserted island – sort of. Students will decide the best way to rescue 10 fictional characters with 10 different backgrounds, skills, and experiences from a deserted island as they practice working collaboratively with one another!
April is happy and relieved that 8th grade ELA students are eager to share their reviews of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie! Students are sharing their thoughts about the novel’s relatability, how it measured up to their expectations, and separating art from artist. 8th grade ELA will continue these discussions as they work on a group project to prepare for writing an essay next week.
Students spent time getting to know each other, they played Pictionary, and learned a little about what they’ll be studying this year in Spanish.
Amy greeted Social Studies students with some community-building activities. 8th Graders will discuss their "Make the World a Better Place" assignment this week. All Social Studies students will write letters of introduction and create an identity mural.
Math
All grades started setting up their binders for Math class. Each grade level had a different math-based activity focused on explaining their way of thinking. 6th grade played Pig, a computational game, 7th grade looked at fruit puzzles to explore solving for unknown variables, and 8th grade began exploring transformations on a theoretical level. We are looking forward to getting to know the students more and understanding their math strengths through fun and practice over the next few weeks!
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Science
6th grade students learned all about science class with Emily and wrote what they think it means to “succeed in science,” which will be posted to the Mae bulletin board. Students are talking about how they use science in their daily lives. Please ask your student if they have the syllabus and review classroom policies and procedures together.
7th grade students spent the first day exploring daily science routines and what “Respect”, “Responsibility”, and “Resilience” mean to them in the science classroom. Students wrote their thoughts on sticky notes and posted them on posters for each of the “Three R’s”. Next week, students will participate in their first 7th grade science lab–stay tuned for some goofy pictures next week!
8th grade students are working with Emily to set classroom expectations and procedures. They participated in a class Escape Room to test prior knowledge on the first day of class. Please ask your student if they have the syllabus and review classroom policies and procedures together.
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Arts
On Wednesday, Sabrina, Birch, and Gillian led 7th and 8th grade students through Arts Orientation. This time-honored tradition saw each instructor speaking about the elective they’d be teaching—with Naomi, Amelia, and Indi filling in for Christine—so students would have ample information to consider as they completed their preference surveys. A new twist this year: students drew pictorial notes as instructors spoke to keep brains engaged and to give everyone a feel for each class. Credit goes to Hazel K for Vocals, Manuel for Digital Music, Lala for Art 101, and Naomi for Character Creation.
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Fall Overnight Trips are right around the corner!
We shared information about the upcoming trips for 6th grade (September 26-27), 7th grade (October 8-10), and 8th grade (September 24-27).
An email reminder went out to 8th grade families about today's “pack check”, which is part of our preparation process to make sure that students have what they need for trips. If your child will be borrowing gear, we ask that the gear survey be completed no later than two weeks before the trip. This helps us ensure that we have the correct size for a comfortable and durable fit!
If you would like to borrow gear,
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Coming Soon – Lovely Lunches!
We are excited to share that we will be partnering with Lovely Lunches as an option to make the school day a little easier for you. If you are interested, families will be able to make an account to order lunches directly from Lovely Lunches using an online system called Boonli.
Meals are prepared in a nut-free facility using as many local and organic products as possible. All lunches are served with a main entrée with a side including a grain, bread, crackers or pasta, along with fresh fruit and a vegetable side. An extra entrée may be ordered if you would like. The typical lunch price is between $6.50 and $7.50, and a sample menu can be previewed here.
Please stay tuned for more information once we get the specific Boonli login for Billings Middle School. We plan to start this service by October when Lovely Lunches and families have had time to set up the accounts.
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From the BFA:
Welcome back, families! Every week, this is where you’ll find the latest news from the Billings Family Association (BFA).
All-School Picnic Tonight
The get-together is a potluck, so don’t forget to sign up to say what you’re bringing. See you at the school tonight 9/5 at 5:30pm!
Date Change: BFA Meeting Tomorrow Friday 9/6
Join us tomorrow, Friday 9/6, online or in person from 8:30-9:30am for the first BFA meeting of the year. Come learn what’s planned for this fall and the year ahead, and find out how you can get involved. Agenda is posted here.
Still Time to Sign Up for Family Groups & Directories!
Parenting Resources
In this section of the newsletter, the BFA shares notice of upcoming talks and other resources related to parenting middle schoolers.
PEPS is offering virtual and in-person skills-based groups on parenting teens and adolescents.
ParentMap has posted the speakers for its 2024-2025 Parent Ed Talks webinar series. You can purchase tickets now for the entire season. Tickets for individual webinars will be available soon.
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If you are involved with any local community event that you'd like to share with other Billings families, please send info to Becca at the front desk so we can publish it here. We love any opportunity to bring our families together, especially outside of school! Common events include concerts or art shows students or their family are participating in, craft fairs or farmer's markets, local stewardship opportunities, or other events that align with Billings goals and values. Check back in regularly to see what the community has in store! | |
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Hello 8th grade families,
If your student will be considering private high school applications, click this link to learn about the test prep sessions Billings will be offering from September 9th through December 19th.
Executive Function Workout!
💡 FEEL THE BURN! 💡
Join me (Greg: Director of The Learning Center at Billings) for a regular Tuesday morning EF workout from 8:30am to 9:30am starting Tuesday, September 10th. Developing EF, or Executive Function, requires the exercise of the brain in specific ways. Drop in on any Monday morning, to share stories and explore strategies for strengthening our EF muscles and by extension, that of our students.
Think of Executive Function as the CEO of the brain, helping us improve our self-regulation and aid our ability to make both short and long-term plans that enhance our performance in many aspects of our life. At a middle school pragmatic level this includes things like, doing your nightly HW, working on long term projects, or doing chores around the house. This is not a class. This is an opportunity to share collective wisdom. While 30 plus years as a middle school educator has certainly allowed me to garner some wisdom, I am really a facilitator on Tuesday mornings. Regular attendance is not a prerequisite. I don't need advanced notice. Drop in any Tuesday morning.
We will be meeting in person in Mercury, during advisory and the beginning of first period. Check-in at the front desk before heading down to Nadia. If you do not want to attend in person and prefer Zoom, let me know and I will send you a recurring Zoom link. Masks are not required but can be provided upon request.
And if Tuesday mornings are not a viable option for you, but you want to learn more, don't hesitate to e-mail me, and let's find time to chat 1-1.
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