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Inside Billings
October 2, 2025
| | 🎒 What's Happening at Billings? 📚 | | The school year is in full swing! Our 6th and 8th graders have successfully completed their first overnight adventures, and our 7th graders are getting ready to head out next week. Scroll on and enjoy the photos from the trips! If you haven't received the password for the SmugMug galleries, reach out to the Front Desk. | | |
Mike on the Mic 🎤
I was so lucky to join the 6th Grade Overnight to Deception Pass last week! The 6th Grade Overnight is a two-day, one-night introduction to the ExpEd program, with a focus on skills of perseverance, self-care, and independence. From setting up tents to cooking meals for the entire group, to practicing caring for our bodies, belongings and our new friends, to taking risks to be goofy in our campfire “15-second talent show,” students set a great foundation for the next three years at Billings. Our teachers took our learning outside the classroom with a hike to the beach and a visit to learn about the history of Fort Casey and its historic lighthouse.
Reminder that we have our Annual Fund Kickoff Coffee this Friday morning, followed by our monthly Billings Family Association meeting. As always, wear your Billings Blue and Green for Spirit Fridays! We invite families to stick around tomorrow afternoon to cheer on the volleyball team for their home match!
A reminder that next week, 6th and 7th grade English Language Arts Teacher Rob Howard will be joining our staff and getting acclimated. A heads up that his email address follows a slightly different convention than our other teachers. He will be robhoward@billingsmiddleschool.org to try to avoid conflict with Rob Heavner (robh@billingsmiddleschool.org)! We anticipate that he will start leading advisory and 6th grade ELA classes by the end of the week. We thank Robin Russell for supporting and inspiring our 6th and 7th grade students in Language Arts as her last day with students will be Wednesday.
Thanks for your support,
Mike
| | The 6th graders had an unforgettable experience on their first Billings overnight trip to Deception Pass! During the trip they explored the history of Fort Casey, enjoyed a beach hike, bonded over s’mores, and got a true taste of what a Billings adventure is all about. Enjoy the photos via our SmugMug album. | | 7th graders have been prepping for their upcoming trip to the Dalles and the Yakama Nation. In advisory, students have been going over the gear list with special emphasis on warm layers because it will be cold at night! We’ve also been setting goals for the trip and thinking about ways to incorporate the 4 R’s (Resilience, Respect, and Responsibility) into our experience. | | |
8th grade students showed their outdoor and leadership skills hiking around the gorgeous landscape of Mount Adams. We started the week preparing at North Acres Park - practicing backcountry skills in water filtration, cooking with the backpacking stoves and completing a bear hang. On Wednesday, three groups set out into the mountains for their journeys. Each day, students hiked for miles through a high-altitude environment, rising to the challenges with resilience, teamwork, and enthusiasm. The SmugMug gallery highlights some of the beauty, challenge and incredible joy we experienced! We’re excited for how this rigorous and inspiring trip will impact these school leaders in the months to come.
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6th graders recently enjoyed several screenless days in Math with more tangible and active assignments outside our classroom. Check out the photos of an area-problem scavenger hunt and small groups calculating the surface area of large trapezoidal prisms.
What type of solid makes the strongest column? Triangular prisms, rectangular prisms, and cylinders faced off (math pun alert!) against heavy stacks of books with “heavy” themes (Tolkien fantasy, 1984, etc.) in 7th grade Design Lab. We were all surprised with the strength of a cardstock paper column in general, but ask your 7th grader which type of column was significantly stronger and why.
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In 6th Design Lab students have been hard at work creating puppets as a part of our Puppet Project. Students will work together to create short skits once their puppets are completed. Their designs are slowly coming along as they bring their characters to life.
In Science, 6th graders are learning how to conduct a lab at Billings! They all finished learning about lab safety and are working on an aluminum boat buoyancy experiment. Ask your student how many grams their boats were able to hold at the end of the week! Next week students will begin their Astronomy Unit.
In 8th grade Science students have been investigating the properties of Matter as a part of their first chemistry unit. Recently the students made Ooblek, completed Claim, Evidence, Reasoning statements, and investigated the properties of Gases. We are ready to learn about Atomic Structure and the Periodic Table starting next week.
The Billings Volleyball team had their first match against Open Window this week. For many students it was their first volleyball match and they all did an excellent job. We are proud of the hard work that the students have put in so far this school year.
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🎓 Deans on the Scene ✒️
Congratulations to the Billings Cross-Country runners and the Billings Volleyball players on their first competitions of the season! Athletics are a great part of our school culture, and we’re so proud of our athletes who represent Billings with respect, good sportsmanship, and healthy competition. Thanks to our coaches, Ian, Emily, and Rich for all their hard work. Good luck to the volleyball team with their game against Explorer West on Friday!
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We are excited to introduce this year’s Annual Fund Chair: Erika Wright. Erika is mom to 8th grader Cash, and is our Board’s Treasurer. Erika is passionate about the big impact small schools have on the lives of kids, and has been involved in supporting small, independent schools in our area since 2016. She loves the outdoors, and you can find her hiking with her dog or kids on the trails around Snohomish where she lives.
Tomorrow we will be kicking off our 2025-2026 Annual Fund! Join us at the morning drop off to meet Erika and the annual fund committee members for a quick hello and coffee. There will be a small gift to help kick off our celebration of the big dreams our small school makes possible so be sure to pick yours up.
You will find the Annual Fund committee at the drop off with coffee and donuts out front of the school.
See you there!
You can make a donation by dropping off a check at the front desk or by clicking here to make a donation online. You can also click here to make a pledge for a future donation. Don’t forget to check with your employer to see if they will match your donation! Boeing, Microsoft, Nintendo, Pokémon, and many other major employers offer an employee match program. This is a really great way to double the impact of your donation!
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As we continue to welcome new families to campus and grow our community, your voice plays an important role in our admissions process. If you’ve had a positive experience at Billings, we would be incredibly grateful if you took a moment to share it. Your feedback helps other families learn more about our school and what makes Billings such a special place.
Below are links to popular school review sites — we’d love for you to share your thoughts and help other parents consider Billings for their children. Feel free to reach out to Stephanie for any assistance. Thank you for being a valued part of our community!
| | Billings Family Association | | |
BFA Meeting Tomorrow 8:30-9:00am
Tomorrow’s Friday morning coffee will flow right into this month’s BFA meeting! Come for the camaraderie and coffee. Stay to hear about upcoming school and BFA events.
Family Camping Trip This Weekend
We’re going to have a blast at Dash Point State Park! The trip info doc contains everything you need to know about this weekend’s activities, including signups for food and activities.
Still thinking about coming?
Neurodiversity Affinity Group Meeting on 10/14
Mark your calendar! The Neurodiversity Affinity Group will meet online Tuesday 10/14 from 7-8:30pm. The group is open to all Billings parents/caregivers of neurodiverse kids. You can sign up to join the group here.
Family Contacts Directory Deadline
The school is just about ready to distribute this year’s secure family contacts directory for current families. It will include each student's name and grade, as well as their parents/caregivers' names, email addresses, cell number, and home address. If you do not want any or all of this information to be included in the secure directory, please notify the Front Desk by Wednesday, October 8.
Parenting Resources
Raising Thriving Teens in a Digital World
With Dr. Jennifer Tininenko, licensed clinical psychologist and Director of the Child Anxiety Center at Evidence-Based Treatment Centers of Seattle
Oct. 8, 7-8:30pm
Register here for this free workshop presented by PEPS at UW’s Hans Rosling Center for Population Health
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Upcoming Events: 📅
- Dash Point Family Camping Trip: October 3-5
- BFA All-Family Meeting: October 3, 8:30am
- 7th Grade Overnight Trip: October 7-9
- [NO SCHOOL] WA State In-Service Day: October 10
- [NO SCHOOL] Teacher In-Service Day: October 13
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Adults 21 and up: catch Birch Pereira and the Gin Joints!
Birch teaches instrumental music at Billings Middle School, so check out what he does when he's not teaching!
When: Friday, October 10th, at Bake's Place in Bellevue WA, 8:00-9:30pm or Friday, October 24th at the Shanty Tavern in Lake City.
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Looking for something to do as a family? Check out the Mosaic Room which is located just around the corner from the Billings campus. The Mosaic Room offers family friendly classes from Yoga and Salsa dancing to Yo-Yo tricks! Scan the QR Code to sign-up!
All Billings families will receive 10% off with the code: BILLINGS10
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Climate Action Families (CAF) is offering a free, 2-day workshop for 6-11th graders.
This workshop brings together two big themes:
- Migration (why people move, especially due to war, danger, or economic need)
- Climate Change (how environmental disasters like droughts, fires, and floods force people to migrate)
The course encourages young people to think about what it means to be welcomed (or not) in a new place — whether that’s a new school, new country, or new home, considering the question: If more people are forced to migrate due to climate change... how do we make space for everyone?
Sense of Belonging: Migration and Climate Change on October 18-19th, 10:00 am-3:00 pm.
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Executive Function Workout!
Join me (Greg: Director of The Learning Center at Billings) for a regular morning EF workout from 8:30am to 9:30am on Mondays. 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 EF (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 Monday mornings. Regular attendance is not a prerequisite. I don't need advanced notice. Drop in as you are able.
We will be meeting in person in Mercury during advisory and the beginning of first period. 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 worn upon request.
And if Monday 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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