Sauvie Island School News

photo of kids playing under snowy trees

February 16th, 2025

On the Horizon

  • President's Day, No School: Feb.17th

  • Middle School Info Night: Feb. 20th, 6-7:15

  • Open Enrollment: Feb.3rd- Mar. 21st

2nd Grade Updates with Ms. O'Malley

In January, Second Grade visited the Fab Lab on four Fridays to learn about geology and earth systems. Students learned about how rocks are formed. Second Grade read about volcanoes, earthquakes, and rivers. Ms. Eve led the class in lessons about Fab Lab tools and lab expectations. Second Graders worked as teams to create river systems and seismograms. It was amazing to take everything we read about and see it in real life through hands-on projects. In math Second Grade has been working on the addition and subtraction strategies open number-line and split strategy. They have also been working on reading and spelling Magic-E words.


Field trip fun wth 2nd grade
2nd grade in the fab lab
2nd graders creating the lab with friends
Halston and Griffin working together

4th Grade Updates with Mrs. Roberts

Winter is going by quickly in 4th grade with several fun projects. In January, students presented their electricity projects that they designed over the break. It was wonderful to see students apply their learning of electricity and add their own creative spin on their individualized project. Literacy has taken us on an adventure of learning about extreme settings and how a challenging setting changes a person. We started reading Hatchet and students have begun to draft their own narrative survival story. This unit pairs well with our science unit called “The Birth of Rocks” that explored volcanoes, erosion, and fossils in sedimentary rock. On February 5th, we celebrated Global School Play Day, which is a day that promotes the importance of unstructured, regular play for children. During the play time students practiced skills of problem-solving, empathy, creativity, and innovation. Starting this week we have an architect coming to our classroom for 6 weeks, through the Architects in Schools program, to guide the students in a Future Cities project. Excited to see what they create!

Eland reads with classmates
Lenna and Etta showing off their creations
4th grade girls enjoying friend time
4th grade crafting madness

Middle School Updates with Mr. Radich

 6th Grade Social Studies

Our Early Civilizations of the Americas unit continues as we've delved into daily life and practices of the Inca, Aztec, and Maya people. We've looked at social structure, family life, religious and spiritual practices, art and architecture, and technological and scientific achievements of these civilizations. These inquisitive sixth graders ask so many great questions and have a passion for learning that makes our classroom environment exciting and ever-curious! We're also gearing up to have some students start making phone calls and writing emails to local nurseries to solicit donations for our annual Plant Sale. Students have written phone-scripts and are preparing an in-person presentation to make to our community partner Bailey Nursery. This year's Plant Sale is on Saturday, March 15th from 9AM to 12 Noon. 

7th Grade Social Studies

We have almost wrapped up our first region of study (Asia and the Middle East) and are gearing up to begin our survey of Africa. Our regional studies focus on human and physical geography, looking at natural resources, economic activity, and some contemporary issues facing some countries on these continents. For instance, last week we dug into the "fast fashion" industry which relies heavily on factories in Southeast Asia; we looked at the geography related to commerce, environmental impact, and human conditions associated with production and distribution of clothing. Some students were inspired to make a brief presentation for the K-5 classrooms about some environmental impacts of clothing manufacturing as part of promoting last week's Clothing Exchange.

6th grade paper mosaic projects
7th grade Asia almanac projects
7th grade Africa mosaic projects
2025 middle school info night flyer

Open enrollment flyer with student candid photos

Volunteer Corner

Attention volunteering community! Check your inbox for these current volunteer opportunities:

- 1:1 volunteer reading with students

- PTC Auction (please Email ptc@sauvieislandschool.org for details)

- Middle school info night Thursday, 2/20

- Middle school graduation coordinator

Upcoming volunteer opportunities:

- Food day for teachers Monday, 3/10 (breakfast and snacks only - Lunch has been donated)

- SIS plant sale Saturday, 3/15

Ongoing volunteer opportunities can be found in the newsletter and on the SIS and SIS PTC Facebook pages! Check them frequently to stay up to date on any volunteer needs we may have. 

A reminder that all volunteers need to have an up to date background check on file with the school office.  Please reach out if you are unsure if yours is up to date and we can verify for you.  These need to be renewed every two years.  As always, feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns or if you would like to be added to the email list for ongoing volunteer opportunities at volunteers@sauvieislandschool.org.

Best,

Kelli Magnia and Mashell Pastorino 

SIS Volunteer Coordinators

PTC Updates

PTC monthly meeting flyer

6th Grade plant sale flyer

Save the Date for the auction

Save the Date flyer with UPC code

Flyer for auction tickets

How to sponsor or donate to the auction

Flyer asking for auction volunteers

State Testing

Each year, schools are required to participate in administering the Oregon Statewide Assessments. These include measures in Math and English Language Arts for grades 3-8 and Science for grades 5-8. This link provides information on those assessments and participation options (Spanish translation available here). You may also contact the school for more information or with any questions you might have.

Community

Community Notice Disclaimer:

Sauvie Island School offers community organizations the opportunity to post information that may be of interest to students and families.  Sauvie Island School does not endorse or recommend any of these organizations, services or products.  The responsibility is on families to evaluate the organization and its services and products.  Sauvie Island School will not be held responsible for any actions or inactions connected to these organizations.  

Photograph of a hawk at Topaz Farm

Join us for a day of winter birding on Sauvie Island in partnership with Topaz Farm and Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife! We’ll keep you warm with free hot chocolate and coffee (while supplies last), plus sweet farm-baked goods for purchase.

Bring your crew, your family, or come solo for a cool and casual day road-tripping through Sauvie Island’s birding hotspots. We’ll get outside together in search of the fiercest birds, the Fantastic Four of raptors: Northern Harrier, Red-tailed Hawk, American Kestrel, and Bald Eagle. At each spot, check out birds through spotting scopes and ask your curious questions to our stationed naturalists.

This is a family-friendly event, and you can come and go anytime during event hours.

Visit https://birdallianceoregon.org/event/hawks-hot-chocolate/ for more details.

SAFE Oregon flyer

SafeOregon and the Oregon State Police remind students, parents, school staff, and community members that everyone plays a role in school safety. SafeOregon is a school safety tip line to report potential threats against students and schools confidentially or anonymously.

SafeOregon asks that if you see or hear something concerning to let someone know. Tips may be submitted 24 hours per day, 7 days per week: 

  • Call or text: 844-472-3367

  • Email: tip@safeoregon.com

  • Website: www.safeoregon.com

  • Download the mobile app 

All tips are immediately received by a tip line technician and are forwarded to designated school personnel or law enforcement to respond to reported incidents.

SafeOregon receives tips focused on school safety, including:

  • Safety threats

  • Violence or threats of violence 

  • Fights

  • Drugs, alcohol, or weapons on campus

  • Bullying, harassment, or intimidation 

  • Cyberbullying 

  • Friends or peers discussing self-harm or suicide

Call 911 for situations requiring an immediate emergency response. It is a violation of Oregon law to make false reports to SafeOregon. For more information about SafeOregon, visit our website at safeoregon.com. 

Odds and Ends

  • Busses, Arrivals and Departures: Please arrive at the bus hub by 7:45am. Halls open at 8:20, school begins at 8:25. Please do not leave students in the parking lot unattended!

  • School dismissal is at 3pm, 2pm on Wednesdays. Any changes to your child's pick-up routine must be made with Ann at the front desk at least one hour prior to dismissal.

  • Please check Lost & Found for any missing treasures! All items left over the winter break will be donated as we do not have the room to keep lost items indefinitely.

    You can access old newsletters by going to Documents-->About Us-->SIS newsletter in your SIS App

    or by clicking here in your browser or phone.

Grange Hall Rentals

The Sauvie Island Grange is available to all as a rental space for private parties, meetings and gatherings. You can rent the building by the hour or half-day. The hall space can be rented separately from the kitchen or together based on need. Grange members thoroughly sanitize the hall and kitchen before scheduled use. Please visit this link for more specifics on rentals or contact Katherine Topaz at 503-708-0008. 

Be in the Know!

  • Download the new Sauvie Island app today! Visit the iOS App Store or Android Play and enable notifications.

  • Visit Facebook and Instagram for important updates and photos of activities! Visit our website to see what's going on! 

  • Add our school calendar directly to your Google Calendar. Our calendar link is here.

    • This article gives you more instructions on how to do this.