The Owl Gazette
September 25, 2026
Dear OPE Families,
Thank you to all the families who attended fall conferences. We enjoyed the opportunity to connect, share student progress and discuss ways to support continued learning and growth.
We are excited to host our Fall College & Career Day on November 17. Students will have the opportunity to meet professionals from a wide variety of career fields, learn about different jobs, and hear about the paths that led them to their careers. We look forward to helping our students explore new interests, ask questions, and discover the many possibilities for future careers.
OPE welcomes families to our book fair family night on Monday from 3:00-6:00PM. Join us after school for a fun evening of book shopping, prizes and other exciting activities. Please see the library section below for more information and opportunities to volunteer.
Sincerely,
Principal Harder
- Nov 17 - 21, 2026 - OPE Scholastic Book Fair
- Nov 24 - 28, 2026 - Thanksgiving Break, No School
- Dec 9, 2026 - 6th Grade Band Concert
- Dec 9 - 16, 2026 - Share & Care Drive (Details to come)
- Dec 15 - 18, 2026 - Santa's Workshop (Details to come)
- Dec 18, 2026 - Early Release @ 11:45 to start Winter Break
- Dec 21 - Jan 1, 2027 - NO SCHOOL: Winter Break
It was great getting to talk with so many of our 4th grade families on Monday and Tuesday during conferences. Thank you for making time out of your busy schedules to meet with us.
In honor of Veteran’s Day on Wednesday we would like to thank all of the family members in our OPE community who have or are currently serving in the military for their service and sacrifices.
Thank you for your support with helping your 4th grader complete their turkey projects, our hall is filled with everything but turkeys and they are so fun to see! The creativity is out of this world!
Next week we will be reading a story called “From Minn of the Mississippi”, there will be a spelling test, and we will be wrapping up module 4 in math and taking a test. We encourage our students to practice their multiplication facts at home to help them build their math confidence
Thank you to those of you who were able to sign up for a conference, we loved getting to talk with families about their students!
5th grade has two upcoming projects that we need help sourcing materials for! We are in need of dairy lids (think yogurt or sour cream) for an art project we would like to do the week of November 16th. In addition to yogurt lids we could use various sized boxes (nothing too big) and toilet paper/paper towel roles.
In December, students will be doing an animal report in language arts and will make a 3D version of their animal in math to practice finding the volume of a cube/rectangular prism. We will be using the boxes and tubes to create their animals.
This week in 6th grade, the science classes are continuing exploring volcanoes and learning how the movement of tectonic plates shapes the environment here in the Pacific Northwest.
Social studies classes are prepping for their first unit test tomorrow Friday the 13th. In math all classes have begun work on ratios, ratio tables and graphing ratios.
The language arts classes are in the final push to complete their narrative stories.
The 6th grade teachers are extremely thankful for all the parents and families that met with us during conferences, it was great to meet and chat with you all!
It’s HERE!! The bookfair has arrived and is getting ready for all of our shoppers. Students will begin shopping Monday and have opportunities to shop during their normal library times and during lunch recess Monday, Tuesday, and Friday. Monday after school (3:00-6:00pm) is our Family Night where we will have prizes and other fun activities!
We are still in need of some volunteers, if you have a background check done and have some free time this next week. Tuesday 9:30-12:45 has the highest need for volunteers, though there are slots available for all days still.
Checkout the website for the fair where you can setup an ewallet for your student, donate to our Share the Fair Fund, and see all of the great things we are going to have at the fair. We will have the brand new Dog Man, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and Babysitters Club!
Email Mrs. Knutson with any questions (kknutson@scappoose.k12.or.us). We can't wait to see all the reading excitement next week!
Hello OPE Families,
What a great start of the school year we have had and our Pacer Tests! Our highest score right now for the whole school is 94 sprints. We are currently doing Ping Pong and switching gears to Jump Rope the week before Thanksgiving break. Please make sure you bring tennis shoes and water bottles (if you would like). Keep up the great work and stay active!
Coach Ski and Coach K
🏆 2v2 Four Square Tournament
Talk about a nail-biter! Our 2v2 Four Square championship delivered a raucous, action-packed finish, going the full three games (first to 5 points)! Both teams brought their A-game, but in the end, The Big Bros came out on top, fending off a tremendous late surge from The Cornutters to claim the championship with a final-match score of 5–3. What a battle!
We also want to give a big shout-out to our third-place finishers, The Girlys! Congratulations on a fantastic tournament!
A huge thank-you to all the teams who participated. The skill, competitive spirit, teamwork, and sportsmanship on display made this tournament a blast!
But don't put those competitive shoes away just yet! Stay tuned for next week's Intramurals announcement. We've got some great things coming up, including an announcement about the next schoolwide competition and another 6th-grade showdown. Something tells us the fun is just getting started!
During Parent-Teacher Conferences SEPO provided an Ixtapa experience (we can’t say lunch or dinner because truly staff had enough to cover multiple meals!!)
SEPO, and staff, would like to thank all of those that donated their time, snacks, effort, and funds to help create a wonderful meal for staff to enjoy while they were working through conferences. Conference days are long and providing a nice meal to enjoy during break is beyond appreciated.
THANK YOU SEPO SUPPORTERS!!!
Book Fair Help!
Hey volunteers,
Our library and classrooms at Otto Petersen need our help! The Otto Petersen Book Fair is next week and volunteers are needed. There are different opportunities to help with working the register (volunteers get simple training, and it's not too scary!) and helping kids shop. Help students fall in love with books, maybe choose a fun accessory after picking a book first, and raise funds for the library. WIth Scholastic Book fairs, our libraries get to choose books to fill gaps in the shelves or fill funding gaps.
If you are able, please sign up for a volunteer spot (or more than one) via the SignUp Genius
Questions? Reach out to our OPE library staff or the OPE front office.
Thanks for volunteering!
