AVID Newsletter

THANK YOU SO MUCH, Mrs. Wassom-Paul, for putting this together to celebrate this fantastic group of seniors!

Please click on the link below to see the progress on HCSD#3 Strategic Plan for 2025-2027.

...who can you spot doing incredible things at each of these schools?

👏 Henry L. Slater is an AVID-Certified School! 🎉

Mission: Empower all students through high expectations to embrace learning and achieve personal success.

Vision: Embraced – Educated - Empowered

As we wrap up an amazing year in Kindergarten, Miss Ellibee's class took time to celebrate all of their accomplishments! They enjoyed recognizing each student's hard work and growth with special awards. Kindergarten has been full of learning, laughter, and memories, and these students are more than ready for a fun summer and an exciting adventure in first grade!

Mrs. Davis's Kinders are Leaders! They take care of their classroom for those who come after them!

Mrs. Crawford's, Miss Johnson's and Ms. Hildebrand's 1st graders had a wonderful time on their field trip to the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge!

Miss Johnson's first graders completed AVID one pagers to show what they learned on their field trip to the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge!

After visiting the Malheur Wildlife Refuge, Ms. Hildebrand's class also completed One Pagers to show the importance of refuges for migrating wildlife.

Miss Weil's class is proud of their writing. They're learning to write 5 paragraphs to start preparing for the 3rd grade!

Miss Weil’s class also enjoyed reading their campfire stories with a flashlight for a spooky effect!

Reid from Mrs. Burns’s second grade showing off his MATH three column notes about measurement! Woohoo, those look so neat and organized!

All second graders enjoyed visiting the Eastern Oregon Agriculture Research Center for a field trip! Thank you so much, EOARC!

At the Eastern Oregon Agriculture Research Center, students visited 7 different stations, asked many questions, and learned so much about agriculture, science, animals, and plants. One higher-level thinking question students asked was, “How do scientists know which plants will grow best in different kinds of weather and soil?”

Mrs. Wilke’s second-grade class has been working hard this year! The following students received awards for reading fluency and being on or above grade level:

Mrs. Baddeley's walk to read students, Ellie, Aubrey and Sadie, filled out a Frayer Model graphic organizer to help understand and give examples of tricky vocabulary words in their Reader’s Theater script.

Students in Mrs. Davis's third grade completed a research one pager on a natural disaster of their choice. Students were given very specific parameters to meet and did a wonderful job meeting those expectations. One pagers are a writing to learn AVID strategy that really helps students integrate new information with previous knowledge, making it more retrievable in the future and making it "stick".

Mrs. Davis's and Mrs. Fenton's classes have also been having some (almost) summer fun with beach themed learning! Students collaborated in small groups to create a poster on a specific sea animal. Then they presented the information to the class!

Students in 4th grade got to go on a Pioneer field trip to John Clemens' Homestead. After having a lot of inquiry questions inspired from their Oregon Trail simulation game, students were able to answer those questions and experience pioneering times. This was a fantastic experience.

THANK YOU, MR. CLEMENS & ALL VOLUNTEERS!!!

Students at Slater Elementary got the pleasure of listening to the Calypso Band from Elgin High School, then got the opportunity to explore the different types of drums and got a chance to play. Here are some 5th graders in Miss Howes's class!

Students in Miss Howes’ class have been learning about coordinate planes during math. To strengthen their skills of learning how to read coordinate plans students were tasked with playing coordinate battleship. They had to strategically place 4 ships then ask their partner if they had a ship using the x-coordinate first, then y-coordinate second.

Her 5th grade students also ended their year by researching different biomes of the world and presenting them.

Ms. Murphy's students did a fun egg in vinegar experiment and each day they took notes on what was happening. They worked in groups of 4, and each day compared notes and ideas to get to the final day when they could take the egg out of the vinegar and see what it felt like and how it changed. They used vocabulary words like physical change, chemical change, and physical characteristics. They had to use close reading skills to follow directions, and writing skills to record their observations. Then work as a group to put it all together. It was fun when their rubber egg came out as a result!

Macie Howes and James Small in Mrs. Marshall's 5th-grade class used the AVID Study Buddy strategy to work collaboratively on their math assignment involving line plots and data analysis. By discussing their thinking, asking questions, and checking each other's work, they strengthened their understanding of how to interpret and solve problems using line plot data while supporting one another's learning.

Students in Mrs. Marshall’s 5th-grade class also learned about Diamante poems as their final writing project. Using the AVID strategy Writing to Learn, students collaborated with their peers to brainstorm nouns, verbs, and adjectives that helped them develop and organize their ideas. Through discussion and teamwork, students created thoughtful Diamante poems while strengthening their writing and vocabulary skills.

Movin' on up! 5th graders took a field trip to the middle school and are ready to be 6th graders!

Mrs. Trent's math students demonstrated AVID collaboration strategies by supporting one another through peer teaching and cooperative learning while solving math tasks together. Dylon stepped into a leadership role to reteach the lesson and guide Hunter through the learning process, strengthening communication, accountability, and academic confidence for both learners.

Mrs. Trent and Mrs. Hawley's small writing groups: Dylon, James, Wilow, Elsie and Genesis applied AVID learning strategies through research, organized note-taking, and written communication while exploring animals of the reef ecosystem. Using speech-to-text technology to transfer their ideas into an electronic document, students strengthened skills in inquiry, organization, and purposeful use of technology to support learning.

Azula was having a great time with Mrs. Williams working on rhyming words with dominos!

Music

Ms. Tibbetts had students engage in some fun collaborative play with Table Ball!

Students in m=Ms. Henshaw's SEL class had a great year and enjoyed showing off their hard work on their "Unique Shields" in their Wayfinder workbooks!

Mission: Our mission is to provide staff and students with a Safe, Respectful, Responsible, and Professional Environment to learn.

Vision: Hines Middle School empowers students to grow into Honest, Mature, Scholarly leaders.

AVID Elective

Mr. Moss's AVID 8 students visited the Burns Fire Department and learned about career opportunities with our local fire department.

6th Graders had an absolute blast during OMSI Outdoor School!

Students in Mr. Tiernan's class engaged in a partner critique for a logo design project for a local non-profit.

Ms. Bull's students made paper mache masks that turned into a wonderful sculpture experience as they added moldable air dry clay to our masks. Creativity and discovery abounded!

One of the primary benefits of sculpture is how it engages students physically. It requires active manipulation of materials.This kinesthetic learning activates different parts of the brain and helps students, especially tactile learners, connect with the material more deeply. This kind of hands-on experience also improves. Hand eye coordination and fine motor skills which can support academic growth in other areas such as writing, science labs and technology use. It is also lots of fun!

Students in Mrs. Sorenson's class ended the year with a collaborative STEM challenge. Randomly-selected groups worked together design and build the slowest ping-pong ball run. Essential Question: How can I use the engineering design process to create the slowest ball run for a ping pong ball?

In this collaborative ELA unit, students in Mrs. Swindlehurst's class engaged in a mock trial where SpongeBob was accused of the murder of Mr. Krab. Students were assigned roles as prosecutors, defense attorneys, and witnesses.

To prepare, students must closely read a provided "case file" text, extract text-based evidence, and construct a logical argument. The activity culminates in a live courtroom simulation where students present claims, cross-examine witnesses, and practice public speaking.

Ms. Nonnenmacher's students were collaborating and communicating in order to keep the hacky sack going! They encourage each other, call out turns, and adjust to one another's actions. Even after multiple mistakes the group is showing perseverance by staying persistent.

During Ms. Doty's India unit in 7th grade Social Studies, students collaborated with partners to explore the beliefs, traditions, and cultural impact of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism. After researching and analyzing key concepts, each student created a creative one-pager that demonstrated their understanding of one of the religions using visuals, critical thinking, and meaningful connections.

Mrs. Moss's 6th grade Health students had an activity on non-verbal vs verbal communication strategies. In this activity, they joined crossed hands and had to get the hula hoop through and around the circle without letting go, or verbally communicating to each other.

Mission Statement: Empowering students to learn, grow, and lead.

Vision Statement: To foster a community of learners where curiosity, critical thinking, and academic excellence equip students for success through an AVID framework.

Students in Mrs. Banks' 9th grade English class completed reading the play, "Romeo and Juliet"! Students had to memorize the 14-line prologue, learn the etiquette of sword fight, focus on Freytag's pyramid and keep documentation on a timeline as they navigated the ins and outs of Shakespeare.

Miss Toney's AP ENG 12 students ended their senior year reading out loud their Selfie Story memoir.

Mr. Johnson's students came up with some great, descriptive Spanish adjectives to describe themselves!

Students in Mrs. Bailey's class did an explanation of the Bohr Model project and patterns expressed.

Students in Ms. Smith's class worked in teams to complete an AP Biology terms scavenger hunt using a shoot and print camera and team posters to show what term they had "collected". The activity required all parts of WICOR from writing, reading/researching terms, organizing thoughts and pictures, working collaboratively, and inquiring to determine the picture needed to represent the term. Great end of term activity.

Advisory

In Ms. Howes’ advisory, students completed a one-pager to summarize their 2025-2026 school year. They were given the prompt of writing about their favorite memory, making a list of their top three positive experiences, drawing five doodles that have some connection to their year, and selecting one quote that encapsulates the year for them. Students then presented their one-pagers to other students in a pair-share style, applying WICOR strategies of collaboration and writing.

Seniors in Mr. Young's U.S. Government completed a Constitution Children's Book for their final project. Students engaged in WICOR through the phases of the project and it was a fun way to end a great year with these seniors!

At Burns Pond, Ms. Danchok's students gathered in May during Outdoor Wellness class for their Fishing Derby. Beforehand, students brainstormed on a Google doc what strategies they were going to implement to win the competition.