Visit to Juniper Jungle Permaculture Farm

Zion (grade K) hangin' with the pigs and sporting a
mustache in honor of Mr. B's birthday

By Inanna (grade 6)

On Wednesday April 27, Black Butte School visited Juniper Jungle Permaculture Farm just east of Bend. Juniper Jungle is an organic, permaculture, biodiverse farm. They grow heirloom plants and raise heirloom animals. Heirloom food is grown from seeds or animals that have been passed down from generation to generation. The farm is a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm, meaning they sell to families and at farmers markets. By now you might wonder how they got their name, well, they are growing a jungle in the junipers, since they used permaculture principals in growing food. Sometimes permaculture principals mean that the farm could look messy like a jungle.

Jessica showing us the "jungle" in their greenhouse

Our tour guide, Jessica, did an amazing job showing us around. Jessica showed us their beautiful, giant pigs. Next, she showed us the cows. They have two milking cows. After we checked out the cows, we headed over to the greenhouses. Their greenhouses are wild and crazy. They don’t do anything to contain the wildness of the plants, they just let them do what they want and produce their seeds. This returns needed nutrients back to the soil. We all ate our fair share of dill before walking outside for some rock chucking. No, we did not actually CHUCK the rocks, we carried them. Our task was to clear the field of rocks. There were a few giant monster rocks buried several feet underground. We all dug and dug until we couldn’t dig anymore. Sheesh were we tired.

Students helping remove large rocks and
weeds from a field

After chucking rocks, we went and checked out the canal. Juniper Jungle pulls the water, in a canal, from the Deschutes River. Soon after, we had lunch and wrote in our journals. All in all, our Juniper Jungle Farm visit was amazing and fun. Hopefully we will be able to go back soon! If you want to learn more about their farm check out their website: http://juniperjunglefarm.com

Planting with Vermiculture (aka Worm Poo)

by Shelby (grade 7)

The Black Butte School has made their own red worm farm where we compost certain foods and hope to help our ecosystem. Just recently, the we started an experiment where we planted different plants in four different kinds of soil. The various soils are: local (dirt that comes from right by our school), potting soil (from our local stores here in sisters), vermiculture, and a special mix between the vermiculture and potting soil. “What’s vermiculture?” you ask. Well, vermiculture is pretty much worm poo. Yep, i just said it. Worm poo. A fun fact is that every piece of soil on planet earth has gone through a worm’s digestive system.

So far, we have two bins filled with worms and compost. We are so excited to see how our plants and compost/worms turn out and that we can continue our collection for the next years to come. Maybe we will even build a garden!













More information from Ilya (grade 6) on how to take care of worms...

If you are interested in making your own worm bin, here is what you need: a bin (make sure to poke holes in the bin’s lid and bottom), a water catcher (for underneath the bin), bedding (peat moss and shredded newspapers). You will also of course need food for the worms such as kitchen greens, vegetable scrapings from plates, potato peels and other vegetable peels, fruit (but not citrus), egg shells crushed, cereal, grain and grain products, and tea bags and coffee grounds. Worms don't like to eat dairy products, meat, citrus, or plants in the onion family (onions and garlic), which are antibacterial. Worms mainly eat the bacteria that grow to breakdown the plants, so antibacterial foods wont work! For more detailed information on making a worm bin check out this article on Mother Earth News.

March Madness

by Conner (grade 7)

March Madness has come to Black Butte School.  Mr. B has challenged the older class to complete the NCAA Basketball Tournament bracket for 2016.  There are 68 teams competing in the NCAA Tournament divided into 4 regions (south, west, mid-west, and east).  On the bracket we have to choose which team will win each game, narrowing it down to one overall winning team.

Some students are deciding winning teams randomly or flipping a coin, while others use team stats to make logical decisions.  I am using the web-site www.kenpom.com to look at stats.  I’m using the stats on average offense and defense to help me decide.  Using the stats uses math in the real world.

As a class we will study results and add up who gets the most teams right.  There may be a prize for the person that has the most teams correct.  Mr. B and Scott McNitt, our bus driver, are completing brackets too.  It’s fun to have a competition.  Black Butte School is in the spirit of March Madness.  

Winter Birthdays

by Inanna (grade 6)

Over the past few months there have been multiple birthdays here at BBS. Kids going from child to…well, older child. Here are our lucky rascals: Ilya, Makiha, Emma, Sawyer and Audrie. They have all celebrated and had fun. Sadly, most of them celebrated without the rest of us students. What a bummer! We are so fun!

One of the birthday girls, Audrie, brought in lovely cookies. We sang an amazingly off key “Happy Birthday,” though she seemed to like it. Then we ate our beautiful  pink and white cookies. I have to say, they were pretty good. It was very fun. 

Inanna (6) 

On another note, I am doing a project involving birthdays, it is an astrological project, where I find out what zodiac signs the other kids are and study them. So far, I have figured out that there are two Capricorns, one Aries, two Gemini, three Cancers, three Leos, one Virgo, one Sagittarius and two Aquarians. That’s a lot of diversity sign-wise. Astrology is the study of the zodiac signs according to the stars and planets. The zodiac signs are separated into four categories, earth, water, fire and air. At BBS there are mostly fire and air signs and some water and earth signs.

BBS has had many student birthdays and has more to come! I will keep on working on my birthday project to learn some more about the kids' signs, and write about it again. All in all, this year students will be going from little kids to big kids and from big kids to TEENAGERS!! Wow, what a change.

It's Science Fair Time!

by Conner (grade 7)

February is one of my favorite months because the Science Fair happens in Sisters. Black Butte School students will participate in two ways.  Students are making mousetrap cars to enter the Design Construct Compete Challenge. We are also making a poster board display on our snowpack studies.

We are working on our mousetrap cars as part of math. The challenge is to build a car that moves and stops using only mousetrap power. In each round of the competition the cars must travel a given distance and stop in a designated area. For an added challenge this year, advanced rounds will include an obstacle that cars must be able to turn around. We are using Victor wooden snap-type mousetraps, CDs, records, soda cans, string, rubber bands and other materials to construct the cars. My car has two record wheels with an axle, the mousetrap hangs in the middle, and a string attaches to the metal hammer and the axle to give it power.

For our school display we’ve been gathering snowpack data since after winter break in the school yard. We have also used websites to get data for every Wednesday starting November 25, 2015 in other locations in the Cascades. Our display will show snow depth, snow water equivalent, precipitation accumulation, and air temperature for sites around Oregon. Students will be available to explain this information to visitors.

We hope you’ll join us at the Science Fair on at noon on February 20th at Sisters High School. It’s going to be a fun day.

Studying Whychus Creek

by Shelby (grade 7)

Black Butte School has taken ANOTHER field trip. This time we went to the wonderful and beautiful Whychus Creek. Our teacher for the day was a nice lady named Kelly who works for the Upper Deschutes Watershed Council. The students sat and listened to all the damage that the creek has gone through and what we can do to help. We enjoyed the wilderness as we watched many fish and possibly water skippers pass by.  

Many smiles were seen that day as the children's eyes lit up with joy. Mud was splattered around as the students experimented by making our own little rivers. We got to observe how water likes to maneuver on it’s own and what flash floods do to the ecosystem. We returned to Whychus Creek for another field trip a couple weeks later to learn more. We are also studying the Metolius River and comparing the health of the river and the creek.

Core Class Spotlight: Humanities

by Ilya (grade 6)

At  BBS we have many classes, one of them is Humanities. In Humanities class lately, upper grades students (grades 5-7) have been learning about Reconstruction from a book  called A History Of US,(sort of a play on words), By Joy Hakim. We just started learning about the Industrial Revolution from the same book. We also have many handouts and worksheets about things we learned about.

To help us broaden our perspective and connect history with literature, we read books and graphic novels about history. One we read is about Chinese people in America, called Escape to Gold Mountain by David H.T Wong. It may be a little violent but is very educational. We are planning to read another graphic novel called Maus by Art Spiegelman, which is about World War I and II from a Mouse's perspective.

We also focus on grammar and creative writing skills in Humanities, using the curriculum Seeing Stars. Seeing Stars teaches us about syllables, vocabulary, and how to write stories. The lessons give us nonwords and words to practice syllable breaking and a prompt to write a story. Overall Humanities class is pretty fun, and we learn a lot too.