Blanco Elementary
Thursday Note
April 9, 2015
Parents,
The entire staff at Blanco Elementary or any
school is continuously busy collaborating and
training to best serve our students and parents
of our community. But academics is not the
only focus of the entire staff; safety and well
being of the children is paramount to all of us.
As parents you trust that we will make your
child's education a safe and positive experience.
This is why my office is making a
recommendation to ask teacher to send all hand
held pencil sharpeners home. These pencil
sharpeners will no longer be on the supply list
for parents to purchase and send to school. The
school will provide ample sharpeners in every
classroom for students to sharpen pencils.
I know many of you will have questions
regarding this initiative and rightfully so; this
is your school. Please trust that this is a safety
issue my office feels will better serve your child
and the safety of everyone in our building.
There has been a trend around our country (not
our school) where some individual students
have made bad choices to take these sharpeners
apart and removing the razor. Making their
surroundings unsafe for themselves and others
if it left or placed in the wrong place of any
school.
Please direct your question to my office and not
the teachers. This will allow teachers to teach
and not be interrupted numerous times by the
parents during instructional time. THANK
YOU!
Our students and staff are still working hard
and there is still plenty of work to do prior to
the end of the school year. I ask all parents to
continue encouraging their children to work
hard to the last day of school. Teachers will
continue working hard to better serve them
and meet their needs to be well prepared for the
upcoming school year.
Your continued support is appreciated.
Mr. Sanchez
April is National
Poetry Month!
UPCOMING EVENTS
April 9-Literacy night- 6 pm
April 11-State Destination Imagination Tournament
April 13-PARCC Part 2 begins
April 15-2 Hour Early Release
April 24- Progress Reports Due
April 30-School Wide Field trip (Shrek) 9:30am
May 1-(5th-6th) Will go to Bloomfield to perform dances
May 14-Blanco Music Concert-7pm (BHS)
May 26-Kindergarten Play (9:30am)
May 26- 6th grade promotion
May 27-Kindergarten Promise to Graduate
Students in grades 2-6 that are the AR
Top 30 and Million Word Readers will
celebrate with a sleepover in the
school Friday, May 15.
Hello Parents!
It is now one month away from our Spring Concert Program K-6th
grade. I have asked teachers to hand out music to the students to
take home and practice with your help. I have also provided
recordings of their music on my website that I have designated
use for Blanco Elementary students to access to practice at home.
The Website url is: meganrlopez.weebly.com
The website has information about the upcoming concert, the
location and time that the concert will start. Students will need to
be there at 6:30pm so that we can seat them for the concert. This
year we are placing the students in the audience so that they may
see their peers perform. This limits the amount of seats for in
general and I am aware that seats become limited due to the fact
that many arrive. So in order to watch the kiddos please know that
the sooner you arrive the more chance you have to find a
comfortable seat.
The school dress code is the primary basis for the concert attire
the students can wear.
However here are a few tips to help you in the process.
Ladies and Gentlemen
- Ladies you may wear dresses of any color as long as they are
knee length or longer, and cover the shoulders with either a short
sleeve, long sleeve, or if the dress is a tank top please cover your
shoulders with a long sleeved or short sleeved cardigan.
- You may also wear clean jeans; meaning jeans without holes,
dirt or mud and a short sleeved or long sleeve t-shirt or blouse.
Any color is acceptable. NO SHORTS.
- If wearing a shirt all shirts must have no writing, no pictures of
cartoons, people, or items. The shirt must be a plain color or
pattern (plaid, striped, checkered, tie dye, ECT.)
- Wear comfortable shoes, heels are acceptable; boots are
acceptable NO FLIP FLOPS!
- LADIES! You must wear your hair that enables you to see the
conductor (ME!) NO hair in front of your eyes, face, ECT. Bangs
are acceptable as long as they are not distracting your vision.
- You may wear jewelry and hair bows and goodies if you would
like.
- Gentlemen, you may wear button up shirts, ties, bow ties,
suspenders, belts, suit pants instead of jeans, and a suit jacket if
that is desired attire determined by you and your guardians. A tux
if fine as well. Just beware it might get a little toasty on stage.
- wear comfortable shoes, boots are acceptable. Dress shoes are
acceptable.
-no hats onstage!!!! Of any kind, you may wear it to the concert but
not during.
It is a spring concert and I am aware not many parents have suits
for their little gentlemen’s, and pretty dresses for their ladies, so if
you want to dress your children up you may and I support that,
and if that is not an option please dress them as nicely as they can
be I support that 100%
My contact information is on the website, and in case,
[email protected]
It’s great to be a Wildcat!
Grade Level News
Kindergarten: Parents please remember to practice with your students on their individual parts for the end of the year
program. We will continue, comparing by length and problem solving as well as sorting, classifying, counting and categorizing data
for math this week. We will be working on learning about amazing creatures in the coming month – from insects to ocean animals.
This week we learned that insects have 6 legs and live everywhere both on land and in the water. Some insects can fly like ladybugs
and some glow in the dark like fireflies. What insects can you discover in your backyard? Have your kindergartner draw a picture
and bring it in to share with the class.
First Grade: Language Arts: Earth Day is coming up on April 22nd so we will incorporate Earth Day reading, writing, and
science projects into our lessons for the month. We will be reading nonfiction stories about living things. We will summarize the
sequence of events in the stories we read. We will be reading, writing, and identifying words with the long 'oi' and 'oy' sounds. Next
week's spelling words are: spoil, coin, join, joy, toy, boy, eyes, enough. Math: We will introduce and begin topic 14 on data and
graphing. We will be using data from real, picture, and bar graphs. Students will also be collecting and recording data to make their
own graphs. PLEASE REMEMBER TO READ EVERY NIGHT AND PRACTICE SIGHT WORDS!!
Second Grade: This week in reading and language arts our focus is monitoring comprehension /summarize/ and Reread “Meet
the Super Croc”. The skill: In Language art Identify a sequence of events/Phonics-we are focusing on open syllables. Review closed
syllables. In Grammar we will focus on pronouns I, me, we, and us capitalization of proper-noun I. Our Writing topic is writing a
personal narrative. In Math this week – Topic 15 Measuring, 15.1 exploring length, 15.2 inches, 15.3 Centimeters, 15.4 inches, feet,
and yards, 15.5 centimeters and meters. Next week in reading and language arts our focus is monitoring comprehension Adjust
Reading Rate, summarize, we are reading, “Farfallina & Marcel”. Phonics target- will be identifying Open Syllables and Word partsconsonant+ le syllables. Our writing topic is writing a Friendly letter and writing a research report. In Math next week – Topic 15
Measuring, 15.6 Measuring Length, 15.7 Adding and Subtracting in Measurement, 15.9 Use object, 15.10 Assessment. Thank you for
your continued support in nightly reading for AR and practice of Sight-Words.
Third Grade: Third grade has started our story telling unit for language arts. Our story for next week is a play called "The
Strongest One." The vocabulary is: decorated, symbol, darken, gnaws, securing, and weakest. Our skills are visualizing, summarizing
and making inferences. Next week we will take a break from spelling and menu items due to the end of the year PARCC testing. In
math we will be reviewing and refining past concepts. Please make sure your child gets plenty of rest and eats a healthy breakfast.
Also, encourage them to do their best, and remind them that they are smart and capable of success!
Fourth Grade: Next week, we will finish out the last three sessions of PARCC testing. We are very excited to be wrapping up
our standardized testing. As we make our way through testing, we will still be working on preparing these students for moving onto
5th grade. We have been working on Customary and Metric Units, and how to convert them for comparing the units to another. We
will be working on measurements of time and area and perimeter. We will be wrapping up our year with Geometry and Step Up to
5th grade. In Language Arts, we are still working through mastering our standards in Reading Literature (Fiction) and Reading
Information (Nonfiction). Every day in fiction we cover characters, plots and theme. And in informational text we determine the
main idea of our passages. Our main focus for the week in reading literature will be comparing and contrasting similar themes and
topics, patterns of events, in stories. And in reading information our focus will be explain events, and ideas in historical or scientific
text, including what happened and why, based on specific information in the text. Some vocabulary words you can practice with your
students could be: capacity, length, decade, century, and millennium.
Fifth Grade: 5th Graders will be refining their writing skills and focusing on descriptive and narrative paragraphs. For math, we
will be moving from standard measurements to data analysis. Reading is a critical part of your child's homework and it makes a world
of difference when moving into the 6th grade. Continue to read at home...
Sixth Grade: Students will continue the next portion of the PARCC Assessment beginning Tuesday, April 14th. Please make
sure that your child is well rested and goes to bed early each night. In addition, please send a water bottle with your child. If any
parent can donate snacks, it would be appreciated. Do not send peanut-related snacks as we have students with allergies to those types
of snacks. Also, please make sure that your child has a good breakfast either at home or is able to eat here at school. Thank you for
your support. We will try to begin a unit on Data and Statistics in math. Also, students will continue their research for their Natural
Disaster Project. The project is due April 17th. It is an in-class group project, with the option of building a model of their disaster for
extra credit.
PE: Students are in process of entering their fitness scores into the Chrome Books. Please do ask your child how they did on the 6
fitness test. These tests represent their fitness level and it would be good for them to think about where they are and what they need to
improve in. The testing was completed in the following areas: 90 degree pushups; 45 degree curl ups; Pacer test (running); shoulder
flexibility; leg stretch; and the Trunk Lift. The pushup is the number one strength building exercise and one the whole family can do
together. Pull ups are a weakness with most children so if you have a bar or tree branch available to do some pull ups on, then having
your child use a chair to jump up and get chin above the bar and take 5 seconds to let your arms down to extension they will soon be
able to do a pull up. This test is used at the junior high and high school. Start working on pull-ups at the 4th or 5th grade level so they
can perform 8 or more in 7th grade.
Art: This year is winding down and many of the students are still learning about the Principles of Design: Patterns,
Balance, Movement/Rhythm, Variety, Unity, Proportion, and Emphasis. These concepts, along with the Elements of Art:
Line, Color, Form, Shape, Value, Space and Texture are the building blocks of learning about doing art, critiquing art and
understanding what an artist wants to say. These concepts will be on the EOC (End of Course) exam for 4th, 5th and 6th
grade. Also: I am asking that if you have any old horse shoes and would like to get rid of them, could you donate those
to our art class. If you contact me, I will make arrangements to come and pick them up. Thanks!
Destination Imagination: Two teams are competing Saturday at Albuquerque Academy for the State DI Competition.
Quizzlers and DI-nomite will be performing their versions of Feary Tales in the Middle School and Elementary divisions as
well as competing in an instant challenge. Best of luck to: Elizabeth Florez, Monica Perez, Cami Deifenbaugh, Maggie
Salazar, Jacob Berryhill, Khale Lucero, Jaton Rottman, Javen Chavez, and John Tavenner. Thank you to Monica Lujan,
Tabitha Sloniker, Emma and Dennis Chavez, and Anita Berryhill for agreeing to chaperone. Thank you to other parents
who will be there Saturday in attendance and in support of our fabulous kids! We will be joined by teams from Mesa Alta
and Bloomfield High School.
The next Destination Imagination after school will be Monday, April 13 for students in grades 4-6. There will be
activity buses. Look for your child's invitation.
Accelerated Reader: Danica Coen has read over One Million Words. We now have 18 Million Word Readers who will
be joining the Top 30 on May 15.