April 23 - Blanco Elementary School

Blanco Elementary
Thursday Note
April 23, 2015
Dear Parents and Community Members,
As we continue the learning experience for all our
students at Blanco Elementary, we have so many
great things happening in our school.
Students continue to work diligently in their
respective classrooms and the teachers remain
true to providing a strong and vigorous
educational program. As parents and community
members you have demonstrated a strong belief of
your school and the staff. Well on Tuesday, April
21, 2015; Blanco Elementary had an audit visit in
regard to our New Mexico Real Results Grant
under the direction of Mario Vigil and they
reported back to Mr. Rasor, Mr. Culpepper and
myself that they noticed a 93.7% student
engagement. So kudos to the staff for preparing
and providing a consist academic program and
students for willingly participating in the
learning process. Good Job!
They also
- recognized the students and staff for
the positive behavior they demonstrated in the
Hallways throughout the school day. Great
modeling by the students and staff!
The visiting team also recognized the staff for
their positive attitude in making things happen
regardless of the limited resources or staffing.
Good Job Teachers, Educational Assistants and
office staff.
They also praised the school and district for the
training and implementation process of new
programs that are targeted to assist teacher to
better address the needs of our diverse population
of students.
Yes they identified areas of growth, but they were
all areas the building has identified and has
started conversations to address them or has
started implementing practices to continuous
improve best practices in and out of the
classroom.
YEAH! Congratulations to the Destination Imagination
Teams and Mrs. Sally Travis for their admirable
representation of our Blanco Learning Community. Both
teams, the Quizzlers and Di-nomite were very successful
in the Regional Competition in Farmington and
qualifying for State. State competition the both teams did
a marvelous job and came home with a third place finish
(Di-nomite Team) and the Quizzlers winning first place
and qualifying for Global Finals in Nashville, Tennessee.
Go Blanco!
Mr. Sanchez
April is National Poetry Month!! On
Wednesday April 29, Connie Hendry,
Jasmine Brown, Alex Jones and all the Tier
3 kids are celebrating with “Open Mike”
poetry readings during strategy group. We
have a lot to celebrate and will have
cupcakes and ice cream too!
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 15- Top 30/ Million Word Readers Sleep Over
May 26-Kindergarten Play (9:30am)
May 26- 6th grade promotion
May 27-Kindergarten Promise to Graduate
For the second time, Blanco Elementary School is sending a team
of students to Destination Imagination’s Global Finals in
Knoxville, Tennessee held at the University of Tennessee campus
May 18-23, 2015. Financial support is extremely important for
schools to provide educational field trips to our students.
Destination Imagination’s vision is to develop opportunities that
inspire the global community of learners to utilize diverse
approaches in applying 21st century skills and creativity. The
Destination Imagination program encourages teams of learners to
have fun, take risks, focus and frame challenges while
incorporating STEM (science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics), the arts, problem-solving, creativity, team work,
and service learning. Participants learn patience, flexibility,
persistence, ethics, respect for others and their ideas, and the
collaborative problem solving process. Teams showcase their
solutions at tournaments in both a main challenge and an instant
challenge.
Blanco Elementary is sending a team of 5 sixth graders and two
coaches to compete in an arena that serves more than 16,000
competitors from the United States, Canada, Mexico and other
worldwide nations. Blanco’s team, the “Quizzlers”, includes:
Jacob Berryhill, Elizabeth Florez, Khale Lucero, Monica Perez,
Jaton Rottman, and coaches, Sally Travis (Instructional Resource
and Gifted Case Manager) and Amy Florez (Bloomfield High
School).
The team has worked with problem-solving,
improvisation, teamwork, and creativity for the last three years
and has competed locally, regionally, at the state level and last year
at Global Finals. They are committed to doing their best by
working together to solve problems and address challenges. They
are also extremely polite, hardworking, positive, and often
humorous.
Business donations are vital for the success in providing students
the educational opportunities to succeed. The generosities of the
following sponsors are making it all possible:
Mr. Jeff Holcomb, Holcomb Oil and Gas
Lindsay Mayes
Larry Martinez
Soaring Eagle Lodge
Kimber Crabtree
Jan and Lyle Nelson
Sarah Coelho
Mary and Corey Nelson
Amanda Curtis
Sam Flores
Crystal Madrid
Mr. & Mrs. Dennis (Emma) Chavez
Mr. Richard J. Barnes and Ms. Denise Chavez
Dan Tabor
Thank you so much for your donations. The team will experience
a trip of a lifetime.
THANK YOU TO COMMUNITY MEMBER, MR. JEFF
HOLCOMB OF HOLCOMB OIL AND GAS WHO
GENEROUSLY DONATED $1000 TO THE DESTINATION
IMAGINATION GLOBAL FINALS FUND FOR BLANCO
ELEMENTARY AND QUIZZLERS! Without community and
corporate sponsors, fundraising of this magnitude would be
impossible. THANK YOU TO THE STAFF AND TEACHERS
AT BLANCO ELEMENTARY FOR THEIR DONATIONS
FROM THEIR ACTIVITY FUNDS AS WELL. It takes a village
and all of our support to make this experience happen for our
kids. If you would like to donate to Destination Imagination,
please make checks payable to Blanco Elementary and let Nancy
in the office know. Thank you for your generosity!
It’s great to be a Wildcat!
Grade Level News
Kindergarten: This week we are learning about the different dinosaurs that existed. Be sure to ask your child what their
favorite dinosaur is. Thank you to all the parents who have sent costumes for the students to use. If you still have
something we could use, please send it in by May 1st so we can finish taking inventory. Parents please remember to
practice with your students on their individual parts for the end of the year program. This is rapidly sneaking up on us!
Blanco Kindergarten Promotion – May 26 at 9:30 a.m. in the Blanco Gym. BECC Promise to Graduate Program
(including Blanco kindergarten students) – May 27 at 9:30 am at the Bloomfield High School Stadium.
First Grade: First grade: in Language Arts we are reading a fiction story 'Whistle for Willie" while we are
learning to visualize and make inferences. We are learning the AU,AW vowel team and our spelling words are:
haul, cause, saw, claw, paw, dawn, nothing, along. In math we are starting Unit 15 on geometry, learning about
plane shapes (2-dimensional) and solid figures (3-dimensional). You can help your child by looking for and
naming the shapes around you: squares, rectangles, hexagons, circles. How many sides does it have? How
many corners?
Second Grade: Second Grade-this week in reading and language arts our focus is monitoring comprehension,
Adjust Reading Rate, making inferences, and we are reading, “Nutik, the Wolf Pup”. Phonics target- will be
identifying Open Syllables, and Word parts – inflected verbs, and reviewing- consonant+ le syllables. Our
writing topic is writing a Friendly letter and book report. In Math this week –Topic 15 Measuring, 15.9 Use
object, 15.10 Assessment, and Topic 15 re-teaching measurement. Second Grade- Next week in reading and
language arts our focus is monitoring comprehension, Generating questions, compare and contrast. We are
reading, “Splish! Splash! Animal Baths.” Phonics target- will be Vowel team syllables, word parts – inflected
nouns, and reviewing- consonant+ le syllables. Our writing topic is writing a summary, and editing our book
report. In Math next week – Topic 16- Time, Graphs, and Data, 16.1- Telling time to five minutes, 16.2- Telling
time before and after the hour, 16.3- Organizing data, 16.4- Graphing lengths.*reminder Field Trip scheduled
for Thursday, May 7, 2015. We will be going to the Aztec Ruins. On our trip we will tour the ruins and eat
lunch in the picnic area at the ruins. Students are recommended to bring: comfortable shoes (no flip- flops),
light jacket in case of weather change, disposable cameras (optional). Lunch will be provided by the school
cafeteria (that is optional also) please provide a Snack and water bottle. Thank you for your continued support
in nightly reading for AR and practice of Sight-Words.
Third Grade: Next week third grade will be reading the story "Cook-a-Doodle-Doo!" Our vocabulary words
include: magnificent, masterpiece, ingredient, recipes, tasty, and tradition. Students will be focusing on
generating questions, compare and contrast, and summarizing. In math students will continue learning about
measurement which includes learning about capacity. Please ask your child to look for their library books at
home and bring in books daily as students seem to be forgetting their books. Please remember that A.R. ends
May 8th, and students must make their goals in order to attend the class fieldtrip. Thank you for your support!
Fourth Grade: In Fourth Grade we are reviewing decimals, along with area and perimeter, in math. Next
week we will be back on track with measurement. In reading literature we are working on using evidence to
explain the a text and identifying theme. In reading information, we are still working on the structure of a
nonfiction text. We have wrapped up PARCC testing. So testing in the month of April is complete. Thank you
for your support during this time. Please continue to encourage your student to read at home for 30 minutes
every evening. Mr. Flores class continues to work on area and perimeter formulas of rectangles as well as continuing on writing
more than one paragraph using evidence and theme from " A Jury of Her Peers" story. His class is working on meeting their AR goals
and are continuing to read each night in order to test AR in the morning.
Fifth Grade: Next week will be a busy one for fifth grade. We will be going on a field trip to the Durango
Power science Center on Monday and attending the play "Shrek" with the rest of the school on Thursday.
Parents, please have your students at school on Monday, April 27 at 7:30 a.m. as the bus is expected to depart
promptly at 7:45 a.m. We will be using a large part of Reading and Language Arts for end of year testing in
NWEA. In Math, we will begin wrapping up our Data and Measurement unit and begin reviewing essential 5th
grade standards and jumpstarting some basic 6th grade standards as we prepare students for next year in sixth
grade.
Sixth Grade: 6th Grade - In Math, we will continue our unit on Data and Statistics. In Language
Arts/Science, students will present their natural disaster projects/newspapers. They will continue to work on
figurative language as well. Mr. Drollinger from Mesa Alta will be here on Friday, April 24th to help 6th
graders choose classes for next year. 6th Graders will also be attending the Shrek play at BHS auditorium in
the morning of April 30th. In addition, the 6th Grade Heritage Dancers will perform on May 1st in several
locations in Bloomfield and Blanco. Also, 6th graders will be attending a Buddy Day at MAJH on May 15
from 11:30-1:50. Remember that our Promotion Ceremony will be May 26th at 6:00 p.m. in the gym. Please
be looking for a letter to explain all that is expected of the 6th grade students and families for this very
important event. Thank you!
Accelerated Reader: Students should be at 50% of their goal. We have two more Million Word Readers: John
Tavenner and Junior Cruz. That makes an all-time record of 23 Million Word Readers at our school. Remember that we
will be celebrating the Top 30 Readers and Million Word Readers at Blanco's first sleepover Friday, May 15-16. Students
will be asked to bring a sleeping bag and pillow as well as camping gear such as a toothbrush and toothpaste. Qualifying
letters will go out the week of May 11 for students in grades 2-6. There will be plenty of chaperons and parents may
attend as well.
Destination Imagination: There will be one more After School Destination Imagination Monday, April 27. Look for
invitations for grades 4-6 coming home. Activity buses will be provided. Meet in the cafeteria after school at 2:45 until
3:00 for snack and drinks. Students should provide their own snacks and drinks unless they are part of the After School
Program with Miss Jasmine.
Art: Next week, BHS is putting on their annual musical; Shrek. There will be an art display in the lobby with