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M A R C H -
A P R I L
2 0 1 5
Mountain Elementary
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Improve
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Important Dates
Mountain Families,
Thank you for taking the time to attend
parent conferences. We always enjoy seeing
families at school!
As you have most likely heard, PARCC
testing has begun in New Mexico. I am happy to report that
things went more smoothly than we expected. We experienced
some technology problems during the first couple of days but
the district technology department worked diligently to resolve
those as quickly as possible. Overall, most of our students
seemed to feel pretty good about the test. Our primary goal is to
make testing as stress free as possible for our students. I am
always happy to answer any questions that you may have about
the testing that we are required to do at school.
3/2 – PARCC window opens 3/8 – “SPRING FORWARD” Daylight savings time begins 3/17 – St. Patrick’s Day 3/23 – Lock Down Drill – 12:00 3/27 – Mountain Speech Contest 3/30 – PTA Meeting at 12:10 4/1 – Kindergarten Roundup for incoming kindergarteners in fall 2015. 4/2 – Mark Kistler Assembly 4/3 – NO SCHOOL We have some wonderful activities planned over the next few
months including Family Literacy Night, two school wide
assemblies, and the Mountain Family Breakfast.
4/6 – 4/10 –Spring Break Thank you for taking the time to fill out the parent surveys. We
value your feedback and appreciate the support you give our
teachers.
4/15 – Evacuation Drill at 11:30 I am looking forward to a busy spring semester,
Jennifer Guy – Mountain Principal
SAFETY ALERT
Officer Adele Grimendonk has asked us to remind
students to wear helmets when riding bicycles and
scooters. This is important protection for your child.
Also, please remind your child to walk their
bikes/scooters on campus and be mindful of other
students. Thanks!
4/13 Professional Development Day – no school for students 4/16 – District Speech Contest 4/22 – Earth Day 4/23 – Family Literacy Night MOUNTAIN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
MARCH – APRIL 2016
Summer School
Save the Dates for Los Alamos Summer School 2015:
A 4 week Summer School Program
At Aspen Elementary
June 15 - July 10 (not meeting on Friday, July 3rd)
FOCUS:
Reinforcement of Reading & Math Skills
Computer Integration using Lexia / Read Live / XtraMath
Math Games / Reading Games
TUITION $100 /PER CLASS
(Financial assistance available)
*Participation based on teacher recommendation – Please let your child’s
teacher know if you are interested or would like more information
*Program Focus: To increase academic success of students who need extra
academic support and maintain levels of academic success over the summer.
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MOUNTAIN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
MARCH – APRIL 2016
Green Team is BACK!
Green Team will meet every
Friday during Lunch. They will
be doing several environmental
friendly projects to help us learn to Reuse, Reduce and
Recycle. Once the weather warms up and the gardens are
ready for a "Spring Cleaning", they will enjoy being
outdoors working in them, too. They are in need of tshirts in both adult and kid sizes to make reusable
shopping bags, if you have a few please send them with
your student. If anyone has an area of expertise that they
would like to share with this team please contact Mrs.
Clayton via k.clayton@laschools.net.
Family Literacy Night:
Dive Into A Good Book!
Mountain Elementary School invites you to attend Family
Literacy Night
When: April 23, 2015 from 5:00 – 7: 00 pm
Where: Mountain Elementary School
Who: All Mountain Students and their Families
What: Join us for dinner, participate in fun family
activities, join a book talk, and get FREE books!
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MOUNTAIN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
MARCH – APRIL 2016
CONGRATULATIONS
MOUNTAIN MATH COUNTS TEAM!!!!
The Mountain Math Counts team placed third in regional
competition and qualified to compete at the state level on
March 21, 2015 in Albuquerque. Great work team!
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MOUNTAIN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
MARCH – APRIL 2016
Kindergarten News
The Kindergartners have been busy applying the skills we
have been learning all year. This week we will be starting our
Robot thematic unit. Our students worked really hard on creating
and building awesome robots. We will be sharing, sorting,
classifying, and writing about our robots. They will be on display
for a few days in the main hallway beginning on Wednesday,
March 11th. We welcome you to come by and admire all their hard work!
2015 – 2016 Kindergarten Students:
Do you know of a child who will be ready for kindergarten for the 2015 – 2016 school year?
We will have “Kindergarten Roundup” for 2015 – 2016 incoming kindergarteners. They will
be invited to visit our school on Wednesday, April 1 to meet the kindergarten teachers, meet
other school staff, and tour the classrooms. Kindergarten Packets are available in the office.
ART GRANT NEWS
We are very excited to announce two awesome upcoming assemblies here at Mountain School!
The first assembly, scheduled for Thursday, April 2nd will feature guest artist, Emmy award
winning, Mark Kistler. Some of you may remember Mr. Kistler's dynamic and engaging art lessons
with Mountain students a few years ago. Mr. Kistler has taught 3D drawing lessons in over 7000
elementary assemblies all over the world! We are privileged to host him again and are so looking
forward to all the new things he has to teach us! If you would like more information about Mark
Kistler go to his website: markkistler.com
Our second guest performing artist is the very dynamic and talented, Peter Apel. Some of you may
recognize Peter as a Los Alamos native. Peter currently resides in California. Peter's music and
performances have rave reviews from parents, teachers and kids alike! Peter uses his songs to
"entertain, teach and shine brightness into kids days". You can learn more about Peter and his music
at :
www.peterapel.com
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MOUNTAIN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
MARCH – APRIL 2016
5th Grade Snowshoeing
Thank you to Mr. Hinojosa for arranging a fantastic trip for our fifth grade students! The
students had a wonderful time. The weather was perfect and they had a great
opportunity to try out snowshoeing and get some fresh air and exercise.
Last Wednesday, March 4th, all of the 5th Graders at Mountain Elementary School got to
experience snowshoeing at Camp May.
Led by their PE Teacher, Tony Hinojosa, the Mountain School Specials Team (Art, Music,
Library, PE) all worked together to give their 5th Graders the opportunity to explore the
beauty of Camp May, while learning how to utilize snowshoes, and searching for signs of
wildlife.
In order to equip 75 students, teachers, and volunteers with snowshoes, the school had to
gather them from 3 different sources. Barranca Elementary, the Pajarito Environmental
Education Center (PEEC), and Los Alamos County all supplied snowshoes. The public can
rent snowshoes from the County at the front desk of the Aquatic Center.
"We believe our students should experience all of the wonderful activities that our
community has to offer," said Mr. Hinojosa.
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MOUNTAIN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
MARCH – APRIL 2016
Second Grade News
2nd grade recently finished our annual penguin study! Through this fun thematic
unit, we read about penguins, wrote research reports, and learned second grade
science and social studies standards.
We also finished a compare-and-contrast activity using the story of Balto, the dog
who saved Nome. We compared and contrasted the non-fiction story to a
fictional movie.
In March, we will have fun trying to catch leprechauns! We have been
learning about simple machines in science, and we will apply this knowledge
to create traps to catch leprechauns on Saint Patrick’s Day!
The second grade teachers have expressed a need for donations of board
games. If you do any spring cleaning and have board games that you do not
want anymore, feel free to drop them off at the office. Please make sure all the
pieces are there. Thanks!
We hope you have a great month!
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MOUNTAIN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
MARCH – APRIL 2016
From the Nurse:
Important notice to parents of 6th Grade students:
During conference week a packet of information pertaining to 6th grade
transfer was sent home.
Within that packet is a Health History Form. I need this form back
ASAP in order to prepare student files to meet with the LAMS nurse.
Compiling health data on students from 5 different elementary schools can be very time
consuming for the middle school nurse. The quicker that I can get these forms back, the
more I can help her to be prepared for our incoming students.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Jacqueline Chrobocinski RN, BScN
663-2336
Order a
2014 -2015
Mountain Yearbook
Follow the steps below:
• Visit www.memorybook.com/parentpay
• Enter your pay code 73919 and click next
• Buy a yearbook for $16.00
You can order until April 2, 2015
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MOUNTIAN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Support our PTA
The Mountain Elementary School PTA does so many
wonderful things for our school. We could not possible be
successful without the support of the parents and
community. The PTA is looking for a chairman for the
Spring Book Fair and the Family Breakfast. Both events
are long standing traditions so much of the organizational
work is done, but they do need someone to head up each
event. Please contact Julie Baker
(julia.baker.pta@gmail.com) or Jennifer Guy
(j.guy@laschools.net) if you are in helping with one of the
things.
MARCH – APRIL 2015
PTA OFFICERS 2014-15
President: Abe Dispennette
abe@505agent.com
500-2494
Vice President:
JamesChrobocinski
james@ziarealtygroup.com
695-3400
Treasurer: Kristen Kucko
kristen.kucko.pta@gmail.com
719-761-1382
Secretary: Julia Baker
julia.baker.pta@gmail.com
661-9711
PTA WEBSITE:
https://sites.google.com/site/mountainpta/
Like us on Facebook!
Get updates on PTA meetings, programs and events by visiting us on
Facebook. Just go to https://www.facebook.com/MountainElementaryPTA and
click "Like" to get all of our latest info delivered to your newsfeed.
Another EASY way to support our school is by joining Smith’s Community Rewards and
Amazon SMILE. For directions on how to do this and other easy ways to support the school
visit the PTA website at:
https://sites.google.com/site/mountainpta/programs
Interested in taking on a committee or other role with the PTA for the 20152016 school year? WE NEED your help! Please contact one of the PTA
officers to get more information or let them know your are interested.