Page 1

Los Lunas Schools

Sundance Elementary

January 2017

Welcome to 2017! I

sincerely hope that

each and every one of

you had a restful winter break. It is

so hard to believe that on January

8, we will have been here at

Sundance Elementary for 8 years.

We have enjoyed this beautiful

facility. Our students have taken

great care of their surroundings

and appear ready and willing to

start a new semester. We look

forward to many new and exciting

things happening in 2016.

I would like to extend a special

THANK YOU to Mr. Charles

Frazier who volunteered to be

Santa for our students. He arrived

on campus Thursday morning via

fire truck from the Village of Los

Lunas. Members of The Los Lunas

Fire Department chauffeured Santa

to our school. Mr. Frazier’s wife,

Mary Kay Frazier, Ms. Jamie

Baker, Ms. Nicole Martinez, Ms.

Diana Nuttall, and Ms. Kally

Harding were Santa’s Elves. Ms.

Nicole Martinez was our official

photographer. Thank you also to

Mr. Tim Rhodes, our PK Santa. He

graciously volunteered to meet and

(Continued on page 2)

FROM THE PRINCIPAL From the Principal 1-2

Computer Clicks 3

Academic Coach 4-5

Library 6

Music 6

Health 7

Physical Ed. 7-8

PTO 9

Counselor 10

Box Tops 11

Important Dates 12

Pop Tabs 12

Community 13

Breakfast/Lunch 14

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

January 18th, 19th & 20th

A parent-teacher conference is an opportunity for

you and your child’s teachers to engage in

conversations about student learning at home and

at school. This checklist will help you remember

what to ask when the time comes for your

parent-teacher conference.

Is my child performing on grade level?

How well is my child performing on tests?

Is my child behaving in class?

Is my child adjusting socially?

What are the most important assignments

coming up in class?

What is the best way for me to

communicate with you?

Be sure to communicate these

important points before leaving:

Any changes in the home that

could affect school performance

Any difficulties your child may be

experiencing in school

Your child’s special medical needs

Your child’s after school activities

Your child’s hopes and dreams

Your child’s home responsibilities

The best way for the school to

communicate with you

Page 2

greet each kiddo before they

left on break. Their time and

efforts are much appreciated.

We hope you enjoyed the

children’s pictures with Santa.

Special thanks to those of you

who sent cards and gifts

during the holidays. Goodies

were enjoyed for quite a while.

You helped to make our days

special.

Report cards will be issued on

January 18-20, 2017. Please

review the information with

your child carefully. If there is

a possibility that your child

will be recommended for

retention, you should have

been notified by your child’s

teacher and then attended a

(Continued from page 1) SAT (School Assistance Team)

meeting in either December or

January. If this has not

occurred and you have any

concerns, please notify your

child’s teacher as soon as

possible.

Congratulations to our

English Spelling Bee winners:

Estevan Gonzales, Alyssa

Romero and Mateo Ortega

was the alternate.

Congratulations to Estevan

Gonzales who will represent

us at the Valencia County

Spelling Bee on January 25,

2017. Special thanks to Ms.

Cristy Burt who coordinated

these events.

We will be having our

Renaissance assembly within

the next month. We will

recognize those students who

have excelled during the first

semester of school. The

Renaissance program

incorporates many of the same

ideas that Character Counts

emphasizes. Students earn

rewards based on academic

performance, attendance and

behavior. Congratulations to

all our students who have

earned this honor.

I wish you and your families

the best in 2017.

Mildred Chavez, Principal

From the Principal Cont.

TWO HOUR DELAYED

SCHEDULE:

Buses will depart to pick-up

students 2 hours after the

student’s regular pick-up bus

scheduled time.

Classes will begin 2 hours

after the regular start-up

time.

Breakfast will not be served

on delayed days.

There is no preschool on

delayed days.

Students and staff are

allowed to dress down.

Two-hour delayed snow days

are NOT required to be made-

up.

CANCELLED SCHOOL DAY-

DUE TO SNOW:

No classes for any students.

Cancelled school days due to

snow or inclement weather

will be made-up on a

designated “Snow Make-up”

day.

HOW DO YOU KNOW?

A call from the school secretary

or principal.

Check the LL schools website.

Any of the following media

sources:

KOB TV CH. 4

KOAT TV CH.7

KRQE TV CH.13

Please be cautious because

certain parts of Los Lunas

Schools may be closed or on a

delay not all.

Snow Day Procedures

Page 3

Carolyn Sandoval, Computer Lab Assistant

Winter is really here!!! Hope everyone had a

wonderful winter break and their holidays were

filled with happiness. In computer we will be going

over Digital safety and how to keep your personal

information safe by using I-Safe. We will also going

over the PARCC test (Partnership for Assessment of

Readiness for College and Careers). It is very

important that the students are prepared for the

PARCC test. If you are interested in seeing what the

PARCC test consists of or having your student

practice at home you can go to parcc.pearson.com

click Test Preparation then click Practice Test. Next

you can choose to do the English or Math

section. Once you have chosen English or

Math then you can choose the grade you

would like to do. After you have chosen a

grade click on Standard TestNav

Version and begin the test. By

having your student practice at

home it will better prepare them for

the PARCC test. Before we know it March

will get here and it will be test time.

During the month of January we will

continue to practice our typing skills and work on

different projects depending on grade level.

Kindergarten has come a long way in logging into the

computers they are also getting better at finding

their ABC’s on the keyboard. The other grades will

learn how to use the different programs in Microsoft

Office like Word, Excel, Publisher and Power Point.

If your student wants to practice their typing

at home they can log on to Typing instructor and

login. To log onto the web site they need to go to the

Los Lunas schools web site (llschools.net) and hover

over Students then click quick links. The page will

open and at the bottom of the page you will see

TYPING INSTRUCTOR STUDENT click on it. Once

the Typing Instructor opens your student will need

to log in to Typing Instructor. To log in they

will type in their user name and password.

Their user name is their lunch number L (yes

it’s a capital L) their password is their lunch

number S (yes it’s capital S) at the end of

their password. All students will log in the

same way.

User name Password

LUNCH #L LUNCH #S

New Students or 2nd grade or lower

0LUNCH#L LUNCH#S

The Sundance Renaissance Committee will be selling

Valentine Candy Grams

Buy a candy gram to send to a friend for 25 cents

Candy Grams will be on sale

Monday, February 6th—Friday, February 10th before school.

The Candy Grams will be delivered by the end of the day on

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Page 4

Page 5

Page 6

LIBRARY Patti S. Bitting, Library Assistant

Happy New Year to all! In January,

I will attend the Music Educators

All-State Conference where I will go

to several seminars that focus on

how to teach music at the elementary level.

The conference brings together music teachers

from all over the state to collaborate and learn

new ideas of how we might share music with

students in the classroom. As always, it will be

a great learning experience for me and I look

forward to incorporating some new ideas with

the kiddos at Sundance.

In addition to new things, I find that January

is a great time to review our understanding of

the instruments of the orchestra. Students will

watch some great videos of professional

musicians demonstrating their instruments.

These short video clips help students see and

hear the instruments that are making the

sounds that they are actually quite familiar

with having heard the orchestra play music in

many block buster movies such as Star Wars,

The Harry Potter Series, Jurassic

Park, Pirates of the Caribbean, How

to Train Your Dragon, The

Incredibles, The Little Mermaid and

Finding Nemo. We may even listen to a few

parts of these sound tracks and have some fun

identifying the instruments. Other than that,

it’s business as usual in music class with lots of

singing, playing instruments and moving to

music.

Happy New Year! I am so excited

about all the wonderful

adventures that lie ahead in

2017! The library will definitely

be full of learning and growing.

The spring semester will find the

Kindergarteners learning to use

place markers and choosing books

from shelves. The 1st and 2nd

graders will be learning how

books are organized, fiction and

non-fiction and genres. The 3rd-

6th graders will explore the

reference section and the

resources found there (i.e.

encyclopedias, atlases, almanacs,

dictionaries and thesaurus) They

will also learn about the Dewey

decimal system in the non-fiction

section and genres in the fiction

section.

Now that we are starting a new

semester, please help your child

to remember to keep their library

books in a safe place within their

back packs so they always have

their books with them. It is

important that their books are

returned to the library every

week. If your child has brought

home a letter regarding overdue

books or a lost book, please help

them to locate the book or pay for

the books. Students are not

allowed to check out additional

books until they return or pay for

the books checked out to them. In

a few instances, the next report

card will be held until lost books

are paid for. Our library

collection is limited and every lost

or damaged book makes an

impact on the number of books we

have available for our students.

Also, please be aware of water

bottles in back packs along with

library books. I have had many

damaged books this first semester

due to water damage. A water

damaged book is at great risk of

growing toxic mold and can no

longer be used. Thank you so

much for your assistance with

helping us to take care of our

library books.

As always curl up with a good

book and share your love of

reading with your child!

Patti S. Bitting, Library Assistant

Music Notes Erica Otero, Music Teacher

Page 7

Health News

Physical Education Monica Aragon, P.E Teacher

Supplies we could use: New or gently used

tennis shoes. Your support is greatly appreciated.

January 27-February 10, 2017

is our annual

Jump Rope For Heart Fundraiser

Jump Rope for Heart is almost here!!!!! Hooray! The students enjoy this

time of heart fitness and trying to help others who are struggling with

heart disease or stroke. If you have not yet created a personal web page

for your child through the American Heart Association’s website, now is a

great time. It only takes a few short minutes and is customizable for each

individual student. It’s a fantastic way to allow friends and family

members who live in another city to be involved in this amazing community

service project by donating online. It’s safe, fun and it helps save lives.

Donation packets will be sent out the week of January 23rd.

Thanks,

Coach Aragon

MAKE HEALTH YOUR RESOLUTION!!!

Healthy You: Make healthy food choices, be active, make an appointment for a check-up, vaccination or screening. Know your numbers –

weight, blood pressure, cholesterol. Wash your hands often. Be smoke free. Get enough sleep. Learn and practice a new health tip each week.

Make a new friend.

Healthy Family: Plan to eat more meals together as a family. Encourage and support physical activity. Put together a family health history.

Know where to go for health care in town if you do not have insurance. Keep pets vaccinated and healthy. Add a health related web site to your

favorites list, and check weekly updates. Spend more time together. Be courteous and practice good manners.

Healthy Home: Go green. Reduce, reuse, and recycle. Install smoke alarms, and carbon monoxide alarms on every level. Keep cleaning

products and medications away from children. Have a winter weather emergency plan, and stock your home and car with necessary supplies.

Avoid carbon monoxide poisoning and hypothermia. Never use generators, grills, camp stoves, or similar devices indoors.

Healthy Community: Volunteer at your church, school or one of the many community centers needing help or an extra hand. If you have

received help from others, try to repeat the gesture. Extend a common courtesy wherever you are-they are always

appreciated and hopefully duplicated.

Healthy Workplace: Stay home if you are sick. Wash your hands often. Participate in healthy workplace

programs. Take steps to prevent job stress. Reduce work injuries and practice good body mechanics.

Page 8

Page 9

Page 10

Dear Parents,

Hello and welcome to the remainder of the school year in 2017. I wanted to write and

introduce myself. My name is Sheila Broome and I am the new school Counselor here

at Sundance Elementary. I will be visiting your child’s class once a week working and

discussing various topics. Some students have expressed the need to discuss bullying,

test stress, anger management, sibling rivalry, along with numerous other topics.

I was born in California but I have spent the majority of my life in New Mexico. I

recently moved to Los Lunas from Clovis. I received my Bachelor’s degree in

Elementary Education in 2005 and then went on to obtain my Master’s in Counseling

in 2010. For the past eight years I have worked as a counselor in various settings.

I have two children in the Los Lunas school district, one who will be attending

Sundance and another who will be attending Los Lunas High School. We are very

excited to be here!

I have had the pleasure of meeting several students while in their classrooms this

week and they are wonderful, they have greeted me with smiling faces. I am looking

forward to working with your child. We will be working on an array of hands on

projects throughout the year.

If I need to be reached to discuss anything specific pertaining to your child’s needs,

please feel free to contact me.

Sincerely,

Sheila Broome

Every child should have a caring adult in their lives. And that’s not always a biological parent or family

member. It may be a Friend or a Neighbor. Often times it’s a Teacher -Joe Manchin

Sheila Broome, Counselor

Page 11

Page 12

1—Happy New Year!

4—Students return to LLS

10—PTO Meeting @ 3:45 PM

16-LLS/No school due to ML King Holiday

18-Early Release @ 12:50-No AM or PM PK

Parent Teacher Conferences-W-F

19-Early Release @ 12:50

20-Early Release @ 12:50

Renaissance Assembly

25-Hat day for Gold & Silver recipients

26-100th day of school

Dress down for Gold recipients

Mother/Son dance 6:00-7:30 PM in cafeteria

27—Gold luncheon settings in Cafeteria

Treat for all renaissance recipients

31-Smile for NM Kids (Dental Service) 9-3/Students must sign up &

will be called

Hello students, parents, and staff…..

Pop Tabs, Pop Tabs, What can you do with all of your pop tabs. You can

donate them to the Ronald McDonald House for charity! The more you

donate the better chance your class will have at winning a treat at the

end of the school year. Bring in your donation to the front

office or your teacher. Don’t for get to put your name it!

Page 13

Sundance #

80083

Here at Sundance, we know that its parents are very involved in their students’ education.

Below is an easy way to help out Sundance! By following the directions below and linking your

Smith’s card to Sundance, every time you make a purchase a percentage will go toward

Sundance.

Thank you for continuing to support Sundance!

Page 14