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December 2015 1 - Math Masters 3:15pm

2 - Lunch on the Lawn

2 - 4 - DIBELS testing K-3

2 - Preschool Screening 8:30am


3 - Picture Retakes

3 - Library Club 3:15pm

3 - 5th & 6th Grd Band Concert at

Combs High School 7:00pm


7 - 11 Classroom Spelling Bee

7 - 18 - Galileo Testing

7 - Ranch Orchestra Holiday Concert

5:00pm MPR

8 - Battle of the Books study session 3:15

8 - Math Masters 3:15

9 - PTO Little Caesars Pizza Night



11 - PTO Pancakes with Santa 5:00pm

14 - 18 PTO Penguin Patch Holiday Store

14 - Jingle Jog



17 - Character of the month luncheon

17 - Library Club 3:15pm

18 - End of 2nd quarter


18 - NO POPS Classes

18 - AM Kinder Express Only

18 - Early Dismissal 12:00

NO SCHOOL 12/21 - 1/4/16

JANUARY

5 - School Resumes

5 - Battle of the Books study session 3:15




8 - Report Cards go home

8 - Awards Assembly - K-2 12:40

3rd & 4th 1:25 5th & 6th 2:05

Ranch Elementary School

43521 N. Kenworthy Ave. San Tan Valley, AZ 85140 Ph: 480-882-3530 Fax: 480-655-6412 www.ranch.jocombs.org

Office Hours: Monday - Friday 7:30 - 4:00

Aaron Dollar

I was asked to nominate a student that shows a Pillar of

Character “Caring”. The first student that came to

mind was Aaron. Aaron shows how much he cares for

his classmates and teacher everyday by treating others

with kindness and thinking about how his actions will af-

fect others around him. His helpful spirit and smiling

face puts me in a better frame of mind to start my day.

Aaron is the first to reach out and help his classmates

with daily activities and assignments. He is a student

that models all of the Pillars of Character everyday, but

especially Caring.

Mrs. Hopaczylo Citizenship

RANCH STAFF DECEMBER BIRTHDAYS

11 - Eve Heinzelman - Resource Para

16 - Brendan Stynes - Program Specialist for POPS

20 - Sue Kruse - Principal

27 - Michelle Womack - Attendance Clerk

Kinder Prep

In December, Kinder Prep has a very busy month. We will be learning about celebrations that

happen this time of year like Christmas, Hanukah, and Kwanzaa. Parents are encouraged to

share things from their culture and about the holidays that they celebrate in their homes. We have

begun our mid-year assessments, as well. We are reviewing a lot of our skills this month while still

teaching some new skills. Our letters of the month are Bb, Uu, and Cc. Our numbers are 9 and 10. The

color is green and our shape this month is the star. We will be learning about length in math. The chil-

dren will practice their measuring skills using an animal ruler that they will be making this month. Our

upcoming family event, the Gingerbread House day will be on December 15th. Look for more information

to come home soon about this activity as well as other activities in your child’s classroom.

We are so Thankful for all the Ranch

Roadrunners that come to our room

each day to visit with us. It makes us feel so

good to have such good friends. To show our ap-

preciation we had a “Thankful Thanksgiving Din-

ner: and invited our friends to share it with us.

We made mashed potatoes, gravy, and pumpkin

pie to go with the turkey – YUM YUM!

Functional Life Skills POPS

During the month of December the

students in our POPS program will be learning

about holiday traditions around the world. We

will be discussing and learning about various tra-

ditions that are from different countries. We

will be expanding our knowledge about the tradi-

tions through hands on classroom activities.

Throughout our day we will engage in activities

where we will be discussing the color of the

month; green, reviewing shapes circle, triangle

and rectangle, review concepts big and little, long

and short and in and out and reviewing sounds h,

m,t, d, f and v.

It has been a great first semester in Kindergar-

ten. Students have made such growth and it is won-

derful to see how much they have learned. Please

make sure that you review the Fundations packet

that is sent home every week. We will work through

Unit 2 quickly. Please help your student with letter

formation of both lower and upper case let-

ters. They will be held accountable for correct

letter formation. In math, we will be working on

simple addition and subtraction. Please also help

your child with correct number formation as well

as practicing number order and quantities that

numbers represent. Thank you for all you do to

support your child’s learning at home. Have a won-

derful winter break!

Kindergarten

In Fundations our first graders are

working hard on reading and writing

words with glued sounds such as –an and

–am and also words with suffixes! Please

continue to read with your child every

night to support their reading fluency. For math,

we are working on place value. Students should

be able to identify the amount of tens and ones

in a 2 digit number using concrete objects, place

value cards or drawings. This will build the foun-

dation for Unit 5 where students will be ex-

pected to add and subtract 2 digit numbers.

During the last weeks of November we will be

discovering the journey of the Pilgrims as they

ventured on the Mayflower.

First Grade

Second Grade

Is your child reading 20

minutes each night? Our

friends need lots of practice

reading out loud. Please spend

the time with your child each night to

listen to them read to you. Students are

also encouraged to read to siblings,

stuffed animals, neighbors, and grand-

parents! It is time to start preparing

for the 2nd Annual Spelling Bee. Stu-

dents should be working on the Funda-

tions trick words list. The Second Grade

Science Fair will now be held on February

3, 2016, along with all of 2nd - 6th

grade.

Third Grade

We can’t believe that the school year is almost

half over. We have a lot of exciting things going

on in class right now. This month in

For Math we will be reviewing all of the concepts

that we have been learning throughout the quar-

ter in order to prepare for the district quarterly

Benchmark. Some of the concepts we have

learned are: Area, Time, Measurement, 2 step

word problems, Multiplication, and division. In

Language Arts: we will be concentrating on Parts

of Speech, Story Elements, Multiple Meaning

words, and dictionary skills and reviewing the

concepts learned over the quarter to prepare

for the Benchmark. In writing we will be contin-

uing our Personal Narratives, Opinions, and fo-

cusing on transition sentences.

Fourth Grade

It's already December! Where has the time

gone!? 4th grade has been super busy pre-

paring for second quarter Galileo testing.

Testing will take place during the second

week of December. Here’s what’s going on in

4th grade. In Math we just finished our di-

vision unit and we are now exploring the won-

derful world of ALGEBRA through equations

and word problems. Science we are studying

Animals, vertebrates and invertebrates. So-

cial Studies we are reading about Spanish

exploration and settlement of Arizona and

the Southwest. Reading the students are

comparing and contrasting elements of non-

fictional text

and identifying

sequence and

text structure.

In the month of December, 5th graders will continue

to excitedly earn "Holiday Money" for their Ginger-

bread House Party activity! Thanks in advance to all

families for helping with classroom donations for

this event! It is a fun and exciting way for students

to enjoy the holidays while being further motivated

to demonstrate good character and make good choic-

es in school! We will also continue to progress

through the Biz Town curriculum as the Feb.

1st field trip date is right around the corner! Please

continue to submit field trip paperwork and pay-

ments (due date is Friday, Dec. 4th). Finally, we

will be wrapping up Unit 5 in math and

gearing up for our 2nd Quarter Gali-

leo tests! We wish you all a safe and

happy holiday season!

Fifth Grade

Sixth Grade

December will be a short academic month, but 6th graders will be very busy in

those couple weeks. Mrs. Cross' class is working on a collaborative project with Mrs. Lu-

ostari's preschool class in planting a winter garden. The students have been put into

groups and have the garden plots all weeded and rowed for planting seeds with the 3 & 4

year old students. Both classes will be learning about BizTown with the help of Junior

Achievement planning and workbooks students are learning about what it takes to run a

business, hold a job and have responsibilities in a town. Benchmark testing is scheduled

for the first couple weeks of December, so students will need to buckle down, per-

severe, and achieve the success we all know they are capable of achieving.

If you would like to help a family for the holidays, watch for the tree decorated with holiday tags located

in the office just after the Thanksgiving holiday. Simply select a tag, shop for the item, attach the tag to

the item and return it unwrapped to the office by December 10. School district employees and helpers will

be wrapping the items and putting them together for delivery to families. Even easier, as you pick up gro-

ceries or other items from area groceries stores, pick up a small gift card in amounts from $5-25 and turn

them into the office. All gift cards will be given to Ranch families. Thank you for making the holidays Mer-

rier for our student population. In October, Ranch elementary hosted the Power of One assembly. Ask your

student what they remember about their own super power, the Power of One. We are having a Career Fair

in January. Please let me know if you would be willing to come to school on January 22 from 1-3pm to partic-

ipate in the fair, allowing students to talk to you about what you do and how you trained for your job.

Laurie McRae 480 882-3530 Ext 1615

Social Worker Corner

November Student of the Month

The following students were recog-

nized for showing great citizenship

by having lunch on the stage with a

friend on Thursday, November 19.

Congratulations!

Acacia Melvin

Amileth Sandoval-Rodriguez

Brayden Thompson

Cheyann Collins

Ethan Stephens

Gracie Solis

Gunner Merkley

Hailey Ojeda

Hailey Vandersommen

Jasper Simmons

Naomi Wilkins

Reagan Christensen

Talia Barreto

Tina Vo

The Ranch Elementary School Band will perform the end of semester concert

on December 3 at 7:00 PM in the Combs High School gymnasium. This concert will include

music from the Ranch Elementary School fifth and sixth grade bands, Combs High School choir, and

each of the Combs High School bands. Admission is free and there will be an exciting audience participa-

tion moment as well. Don't miss it!

BAND

3rd-6th grade will continue participating in a typing competition. We will be

using typing.com to determine words per minute, time on task, accuracy, and

lessons completed. The winning teams (in each class) will be receiving prizes and treats. The

top team overall will have pizza during lunch. Stats will be tracked to encourage competition

throughout. K-2 will be using typing.com to identify letters and to practice us-

ing two hands when typing. We will also be playing typing games.

Technology

This month in Phys. Ed. all the students are having a great time learning how to

play with a scarf. Movement skills we are using with the scarf are for spatial awareness, height,

distance, right hand, left hand and various shape recognition. Grades 3-4 are beginning basic

football fundamentals. 5th and 6th grades are understanding the terms of football and learning

how to play four down football with the football flags in teams.

Physical Education

6th Grader Jasmyn Herrmann from

Mrs. Cross' class became one of the top

10 finalist in the Pinal County Attorney's

Office Drug Free Poster Contest. She

was awarded a bag full of goodies, a cer-

tificate and picture with Pinal County

Attorney and her poster featured in

print on next year's poster calendar dis-

tributed throughout the county! Con-

gratulations Jasmyn for a job well done.

Semi-finalists from Ranch 6th grade; Madison Lamb, Kassy Rodriguez,

Grayson Hunter, Jenna Miller and Haylee Jensen. They were part of

the top 50 out of 1000 entries to the contest. Congratulations to all our

Ranch participants. You did an amazing job!

http://typing.com/

Joy Beffre

Joy has impressed me by taking such a full load as a first year teacher

and is able to juggle it all! She does this all so amazingly well! And Joy

is so positive at all times! She is a great leader! Amber Gaylord

Colleen Harvey

Colleen displays many of the 6 pillars of character in her numerous du-

ties here at Ranch. Colleen works in three different classrooms each

day. She can always be counted on to be on time and cheerfully giving

her all, no matter what is requested. She is such a caring person to everyone, espe-

cially the students. Ranch is very lucky to have someone like Colleen on staff. Blinda Mills

Colleen is a hard worker and always does her job. She always is ready to help her

students and peers. Barb Gallegos

Ranch Staff Acknowledgement Form

Has a Ranch staff member gone above and beyond for you or your child? We would love to hear about it!

Please share your appreciation for a Ranch staff member and turn it in to the front office.

I would like to recognize_________________________________________for_________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

Ranch would like to thank everyone that attended our Veterans Day

Assembly. It was a huge success!!

Thank you to our Ranch Veterans Day committee members: Aaron Allen, Renee Braun, Amber Gaylord, Kara Flores, Keith Pennington, Paul LaPorte, and

Tammy Luostari

PTO’s December Events

December 9th is Little Caesars Night (Ironwood & Combs) - A portion of the proceeds from

all purchases this day will be donated to Ranch PTO. Save your proof of purchase labels off

the boxes and send them to school.

December 11th is Pancake Dinner with Santa from 5-7pm - Come enjoy a free pancake

dinner with your family. Take your picture with Santa ($3) and do some holiday kids crafts

(free). PTO will be selling sausage $1 & drinks $.50-$1.

December 14th-December 18th our Penguin Patch Store will be open. More information to

come!

Don’t forget about all our free funds for the school. Send in all Box Tops, Campbell’s, Labels

for Education, Empty Capri Suns, & Little Caesar’s Proof of Purchase labels

2016 Harkins Loyalty Ultimate Fundraiser Name: ______________________________________________________________________________

Student/ Teacher:_____________________________________________________________________

Phone Number:_______________________________________________________________________

Order and Money due to Mrs. Stacie by 12/11 If paying by check, Please make it out to Ranch PTO. Thank you

$

$

How can I make a tax credit donation? Ranch front office has tax credit forms or you can go to our website at

www.jocombs.org to print the tax credit form. When filling out the

form please be sure to check the box for Ranch Elementary and the box

designated as “other”. You can donate up to $200 for a single person or

up to $400 as married.

http://www.jocombs.org/

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