P r i n c i p a l ’s M e s s a g e

Marley Park exists to foster a positive, safe, and engaging educa-

tional environment which prepares college and career ready 21st century learners that are committed to suc-cess. It is our role to educate, inspire, and be of service to our

students.

Dear Families of Sunset Hills,

Happy New Year! We are excited to start another successful semester at Sunset Hills Elementary together with you. It was wonderful to kick off the new year by celebrating our students’ successes in the areas of academics and character in our 2nd quarter awards assemblies.

February brings a wonderful opportunity for our teachers to share with you how your child is progressing toward meeting academic goals. Parent teacher conferences will be the week of February 13th. Your child’s teacher will be reaching out to you to schedule your child’s parent teacher conference in the near future. Our goal is 100% parent participation. Thank you for your ongoing support!

Additionally this month, students in grades 3-8 will be preparing for the benchmark assessments that will take place in the first week of March. These will include reading, math, and science benchmarks. The schedule for testing will be included in the March newsletter. Teachers will share the schedule with parents in their email blasts the last week of February. The benchmark assessments will allow us to continue to personalize the learning for your child as we prepare for the AzMERIT assessment in April.

Safety continues to be a top priority for Sunset Hills and the Dysart Unified School District. We practice emergency responses throughout the year which include lockdown, evacuation, and shelter in place. With the new year, this may be an opportunity to have a conversation with your child about these types of drills and how your family plans for an emergency situation. For more information on these responses, as well as the parent reunification process in the event of an emergency, please visit the Dysart Safe page at www.dysart.org/safety.

Thank you for choosing Sunset Hills Elementary, where we are proud of the exceptional educational experiences that make your child future ready. We know you have a choice when you decide about schools for your children. We are honored that you selected Sunset Hills Elementary. We will continue to provide the excellent education your child deserves and we look forward to serving their needs for the years to come. Here’s to an incredible semester!

Sincerely, Josephine Tokhi Principal

Sunset Hills Vision, Mission,

Values STATEMENT

Together we

believe that all students can

achieve!

We are committed to developing every

member of our learning community

to ensure that all students succeed.

The students of

Sunset Hills Strive for academic

excellence, Honor the pillars of

character, Exceed expecta-

tions, and Show pride in all

we do!

THE BOBCAT BRIEF BOBCAT MONTHLY

Sunset Hills Elementary School

FEBRUARY 2017

Read the rest of

THE BOBCAT

BRIEF at

www.dysart.org/

Sunset Hills

Sunset Hills Elementary School

17825 W Sierra Montana Loop

Surprise, AZ 85388

623.523.8700

FEBRUARY 2017

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 2

3

4

5 6 7 8 9

PTO Meeting

3:30pm

10

Father/Daughter

Dance 5:30-

7:30pm

11

12 13

Book Fair

14

Book Fair

15

Book Fair

16

Book Fair

Parent Teach-

er Conferences

1:00 Release

17

Book Fair

Parent Teacher

Conferences 1:00

Release

18

19 20 21 APEX Run Kick

Off

Assembly for

Students

22 PTO Sonic

Restaurant

Night

23 24

Character

Counts

Lunch

25

26 27 28

January/February Testing Schedule for Grades K-8

In order to help inform our instruction, students will be taking mid-year assessments as follows. The dates listed are assessment windows and not a reflection that students are testing everyday of this window. Please ensure that you read your teacher’s email blast to help schedule appointments and family events outside of those days.

Jan. 23 - Feb. 3 - Houghton Mifflin Unit 4 Reading Test (Gr. 3)

Jan. 30 - Feb. 10 - Houghton Mifflin Unit 4 Reading Test (Gr. Kinder)

Jan. 30 - Feb. 10 - Houghton Mifflin Unit 4 Reading Test (Gr. 2)

Week of Jan. 30 - Feb. 3 - Science Performance Tasks (Gr. 7-8)

Jan . 30 - Feb. 10 - HMH Unit 4 Reading Test (Gr. 2)-Cont.

Feb. 6-17 - HMH Unit 4 Reading Test (Gr. 1)

Feb. 10 - DBQ #2 completed by this date. (K-8)

Feb. 21-24 - Science BM 2 (Gr. 6)

Mid-Feb. AIMS A & Science AIMS Aligned Benchmark (Grades 4 and 8)

Attendance

We want our students at school every day, but if your child has a fever, please help us reduce the spread of germs and keep your child home. Please be sure to contact the attendance line if your child is absent. The attendance line number is (623) 523-8703.

Tardies Please help us lessen the amount of tardies in ensuring your child is at school and in class by 8:15. Your

child’s teacher plans valuable learning activities from 8:00-8:15, and we want your child to benefit from this learning. In addition, please try to make appointments for after school so that your child is here to learn until 3:00 each day. As always, we appreciate your support!

Tax Credit Donations To make a tax credit donation to Sunset Hills Elementary School, follow these easy steps:

Fill out the Arizona Tax Credit Contribution Form. You can pick one up in our front office or print one off from www.dysart.org.

Attach your check for up to $400.00 and designate where you want your money spent at Sunset Hills.

School Designate

Athletics ~ Cheer, Basketball, Flag Football, Soccer, Softball, Baseball

Fine Arts ~ Bobcat Singers, Art Activity, Yearbook Activity, Drama Activity

Enrichment Remember you can donate as little as $20.00 and up to $400.00. Every donation counts!!!

Bring your contribution and completed form to the Sunset Hills office or mail it to the Dysart Unified School Dis-trict. Please do not forget to mark your application and check the memo line as Sunset Hills.

Yearbooks Yearbooks pages are being completed and the student team is excited for everyone to see this year’s yearbook! Yearbook orders will only be taken online so please make sure you order yours soon! $35 January 7th- March 16th

$40 March 17th (Last day to order!)

http://yearbooks.pixami.com/SunsetHills/home3/Bookstore.jsp

Yearbook 8th Grade Dedications

“Honor your child as you send them off to High School” Parent, please order your yearbooks and 8th grade Dedication pages at this site. Only online orders will be taken. http://yearbooks.pixami.com/SunsetHills/home3/Bookstore.jsp

Prices for 8th grade Dedications ⅛ page $5.00 ¼ page $10.00 ½ page $15.00

Safety Updates

Safety for our students at school is our number one concern and it goes hand in hand with safety at home. Did you know that Dysart.org offers several resources for parents? By visiting this link, https://www.dysart.org/Sites/Default.aspx?pgid=404, parents can find helpful resources for parenting, internet safety, and general safety items.

Our 16-17 SHES Safety Committee is in full swing focusing on what H.E.R.O. looks like in various areas on our campus. This past meeting we focused on recording training videos on what being a H.E.R.O. looks like in our hallways.

NJHS

Our National Junior Society is hard at work this semester. We have moved our NJHS meetings back to the first Thursday of every month, due to PTO meetings changing times. Our next

NJHS meeting is Thursday, Feb. 2nd from 3:15-4:00 in the library. We will still support our PTO at the meetings by providing babysitting but for those that volunteer it is just from 3:15-4:00. NJHS will also be volunteering at the Book Fair (week of Feb. 13th) and Father Daughter Dance (Feb. 10) this month. If your child is volunteering for anything before or after school, they will receive a permission slip.

Drama Shrek the Musical, Jr. will be performed at Valley Vista HS February 23-25 at 7 pm. Students K-8 have worked hard to prepare this show for everyone. We hope to see you there!

Art After School Activity The New Year has started out wonderfully as we prepare for our Art Community Project. We have been busy creating clay beads, clay charms, and inspirational messages that all will be assembled into a wind chime. In February, they will take their inspirational wind chime and leave them in random places for people to find. This is our way to spread kindness to strangers and to those who may need it most. When we meet in February, both groups will be together to create more clay charms, glaze the

clay, and assemble our wind chimes. If you happen to find any bells, we would be happy to use them to create the jingle sound. Thanks!!!

CHEER

The Cheer Squad is so excited to begin

our basketball season. Congratulations

to all girls who made the squad and to

the alternates. We will be cheering at most home

games. They will cheer at 5 girls games and 5 boys

games. We look forward to seeing our community as we

cheer on our boys and girls bobcat basketball team.

BAND Band students are starting music for the Spring Concert. Three students were selected for the 2017 Arizona All State Elementary Band. The students are: Hannah S., alto saxophone; Amelia M.,

trombone and Ryland D., clarinet. Congratulations to these wonderful musicians. Also, seven of our eighth grade band students have been selected for this years Dysart Honor Band. They are: Sarah A. flute; Diego A., alto saxophone; Isabelle M., clarinet; Lindsay M., clarinet; Ariana P., percussion; Katelyn S., clarinet; Ramiro Z., tenor saxophone. Again, congratulations to these special musicians. Strings class is starting to use the bow and move forward towards the Spring concert. We have 25 free tickets for string class members and their parents to attend the February 12th concert of the Youth Symphony of the West Valley. Please ask in the front office for the tickets. First come, first serve.

Friends of Rachel

Friends of Rachel meetings are every Wednesday

at 7:30am. Welcome to Ms. Hummel, who has

joined us to help facilitate the meetings! We have

kicked off the traditional Rachel’s Challenge chains

of kindness, and distributed the first chains to

each classroom. We can see the chains starting to build outside of

the doorways! This year, FOR members chose to make the chains

Bobcat HERO chains, using our Bobcat blue and grey, and honoring

those students who exemplify the HERO character traits. Way to go

students, for starting that chain reaction of kindness! We are planning

some great activities for Kindness Week, coming up soon in

February. Several opportunities for volunteering are coming up this

month as well, so please look for permission slips.

Congratulations to our Boys and Girls Basketball

Teams!

Girls Team Schedule

1/30 Sunset Hills vs. West Point at Kingswood 6:30pm

2/1 Thompson vs. Sunset Hills at Kingswood 5:30pm

2/6 Sunset Hills vs. Western Peaks at Western Peaks 5:30pm

2/8 Sunset Hills vs. Countryside at Western Peaks 4:30pm

2/13 Sunset Hills vs. Dysart at Western Peaks 5:30pm

2/15 Cimarron Springs vs. Sunset Hills at Western Peaks 4:30pm

2/22 Surprise vs. Sunset Hills at Western Peaks 5:30 pm

Boys Team Schedule

1/31 Sunset Hills vs. West Point at Kingswood 6:30pm

2/2 Thompson Ranch vs. Sunset Hills at Kingswood 5:30pm

2/7 Western Peaks vs. Sunset Hills at Western Peaks 5:30pm

2/9 Sunset Hills vs. Countryside at Western Peaks 4:30pm

2/14 Sunset Hills vs. Dysart at Western Peaks 5:30pm

2/16 Cimarron Springs vs. Sunset Hills at Western Peaks 4:30pm

2/23 Surprise vs. Sunset Hills at Western Peaks 5:30pm