Building on Success: Helping Your Child Thrive Over the Holiday Break 

Dear Robles Bobcat Families,

As we head into the holiday season, I want to take a moment to celebrate all the incredible growth our students have achieved in reading and math this semester. Your children’s hard work and dedication are evident every day, and we couldn’t be prouder of their progress. With the first semester coming to a close, we’re excited to continue building on this success in the new year!

Supporting Learning Over the Long Break

The winter break is a wonderful time to recharge, but it’s also an opportunity to keep learning alive at home. Here are some simple ways to support your child’s growth in reading and math:

• Reading: Encourage your child to read daily. This could be books, magazines, or even recipes! Ask them questions about what they’ve read to build comprehension.

• Math: Practice math fluency by incorporating math into everyday activities, like counting holiday cookies, measuring ingredients, or solving puzzles. Websites like Prodigy or XtraMath can also provide fun, interactive practice.

A little practice each day can go a long way in maintaining and even boosting skills during the break!

Attendance Matters

December is an important month for learning, and every day in school counts. We often see a rise in absences this month, but it’s crucial to keep students in school unless they are ill. Frequent absences can impact your child’s ability to keep up with lessons and maintain progress, especially in foundational skills like reading and math.

Additionally, we’d like to remind families of Arizona’s Move on When Reading law. This policy ensures that students demonstrate adequate reading proficiency by the end of 3rd grade. Attending school regularly and staying engaged are key steps in supporting your child’s readiness to meet this requirement.

Safety First: Parking Lot Reminders

We want to ensure that drop-off and pick-up times are as safe and smooth as possible for everyone. Please remember:

• Only park in marked parking stalls.

• Drive slowly and use the crosswalks.

• Be patient in the drop-off lane; going around another vehicle is not safe.

• Dogs are not allowed on campus per Pima County ordinances for schools.

Lastly, if you are dropping your child off after 8:45 a.m., you must accompany them into the office to sign them in, as they will be marked tardy.

Looking Ahead

We are thrilled to see how much our students have grown academically and socially this semester. Your partnership and support are key to their success, and we look forward to finishing this semester strong and welcoming students back in January for an exciting new chapter of learning!

Thank you for being a vital part of the Robles community. Wishing all our families a joyful and safe holiday season.

Warm regards,

Dustie Gunn

Dustie Gunn, MAED, MBA
Principal, Robles Elementary School

2nd Grade Bobcats: Learning, Growing, and ROARing to Success 

By Martha Verdugo and Glenna Maniego

Greetings Altar Valley Families!

We are thrilled to share the amazing activities our 2nd Grade Bobcats have been engaged in since the start of the school year! We are incredibly proud of our students for embracing the challenge of Galileo Benchmarks for testing, working diligently even though it’s a new experience for many of them. Additionally, from the very beginning of 2nd grade, we’ve been committed to living out the Robles ROAR motto—"Respectful, Open-minded, Accountable, and Responsible." For our younger Bobcats, this means consistently setting a positive example and demonstrating appropriate behavior.

Through writing, children are introduced to new spelling patterns that broaden their word knowledge and improve their overall reading and writing skills. To help them confidently manage the new 2nd-grade spelling patterns, we also review 1st-grade patterns. In addition, 2nd graders learn the importance of correctly placing subjects, nouns, and punctuation, as well as how to construct complete sentences.

Reading plays a vital role for students as they learn about story structure, how to summarize a story, compare and contrast, and use text and graphic features to describe its elements. However, our primary focus is to help them identify the main purpose of a text, understand what the author aims to answer, explain, or describe, and describe how the author’s reasons support specific points in the text.

In Mathematics, we are still using the Illustrative Curriculum, and students have been focusing on addition and subtraction up to 100. They are also exploring U.S. customary measurements using various tools. To deepen their understanding, students engage with manipulatives to master math concepts through hands-on, real-world experiences. Additionally, we integrate technology into our instruction using platforms like Education.com, 99Math, IXL, Prodigy, and more.

This year, we will work closely with our 2nd graders to achieve remarkable success. Our goals include consistently improving their Benchmark test results, enhancing their reading fluency and comprehension skills in Acadience testing, and surpassing their CBM test scores. With teamwork, anything is possible!

Students from second grade B are working on reading different main ideas and matching them with the supporting details.