Dear Families,

It is difficult to believe we are at the end of our school year!  It has been our honor and privilege to be a part of your lives over the past year.  We love having your children here at Billie Martinez and we take great pride in providing the best education every day!  We could not do any of this without all of you!  Thank you for being a part of our lives!  We hope you have a fun, relaxing summer and enjoy your families.  I encourage all of you to continue to encourage your children to read every day all summer long!  477 students went up on their reading tests this year!  I think we can make that an even bigger number next year!  We look forward to having you all back here in the fall.

The 2017-2018 school year begins for children on Monday, August 21^st.  Next year the first school bell will ring at 7:45 AM.  Students will be considered late at the second bell that will ring at 7:50 AM.  All children can be at school for breakfast starting at 7:20 AM.  Because school begins so early, we will not have a regular recess first thing in the morning.  Students will go to their classrooms from breakfast.  There will be no supervision on the playground before school starts.  No one will be allowed on the playground first thing in the morning.  There may be times when the weather is nice and the staff watching your children in the mornings may decide to take them out, but that decision is day to day and we won’t be able to announce it to parents.  Students will get an additional recess outside with their classrooms.

Students will be dismissed at 3:10 PM each day.  We will not have any more Monday early releases, we do however have some Mondays when students will not be in school so the teachers can participate in professional development.  Those days will be published on a calendar.  We also have refrigerator magnets with all of our school information so you have all of these dates from the beginning of the year.  All Mondays when your children are in school they will stay until 3:10 PM.  The following Mondays your children will NOT be in school:

October 23^rd – No School for Students

December 4^th – No School for Students

January 15^th – Martin Luther King, Jr. Day – No School for Students

February 5^th – No School for Students

February 19^th – Presidents’ Day – No School for Students

March 26^th – No School for Students

April 30^th – No School for Students

All other Mondays when we are not on Spring Break or Winter Break, students will be in school.

Back to School Night will also be different next year.  As a new School of Innovation, we would like to take time to show you our new program and help you understand what your children will experience at Billie Martinez.  Back to School Night will be on Thursday, August 24^th from 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM. We will send more information about this important night on the first day of school. 

Thank you again for helping us make Billie Martinez an amazing place for all children to learn and for all families to feel welcome!  We cannot wait for next school year!

With my Deepest Respect,

Monica Draper

Principal, Billie Martinez Elementary

   

 

   

    

    

  

Students at Billie Martinez Elementary School are embarking on a new journey, STEAM!  On Tuesday, October 4^th, the first full year of STEAM kicked off at Martinez with chemistry, geology, animals and adaptations, force and motion, and alternative energy sources!  In the past few years Martinez teachers have been researching STEAM as a way to provide engaging and high quality instruction to students through Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math.  In August of this year, 26 teachers worked to design STEAM units of study for all students at Martinez.   And on Tuesday all of the hard work paid off as students were engaged in these STEAM projects!  Kindergarten students will study force and motion.  Students spent Tuesday using trash to build ‘machines that move.’  First graders are studying how horticulturists help farmers in our area.  Pam Hungenberg from Hungenberg Farms visited with first graders about the importance of farming in our area.  Second graders were engaged with the Butterfly Pavilion to kick off their unit of study about life cycles.  Poudre Learning Center teamed with third grade to introduce their month long study on how animals and plants interact with their environment here in Colorado.  Fourth Grade students are studying alternative energy forms and how these alternative energy sources may be able to save money in our school and district.    Students from UNC majoring in Science provided a chemistry lesson to fifth graders and modeled the importance of women in Science! 

Martinez started its journey toward being a STEAM school more than a year ago.  In the 2015-2016 school year students and teachers dove into a mini STEAM project in the spring.  Parents were invited to Dia del Nino and Science Day where all students presented their science projects to each other, to parents and to the community.  During the summer of 2016 teachers attended conferences about STEAM where they were able to make connections with the business community around Colorado.  Teachers were able to secure $2900 to build gardens at Martinez as part of the program.  One teacher won 30 robots to use for one of the STEAM projects to come.  Fourth and fifth grade classrooms wrote grants to participate in the Global Community project with JDO Foundation in Denver.  In the next few weeks each child in fourth and fifth grades will have their own computer to participate in a collaborative project with classrooms in England and Ireland.  Teachers, students and parents are thrilled with this new focus and look forward to a successful year!

Livia, a third grader at Martinez, said her favorite part of the day was getting to learn about the bull snake from Poudre Learning Center.  “I was afraid to hold it at first!  I thought it was creepy, but then the teacher said he was friendly so I wanted to hold him.  He felt scribbly to me!”