Hi Presidio Family!

April “showered” us with state-mandated assessments, field study opportunities, and our last flag ceremony of the school year. Students in grades 3-9 and 11 spent the better part of April working through state-mandated assessments, which made for an exhausting day and required flexibility on the part of the students and teachers. Despite these challenges, we couldn’t be more proud of our students. With the help of some incentives (thank you, Ms. Cahoon), our students arrived on time, prepared, and ready to “show what they know!” Huge shout outs go to Ms. Moreno and Ms. Eisberg for single-handedly proctoring all assessments and ensuring that all students who were required to complete state-mandated assessments did so!

Our seventh graders had the opportunity to head up the mountain to Sky School last week. They were quite surprised to still see snow on the ground, even though they were warned that it was going to be chilly up there. Props to Ms. Marquez and Mr. Schaefer for braving the overnight trip with 14 of our seventh graders. They came back smelling “earthy” with huge smiles on their faces, bragging to anyone who would listen about how amazing their experience was. While seventh grade was away, sixth and eighth grade got to play… with Virtual Reality. The ACT 1 Field Study Opportunity, Freedom in Expression, took participants on a 360° visual and audio journey connecting the history of public art to the Mexican Mural Movement with a muralist in modern-day Chicago and ground-breaking female mariachis in Tucson. Survey results from the students were incredibly positive, so we are looking for more of these experiences. We love providing hands-on learning opportunities for our students!

Our final flag ceremony of the 2022-2023 school year happened on April 28. Presidio welcomed community partners from various businesses to celebrate all of their good works and participate in Presidio’s character pillar activity. We were even visited by Pima County Superintendent, Mr. Dustin Williams, and Arizona Department of Education’s, Mr. Mila Makal, who joined Presidio to spotlight our character education programs. Mr. Makal said that he planned to feature photos from our flag ceremony on the Arizona Department of Education’s social media pages, so please take a look.

April showered us with amazing opportunities that set us up for a “blooming” May. We have 18 more school days of growth and I am excited to see what blossoms in May. Teacher Appreciation Week is May 8-12, 2023. Let’s shower them with love and appreciation for all they do to help us grow!

Happy May!

Jessica Montierth, Principal

PRESIDIO SCHOOL PTSO

 Please join us for our next PTSO Meeting on Thursday, May 4th at 5:00 pm in the Dreamcatcher Library.

What is PTSO?

PTSO stands for Parent Teacher Student Organization.

What is the Purpose of the PTSO?

• To be a relevant resource for families and communities
• To serve as a strong advocate for the education and well-being of every student
• To serve as a type of forum where parents, teachers, administrators, staff, students, and other concerned community members discuss ways to promote quality education, strive to expand the arts, encourage community involvement, and work for a healthy school environment

2023 SPRING SHOWCASES

Our annual Spring Showcase featuring the talents of our elementary and middle school students is fast approaching. Add these dates to your calendar and MAKE SURE TO PURCHASE YOUR TICKETS ASAP - LIMIT OF 4 TICKETS PER PERSON

Tickets are LIMITED - Please do not wait until the last minute to purchase tickets.

Showcase: Friday, May 5th, 2023
Dance & Kung Fu @ 9:00am
Art & Music @ 1:00pm
Tickets: $1

The Academies

Congratulations to the following Presidio students for being accepted into Harvard's summer program - The Academies.

• Braden Gader: Business
• Armida Hoffman: Pre-med
• Jamuna Paudel: Business
• Desmond Sowerby: Coding

Since 2015, The Academies have hosted pre-professional programs tailored for students 13+ years old, led by Harvard undergraduates. With programs in business, coding, government, and pre-med, The Academies has something for every student, regardless of background, interest, or previous experience.

The Scholastic Book Fair is Coming to Presidio!!

MAY 9 - MAY 11 SHOP IN PERSON from 2-4 PM Tuesday and Wednesday, and from 2-5 PM on Thursday!

All purchases through the Book Fair benefit our school. Thanks for supporting our students! Happy reading!

MAY 8 – MAY 21 SHOP ONLINE

Bring on the Bookjoy—25% of every online purchase during the Fair directly benefits our school!

Reading RTI

April has been a busy month of testing. In addition to state-mandated assessments, students in grades K-3 have had one-on-one DIBELS testing. DIBELS stands for Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills. At the end of these sessions, students look at the beginning, middle, and end-of-the-year scores. Students are amazed to see how much they have grown in their reading skills. If you have a K-3 student, ask them to tell you about it!

During testing weeks, students could earn chances to enter the Scholastic Dollars Raffle. Close to 100 students won a $10 gift certificate to be used at the Scholastic Book Fair May 9-11. Please see more details about the book fair by following the Scholastic link posted in the newsletter or on Presidio's Facebook page. There are book previews and more on our Scholastic page.

See you at the book fair!

We have been having lots of fun exploring 3-act tasks in Math RTI. In Act 1, students watch a short video of real life scenarios where they notice, wonder, and estimate after a question is posed. In Act 2, they are given information to piece together, and finally after lots of math exploration and sharing with peers, students see the final answer in Act 3. Many times we have erupted in cheers after seeing our answers match the last video!

Check out some of our work below where we explored how many Whopper candies filled a jar:

Carnegie Learning had a contest over five weeks in Fast ForWord. Please see the parent letter included below with the important details. The contest ran from March 27th - April 28th and students had the chance to win an Amazon gift card!

The kindergarten through third grade students are now in the final week of the contest sponsored by Carnegie Learning to finish at least 65% of their program each week.  

Mrs. Gonzales' third grade class has had the highest percentage of students finishing above 65% each week. AMAZING!

Ms. Kelsey’s third grade class came in second place in weeks 1, 2, and 4. Way to go third grade!

First graders continued to work on their writing skills this month. In Ms. Lopez's class, students completed an About Me project, going through the entire writing process. We brainstormed things about ourselves and then used those ideas to write a rough draft. Students worked on their own and together to practice sharing and editing their work. After completing final drafts, students were able to paint some amazing self portraits. 

In third grade this month we are learning fractions. The weather has been so nice lately we took math outside and did fractions with chalk! The students loved playing with the chalk and being able to write on the walls outside. We broke up shapes into different fractions and colored them in depending on the fraction given.

-Ms. Kelsey


Third grade reading and writing classes just successfully completed their multitude of reading, writing and oral reading fluency tests. Everyone put in a lot of work and dedication in preparing for it too! Now on to other subjects such as writing their very own persuasive essays about a topic of their choosing plus completing their reflection part of reading. Students truly have done an outstanding job this year! I know they will be bright, shining stars for all of their future reading and writing endeavors! It truly has been a pleasure being their teacher this year.

Tammy (Mrs. G.)

Hello there, Parent(s) and Guardian(s) of 4th Graders at Presidio,

We are coming to the end of the school year. 4th grade has put in a lot of work and effort this month with their AASA exams and classwork! Scores from state testing will not be available until next school year. This is a reminder that progress reports are a preview of current grades and can be changed by turning in missing work or simply chatting with your teacher about possibly redoing an assignment. We only have a couple of weeks left before the end of the year, let’s finish strong!

We have had a busy 4th quarter so far! We excelled at our AASAs and are extremely happy to have them behind us. We have officially finished 5th grade ELA curriculum and have started a 6th grade step course to prepare for the next year. We finished our incredible Solar System projects where we learned so much about our planet and everything else that encompasses our galaxy. We feel really great about our year and cannot believe how quickly it has gone by.

A Poem written by Erik Reynolds

Unseen

People see me the way they want me to be seen

There can be a sea of people pretending to be something they're not

They try to imagine me as something I’ve never been

They try to write my story as if I’m apart of a plot

But– When I am alone I am the person I want to be

They treat me as a thought

I want to be seen

I try to be the perfect human being

And yet I am unseen

But– When I am alone I am the person I want to be

If you missed the art display at the Joel D. Valdez Main Library, we now have our featured students' artwork (along with the winning painting by Jazmyn), hanging in our very own Presidio front office until the end of the school year.

Our Annual Spring Dance and Kung Fu Showcase on May 5th at 9am in the MPR is almost here!

From Musicals to Boy Bands, Jazz to Hip Hop, make sure you mark your calendar to see our 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 6th graders perform and show off what they have learned this semester!