November 2025 Newsletter

November 2025 Happy Fall! Tucson is finally starting to cool down. Right around the corner are the holidays and the end of the first semester. November is the time that we all need to look at our lives and give thanks. We at Grijalva want to thank our students and their parents/guardians for being a part of the Grijalva Family. We hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoy your time together making some great memories! A huge thank you for everyone who donated their time and treats for our Halloween events. Thanks to you, our fun-filled Trunk-or-Treat was a great success! It was wonderful to see so many families enjoying the evening together! Thank you to all Veterans. We as a country are indebted to you for your service. To celebrate all our Veterans on November 11th there will be NO School. There will also be NO School on Thursday and Friday, November 27 & 28th in honor of Thanksgiving. We love having visitors at Grijalva. If you are interested in visiting or becoming a volunteer, please contact the front office at 520-908-3600. All visitors are required to sign in at the front office and get a visitor’s tag. Arrival/Dismissal: Please use caution when loading and unloading students. We are here to help things run smoothly and efficiently, so please have patience with us and other drivers. Thank you for driving courteously, safely, and slowly!   Health Office News The Health Office wants to remind you that student who are sick need to stay home. This includes cold, flu, strep throat, COVID, etc. Thank you for keeping for student home when they are sick. If you have any questions, please feel free to call Ms. Brooke at 520-908-3617.   Grijalva PTO The PTO is a critically valuable part of the Grijalva community. Our PTO plans community events that allow families to connect with each other and the school. The PTO helps fund class field trips, supplies for classrooms, Art, PE, and many other things that support Grijalva in maintaining its excellence. Please support us in reaching our goal of 100% of families being members of the PTO.   7:20 am – Earliest arrival 7:20 am- 7:40 am – Breakfast served 7:40 am - 1:55 pm – Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri 7:40 am - 12:55 pm – Wed (Early Dismissal) Office Hours: 7:15 am - 3:45 pm Office Phone: 520-908-3600 / Office Fax: 520-908-3601 The first bell rings at 7:40 and our teachers take attendance precisely at 7:45. Students arriving after 7:45 should check in with the office staff before going to class. For the safety of your child, please do not arrive prior to 7:20, the cafeteria breakfast and our playground do not have student supervision prior to 7:20. If absent, please call 520-908-3606 to alert our attendance clerk. Arizona State Law requires that you report all student absences. If your child is tardy to school, they will need to be checked-in, by a parent, in the Front Office before going to class.   All students at Grijalva will receive free breakfast and lunch! No forms necessary and no need to worry about packing food each day. Please make sure your child comes to school early to get their free breakfast. Breakfast is served from 7:20-7:40 AM.   We would love to have adult volunteers to support learning and activities at Grijalva! All volunteers need to meet the requirements on the Tucson Unified Volunteers website. Parents and guardians do not need to complete the fingerprint component, however all other adult volunteers must be fingerprinted. Parents cannot volunteer on field trips without completing this in advance.   November 11th – Vererans Day, NO SCHOOL November 27th-28th – Thanksgiving Recess, NO SCHOOL   Grizzly Gags What’s the most negative month of the year? NO-vember. What’s the most musical part of a turkey? The drumstick. How do you fix a gourd? With a pumpkin patch. What is a scarecrow’s favorite fruit? Straw-berries What smells the best on Thanksgiving? Your nose! What's the best thing to put into a pumpkin pie? Your teeth! What did the cranberry say to the turkey? Nothing. Cranberries can’t talk. Who is never hungry on Thanksgiving? The turkey because he’s already stuffed!   Grijalva Elementary School Email the School Visit our Website Location: 1795 W. Drexel Road Tucson, AZ 85746 Phone: (520) 908-3600 Like us on Facebook

Friday, Oct 31 2025

October 2025 Newsletter

October 2025 October is here, and with it comes our cooler weather. Remember, we will be on Fall Break from October 6-10 (no school). We hope that you enjoy some great family time together during the break. As we approach the end of the first quarter, it’s time for our young grizzlies to show off all they have learned on the district benchmarks. You can help your child by ensuring they get to bed early and eat a healthy dinner the night before and a healthy breakfast the day of the test and of course, enduring they arrive on time and ready to go. Thank you for your attendance at our Parent-Teacher conferences. You are always welcome to reach out to your child's teacher throughout the year for behavior and academic inquiries. We appreciate your support! As a school community, we are working to ensure the safety of all students. We are asking that all visitors/volunteers please sign in at the front office. If you are interested in volunteering, we would love to have you! We value our family volunteers and appreciate the partnership.   Grijalva PTO The PTO is a critically valuable part of the Grijalva community. Our PTO plans community events that allow families to connect with each other and the school. The PTO helps fund class field trips, supplies for classrooms, Art, PE, and many other things that support Grijalva in maintaining its excellence. Please support us in reaching our goal of 100% of families being members of the PTO.   7:20 am – Earliest arrival 7:20 am- 7:40 am – Breakfast served 7:40 am - 1:55 pm – Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri 7:40 am - 12:55 pm – Wed (Early Dismissal) Office Hours: 7:15 am - 3:45 pm Office Phone: 520-908-3600 / Office Fax: 520-908-3601 The first bell rings at 7:40 and our teachers take attendance precisely at 7:45. Students arriving after 7:45 should check in with the office staff before going to class. For the safety of your child, please do not arrive prior to 7:20, the cafeteria breakfast and our playground do not have student supervision prior to 7:20. If absent, please call 520-908-3606 to alert our attendance clerk. Arizona State Law requires that you report all student absences. If your child is tardy to school, they will need to be checked-in, by a parent, in the Front Office before going to class.   All students at Grijalva will receive free breakfast and lunch! No forms necessary and no need to worry about packing food each day. Please make sure your child comes to school early to get their free breakfast. Breakfast is served from 7:20-7:40 AM.   We would love to have adult volunteers to support learning and activities at Grijalva! All volunteers need to meet the requirements on the Tucson Unified Volunteers website. Parents and guardians do not need to complete the fingerprint component, however all other adult volunteers must be fingerprinted. Parents cannot volunteer on field trips without completing this in advance.   October 3rd – Grading Day, NO SCHOOL October 6th-10th – Fall Break, NO SCHOOL October 16th – Picture Re-Take Day October 28th – Boo Bash at Peter Piper (Spectrum Mall) October 29th – Professional Learning Day for Staff, NO SCHOOL   Halloween Howls What do you call a witch at the beach? A sand-witch. What kind of shoes does a ghost wear? Boooooots. What is a ghost’s favorite food? Spook-etti. Why was the broom late for school? It over-swept. What is a witch’s favorite subject at school? Spelling. Why couldn’t the skeleton dance? He had no body to dance with. What is a ghost’s favorite dessert? I-scream! What do birds do at Halloween? Go trick or tweeting.   Grijalva Elementary School Email the School Visit our Website Location: 1795 W. Drexel Road Tucson, AZ 85746 Phone: (520) 908-3600 Like us on Facebook

Tuesday, Sep 30 2025

September 2025 Newsletter

September 2025 It is hard to believe that the first month of school has come to an end. Thank you for a great beginning of the school year! We are now in full swing of things and looking forward to an amazing September. Teachers have jumped right into academic content, students are hard at work with their learning goals, and we are fortunate to be fully staffed with highly qualified teachers. Parent-Teacher Conference Days are September 17, 18, and 19. Students will be dismissed at 10:50 on each of these days to provide time for teachers and parents to meet. One of our goals this year is to have at least 90% of our families attend fall conferences. Please make sure you have scheduled a conference time with your child’s teacher. We also have benchmark testing at the end of the month. Please have your student present on time and prepared for benchmark exams. Avoid absences during this window, students perform better when they are testing together in the classroom rather than taking a make-up test in a different classroom/environment. Thank you for your support during benchmarks. PTO is a critically valuable part of the Grijalva community. Our PTO plans community events that allow families to connect with each other and the school. The PTO helps fund class field trips, supplies for classrooms, Art, PE, and many other things that support Grijalva in maintaining its excellence. Please support us in reaching our goal of 100% of families being members of the PTO.   We have started out the year with a bang and would like to begin by thanking you all for your support during dismissal. In the 2nd-5th side we would like to request that everyone avoid parking on the east side of Pin Oak and in the area between the two gates on the west side of Pin Oak. This is really helping the flow of traffic leaving the parent pick up area. If you have any questions, please let us know. Again, thank you for your support in this matter.   School attendance is a powerful predictor of your child's outcomes in school. According to the US Department of Education, irregular attendance can be a better predictor of whether a student will drop out of school before graduation than test scores. Your child's success in school is a direct result of their attendance at school each day. We are in this together for the success of your child. It is extremely important to your child’s growth that they are in school every single day and on time to be successful. Our Grizzlies are engaged in important learning by 7:45 each day, missing even 15-30 minutes per day impact their learning and social/emotional wellness. Missing 30 minutes per day equals 2 1/2 hours per week and 10 hours of learning per month; that is nearly 2 days of missed learning. Research shows that missing more than 8 days of school can cause significant gaps in a student’s education. Please try to schedule appointments or family outings around the school schedule. Should the need arise, you can call in your child’s absence for sickness into the front office. We do not sign children out of school after 1:30 PM on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and after 12:30 PM on Wednesday.   Parent-Teacher conferences will be coming up on September 17th, 18th and 19th, so please mark your calendars. School will dismiss at 10:50am on these days.   7:20 am – Earliest arrival 7:20 am- 7:40 am – Breakfast served 7:40 am - 1:55 pm – Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri 7:40 am - 12:55 pm – Wed (Early Dismissal) Office Hours: 7:15 am - 3:45 pm Office Phone: 520-908-3600 / Office Fax: 520-908-3601 The first bell rings at 7:40 and our teachers take attendance precisely at 7:45. Students arriving after 7:45 should check in with the office staff before going to class. For the safety of your child, please do not arrive prior to 7:20, the cafeteria breakfast and our playground do not have student supervision prior to 7:20. If absent, please call 520-908-3606 to alert our attendance clerk. Arizona State Law requires that you report all student absences. If your child is tardy to school, they will need to be checked-in, by a parent, in the Front Office before going to class.   We will have a daily snack time to support our students' minds and bodies. Snacks can be brought from home; however, we are asking students bring only "healthy" snacks, and please not to share anything with others as a health precaution. Donations of snacks for the entire class at the beginning of each month are greatly appreciated. Please only bring individually packaged healthy snacks. Healthy snack suggestions include: Pretzels, Cheese sticks, Fruit snacks, Popcorn, Animal Crackers, Goldfish, Chocolate Chip Granola Bars. Please remember that gum and candy are never allowed at school or our afterschool KIDCO program. Additionally, hot chips (Takis, Hot Cheetos, etc.) are proven to cause stomach issues. We would like to promote healthy snacks for our community. We also want to keep our campus looking clean and beautiful; gum can get caught on people’s shoes, furniture, and playground equipment. We want to avoid these sticky situations at Grijalva.   All students at Grijalva will receive free breakfast and lunch! No forms necessary and no need to worry about packing food each day. Please make sure your child comes to school early to get their free breakfast. Breakfast is served from 7:20-7:40 AM.   We would love to have adult volunteers to support learning and activities at Grijalva! All volunteers need to meet the requirements on the Tucson Unified Volunteers website. Parents and guardians do not need to complete the fingerprint component, however all other adult volunteers must be fingerprinted. Parents cannot volunteer on field trips without completing this in advance.   September 1st NO SCHOOL – Labor Day September 9th Picture Day (uniform not required) September 17th-19th Parent Teacher Conferences – students dismissed at 10:50am   Grijalva Elementary School Email the School Visit our Website Location: 1795 W. Drexel Road Tucson, AZ 85746 Phone: (520) 908-3600 Like us on Facebook

Tuesday, Sep 02 2025

August 2025 Newsletter

August 2025 Welcome back returning families and a special welcome to our new Grijalva Families! We hope you had a great summer and had many opportunities to make wonderful memories! On behalf of our entire staff, we are excited to welcome you and your children to a brand-new school year. We are thrilled that you have chosen to be a part of our Grijalva Family. Our staff is dedicated, committed, motivated, and prepared to embrace our students for another exciting school year! Student success is the goal of every staff member at Grijalva. We look forward to working alongside you to ensure a successful academic year.   7:20 am – Earliest arrival 7:20 am- 7:40 am – Breakfast served 7:40 am - 1:55 pm – Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri 7:40 am - 12:55 pm – Wed (Early Dismissal) Office Hours: 7:15 am - 3:45 pm Office Phone: 520-908-3600 / Office Fax: 520-908-3601 The first bell rings at 7:40 and our teachers take attendance precisely at 7:45. Students arriving after 7:45 should check in with the office staff before going to class. For the safety of your child, please do not arrive prior to 7:20, the cafeteria breakfast and our playground do not have student supervision prior to 7:20. If absent, please call 520-908-3606 to alert our attendance clerk. Arizona State Law requires that you report all student absences. If your child is tardy to school, they will need to be checked-in, by a parent, in the Front Office before going to class.   Arrival Procedures Students can be dropped off in the main parking lot (off Pin Oak) at the sidewalk from the passenger side of the car at 7:20 AM. For your child’s safety, please do not drop them off from the driver’s side of the car or in any other location in the parking lot. Students may also be dropped off along Drexel from the passenger’s side of the car. Please remember that U-turns on Drexel are prohibited and violators may be ticketed by TPD. Students dropped off after 7:40 AM MUST be accompanied by an adult to the office to be signed in. Dismissal Procedures · Kindergarten and 1st Grade Students – will be picked up in the loop at Grijalva Park. Please pull your car all the way to the end of the loop near the ramada; an adult will assist your child to your car. For your child’s safety, please remind your child to get in the car from the passenger side. · 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th Grade Students – will be picked up in the main parking off Pin Oak. Please pull your car all the way to the end of the loop near the exit gate; an adult will assist your child to your car. For your child’s safety, please remind your child to get in the car from the passenger side. Students in grades 2nd-5th grade, who have a sibling in Kinder or 1st grade, will dismiss from the loop by Grijalva Park with the youngest sibling. · Pick-up on Drexel Road is reserved for Day Care Vans and Busses. · Students who are walking home are expected to leave school as soon as the bell rings and walk directly home.   All students at Grijalva will receive free breakfast and lunch! No forms necessary and no need to worry about packing food each day. Please make sure your child comes to school early to get their free breakfast. Breakfast is served from 7:20-7:40 AM.   Parent-Teacher conferences will be coming up on September 17th, 18th and 19th, so please mark your calendars. School will dismiss at 10:50am on these days.   We would love to have adult volunteers to support learning and activities at Grijalva! All volunteers need to meet the requirements on the Tucson Unified Volunteers website. Parents and guardians do not need to complete the fingerprint component, however all other adult volunteers must be fingerprinted. Parents cannot volunteer on field trips without completing this in advance.   We want you to stay informed. You can ensure you don’t miss important notifications by ensuring your information is current in ParentVUE (phone/email). If you are still not getting notifications be sure you have not blocked the phone number or that your spam filter is not blocking emails. You can also look for current information on our school marquee, our Facebook page, and our webpage.   August 1st  1:30-2:30pm – Meet the Teacher August 4th 7:40am – First Day of School August 19th  5:30-6:30pm – Open House/Curriculum Night for Grades K-2 August 21st 5:30-6:30pm – Open House/Curriculum Night for Grades 3-5 August 29th 5:15pm – Movie Night September 1st  NO SCHOOL – Labor Day September 9th  Fall Picture Day September 17th,18th,19th  Parent Teacher Conferences – Students Dismissed at 10:50am – ALL Families will meet with their child's Teacher for a conference.   Grijalva Elementary School Email the School Visit our Website Location: 1795 W. Drexel Road Tucson, AZ 85746 Phone: (520) 908-3600 Like us on Facebook

Sunday, Aug 03 2025