Hawktastic News
April Edition
Middle School students do extremely well at the UIL Competition
The SISD annual UIL competition was held on April 13, 15 & 16 for middle school students and April 22 & 23 for elementary students. Congratulations to 5th grader Anna Rodarte for taking 2nd place in Ready Writing. Middle schoolers who won a 1st place were Alexa Rodriguez (6th) in Listening Skills, Angelina Jimenez (6th) in Ready Writing, & Heather Nguyen (7th) in Spelling & Maps, Graphs, and Charts. Other students who placed were Bryanna Urueta (6th) who won 4th place in Number Sense, Miranda Zacarias (6th) who won 5th place in Number Sense, Ian Alvarado (6th) who won 6th place in Art Smart and Angelina Jimenez (6th) also won 4th place in Maps, Graphs, and Charts. Heather Nguyen (7th) also won 2nd place in Listening Skills and 6th place in Number Sense. Damian Chavez (7th) won 4th place in Number Sense, Amelie Martinez (8th) won 3rd place in Maps, Graphs, and Charts & 4th place in Listening Skills, Grecia Rivas (8th) won 6th place in Number Sense, Eric Corona (8th) won 5th place in Mathematics, and Patricia Caldera (8th) won 6th place in Modern Oratory. Congratulations again and way to go Hawks!
Career Day
The Annual Jane Hambric Career Day was held on Friday, April 15th. This event was organized by our wonderful counselors. This year, the students rotated from exhibit to exhibit that was set up in either the football field, baseball field, gym, and courtyard. The following exhibits were available to students: El Paso Fire Dept, SISD K-9 unit, Lawyers, Engineers, Nurses, Personal Trainers, Parole Officers, UTEP recruiters, and a Music Composer, to name a few. One of the highlights was the helicopter that Mrs. Gonzalez arranged to have land in the middle of the football field. "This is a great way to spark student's interest in different careers", Mrs. Polhemus explained about the events that took place that day.
College Awareness
Hambric emphasized 'College Awareness' the month of April. Every grade (K-8th) drew a college from a hat and then each and every class researched important facts about that college. Every class then decorated their door with the information they gathered on their specific college and on Wed., April 20th students went around viewing the doors. The students had a Scavenger Hunt sheet to fill out. This was a great way for all students to learn about several colleges. On Thurs., April 21st, Hambric also held a College Night and families came out and participated in selected activities while obtaining information on different colleges. It's never too early to get students to think about college. Mrs. Polhemus says that, "Texas has a statewide initiative to expose all students to different kinds of colleges."
Volunteers selected as one of the "Top 5 Volunteer Groups of the Year"
Every year SISD hosts a luncheon to recognize volunteers and this year it was held on Friday, April 22nd at the ESC Region 19 Head Start Center. Congratulations to Evelyn Lopez for winning the "Volunteer of the Year"! Ms. Lopez donated over 635 hours in approximately one year and she also gives English classes to those parents wishing to learn English. Great job Ms. Lopez! SISD also selects five groups every year as 'Volunteer Groups of the Year'. Hambric had never competed for one of these awards and this year they decided to enter the competition. It's the first year the Hambric volunteers enter the competition and they were awarded as on of the Top 5 Volunteer Groups of 2016...Congratulations! This is a well deserved award since our volunteers donated over 8,700 hours of their time making copies for teachers, organizing special events, helping with picture days, dances, book fairs, and the annual Fall Festival to name a few. Mr. Charles Barnes, the Volunteer Coordinator, says that "the Jane Hambric volunteers are well deserving of this honor." Thank you so much volunteers, you are truly appreciated!
Hambric students entries picked for the Literary Anthology
Every year, students from the entire district (K-8th) submit writing entries of different genres to be judged in selected categories. Some of those categories include poetry, letters, and essays. Schools pick entries to submit and then judges read those entries and they select their favorites. Mrs. Talavera collects the middle school student's entries and Mrs. Zamora collects the elementary student's entries. Hambric had two winners in 8th grade, Maria Chico who won 2nd place for her persuasive essay and Stephanie Newberry who won 2nd place for her letter. There were also two winners from 7th grade, Mia Griffin won 1st place for her imaginative essay and Madison Hill won 3rd place for her essay. Sixth grader Jasmine Gawell received Honorable Mention for her essay. Mia's essay will be published in the SISD Literary Anthology Magazine. Mrs. Talavera wants to thank all the Hambric teachers for all that they do. Way to Soar Hawks!
I, Mrs. Pena, am the editor of this newsletter and usually the GT Students write the stories in this newsletter. This month they were busy working on their projects for the GT Showcase, which will be held on May 4th, so I wrote the newsletter this month. Next month will be the last newsletter for the 2015-2016 school year and the GT students will once again write that newsletter.