The Bronco Beat

Welcome to the 2024-2025 school year at Blue Creek Elementary School! We are thrilled to have your family join us for another year of growth, learning, and discovery. This year, our theme is "Discover your POWER," where POWER stands for Purpose, Ownership, Wonder, Effort, and Reflection.

At Blue Creek, we believe that every student has the potential to be a powerful learner and leader. This year, we will focus on helping each student discover and harness their POWER in meaningful ways. To learn more about Bronco POWER and each House, please visit our school website: https://bces.onslow.k12.nc.us/our-school/principal-corner

We are excited to host our Kindergarten Polar Express Day on December 19, 2024! We will be showing students the Polar Express Movie in the cafeteria with Hot Cocoa and Popcorn. Students are invited to bring a blanket and/or a stuff animal.

Parents are invited to help setup on Wednesday from 2:00-3:30PM and to help during the event on Thursday from 9:00-11:00AM. Please see the SignUp to see how you can be part of this exciting day for our Kindergarten Broncos!

We have 88 Kindergarten students currently enrolled at Blue Creek.

This event is open to all BCES Families, the even is being Sponsored by House Isibindi, the Green House. If your child is part of the Green House and you would like to be part of the planning, setup, etc. Please reach out to Mrs. Abney at Julie.McRaeAbney@onslow.k12.nc.us.

On December 20, 2024, I will be leading students through a series of games during the encores. The games will allow them to compete with their HOUSE to earn points. To make these games great, I need help securing the following items:

• 100 wrapped empty boxes (any size will do!)
• Extra wrapping paper to rewrap the boxes between games
• Jingle Bells (80)
• Empty Tissue Boxes (8)
• Green Crepe Paper Rolls or Toilet Paper(25)
• Marshmallows (8 Bags)
• Red Solo Cups
• Bows (8 packs)

These materials will be used to play the following games:

• Jingle Bell Rock - students tie a tissue box around their waste, they will then "Rock" shaking the jingle bells out of the box.
• Reindeer Games - Students will place Red Solo cups on their hands and then race down to the table to pick up a marshmallow and place it in a bowl.
• Deck the Halls - Students will use green crepe paper or toilet paper to wrap a volunteer turning them into a tree or snowman.
• Run Run Rudolph - students will run down to the table, get blind folded and then try to scoop up bows with a spatula into a bowl.
• You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch - students will run to the table and put on oven mitts and open one gift and then race back to the starting line.
• Do You Want to Build a Snowman - students will race one by one to build a marshmallow snowman one marshmallow at a time.

Our PTO has done an amazing job in our Courtyard! There is much more to do and the Dreams are BIG. We are looking for additional donations to keep this project moving along. Use the link below to see how you can help and feel free to share the link with your local businesses and friends!

In order to stay up to date on the latest from the district, including crisis communications and notifications of changes to the school schedule, we encourage our families to ensure that their most recent contact information, including phone numbers and email addresses, is on file at their schools. Having current and accurate information is essential in our effort to provide the OCS family with important notices and updates.

If you or someone you know has not been, or has stopped, receiving district notices, please contact your school’s data manager to confirm that your contact information is entered correctly.

All students will be issued a number to be utilized in case they are a car rider at any point during the school year. Families will be provided two sets of student cards. These cards must be displayed either on the dash or sun visor for staff to see during afternoon pickup. Students will not be called to cars without number cards being displayed. Cars with no number cards will have to exit the staff parking lot and circle around (via HWY 53) to the office to present photo identification to get verified after the first week of school. There will be NO exceptions to this policy.

Car Arrival Procedures:

Cars will enter the parking lot through the center driveway. Once you enter the driveway, you will make an immediate right and follow the driveway behind the last row of parked cars along the fence (parallel to the road). At the end of the row, you will make a 180-degree left and follow the driveway between the rows of parked cars. At the end of the row, you will now make a 180-degree right turn and pull up the first available staff member. Once your child(ren) exit the vehicle, you will exit the parking lot through the driveway next to the tree line. Please make sure once you enter the driveway, you turn right. The area and driveway to the left is used for bus arrivals and dismissals.

Car Dismissal Procedures:

When picking your child(ren) up from school, the exact same traffic pattern will be used in the afternoons that is used in the morning. You will pull up to the next free cone that will have a staff member present. You will need to have the card(s) that have been provided to you visible in your car. (We suggest attaching it to the back side of your visor). Your child(ren) will have a card that matches the number(s) you have on the card in your car. Your child will be called to report to one of the 6 cones, and a staff member will assist your child(ren) to getting into the car. This will allow a quick and safe dismissal of children in the pickup line.

This year, the latest we will allow early check out will be 2:45PM. This will ensure our staff has the ability to get our students where they need to be for dismissal without the added confusion of students being called out during transitions.

The OCS School Nutrition office is accepting online and paper meal benefit applications for the 2023-2024 school year!

Apply online at www.lunchapplication.com or visit the School Nutrition site for more information and printable applications.