Do you have or know someone who has a child ready for kindergarten? If yes, you don't want to miss this event!
Desert Sage Fall Kindergarten Preview Night
Wednesday, November 5, 2025
5:00 - 6:00 p.m.

Come meet the kindergarten team, check out the classrooms, and get information regarding enrolling your child.

Kindergarten registration for the 2026-2027 school year opens Monday, November 3rd.

🎉 It’s time to LEVEL UP! 🎉

Our @apexleadershipcompany obstacle course is open through this Friday, 11/7 for pledging!

When: This Thursday, November 6, 2025

8:55 a.m. - 2nd grade
9:40 a.m. - Kindergarten & Preschool AM class
10:25 a.m. - 1st grade
12:30 p.m. - 3rd grade
1:15 p.m. - 6th grade & Preschool PM class
2:00 p.m. - 5th grade
2:45 p.m. - 4th grade

Where: Desert Sage Playground Field

Families are welcome to join us during the Fun Run. Sign in at the front office upon arrival. Only Desert Sage students will be allowed to participate in the run.

Reminders for students:

Wear comfortable running clothes.
Wear tennis shoes.
- Students wearing shoes other than tennis shoes (i.e. sandals, boots, crocks, etcetera) will be unable to participate.
Bring a water bottle with student's first & last name written on the bottle.

Our Lost & Found is overflowing! Please take a moment to check for any missing items. Students and parents can stop by the office Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM to look through the collection.

To help us return items quickly, please label all belongings — lunch boxes, water bottles, jackets, and more. If a name is clearly legible, we make sure it finds its way back to the student.

Thank you for your help in keeping our campus organized & getting expensive items back to their owners! 💚

We’re excited to kick off the month with our Apex Fun Run fundraiser! Families are invited to join us on the field to cheer on your child — it’s always a fun and energetic event!

In class, we’re beginning our Clothing Study, where we’ll explore where clothes come from, how we take care of them, and the many different types of clothing we wear. Later in the month, we’ll also be talking about things we’re thankful for and sampling some Thanksgiving foods during snack time as a fun introduction to the holiday meal.

It’s shaping up to be a quick month full of new learning and excitement!

November is full of fun happenings in kindergarten. Our APEX Fun Run fundraiser goes through November 7th, teaching students valuable leadership skills and helping raise funds for our school. Our Tolmachoff Farms field trip is scheduled for November 10th, and we can’t wait for the students to learn where so much of their food comes from, interact with animals, ride a tractor, and navigate a corn maze!

On the academic side of things, our next ELA unit explores ways we stay healthy, such as washing our hands, exercising, and getting enough sleep. Students will engage with many nonfiction texts, and with the teacher’s help, write research of their own! Social studies gets exciting in November, as we wrap up our maps unit with a group project, then dip our toes into holidays like Veterans Day and Thanksgiving while also acknowledging holidays around the world. In math, students will continue to engage in simple addition as well as subtraction, and build familiarity with teen numbers as they count. Science will continue to cover patterns in the sky - what do we see above us and how does it move? We teachers look forward to all this fun learning we will get to share with your students.

This November First grade is ready to fall in love with learning! :)

We are practicing our doubles facts in Math and identifying the point of view of different stories in Reading. In Writing a how-to book by brainstorming ideas, and then organizing the steps in order. In Science we are continuing to explore force and motion with experiments involving ramps and cars. We are using our knowledge of maps to fill in a grid and compare maps to globes in Social Studies.

Thank you to all the parents who came to our Fall Party! You made it such a great experience for all of us!

November is full of exciting learning in second grade! In science, we’ll be exploring the weather—learning about different types of weather and how it affects our world. In social studies, we’ll practice using maps to learn about places near and far. Our reading lessons will focus on vowel teams (like ea, ai, and oa) and building strong comprehension skills to understand what we read. In math, we’ll solve word problems using money and learn how to tell time to the nearest five minutes. In Mandarin, students are learning vocabulary and practicing reading skills. It’s going to be a fun and busy month of learning before we head into the holidays!

We are coming closer to Thanksgiving Break, but we still have a ton of learning to do! Reading we are digging deeper into our reading comprehension skills with literature genres. We are going to continue focusing on our decoding as well. Writing, we have completed our District Writing Assessment. This assessment was to see what the students have learned so far and see how well they can write an essay on an informative text. The students did very well on this! In Math, students are connecting multiplication and division facts together and observe the patterns in the multiplication table. We will finish Unit 2 strong and then take the District Fall iReady Diagnostic to see how much we’ve grown. In Science, we will learn about the atmosphere, hydrosphere, geosphere, and dive deep down in the biosphere. In Mandarin, we will continue expanding our vocabulary as well as learn to write an informative essay. Just a reminder, we will be having our field trip on November 12th, to the Arizona Capitol and House of Representatives. We will be looking through the museum and what it looked like in Arizona before it became a state, as well we will be doing a hands on voting in the House of Representatives on the floor where our fellow representatives sit during the session! Can’t wait to see how much more our students can grow in their academics and socially this month!

Thank you to everyone who helped fill our Tree of Gratitude during parent-teacher conferences — it was wonderful to see all the kind messages and thank-yous displayed.

We also have some exciting events coming up this school year! Please mark your calendars for our two field trips:

Tuesday, December 2, 2025 – Musical Instrument Museum
Thursday, April 23, 2026 – Desert Outdoor Center at Lake Pleasant

We’re looking forward to sharing these memorable learning experiences with our students!

If you would like to chaperone one of our field trips, please make sure you’ve completed the volunteer training and let your child’s homeroom teacher know you’re interested in attending.

In Math, students are learning multiplying and dividing multi-digit numbers. We will take the District Fall iReady Diagnostic to see how much we’ve grown. In Science, we will analyze and interpret environmental data to demonstrate species adaptability, survival, and extinction. In Mandarin, we will continue expanding our vocabulary as well as learn to write a compare-and-contrast essay.

In reading, our focus this quarter has been on literary elements as part of Module 3. We’ll be wrapping up this module next week. In addition, students will be taking the fall NWEA assessment later this month to measure their growth over the semester. We plan to send home the results by the end of November.

In fifth grade this week, students are sharpening their reading skills by using context clues to understand new words and finding the main idea and supporting details in a text. In writing, they are crafting persuasive essays, letters, and editorials to share their opinions clearly. In social studies, the class is exploring the Constitution and the exciting era of Westward Expansion. In science, students are learning about force, motion, and friction through fun experiments. Math lessons focus on decimals and fractions, including place value, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. In Mandarin, students are identifying key story details, observing characters and settings in illustrations, and practicing the use of zhèngzài (正在), le (了), and yào qù (要去) in sentences.

Our 6th grade students are proud to be leading the Gecko Gathering on November 7 as we honor Veterans Day. During the presentation, students will share the meaning and history behind this important holiday while recognizing the bravery and sacrifice of the men and women who have served in our armed forces. Through thoughtful reflections and poems, our 6th graders hope to inspire our school community to show gratitude and respect for all veterans. We look forward to celebrating this special event together!

Wow! Getting closer to the holidays! Hillcrest will host the 6th Grade Feeder Concert on November 6. See Mr. Zapotocky for further details. There will be a Gecko Gathering on November 7, come hear our 6th grade choir members honor our veterans. Band and Choir will be taking a field trip to Organ Stop Pizza in December and need parent chaperones. If you would like to chaperone, please contact Mr. Zapotocky for band and Mrs. James for chorus to sign up. Don’t forget you need to go through Volunteer Training in order to chaperone.

11/3-11/7: School Psychologist Appreciation Week
Wednesday, 11/5: Kona Ice Fundraiser
Wednesday, 11/5: Fall Kindergarten Preview Night 5-6 p.m.
Thursday, 11/6: Fun Run Event
Thursday, 11/6: PTO Meeting Zoom 5:00 p.m.
Friday, 11/7: Gecko Gathering 8:30 a.m.
Friday, 11/7: Early release 2:00 p.m.
Monday, 11/10: Kindergarten Field Trip Tolmachoff Farms
Tuesday, 11/11: Veterans Day, no school
Wednesday, 11/12: 3rd grade Field Trip AZ State Capitol
Thursday, 11/13: Retake & Club Photos
Friday, 11/14: Early release 2:00 p.m.
Friday, 11/21: Substitute Appreciation Day
Friday, 11/21: Early release 2:00 p.m.
11/24-11/28: Thanksgiving Break, no school
Monday, 12/1: Battle of the Books Round 1
12/2: Special Education Appreciation Day

Nominate a R.A.D. staff member here!

AZ School Tax Credit for Desert Sage

Your school tax credit donations can provide Desert Sage students with opportunities to after school and summer programs, field trips, music and athletic programs or any other extracurricular activity.

The Arizona tax credit program (A.R.S. 43-1089.01) allows a tax credit of up to $200 for individuals and up to $400 for married couples, filing jointly, in support of extracurricular activities.
The tax credit reduces your tax burden to the state of Arizona, dollar for dollar.

Make your tax credit donation to Desert Sage at: https://az-deervalley.intouchreceipting.com/.

Click here for past Gecko Gazette editions.

Desert Sage Elementary

We are an A school in the Deer Valley Unified District. We educate children pre-k through grade 6 & offer Mandarin Language Immersion. We are the home of the geckos. Kristy M. Gill is the proud principal and Lindsay Race is the proud assistant principal.

Website: dvusd.org/desertsage
Location: 4035 West Alameda Road, Glendale, AZ, USA
Phone: (623) 445-4700
Twitter: @DesertSageElem
Instagram: dvusd_desertsage
Facebook: DVUSD Desert Sage

Tour Desert Sage Elementary

School tours are available by appointment only on the first Friday of each month through June. Appointments can be scheduled between 2:30 p.m. and 4:00 p.m.

To arrange a tour of Desert Sage, please email our School Secretary, Elisa Anderson, at elisa.anderson@dvusd.org.

Vote by November 4, 2025 - Your Voice Matters! Vote by November 4, 2025 - Your Voice Matters!

Fall Kindergarten Preview Night Fall Kindergarten Preview Night

Fun Run is Thursday, 11/6 Fun Run is Thursday, 11/6

🧤 Lost & Found Reminder 🧢 🧤 Lost & Found Reminder 🧢

Thanksgiving Feast Pre-Order Thanksgiving Feast Pre-Order

No School Tuesday, 11/11 No School Tuesday, 11/11

PTO Sonic Fundraiser PTO Sonic Fundraiser

What's Happening this Month! What's Happening this Month!

Thanksgiving Break, No School Thanksgiving Break, No School

Order Your Yearbook! Order Your Yearbook!

Follow Us on Social Media Follow Us on Social Media

Mark Your Calendar - Important Dates Mark Your Calendar - Important Dates

AZ School Tax Credit for Desert Sage

Desert Sage Elementary