Canyon Elementary. Home to the Sunflower School.

In loving memory of Mia Campos.

It has truly been a privilege to have Mia as one of our Canyon students for the last 12 years. Mia started at Canyon in the Sunflower School when she was in preschool. If you had the opportunity to know Mia, you know her smile was contagious, and her laugh could instantly brighten your day and fill your heart. Mia was well-known across our campus for bridging the gap between the two schools, forever creating a deeper connection. She opened new doors for students’ with disabilities by showing the world that our differences aren’t really that different after all, in fact they make us unique and valuable. Mia never backed down from a challenging situation and would knock down any barrier that was put in her way. She became the first Student Council representative for Sunflower and even attended meetings. Mia put the “CAN” in Canyon.

She will forever be missed.

Congrats Sophia!!! Sophia is a Canyon Alumni and we are so incredibly proud of her!

Senior Sofia Ruiz has been awarded national recognition from The College Board. She earned the National Hispanic Recognition Award (NHRA) for having a 3.5 or higher GPA and outstanding performance on her AP Exams this past Spring.

Congratulations on your achievements, Sofia. We are so excited for you!

Join us in helping kindergarten with their colors! Let’s all wear the color of the day!

Happy first day of school!!! Mrs. Balthis and Mrs. Kelly are ready!! Our nurses office is ready! And our kindergartners have taken a school tour. 2024 is going to be paradise!!

Show us your first day! We want to see how ready you are!

Our students will be back at school THIS Wednesday. Please remember to slow down and keep an eye out for them.

With schools officially back in session, let’s talk school zones and keeping Arizona kiddos safe! It is the law to slow down to 15 miles per hour when school is in session. If you exceed this speed, you are looking at a $267.00 ticket!

Per Arizona Revised Statutes, "school is in session" refers to the period of time during school hours or while children are going to or leaving school during opening or closing hours.

Our Motor Units will be making concentrated efforts in school zones during the month of August. Remember, slow down and keep your eyes on the road!

We can’t WAIT to see you tomorrow night at our back to school event! Don’t forget to check your email tomorrow afternoon for an email from your new teacher. If you are new to Canyon or couldn’t find your email, don’t panic! We will have staff all over the campus with class lists ready to direct you to your child’s new classroom.

Remember the night is divided into two parts!
A-L: 5:30 pm report directly to the classroom
M-Z: 5:30 pm head to the cafeteria to buy a snow cone and enjoy some back to school activities.
*At 6:00 pm an announcement will be made for us to switch!

Check out the flyer to see what flavors of snow cones will be available. See you tomorrow!

Mrs. Lenocker and Miss Chambers think they are sooooo funny. Well…they truly are and they won for best shirts at our staff meeting. Look closely. You may recognize a special face on their shirts.

Our staff is officially back at school and working hard getting ready for our students. We can’t wait to see you Monday night at our back to school event!

Hey Canyon family!! It’s time for what I did this summer!!

There have been some exciting architectural changes to the front office!!

Mrs. Balthis got a new grandpuppy.

Mrs. Sinioris took Disneyland by storm.

Miss London went to Lake Tahoe.

Miss Chambers got engaged!!

Miss Johnson has beeen busy wedding planning.

Mrs. Chudzik skipped Disneyland and went to Disneyworld.

Mrs. Ganados has been hanging out at home and relaxing.

Mrs. Bushong got a new puppy to add to her family.

Now it’s your turn. We miss you all so much. We want to see what you are doing with your summer!!!

Come on staff, students, parents……Ready, set, post!!!!!

🌱 At Canyon Elementary, our experienced educators are dedicated to helping your child unlock their learning potential.

🌳 Secure your child’s kindergarten seat today at www.peoriaunified.org/kindergarten.

Calling all kindergarteners!!!

Day 5 Staff Appreciation…… our wonderful Booster Club gave us sub sandwiches and chips for lunch. It was so good! We love our Booster Club. They are so supportive and make a huge difference for our staff and students.

And for those with a very keen eye: yes, Mr Lauer is sitting in the exact same spot. He has not moved. He went straight from nachos to sandwiches. We’re hoping he went home for the weekend. Someone should probably go check.

Day 4 Staff Appreciation…… our social committee (a group of staff members who plan lots of fun things for the staff) gave us a nacho bar. As you can see Mr. Lauer was the first one there. This picture represents round 1. And yes folks, he lasted all 12 rounds. 😳

Day 3 Staff Appreciation….. our wonderful and amazing Student Council made a popcorn bar for us! It was delicious. Thank you StuCo and Miss Balder! We appreciate you too.

Day 2 Staff Appreciation…… The generous Bridge Church sent a taco truck to school for our staff. FYI- if you ever want to see some really excited grownups ummmmm BRING A TACO TRUCK!!!!

The Bridge Church has been so kind to our Canyon community. We are so thankful for them.

Day 1 of staff appreciation and we sure do feel appreciated. The staff was treated to a chicken lunch and all the fixings by Mr. and Mrs. Churruca aka Mrs. Balthis’ parents. Along with the delicious food, they also gave each staff member their own personal air conditioner. 🤣😆🌬️
Cactus Mechanical Inc.

Let’s join kindergarten and count down to the end of the year!!

So proud of Dawn!!! What a privilege to work with her! ❤️❤️

Look at our very own Pride of Peoria!!! Dawn Sinioris is an incredible teacher who is dynamic and kind. She puts the needs of her students, her teammates, her athletes, her school, and her family above all else.

Her genuine love for all of us and her students is unwavering. With her playful sense of humor and her quick wit, she keeps all of us smiling.

We are so proud of her and honored to have her at Canyon and Sunflower.

Look at our very own Pride of Peoria!!! Dawn Sinioris is an incredible teacher who is dynamic and kind. She puts the needs of her students, her teammates, her athletes, her school, and her family above all else.

Her genuine love for all of us and her students is unwavering. With her playful sense of humor and her quick wit, she keeps all of us smiling.

We are so proud of her and honored to have her at Canyon and Sunflower.

Save the date!! This Thursday! We are looking forward to meeting all of our new kindergartners and helping them get ready for August.

Will your child be in kindergarten next year? Bring them to meet the kindergarten teachers along with the special area teachers and administration. We will blast off to kindergarten! March 16th @ 5:30 in the cafeteria

Surprise!! The Book Fair will be open one more time!!! Any student who comes from 5:30-6:30 tomorrow will be entered in a raffle to win a pen and eraser gift pack from the book fair!!!

LAST CHANCE!

We hope to see you there!

Bring the family and come see all of the great books while supporting the library!

Book Fair
5:30-6:30
In the cafeteria

We could not be more proud of Abby! She won 4th place in the district spelling bee and is now heading to Regionals!! Way to go, Abby!!

100 days of school! So many creative shirts with 100 things on them and we had some 100 year old friends show up to school today.

Here are just a few! Be sure to drop a pic in the comments of your 100th day!!

And just like that, Outdoor Ed is over….. our frozen kiddos and teachers are getting ready to head back and thaw out. It looks like they had an amazingly fun learning experience.

For details about when they will return and picking up your sixth grader, please be sure to check the remind app. The most current details will be there.

Outdoor Ed photo dump! They are having the best time in the cold! From a hearty breakfast….to bone class with Bone Jovi….to dissecting owl pellets….to dodgeball in the snow! It feels like we are there with them (only we are a little bit warmer.🥶❄️) Don’t worry parents; we are making sure they are bundled up and staying warm. Everyone is having a blast!

Stay tuned for more photos!!

Our sixth graders hit the road this morning on their way to Outdoor Ed. They arrived and were welcomed by a winter wonderland. Stay tuned for pictures of the fun!

A big thank you to the Canyon gifted program and our amazing Canyon community for all of the toy donations. They were delivered to Banner Thunderbird Pediatrics and they were so appreciative.

We are so grateful for our Canyon community. This has been such a generous year for giving. We are truly amazed with all of the kindness everyone has shown. We are so proud to be Coyotes.

In loving memory of Christian Vega.

We are so fortunate to have had the opportunity to have Christian as one of our students. He was a student of Sunflower for 10 years and spent everyday brightening our days. If you knew Christian, you knew that he could cheer anyone up. He had the most infectious smile and the sweetest soul. Christian loved his friends and family and spent everyday making sure we knew how he felt about all of us. He will truly be missed, however we will always remember the laughter and pure joy he brought to our campus.

Congratulations to our first, second, and third place winners of the spelling bee!! And a big thank you to our lovely moderators! 🐝

Reminder! All Peoria Unified Schools and Offices will be closed Nov. 21-25 for Fall Break. We will reopen on Nov. 28. Have a safe and restful Fall Break! www.peoriaunified.org

Don’t forget to send your baked goods and frozen turkeys in tomorrow! The more donations, the more students who win!! Please send the items with your student or bring them into the nurses office tomorrow morning!!

We wanted to let you know that we had a conflict with a few of the grade levels for Friday's Turkey Trot. Mr. Lauer needed to adjust several of the times in order to allow all students to participate. If you are planning on attending the event, please sign in the front office. We are now collecting baked goods, pies, and turkeys. Please feel free to send in your donations to the nurse's office before Friday's event.

NEW Turkey Trot times listed below.
Kindergarten: 9:00-9:30 am

1st, 2nd, and Sunflower: 9:30-10:10 am

3rd and 4th: 12:10-12:55 pm

5th and 6th: 1:25-2:10 pm

7th and 8th: 2:10-3:00 pm

Thank you to all of the Veterans and first responders who came out for our Hugs for Heroes breakfast. We appreciate you all; past, present, and future.

Happy Veterans Day! All Peoria Unified schools and offices are closed today, Nov. 11. We will see you back on Monday! www.peoriaunified.org

Our school received an A Label! Today, the new A-F letter grades were released by the Arizona State Board of Education. We are so proud of our students for their hard work last school year!

Photo dump time!

We've had a lot going on here at Canyon the past two weeks! We had Spirit week last week and our annual Character Parade this week.

It was so much fun. So many of our students and families participated, brought candy, and came to join in on the fun! Today feels like a good day to take a nap after all of the excitement, but we have lots of learning and teaching to do!! We're going to save our napping for the weekend! So, we will see you in the classroom, Coyotes!

(Try not to eat too much candy! ugh.... my tummy hurts!) 😂🤪🤢