It’s difficult to summarize a week where so much shock, grief and worry lived alongside the usual warmth and beauty of a place like Percy Priest.  As I’ve heard Mr. Rogers quote his own mother, “always look for the helpers.” There is no shortage of Helpers at Percy Priest.  From each faculty and staff member in the building to every parent and family, Goodness lives here.  We will continue in the days ahead to look after the hearts and minds of your students.

As parents, you can continue to provide “Holding Environments” for your children – spaces where it is safe for them to be themselves and process however feels right to them. As much as possible, keep your students involved in their normal activities and hobbies where they feel joy.  These are referred to as Natural Therapies and provide positive childhood experiences. Most of all, remember there is no right or wrong way to get through this.

As always, please reach out to us if we can be of help.

With love and respect,

Mary Twitchel & Kristin Keiper-Berneman, School Counselors

If you missed the letter from the PTO that was sent through room parents, you can find it here.

Resources for all Kids

Helping Students After a School Shooting, American School Counseling Association (ASCA), 2022

• Try and keep routines as normal as possible. Kids gain security from the predictability of routine, including attending school.
• Limit exposure to television and the news.
• Be honest with kids and share with them as much information as they are developmentally able to handle.
• Listen to kids’ fears and concerns.
• Reassure kids that the world is a good place to be, but that there are people who do bad things.
• Parents and adults need to first deal with and assess their own responses to crisis and stress.
• Rebuild and reaffirm attachments and relationships.
• Talking to children about violence: Tips for parents and teachers.
• DayStar Counseling @sissygoff via Instagram

Ways to Support the Covenant Community

• Support the survivors of The Covenant School shooting through the Community Foundation
• Counseling fund for victims and community to receive through Woodmont Christian Church
• Sponsor Counseling through DayStar for the Covenant Family Fund
• Donation Day at Shake Shack for The Covenant School: 3/28 &3/29 10:30AM-9PM use code DonationDay25 and Shake Shack will be donating 25% of your total meal purchase to The Covenant School
• To show solidarity the community is encouraged to tie a red and black ribbon/bow on their mailbox in support of Covenant
• “Big Mike”, the beloved custodian and father of 8, donation fund: Big Mike Fund
• Victims First Covenant families fund: Victims First
• Purchase a yard sign to show your support – all proceeds going to Daystar and Green Hills Psych to provide services for Covenant School families.

Upcoming School Events

• April 6 & 7 – Spring Holiday- No School
• April 20 – Author Visit (2nd, 3rd & 4th)
• April 21 – Tiger Tennis Social
• May 1-5 – Teacher Appreciation Week
• May 1 – NPL Puppet Truck- Puss in Boots (2nd & 3rd)
• May 2 – NPL Puppet Truck – Tomas (K & 1st)
• May 5 – Cinco de Mayo & Field Day (*May 9 Rain Date*)
• May 7 – Incoming Kindergartener Popsicle Party
• May 12 – Spring Picnic
• May 19 – Spring Sing

Spring Field Trips

• April 12 – 1st Grade (Acker / Wall) @ Warner Park
• April 14 – 1st Grade (Brumleve / Faison / Hartsock) @ Warner Park
• April 26 – Kindergarten @ Zoo
• May 11 – 2nd Grade @ Nashville Children’s Theater

School Events

Navigator Day – Wednesday

This Wednesday, April 5th will be our next Navigator Day.  During the month of April, our school will be focusing on reducing, reusing, and recycling in connection with Earth Day.  For Navigator Day, House Reveur will lead our school in a clothing drive benefiting Unicycle.  Families are encouraged to bring in any clothing items, SSA or general, to support Unicycle.  These donated items go directly to other children and families in Nashville Schools.

Dr. A’s Art Night Out for Kids – March 31- A Spots still available!

Come and join Dr. A. on Friday, March 31st, for a sweet two-hour studio class while your parents enjoy some time out! This month, students will create a delicious doughnut painting on canvas after a doughnut-inspired story, and enjoy a snack of Cheeze-it crackers and fruit snacks! The class is $65 per child and includes all art supplies and snack. Sign up here to attend and to read the full details.

Tiger Tennis Social – April 21- Tickets available for purchase!

On Friday, April 21st (Rain Date April 28), we’ll gather at Seven Hills Swim & Tennis for tennis, fun, a tasty lunch and light cocktails. All skill levels will have a great time – just bring a racquet!

Pick a time for tennis drills and play — 9:00 -11:00 or 12:00 – 2:00. Lunch will be served from 11-12.  There will also be a raffle during lunch to win some amazing prizes from K. McCarthy, Poncho and Lefty’s, Edleys and Elle Gray, just to name a few!

Don’t play tennis but want in on the fun? Purchase a spectator/lunch option and come to socialize, grab a cocktail and lunch, and watch some tennis!

Purchase your tickets at https://fly.causepilot.com/percypriest/tigertennis2023

General Announcements

3rd & 4th Grade TNReady Testing Schedule: April 17-28th

Testing will begin promptly after morning announcements, so please ensure that your student arrives on time during our testing dates. Tardy students will be held in the front office as to not disrupt the testing environment and will have to take their test at a later time.

As TNReady testing approaches, a reminder that electronic devices including smart watches and cell phones are not permitted in the testing area. Our preference is for students to leave their electronic devices at home during testing. If students bring these devices to school, they will be required to turn them off and store them in their backpack. We ask that you please help us with this, so we can avoid any test irregularities.

Thank you for your support in helping us create an optimal test environment for students.

via @ocdnashville

via @ocdnashville

Kindergarten Registration for the 2023-24 school year will kick off on Monday, January 30th.  If you or someone you know has an incoming kindergartner, please encourage them to complete registration as early as possible.  For information regarding enrollment requirements, please visit https://earlylearning.mnps.org/kindergarten.

Kindergarten Readiness Camp: July 18-19

Calling all Rising Kindergarten girls and boys for 2023-2024 school year.  Save the Date for July 18-19 for our Kindergarten Readiness Camp.  Join Miss Murray Benson & Mrs. Bitsi Condra to get a “Sneak Peek” at a day in the life of a kindergartner!  Your child will have the opportunity to meet new friends, engage in hands-on learning experiences, Tour the school, playground, visit ‘kinder’ classrooms, and so much more!  Registration HERE!

School Fundraisers

Elan: April 1st – 30th

Throughout the month of April stop into Elan Skin for products, treatments or a gift card and support Percy Priest! Elan Skin will donate 10% of all sales made with the mention of Percy Priest Elementary back to the PTO. All purchases must be made in person but this does include gift cards and Mother’s day is right around the corner! Elan is located at 3750 Hillsboro Pike.

Market Fresh Ferns – April 14 deadline to order

If you want the biggest, healthiest Fern on the block and you love Percy Priest, be sure to buy your ferns now through April 14!

Visit our fern webpage to purchase yours today!

Pick-up will be April 19th at the Percy Priest Playground (corner of Wilshire & Priest) from dismissal until 4PM. If you are unable to pick up in that timeframe, please ask a friend for help or email MeganLCallender@gmail.com.

The funds raised from this event will be used to support the PTO budget, which provides our school with additional staff, software and supplies. Thank you so much for your support!

We have two types of ferns available:

Boston Fern (10” and thrives in shady environment) $32

Kimberly Queen (10” and thrives in a sunny environment) $24

Soar Adventure Tower- April 14-16

Shake Shack- April 25th

Unicycle Needs Your SSA and Non-SSA Donations (including baseball gear)!

It’s spring cleaning time and Unicycle is looking for SSA donations as well as non-SSA, including baseball gear and sneakers. Please drop those items on the Percy Priest front porch in the designated Unicyle bins. Thank you!

Message from the PPE Green Team

Did you know that 40 percent of food in the U.S. goes to waste? Keeping food out of the landfill presents an opportunity for us to reduce environmental impacts from landfilling while helping to address food insecurity.

The PPE Green Team is taking action in two important ways.

(1) Composting in the cafeteria during lunch launched last week with 4th graders! 1st and 2nd grade will begin on Monday, April 3rd.  Volunteers are needed to help the kids sort their lunchtime waste while they are learning. Please sign up to help the kids at lunch. Instructions will be provided.

(2) Food Waste Awareness Week is coming to PPE April 10-14!  As part of Food Waste Awareness Week, PPE will host a week-long food drive, feature food waste related information in morning announcements, continue to engage in composting, and more. Additional information will be distributed in future newsletters.

Come Have Lunch!

Parents, grandparents and special friends are welcome to eat lunch with students! To help us with space and accommodating guests, we ask that visitors sign-up to come eat lunch using the bookings link below. Please be sure to select the correct grade level and teacher. When signing-up, we also ask that you only sign-up for one day at this time. Thank you for your help and we hope to see you for lunch soon. Sign up to come eat lunch with your student! Menus can be viewed on the Meal View App or here.

We need your help to make this spring the best yet at Percy Priest! Dedicated and engaged parents are a key ingredient to making our school the great school that it is. There are big and small volunteer opportunities throughout the year. Please check out our volunteer form and let us know what things interest you. We’ll be in touch with more information.

If you have questions of any kind, please contact us at presidentsppe@gmail.com. Thank you!

Small Fundraisers Spotlight

For a list of all of our ongoing small fundraisers, please visit our Small Fundraisers webpage.

Kroger will donate 4% of the total dollars spent in their stores to PPE. To participate, click on this link, create or login to your account and select Percy Priest Elementary PTO as your Community Rewards Organization.

How to Stay Connected

Add PPE happenings to your calendar automatically!

You can subscribe to our PTO calendar and have all of our events show up on your calendar, so you never lose track of important dates! Following the links below will prompt you to subscribe to the calendar via your preferred calendar app. Any time the PTO updates an event through the website, it will update on the calendar of all subscribers (how often your calendar pulls updated info will be based on your individual personal settings – every 5 minutes, 1 hour, 1 week, etc).

For Calendar Apps (apple calendar etc), go to: webcal://www.percypriest.org/?post_type=tribe_events&ical=1&eventDisplay=list

For Google Calendar, go to: https://www.google.com/calendar/render?cid=webcal%3A%2F%2Fwww.percypriest.org%2F%3Fpost_type%3Dtribe_events%26tribe-bar-date%3D2022-08-31%26ical%3D1%26eventDisplay%3Dlist