Hello December and chilly weather!  The mornings and evenings are cooler and shorts and t-shirts are being replaced by pants and jackets.  Please remember to bundle your kids up before drop-off in the mornings.  The kids love to go outside every day for recess and we wouldn’t want to see any of the kids without toasty outerwear!

Make sure to label all extra gear with your child’s name; we have a lot of removable clothing items this time of year, and labels help keep the students and teachers organized.  Maybe you should get some Mabel Labels for your kids winter wear? Please note that our Lost & Found items will be donated at the end of the semester so come claim yours in the cafe!

Night of the Arts is less than a week away!  It will be a great night for the whole family to enjoy.  Please scroll down to hear about all what is planned and how you can go ahead and purchase your artwork ahead of time to avoid the lines.  Volunteers are needed to make this night the best yet, so please sign up if you haven’t already!

Let’s give a big shout out to faculty at Percy Priest with a December Birthday!

Important Dates

• December 4 – Green Hills Grille Spirit Night
• December 5– Navigator Day
• December 7– Night of the Arts 5-7 pm
• December 7-9 – Yearly Co. Sale
• December 14 – Papa John’s Spirit Night
• December 15 – Flower Power Sale ends
• December 20– School dismissed at 11:30 for Winter Break
• December 21-January 8- Winter Break
• January 8– Students return to school

Blasting is now underway.  We will have two blasts a day (one during school hours between 11-12 and one after school hours between 3:30-4:30)  We are anticipating the blasting schedule to continue through the end of the calendar year (December).

With the attention of the construction trailer and additional parking needed for members of the construction team, we have limited staff parking in the side lot on Priest Road.  This lot is closed to family parking in the mornings.  If you need to park in the morning, please plan to use one of the front parking lots.

The MNPS facilities department will also be posting periodic updates at the link below

Percy Priest Elementary – Metro Nashville Public Schools Facilities (mnps.org)

Upcoming Events

Night of the Arts-December 7th 5-7pm

We are less than a week away from our last big PPE event of the year.  Bring the whole family for a fun-filled “Night of the Arts” on Thursday, December 7th, 5pm – 7pm at Percy Priest Elementary!

Buy beautifully framed art made by your very own Percy Priest Tiger in Dr. A’s class, enjoy dance performances by Ms. Zimm’s after school dance clubs, and get ready to craft, build, and draw in celebration of all of the arts that allow our children’s imaginations to grow. All proceeds of framed art help fund the art curriculum.

Avoid the lines and buy your artwork in advance online

Volunteers Needed: An awesome night like this can only be made possible with volunteers.  Please sign up HERE to help make this evening unforgettable.

Cookie Signup: A night of art isn’t complete without a delicious cookie.  Please sign up HERE to help bring in cookies for this fun night.

We can’t wait to see you on Thursday, December 7th, 5pm – 7pm at “Night of the Arts!”

Kids Heart Challenge- November 14-December 5

THE TIME HAS COME!

We are excited to announce that we have kicked off this year’s Kids Heart Challenge (KHC) and it will run through December 5th!  When your student joins our school’s KHC team, they will learn how to keep their hearts and brains healthy, get moving with fun activities, meet kids with special hearts and raise funds for the health of all hearts. Plus, they’ll feel good for doing good!

Our goal is to have 100% of students register and learn hands-only CPR! Any student that watches the hands-only CPR video and completes the quiz, will earn a special edition KHC prize!

In addition, students that complete Finn’s Mission will earn an entry for two tickets to Super Bowl LIX in 2025 and your school will be entered to receive a $10,000 fitness equipment makeover for every 18 students who complete Finn’s Mission!

Start today to enjoy educational, fun online experiences and raise funds. Everything can be done easily online with our Kids Heart Challenge app or website. Send emails, texts and post social media messages to collect donations online. Tip: if you receive checks, use the app to scan them and have the amount immediately added to your child’s total.

Steps to Get Started:

Download the AHA Schools app or visit heart.org/Schools to register today.

Set a fundraising goal with your child and send emails to invite friends and family to support it.

Complete Finn’s Mission to know the lifesaving skill of Hands-Only CPR®.

We want to encourage our students to be passionate about the mission of the American Heart Association and brainstorm ways to gather donations. Please talk with your child about ideas on ways to gather donations in the community (some ideas include chores around the house, make bracelets/crafts to sell, lemonade stand, etc.)!

We also need help sorting prizes each week. If you are able to help please sign up using this link.

Let’s help our children be heart heroes!

Help Sponsor An Event at PPE

Be a Sponsor of one of our many events throughout the year to help make them better than ever! Visit Here and select your desired level of participation for the events listed below.  We really couldn’t do it without the generous contributions and in-kind donations of our sponsors. Thank you to all our sponsors!

Spring Auction-March 2nd at the Loveless Barn

Save the date for the best night in the Spring to Boogie on the Dancefloor.  There will be music, food, dancing and fun items to bid on to help support our school.

Auction Volunteers Needed!

It’s time to get working on the biggest party of the year – the Percy Priest Spring Auction – and we need your help NOW! Join the Auction Committee to get our incredible catalog of silent auction items secured. It’s an easy job you can do from home, and we’ll provide you with contact information plus scripts for calling/emailing potential and repeat donors. The more people we have contributing their time to this important PTO fundraiser, the easier the task! Please email percypriestauction@gmail.com.

Seeking Auction Items!

Have a business or property to include in our silent auction this spring? Maybe a friend or family member would be interested in supporting Percy Priest through the donation of a vacation rental, a set of game tickets, business service or other items? Any and all suggestions and connections appreciated! Contact Julia Stoll Saitta and Deanna Eliashevsky at percypriestauction@gmail.com with your ideas. All profit made from the auction touches the hands of your child. We thank you for your support to our incredible school!

PPE Parenting Series

Please join us virtually on Wednesday, December 6th from 7:30 -8:30pm for our next PPE Parenting Series event. Our presenters are Alanna Truss, PhD (TN Be SMART Lead, Licensed Clinical Psychologist, HSP) and Katie Lee (Middle TN Be SMART Co-Lead, Teacher.)

Be SMART is a non-partisan program developed by Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund to bring together parents and all adults concerned about kids, guns, and safety. The Be SMART presentation is for gun owners and non-gun owners alike with a focus on the importance of, and strategies for, secure firearm storage, including how to respectfully have conversations about secure storage with friends and family members.

Be SMART is an MNPS approved presentation for distribution through the PTOs.

Microsoft Teams meeting

Join on your computer, mobile app or room device

Click here to join the meeting

Small Fundraisers

Green Hills Grille Spirit Night-December 4th

Dine In or Out – Monday, December 4 from 4:00-9:00

On Monday, December 4, from 4:00-9:00, grab your family’s favorite dinner from Green Hills Grille and support Percy Priest while enjoying a delicious dinner you didn’t cook!  Green Hills Grille will donate 10% of all sales to the PTO budget, which provides our school with additional staff, software and supplies to our school. Be sure to tell them that you’re with Percy Priest. Hope to see you there!

Yearly Co.- December 7-9

Shop Yearly Co. jewelry in the store or online from December 7th-9th and mention PERCYPRIEST10 and 10% of your order will be donated to the school.  Yearly Co. is also running a promotion for $25 off $250, $75 off $500 or $200 off your purchase of $1000 or more.

Flower Power-Deadline is December 15th

It’s time to order your holiday flower bulbs! We are partnering with Flower Power to sell beautiful amaryllis and paperwhites.  These flower bulbs are all top quality, an excellent value and guaranteed to grow. Visit our personalized website HERE to order by December 15th. 50% of all orders placed will go back to the PTO.

Papa John’s Dough for Dough: December 14

PPE friends and family take the night off from cooking and feed the family while supporting the school. Use our unique code when ordering from Papa John’s and the PTO will receive 20% of all orders placed using that code: PPES.  The funds raised from this event will be used to support the PTO budget which provides our school with additional staff, software and supplies to our school. Thank you so much for your support

General Announcements

Order your Yearbook TODAY!

Unicycle Donations

It feels like Winter! When you dig out those winter coats, be sure to send any that no longer fit your student into school. We’ll fill our in-school closet to share with another student here, or send to our friends @unicycle.nashville to be shared with a @mnps_hero student, or to fill another school’s closet. We’ll take “outgrown, not worn out” coats of any size. Let’s share the warmth with our MNPS family!The donation basket is located on the PPE Front porch.

Counselors Corner:

Throughout October & November, the Counseling Department will be leading required safety training in your child’s classroom. The curriculum can be previewed here: Home – Fight Child Abuse

For additional resources, please reach out to our School Counselors: Kristin.Keiper@mnps.org or Diana.Baxter@mnps.org.

Artsonia:

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!

How to Volunteer

We need your help to make next year the best year 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

1stDay School Supplies

If you ordered your child’s school supply boxes through our PTO fundraiser, it was not only super helpful to have all the supplies in the classroom at the start of school, BUT you also helped raise money for the PTO.  This year, this fundraiser tripled the amount given back to the school compared to the previous year.  Our goal is to organize fundraisers that provide a service, need or product that you will use while also giving back to the school.

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

Small Fundraisers Spotlight

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

Publix Partners will donate $250 to the Percy Priest Elementary PTO for every $37,500 spent cumulatively by our school’s participants. To support Percy Priest, join Club Publix. If you’re already a member, log in to your account and select My Publix Partner to search for the school of your choice. Remember to pay with the Publix app or enter your phone number at checkout each time you make an eligible purchase. Parents do have to re-register annually.

How to Stay Connected

Email Lists

New families – Be sure to sign up for our school newsletter, which includes grade-level information each week. Register today.

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