We hope everyone is settling into the new year and getting back to a routine hasn’t been too difficult.  We have many fun, entertaining, and exciting events coming up soon, so be sure to mark your calendar. These events are a great way for you to get involved, give back or  make special friendships within our Percy Priest Community.

Upcoming School Events

• Jan 20 – 1st Grade Parent Party and Parent Coffee Hour
• Jan 26 – 4th Grade Parent Party
• Feb 3 – 2nd Grade Parent Party
• Feb 9 – Kindergarten Parent Party
• Feb 16 – 3rd Grade Parent Party
• Feb 20- President’s Day- No School
• Feb 21-23 – Used Book Sale
• Feb 24-March 8 – Read-a-Thon
• March 4 – Spring Auction
• March 10-Half day of School-3rd Quarter Ends
• March 13-17 – Spring Break – No School
• March 23 – Math Night
• April 6 & 7 – Spring Holiday- No School
• April 21 – Tiger Tennis Social
• May 1-5 – Teacher Appreciation Week
• 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

• Feb 7 – Kindergarten @ Nashville Children’s Theater
• Feb 21 – 1st Grade @ TPAC
• Feb 24 – 2nd Grade @ TPAC
• April 12 – 1st Grade (Acker / Wall) @ Warner Park
• April 12 – 1st Grade (Brumleve / Faison / Hartsock) @ Warner Park
• May 11 – 2nd Grade @ Nashville Children’s Theater

General Announcements

Parent Coffee Hour in the Cafe – Jan. 20 

Bring your travel mug of coffee to the morning drop-off line and stay to mingle with other Percy Priest parents on Friday, Jan 20. We’ll be in the Cafe from 8:00-9:00. Join us for all of part of the hour!

Jump Rope Volunteers – NEXT WEEK

We need more volunteers to help with our long jump rope lessons in kindergarten and 1st grade. These lessons will occur during the week of January 23rd and it will be a lot of fun for kids and volunteers. Please use the bookings link to sign-up to volunteer.

After School Clubs for 2023!

After school clubs are back, thanks to the hard work of our teachers who put every detail of these together! Scroll down for details and registration forms. Stay tuned for more to come as well!

• Builders Club –The Builders Club is for K-2nd grade students and is filled with problem solving, imagination, self-expression, math skills, spatial sense and motor abilities, creativity, and social and emotional growth. There are a few spaces left in the Tuesday and Thursday Builders Club. If your child would like to join, please contact laura.faison@mnps.or or terri.wall@mnps.org.  Click Here For Details
• Imagination Club – The Imagination Club will focus on a balance of stories and art. Sessions will have a fun combination of literature and hands-on activities with Mrs. Acker for 3rd-4th grades on Tuesdays and 1st-2nd grades on Wednesdays. Click Here For Details
• SEL + STEAM Club (social & emotional learning +science, technology, engineering, art & math) – Develop & encourage independent learning, spark imagination, creativity, exploration, socialization & SO MUCH MORE on THursdays with Mrs. Lester and Mrs. Strobel! Click Here For Details
• Wonderful Wednesdays – Enjoy stories, art, STEM activities, painting, loft, group games, building with Miss Benson and Mrs. Condra on Wednesdays.  Click Here for Details.  Click Here For Details
• Drama Club – 3rd & 4th Graders: Come be a part of Ms. Hannigan’s Orphanage In Annie!  Whether you want to audition for a part or just be a part of the show, please sign up.  There will be two groups: Tuesdays starting Jan. 31st, and Wednesdays starting Feb. 1, from 3:00-4:15.  Click Here for Details

Spring Auction – March 4

Aiiight all you fly parents! Our rad Neon 90s Auction party is only 6 weeks away so a few friendly reminders to help get you ready to party the 90s way:

1. Snag your tickets now to the phatest party in March – buy online here.
2. Secure your babysitter now. Need help here? Babysitting resources coming soon!
3. Prep your auction muscles: previews of items and popular PPE Experiences coming soon. In the meantime, make sure to set up your Cause Pilot account to save precious time before bidding.
4. Donate cool services or experiences! Big ticket items like vacation home getaways, professional services, or tickets bring lots of bids that support our school. Email Jenny with any ideas or donations percypriestauction@gmail.com.
5. We still need volunteers for grade-level party hosts and grade-level basket coordinators. Please sign up to help out here:

Used Book Sale – February 21–23 – Donations Needed!

It’s time to start gathering your used books for the annual used book sale, happening next month! We welcome books that are appropriate for Kindergarteners through 4th graders, and we especially need chapter books.

This event will happen about a week ahead of the Read-A-Thon so the kids will get excited and have “new” books to read. Donation bins are on the PPE front porch!

Valentine’s Cookie Kits from Sugar Drop – Order January 30-February 9

Order your Valentine’s cookie kits from Sugar Drop for a great activity to do with your kids and to enjoy as a family! The link to order is here. Pickup will be immediately following dismissal at the PPE playground on February 10 until 3:30. If you are unable to come at that time, please email MeganLCallender@gmail.com to make other arrangements or have a friend pick up for them.

Inside the Art Room

From Dr. A: Artsonia.com is our online art gallery.  Students photograph and upload most of their finished artwork. If you follow the link to our online art gallery and you do NOT see your child’s artwork, you may not be registered as a parent for your child. If you do not see your child’s work in the gallery, please complete this form, and I will add your email to the site. You will receive an invitation from Artsonia to register as your child’s parent or guardian. Registration is completed for each artist, not per family, so if you have more than one artist, you will receive an email and register as the parent of each artist. Our goal is to register 100% of our Tiger Artists, so please make sure you are seeing your child’s work in your in-box as well as on the site!

Like every good art museum, Artsonia has a gift shop which is great for creative Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day gifts that feature your favorite artist’s work! Faces and full names are not permitted on the site to protect your child’s privacy.

Toyota Dream Car USA Art Contest for Kids

Looking for free student art contests? Parents can enter their children in the Toyota Dream Car USA Art Contest for Kids ages 4-15. Deadline to submit artwork submissions is Jan 31, 2023.  Students can win up to $750! Visit this website for more information.

Yearbook and Submitting Photos

Order your yearbook today! Order your PPE 2022-2023 yearbook ($25) here. The last day to pre-order the yearbook with personalization, icons and accessories is Jan. 27. Yearbooks will be delivered at the end of the school year.

Jostens is once again producing our yearbook and this year we need your help with photo submissions! Submit your photos online by logging into http://images.jostens.com and entering Login ID 0och6VEOTX2tCcLzFfas6Tw. Last day to submit photos is February 3rd!

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.

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.

Donate to Unicycle!

Do you know all of the items you can send in to school to donate to UniCycle?! More than just polos and khakis! Help us to keep our school closet full as you clean out outgrown items this winter. Anything that we don’t need here is sent to the UniCycle hub, where it is distributed to more than 100 other MNPS UniCycle Closets and direct to students in the HERO Program.

Green Tip from the PPE Green Team

You can reuse your lunch plastic bags! Just wash them with soap, turn them inside out, and wait for them to air dry. Ask your child to keep the used bags in their lunchbox to return home so they can be washed and reused.

Community Events 

JT Moore Prospective Parent Open House

We Need Your Help!

Workroom: 

The Percy Priest Workroom needs volunteers to help copy and sort Friday Folders. Please sign up here if you are able. This would be a big help to Cathy and Sonya in the Front Office.

Tutors: 

At PPE, we have the wonderful opportunity to provide some small group tutoring for our students through the MNPS Accelerating Scholars program. We are looking for parent volunteers who can help out to lead those groups. The time commitment would be 30 minutes each Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Plans and materials will be provided.

Please e-mail Grace Akbari at grace.akbari@mnps.org if you’d be interested in helping with a group this spring!

Supplies:

The cafeteria is in need of clorox wipes to help keep it clean during lunchtime. If you are able to donate any, please send it with your child.

Other Ways to Volunteer:

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