With the Thanksgiving season upon us, we have so much to be grateful for this year. We hope that you and your family have an extra enjoyable time off.  As a reminder, there is no school on Wednesday, November 22th thru 24th. 

“When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.”  Maya Angelou

Wishing you and yours a Thanksgiving filled with peace, joy, hope and love.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Important Dates

November 14-December 5– AHA Kids Heart Challenge

November 15 – PPE Parenting Series

November 17 – 2nd Grade Parent Party

November 22-24 Thanksgiving Break-No School

December 4 – Green Hills Grille Spirit Night

December 5– Navigator Day

December 7– Performing Arts Night 5-7 pm

December 20– School dismissed at 11:30 for Winter Break

December 21-January 7 – 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

Save the date and 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

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!

PPE Parenting Series

Missed this week’s Parenting Series Speaker? Please click the link below to view the recording with Charlotte Keeney on Bullying & Relational/Sibling Aggression. (Password= Wellness)

PPE Parenting Series (virtual)_ Bullying & Relational_Sibling Aggression w_Charlotte Keeney-20231115_193417-Meeting Recording.mp4

*All recordings are for the PPE community only. At the request of our guest speakers, please do not share, download or post any portion of the recordings outside the PPE community.

Storyteller Series

African author Ada Ari visited Percy Priest this week and told the classic Nigerian folktale of The Spider’s Thin Legs. The kids learned about African stories, traditions and customs, Kenthe cloth (clothing fabric) and African jewelry, and danced their hearts out to African music. It was a great morning that brought the story to life for everyone!

GaGa Pit

Percy Priest Kids are gaga over the new Gaga pit that was recently installed on our playground.  Coach Swift has been teaching the kids the rules and practicing during their PE class.  We are excited about this new addition to our school and look forward to the kids (and adults) enjoying it.

Free Movie Screening and Concessions for Percy Priest Families (Tickets are Limited) 

The Pons Family with Amazon Studios invites you to screen Eddie Murphy’s Upcoming Family Christmas Movie.

DATE:  Thursday, November 30th

TIME:  5:30 PM

THEATER: Regal Green Hills

ADDRESS:  3815 Green Hills Village Dr, Nashville, TN 37215

RSVP:  HERE

MOVIE TRAILER:  Here

NOTE:  Tickets are First Come First Serve.  All tickets are free, including Popcorn and a Drink.  If you have any questions, please contact Corby Pons:  corby@witpr.com

Small Fundraisers

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.

Holiday Greenery Sale–  Deadline is TODAY!

Get ready for the upcoming holiday season by ordering your pre-decorated custom fraser fir wreath ($60) or classic fraser fir wreath ($27) today!  Orders can be placed through the PPE website at the links below.  Deadline to order is Friday, November 17th.  Pick-up date will be Wednesday, November 29th by the school.

https://www.percypriest.org/product/premium-24-fraser-fir-wreath/

https://www.percypriest.org/product/24-fraser-fir-wreath/

Charleston Wrapping Paper Sale-Deadline is November 30

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!

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

Clorox Wipes Needed

The Cafe is in need of some clorox wipes to wipe down tables and help keep it clean.  If you are interested in dropping some off to the front office, it would be most appreciated.

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