Welcome back from spring break, and welcome Spring! So many great things are ahead of us with longer daylight hours, warmer weather, and the last quarter of the school year. Don’t know about you, but this year has flown by!

We want to offer a special shout-out to our awesome principal who is running the Boston Marathon on April 17. Some of you may know that Dr. Young’s father, David Young, was diagnosed with a rare type of cancer, peritoneal mesothelioma, in August 2021 and less than a month later he passed away. He is participating in the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge to raise funds for the Claudia Adams Barr Program in Innovative Basic Cancer Research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute so that more can be known about this cancer, more treatment options can be developed, more resources can be available to support the medical professionals, and ultimately more people will be successfully treated for this cancer.

We know words of encouragement would mean the world to him so please feel welcome to drop him an email or send him a card over the next couple of weeks. Cards from kids are particularly meaningful.

Run hard, Dr. Young, and know we are cheering for you!

Upcoming School Events

• March 29 – Mr. Lincoln visits PPE
• 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

March Mathness – March 20-24

Percy Priest is rounding out our first “March Mathness!” today! Our teams have had fun challenges and hands-on activities that have increased motivation and celebrated our love of problem solving. This has been a friendly and fun competition that allowed students to play games that reinforce math concepts, work as classes to complete grade level challenges, and cheer on teammates in other grades throughout the week!

Dr. A’s Art Night Out for Kids – March 31

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

School Fundraisers

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

General Announcements

Register for 12pm Session

Register for the 6:30pm Session

3rd Grade Retention Legislation

If you missed the informational community meeting this week, an explanatory video about the law can be found here. MNPS has also put together a great webpage with information about this law. This webpage has the most up to date information and is being updated regularly as the district receives more information from the state.

If families are interested in advocating for changes to the law, please email our school board representative, Erin Block, directly for more information – erin.block@mnps.org.

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!

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 this week with 4th graders! K-3 will begin composting in the following weeks. (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