Can you Be-Leaf how pretty Nashville is with the leaves changing?  It was a great 4 day week at Percy Priest Elementary.  If you were not able to schedule your parent teacher conferences, please reach out to your child’s teacher.  Isn’t it spooky we are almost finished with October?

Don’t forget that we have Harvest Parties on the 31st and they are open for parents to attend.

We have a lot of small fundraisers coming up, so please scroll down to get all the details on them.  Last, mark your calendar for GrandFriends Day on November 8-9th.  We are excited to share these mornings with our Grandparents and Special Friends.

Important Dates

• October 27 – No School – Parent Conferences
• October 27 – 4th Grade Parent Party
• October 30 – Shake Shack Dine Out Spirit Night
• October 31 – Harvest Celebration-Classroom Parties
• November 2 – Open House for Prospective Families 4-6pm
• November 2-9 – Scholastic Book Fair
• November 3 – 1st Grade Parent Party
• November 8-9 – GrandFriends Day
• November 10 – Veterans Day-No School
• November 13 – Storyteller Series- African Culture
• November 17 – 2nd Grade Parent Party
• November 22-24 Thanksgiving Break-No School
• December 5– Navigator Day
• December 7– Performing Arts Night 5-7 pm

• The path along Priest Road is now designated as closed per city recommendation.
• Blasting will begin on 10-27.  The first blast will be at 3:30 and after completing this blast it is expected that they will begin conducting two blasts per day (one during school hours between 11-12 and one after school hours between 3:30-4:30) starting on October 30th.  We are anticipating the blasting schedule to continue through the end of the calendar year (December).
• The MNPS facilities department will also be posting periodic updates at the link below
  Percy Priest Elementary – Metro Nashville Public Schools Facilities (mnps.org)

Invest Update

We extend our heartfelt gratitude to those who have generously donated to this year’s INVEST campaign.  Your contributions are making a real difference for our children.

INVEST NOW

For those who haven’t had the chance yet, there’s still time!  Every donation counts, and we appreciate your support.

Don’t forget, many companies offer matching donations, which is a fantastic way to double your impact.  Be sure to check with your employer and make the most of this opportunity.  You can provide them with the following information:

PPE PTO is a registered organization.

Search Name is: PERCY PRIEST PARENT TEACHER ORGANIZATION

Unique Identifier: 043588824

Thank you for your generosity and helping us write this year’s story.

Upcoming Events

2023 PPE Literati Book Fair – November 2nd– 9th .

IT’S COMING: LITERATI BOOK FAIR!

It’s BACK! PPE’s 2023 Literati Book Fair will run Friday, November 3rd-Thursday, November 9th .

ONLINE Gift Cards: We highly encourage families to use the Literati Book Fair ONLINE

Gift cards. Gift cards are a safe and secure alternative to cash. You can add funds to your

students’ gift card account. Then, when they come to the fair, we’ll look up their name and

use their online gift card. No cash or physical card needed!

Please help us make the fair run smoothly by utilizing this fabulous tool (taking your

child’s piggy bank cash and adding it to the online gift card would be especially helpful).

Buy gift cards here

Family Night: We will be open for families to shop from 4:30-6:30 on Monday, November 6th.

Come one! Come all!

Grandparents’/Special Friends’ Day: The book fair will be open for students to shop with their

Grandparents and Special Friends when they visit PPE on Wednesday, November 8th and Thursday,November 9th

Volunteers: Want to be a part of our Book Fair?  We’d love to have you! Please sign up to help make our Book Fair run smoothly.  Please sign up Here!

Online Fair: Can’t make the fair? No worries! Shop for exciting new books online

and create student wishlists to share with friends and family.  Start shopping NOW

We can’t wait for our students to experience our upcoming book fair! Thank you for helping to inspire a lifelong love of reading! Don’t hesitate to reach out to Ms. Stuart (emily.stuart@mnps.org) with further questions.

GrandFriends Day, November 8th and 9th 

Our annual Grandfriends Day will be held on Wednesday, November 8th for grades K-2nd, and on Thursday, November 9th for grades 3rd-5th. Grandparents and special friends are invited to watch a singing performance in the cafe followed by a visit to the classroom. There will also be an opportunity for you to stop over at the Scholastic book fair in the library and visit the Roar Store in the cafe.

To ensure a smooth check in, we ask that you RSVP to GrandFriendsPPE@gmail.com  by November 6th with your name, child(s) teacher, child(s) grade.

Please see the schedule for your program day and time.

Wednesday, November 8th

• 1st grade program starts at 9 am (check in begins at 8:30 am)
• Kindergarten program starts at 10:15 am (check in begins at 9:45 am)
• 2nd grade program starts at 11:30 am (check in begins at 11 am)

Thursday, November 9th

• 4th grade program starts at 9 am (check in begins at 8:30 am)
• 3rd grade program starts at 10:15 am  (check in begins at 9:45 am)
• 5th grade program starts at 11:30 am (check in begins at 11 am)

We know there are many grandparents, family and special friends of PPE students who would like to be involved. You can keep up with the latest news by signing up for the PPE Grandparents, Family & Friends List here.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED: A big event can only be pulled off with our wonderful volunteers.  If you are interested in helping out on this exciting day, please click here and select the GrandFriends box.

https://www.percypriest.org/connect/grandparents-family-friends/

Check out the latest podcast HERE

Dance Club for 4th and 5th Graders

PPE Fall Parent Parties

Storyteller Series

We kicked off our Storytellers series with PPE parent Negar Ahmadi and her daughter Narya, who shared their Kurdish culture with our students.  They taught Kurdish dancing and told us about Kurdish food, language and storytelling.  It was a wonderful morning and we are grateful for their visit.

Prospective Family Open House-November 2nd

Do you know of someone interested in attending Percy Priest Elementary?  We will be hosting a Prospective Family Open House.  Please help spread the word so more people can know about this wonderful school.

Small Fundraisers

Charleston Wrapping Paper Sale

Flower Power

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.

General Announcements

Order your Yearbook TODAY!

Día de los Muertos at Cheekwood- October 28th & 29th at 9:00 a.m.

El Día de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead, is one of the most important celebrations in Mexico and Latin America. The festival is known for colorful decorations, energetic music, and elaborate displays that demonstrate the culture’s strong sense of love and respect for ancestors while celebrating the continuance of life.

Spanish news from Senora Trujillo

Forest Hills Pathway Party-November 2nd

The PPE community is invited to the 3rd Annual Forest Hills Pathway Party, Wed., Nov. 2, 4-6pm across from school on Otter Creek. Enjoy food trucks, music from DJ Louie, daffodil planting and fellowship as we celebrate our neighborhood’s connector. Questions? Contact Carla Radford at carlaradford@gmail.com.

JTM Prospective Parent Open House-November 6th

You can also schedule your tour of JT Moore HERE.

Unicycle Donations

As you clean out your closets, please keep Unicycle in mind.  You can donate any too-small shorts, shirts, dresses and pants.  Remember, Unicycle collects and uses “outgrown, not worn out” school clothing to help cloth other MNPS students, we’re ready to receive them. The donation basket is located on the PPE Front porch.

Counselors Corner:

If you and your family have been affected by recent global events, please know our School Counselors are here to help. Please be mindful of conversations and comments when our children may be within listening range. For those of us with older children, please be aware that graphic and distressing pictures and videos are circulating online and it may be appropriate to monitor or limit their use of technology and media.

If you’re having conversations in your home about these events, here are a few resources:

• Helping Children and Adolescents Cope With Traumatic Events (nih.gov)
• Talking to Children About Violence: Tips for Families and Educators (nasponline.org)
• Helping Young Children Cope After Exposure to a Traumatic Event | ZERO TO THREE

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

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

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