Panda Nation News

Many thanks to all of you for participating in our October 9th Parent/Teacher conferences and working together with your child's teacher to ensure your child has a joyful & successful year! Panda Nation families truly are the best!🐼❤

This week we have another exciting opportunity for all of us to come together!! Please join us on Thursday, October 19th @ 4:30 for our Title I House Teams & Ice Cream Reading Night. You'll learn more about our House Teams; earn points for your child's house; take home fun & fabulous literacy games, AND enjoy yummy ice cream! Be sure to RSVP so we have enough ice cream! Believe me-you don't miss out on this exciting & informative evening!

And there's even more!

• Picture Day is Tuesday, October 17th. See the flyer below!
• Pumpkins for the Pumpkin Book Character Contest are due on Tuesday, October 17th
• Be sure to review our Important October Dates listed below so you don't miss out on anything!

Our October Wellness theme is Unity. Panda Nation embraces Inclusivity and Unity EVERY day, and this month allows us to deepen our focus and join hands with schools around the country to make sure every child and adult in our school feels like they belong and are important! Be sure to check out all we're doing to make our school and the world kinder and more inclusive!

• October is National Bullying Prevention month
• October 18th is Unity Day & we have LOTS of exciting things planned!

Panda Love to all!🐼❤

Mrs. Schou, Principal

Mr. Engel-Cope, Assistant Principal

Ms. Melissa Bean, Academic Dean

"UNITY. It starts with you! If not you, then who?"

We held our first House Teams Meeting on Monday, October 2nd! Everyone had a great time, learned what it meant to be a memeber of their team, set goals, and decorated their bulletin board. Be sure to check out the house bulettin boards and ask your child about their House Team!

Scholars also learned about how they can earn additional points for their house in addition to coming to school each day, wearing house colors on Friday, demonstrating positive behaviors, exhibiting good work habits, working hard, showing academic growth, and being a good friend- just to name a few. Houses will earn quarterly recognitions and celebrate each other's accomplishments!

Join us on October 19th @ 4:30 to learn more about our House Teams and how to use the same MAGIC expectations we use at school with your child at home!

SMCPS receives federal grant funds to operate and maintain our schools for federally-connected students. To receive these federal funds, the United States Department of Education (USDE) requires the school system to survey each student.

Online Federal Impact Aid Forms are now available through your student’s Home Access Center (HAC). Once logged in, directions to access the online form can be found HERE. A video with instructions is available HERE. The deadline for the online submission of Federal Impact Aid Survey forms is November 14, 2023.

We are committed to partnering with you to make sure the sky is limit for our Panda Nation scholars! Our Family Engagement Plan outlines how we will do that, and our Family Engagement Calendar lets all of us know when we will come together to make our plan come alive. Please take a few minutes to review both the plan & the calendar!

Our Home/School Compact in both English & Spanish outlines our commitment to ensuring student success. Hopefully you received and signed a copy at the August 21st Open House & September 28th Back to School Night, but if you didn't get on yet, don't worry, your child's teacher will have one for you at the Family/Teacher Conferences on October 9th.

Thank you for working together with us to make this a PAWSitively Amazing Year!

The SMCPS Equity for All Website features updated monthly celebrations, best practices resources, and a newly added Community Resource page. The purpose of the Equity for All site is to provide resources and supports for promoting excellence and equity in St. Mary's County Public Schools.

• Oct 1st: AUP Due for ALL students
• Oct. 9: Virtual Instruction-2 hr. Early Dismissal-Parent/Teacher Conferences
• Oct. 17: Picture Day
• Oct. 18: Unity Day
• Oct. 19: 4:30-6:00-Family Literacy & House Teams MAGIC Workshop
• Oct. 20: 2 hr. Early Dismissal
• Oct 25: 1st Gr. Pumpkin Patch Field Trip
• Oct 26: Kindergraten Pumpkin Patch Field Trip
• Oct. 27: 2 hr. Early Dismissal-End of First Marking Period
• Oct. 30: Red Ribbon Week Activities
• Oct. 31: 9:00: PreK-5 Fall Festival Costume Parade
• Oct. 31: 4:30: LPES Trunk or Treat Activity in our Bus Lot

Please update your contact information with the office. It is critical that we have the most recent information for contacting our families.

UPDATE MY INFORMATION

Volunteers are an essential component to our Panda Nation students' success!

Please apply and remember that volunteers must apply annually for approval.

To help you navigate all the new elements of the school year and keep you informed about upcoming programs & events, we will communicate information frequently and in several ways. They are listed below for your reference.

• Weekly Phone/Email & Schoology Message: At 6:00 on Sunday you will receive a phone message & email from us sharing information about the upcoming week.
• Class DoJo: Very soon your child’s teacher will invite you to join Class DoJo. We use this platform because it is secure/members only and allows us to share a wide variety of information with you. Please join our DoJo family!
• Our LPES Website and Twitter feed: The LPES website has a wide variety of information for you and is updated regularly. We love to share all the wonderful things our students & teachers are doing, so we tweet just about every day. Follow us on Twitter @lpes_smcps
• Technology Needs: if you are new to the school or need a device from SMCPS please complete the survey here.

Email: raschou@smcps.org
Website: https://schools.smcps.org/lpes/
Phone: (301)863-4085
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/smcps.org/posts/971720426301468
Twitter: @lpes_smcps