Staff Shout Outs
We appreciate all the staff shout outs coming in. Let's keep this momentum going!!!
Let us know how our staff is doing and help us to recognize them by completing our Staff Shout Out. You can recognize an amazing teacher by filling out a few questions in the link below. We will present them with a Shout Out Certificate that tells what they were recognized for and by who.
Teacher and Staff Appreciation Week
We appreciated everyone's help in supporting our Teacher Appreciation Week. The food list is below as a reminder of items. We are still accepting gifts or gift cards for our teacher raffel on Friday.
Field Day
Field Day for Vowles will be Thurs. May 30th. We will have 2 different times of the day that grade levels will be going outside for some fun activities provided by Mr. Hofer, our PE teacher, and our PTO. We are looking for volunteers for that day. Please sign up using the link below if you are interested in helping!
A full schedule of the day will be available soon. Please plan to come have a Field Day lunch with us on May 30th.
Summer Resources
Our building will be supplying each student with a Summer Book Pack. The pack will contain 6 books as well as a resource page to go with it on how you can use the book at home. Students can work through the book and activities on their own this summer. It will support reading, comprehension, and vocabulary. The packs will supply your child with engaging books of fiction and non-fiction text.
Capturing Kids Hearts Family Survey
Families~
We are hoping you will help us out! We are new to Capturing Kids Hearts Program this year but would like to get end of the year data on how we are doing. We are hoping kids are talking at home about how they sharing things in class, building relationships with peers, and fostering student connectedness. Please take this 14 question survey that will take only 5 minutes of your time. It is ok, if there are answers you don't know. Just choose the best choice from the answer selection.
You may need to copy and paste this link in a separate browser.
United for Moms Drive
In honor of Mother’s Day coming up, we are excited to be teaming up with United Way of Gratiot & Isabella Counties for a collection drive called “United for Moms”. Here at Vowles Elementary, we care about our local moms and want to help stock the shelves of local non-profit organizations that are assisting women in need every day!
From now until May 15, we are collecting personal care items, cleaning products, and baby items. Benefiting organizations are Life Choices of Central Michigan, RISE Advocacy, The Care Store and CCN Infant Pantry. Please stop by and drop-off your donations! If you can’t make it and want to help, you can text MOM to 40403 to make a financial gift.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05V7dfUM67Q&feature=youtu.be
Touchstone~ Sharing Good Things at MPPS
Here is the most recent Touchstone Articles provided by each building at MPPS. See what good things each building is doing and sharing.
Click here to view the most recent Touchstone.
Preschool Enrollment for 2024-2025
Thank you Vowles Elementary for sharing information about our GSRP Preschool Program with MPPS.
Applications are open for the 2024-2025 School Year. If you have a student that may be eligible for Preschool for the 2024-2025 school year, please apply at this website below:
https://michiganpreschool.org/index.php
Please have any interested families call us at 989-775-2280 or email kbishop@mp.edzone.net
Students will need to be 4 years of age by Dec. 1st, 2024.
School Store Fundraiser
This program allows you to donate to classrooms and teachers in our building by gifting teachers gift cards that they can use through the Caring For Classrooms program. Teachers can choose from a wide range of supplies, games, or books for their classroom. School Store also allows you or your family members to shop online at various stores such as Walmart, Kohl's, and BEST Buy. A percentage of your purchase comes back to the school.
Families can supply 6 email addresses to 6 different people or family members. If they supply all 6, they will get a code to put on their envelope. Bring your envelope back to school to receive a free safari "book buddy" animal.
Begins: January 22nd (students received their packets)
Ends: Ongoing. Donations accepted anytime.
Our School Code is: 50671
*Gift Card and Department Store purchases continue to add to our school all year long!!!
Final Forms
Are your FINAL FORMS COMPLETE?
We need to make sure we have all forms completed before your student goes on their next field trip.
Please log-in https://mtpleasant-mi.finalforms.com/
You do not need to enroll your student if they already go here, log in as current student.
Be sure to sign each enrollment form, even Nutrition Club & Educational Benefits form even if you aren't requesting or completing the entire form, just scroll to bottom and sign.
If you have never got an email please email our secretary anelson@mp.edzone.net so we can make sure we have your correct email on file.
Morning Arrival and Dismissal
We would like our families to remember the following about Arrival and Dismissal as we know that parents have other school drop offs or places to be in the morning and we are encouraging safe procedures for students as well:
- Please use the circle drive only if your child is ready to go. Children should be able to get out on their own. It is meant to be a quick drop and release.
- Parents should stay in their vehicle if the circle drive is utilized.
- If kids still have things to gather, a parking spot should be utilized.
- For their safety, students should exit their vehicle on the south side (closest to the sidewalk and fence)
- If you are walking students up to the school or picking them up from the teacher at dismissal, for everyone's safety, please use the Crosswalk and do not cross in-between traffic.
Thank you for your support in making Arrival and Dismissal a smoother transition.
Capturing Kids Hearts Family Survey
Families~
We are hoping you will help us out! We are new to Capturing Kids Hearts Program but would like to get our baseline data of how we are doing. We are hoping kids are talking at home about how they sharing things in class, building relationships with peers, and student connectedness. Please take this 14 question survey that will take only 5 minutes of your time. It is ok if there are answers you don't know. Just choose the best choice from the answer selection.
You may need to copy and paste this link in a separate browser.
Morning Arrival/Dismissal
Hello Viking Families!
We can't say THANK YOU enough for how efficient you have continued to help make our arrival and dismissal time at Vowles. Just as reminders, here are the things you need to know:
Students can be dropped off beginning at 8:20 every morning. Students will not be allowed at school any earlier than that as the playground is not supervised. Please use the parent drop off/Circle Drive located off Watson St. We ask that parents stay in the car and let your children out the "passenger" side of the vehicle onto the sidewalk. Staff and Student Leaders will be there to greet students and direct them where to go.
If your child rides a bus, they will be dropped off at 8:20 am and be escorted into the building by staff.
If you are a neighborhood walker, we ask that you let your child go on their own once they get to our main gates. If you pick up your child at the end of the day by walking to get them, we ask that you wait near our Marqui sign or awning and we can bring your child to you.
Dismissal: This will work similar to morning drop off. Please use our Circle Drive off Watson St. Stay in your car. Staff will bring students to your car. Please plan for your child to enter the "passenger" side of the car.
End of Day Changes- If you are planning to change your child's End of Day plans, we ask that you contact us by 3:00 PM with those End of Day Changes.
Thank you!
Mrs. Bishop
School Safety Drills
During the course of the school year, our buildings are obligated to practice at least 5 Fire Drills, 2 Tornado Drills and 3 Lockdown drills. At times, we do have our YSU Liason or other officers from the Police Department assist in our drills. We cover with our students the locations of where to go for each drill, what to do during specific drills, and how to properly evacuate when it is needed. You can also find this information in your child's Handbook at the front of the student agenda.
During the first weeks of school, classes read the story, I'm Not Scared, I'm Prepared book in their class with their teachers. This book focused on the main components of the safety protocols that we work on with children.
I also encourage you to check out our district website where we have information that pertains to our district school safety. Click here to get to the website.
Vowles PTO
Vowles Elementary PTO will continue to keep our online donation platform open throughuot the year. Feel free to share our QR code or this link anytime to make a donation to Vowles PTO.
https://buy.stripe.com/4gw4hy2YYcVA33a001
We appreciate your support!
Extreme Challenge Update~ Your support helped us to raise nearly $5800.
Student Attendance
Student Attendance is important to us. If your child is sick, please call the school Office at 775-2280 before 10:00 each morning to let us know.
For safety reasons, families will soon begin receiving a phone call by 10:20 am for any student that is marked as Absent each morning in Power School. You can deter getting that call from our system by calling us in the morning to let us know of your child's absence and their reason for the absence.
Our codes we use for absences are:
UA-Unexcused Absence
Any absence that has not been reported by a parent or guardian and/or any absence that is not listed as an Excused Absence in Board Policy.
AV-Verified Absence
An absence that the parent verifies or explains. Example: (1) The student doesn’t feel well, and is staying home, but is not visiting the doctor. (2) The family is taking an extra long weekend, vacation, etc.
EA-Excused Absence
Absences that meet the definition of an Excused Absence based on MPPS Board Policy.
*Illness or professional appointments with a doctors note *Death of a relative
*Observance of Religious Holidays
Below are images to our attendance policy but it can also be found in the front of your child's Agenda....
Remind Text App
All our JK-2nd grade classrooms will be using the Remind App for their classroom communications. This is a great way for them to communicate reminders, easy building or district information, and pictures of learning. Please view your teacher's classroom code in their most recent newsletter, welcome letter, or flyer that may have been sent home.
Family Math Night
If you were able to attend our Family Math night this past week, we would appreciate if you could take a couple minutes to complete our survey.
PTO Corner
We would like to let you know about some things happening with our Vowles PTO:
- PTO recently donated wipes and Kleenex to all classrooms.
- PTO recently donated snacks to all classrooms.
- PTO will be donating drinks for our Reading Month Celebration activity.
- We are currently in the process of planning May's Teacher Appreciation Week. See the information below on how you can help.
Thank you to everyone that supports PTO in some capacity or another. Our school appreciates you.
Our next meeting will be held: Monday, April 15th @ 4:00.