PSE Weekly Howl

The PSE 4th grade students will be paying tribute to our military heroes on Veterans Day. If you know a Veteran you’d like for us to celebrate, please invite them to our assembly, then fill out the RSVP link below so we can properly acknowledge them in our program.

• Any PSE family may invite Veterans who have served or continue to serve in the US military. Please fill out the RSVP link with the Veteran’s information.
• PSE families bringing a Veteran are invited to refreshments in the library following the assembly.
• All 4th-grade families are invited to watch their students perform on Monday, November 11th, 2:30 PSE Gym
  
  

PLEASE FOLLOW THIS LINK TO RSVP

Please include the information about accessing Canvas Family Resources below in your weekly parent newsletters for the next few weeks.

Enroll in this course: https://bvusd.instructure.com/enroll/73CN87

The Family Resources Canvas Course is now available for Blue Valley families. This course is designed to help families navigate Canvas, whether beginning or looking for a reminder. Additionally, the course includes Canvas guides for Observers (the role assigned to parents).

I am reaching out to you with a very important safety reminder. Prairie Star students are periodically dropped off at school in the morning before the doors are unlocked or staff is present to welcome them. We believe this is an unsafe practice and ask parents not to drop off their children until our adult staff is on duty at 8:25 AM to provide supervision. Thank you for your cooperation

Calling all Dads or other amazing Adult:

Join us for Donuts with Dudes in the cafeteria on October 9 and 10 anytime from 7:45 to 8:25 a.m.

You and your student can enjoy a complimentary breakfast, which includes donuts, fruit, milk, juice, and Roasterie coffee.

Last names A-M should come on October 9 and N-Z on October 10. If you need to switch days, that should be fine.

We hope to have about half the families each day to spread out the crowd and help with parking!

From October 8th -10th, students will explore starfields of stories at Prairie Star‘s Literati Book Fair! Parents and guardians are welcome to shop with their students anytime during the fair and are especially invited to visit the fair during:

Dinner & Books on Tuesday October 8th 3:45 -7:30pm. In addition to the book fair, the 5th grade will be selling Take N’ Bake Pizzas for $12 each as a fundraiser for their class gift. We are asking that you preorder pizzas , so we have an accurate amount of pizzas. You will pay the day of the event via cash or venmo. Preorder your pizza’s here:

Papa Murphy's Pizza Preorder - 10/8/24

docs.google.com

Donuts with Dudes on Wednesday October 9th & Thursday October 10th 7:45-8:30 am. Students are welcome to grab a donut with their favorite dude and then shop the book fair.

During the School Day: Each class will have an opportunity to shop the book fair on October 9th or 10th. Parents, guardians, grandparents are welcome to join their student during their classes shopping time.

Literati allows parents to purchase Digital Gift Cards similar to Scholastics eWallet. To purchase go to our Literati page

Home - Literati School Store

literati.com

Volunteer at the Book Fair: We still need several volunteers to help out with the book fair. Please consider donating a few hours of your time to help out. If you’d like to volunteer when your student’s class is scheduled to shop, the teacher schedule is at the top of the sign up genius. Sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0E4AAFA62DA0FBC43-51659133-book

We can’t wait for our students to experience our upcoming book fair! Thank you for helping to inspire a lifelong love of reading.

Prairie Star staff is excited to continue Late Night at the Star! Late Night at the Star classes are after-school enrichment programs offered to the students here at Prairie Star.

Each Friday night class costs $50 and will run from after school until 6:30. If you enroll in Late Night, you will not need to pick up your child until 6:30. Please assume that your child is enrolled in each class that they have requested unless you hear from the office.

Camp scholarships are now available. Please get in touch with Mrs. Sperry for more information.

To enroll in camps, please see the website link: https://prairiestarpto.membershiptoolkit.com/home. Registration closes the day before at 6:00 pm.

All Late Night at the STAR questions go to Melissa Bonner. Her email is mabonner@bluevalleyk12.org.

Halloween Glow Party (Kindergarten Staff) Kindergarten - 2nd Grade

It's almost Halloween! Is there a better time to enjoy a glow in the dark party? We will decorate t-shirts (provided), get our faces painted with glow in the dark paint, and play glow in the dark games! Awesome party favors, snacks and dinner included! It will be so frightful if you don't sign up!

Forts and Fun Party (Purcell, Wayland, Philips) Kindergarten - 5th Grade

Bring your blankets, pajamas and stuffed animals and join us in making forts in the pod. We will also watch a movie, have dinner and dessert, and play fun games in the dark!! Get ready for an awesome fort night!

Halloween STEAM (Nicholson, Gabler, Brush) Kindergarten - 5th Grade

Join the first grade teachers for an exciting night full of halloween steam activities! Compete in challenges to earn prizes! Snacks, dinner, and a festive Halloween drink included!

"Spook-tacular" Haunted Houses (Arquieta) Kindergarten - 5th Grade

Join the fun and be creative as we break out the craft supplies and decorate our own illuminated haunted houses just in time for Halloween! All materials, pizza and snacks will be provided. It's going to be "spook-tacular!"

Sculpy Clay Sculptures (Wilson) Kindergarten - 5th Grade

Sculpey "oven-bake" clay is fantastic for small sculptures—halloween ghouls, goblins, flowers, or puppy dogs. Join us in the art room for a creative night of sculptures, candy, and pizza!

Prairie Star Elementary PTO is thrilled to announce our new PSE STEM Club for 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders! We will dive into the exciting world of science, technology, engineering, and math through fun, hands-on activities that challenge your student to think outside the box. This monthly after-school club will have its first session on November 5th from 3:45 - 5. (A small snack, from the approved list by the school, will be provided.). Our meeting area has our class size currently capped at 30 students, so we recommend you sign up quickly!

You can sign up on the PTO website or with this link:

https://prairiestarpto.membershiptoolkit.com/form/m/307969

Come join the BVHS show choir students on October 26th at our annual Howl and Shake Kids Show Choir Clinic! This clinic is open to 2nd-6th grade students who are interested in musicals, choir, singing, or dancing! You can sign up for this morning of fun here: https://gofan.co/event/1683262?schoolId=KS18096

We would love for you to help the students on party days. However, if you aren't giving us your time, talent, or treasure, feel free to stay home/work and pick up as usual. If you want a free pass to stay away, here it is!! Party days are really about the students and their activities. If you are volunteering, thank you, and we can't wait to see you!!!!!

ALL visitors, even on class party days, must enter school property using our secure entry by showing his/her government-issued photo ID. Only guests who are listed in ParentVue as parents, guardians, or emergency contacts will gain access to the event.

WARNING: Due to the number of visitors, there will be a wait when checking in and gaining access to the school building/property. Please be patient and plan accordingly.

FALL PARTY - PARADE AND PARTIES THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31ST

We are excited to celebrate our Fall Party at Prairie Star this year on Thursday, October 31st.

Costumes

Students are invited to wear basic costumes to school on Thursday, October 31st. Families should work with their students to select comfortable costumes for the entire school day. Students need to be able to use the restroom in their costumes without assistance. Please be advised that students may not wear costumes that contain any weapon (real or play), blood, or scary costumes that are not elementary school-appropriate.

Parade

We look forward to hosting an outdoor costume parade beginning at 2:15 p.m. Family members are invited to spread out along the sidewalk of the school if interested in attending the parade. Each class will parade around our sidewalk beginning at 2:15 pm.

Classroom Parties

Our for our parents who are volunteering a time, talent, or treasure. See the note above.

ALL visitors, even on class party days, must enter school property using our secure entry by showing his/her government-issued photo ID. Only guests who are listed in ParentVue as parents, guardians, or emergency contacts will gain access to the event.

WARNING: Due to the number of visitors, there will be a wait when checking in and gaining access to the school building/property. Please be patient and plan accordingly.

• Food planning: All food brought to the parties must be from the nut-safer list. The school nurse will check all food before being brought to the classrooms. The nut safer list, as well as approved brands, are found on the Blue Valley Website.

• Siblings: Although former PSE students love to stop by and see their former teachers, classroom parties are organized for the current students at PSE. The classrooms are too crowded to accommodate extra bodies on party days, and we want the focus to be on our elementary-aged students. We will not allow middle school students to enter the building on party day without their parents, and we strongly encourage families to make other arrangements for all siblings.

Our utmost job is to keep PSE students and staff safe. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation. We look forward to a fun time celebrating.

It's that time of year again! Time to start sending in your yearbook candids that you have been collecting. This year, we have a direct link to upload to: Photo Share: Be in the yearbook more. A lot more.

Photo Share: Be in the yearbook more. A lot more.

When you get to the site, you will enter your guardian info and email and will receive a verification code. Then you can upload your images and tag with your student's name and grade. The events we currently need are: Movie Night, Sneak-a-peek, First Day of School and Wolf Walk/Spirit Week.

Throughout the year if you have pictures of extra curriculars like sports/recitals/competitions/community service/scouts we would love to include those as well. No playdates, vacations or parties, please! Thanks in advance for helping to make our yearbook!

Questions? Email us at prairiestaryearbook@gmail.com.

Sally Groesbeck, Abbie Moles & Amy Warren

Yearbook Co-Chairs

During lessons this week for Kindergarten- 2nd grade the Unthinkabots and Thinkables were introduced. We matched each Unthinkabot to a Thinkable and discussed each character's "bot" power (expected vs unexpected choices).

The Unthinkabots and Thinkables are important to build self-awareness about one's learning. The imaginary characters are a way for students to learn about themselves and find strategies for self-awareness and regulation.

Blue Valley Schools is committed to promoting and fostering a safe environment in and around all our schools. We are continuously working to prevent, mitigate, respond to and recover from a wide range of situations. Please check out available ways to report safety concerns.