Prairie Elementary News

• 9/03: Teacher Professional Learning Day: No School
• 9/05: Picture Day
• 9/06: First Friday Assembly in Gym at Arrival: Kicking Off Respect Theme! Wear your Prairie spirit wear!!
• 9/13: Lancer Day Parade at 1pm
• 9/18: PV Police Dept: Booster Seat Checks for grades K-2 (done during school day)
• 9/26: 6 pm PTA General Meeting
• 9/27: Art in the Garden Activities during school day with showcase after school

I am so proud of our classroom teachers, instructional coach, interventionists and special education teachers for collaborating closely to administer our beginning of year benchmark assessments! All student testing was completed before Labor Day weekend! That's quite an accomplishment!

We use data from the Acadience, MAP and iReady assessments to plan our student groupings for WIN (What I Need) time in reading and math. Teacher teams collaborate closely to pinpoint individual needs and take action for student growth. You can view your child's scores in Skyward, but what do those numbers all mean?

Please click on this link to dive deeper into what assessments your child took and how we will use the data to inform our personalized plans for students.

Lancer Day is celebrated on Friday, Sept. 13th at 1:00. Our dismissal process will begin at 12:15 so families can get safely to the parade by 1:00. We have created an electronic form for families to submit absences in advance. We ask for the form to be submitted no later than NOON on Wednesday, 9/11.

We need this information early to arrange for a safe check-out process as the building must remain locked and secure. If this form is not submitted in advance, your child will remain in the classroom and have to be checked out using our regular check-out process through the Raptor system in the office.

Click here to access the Lancer Day form to submit your child's absence. Please fill one out for each child in your family.

September is Suicide Prevention Month and a time to raise awareness and discuss this highly stigmatized topic. In addition to shifting public perception and stigma, this month is also used to spread hope to people affected by suicide. Our goal as a district is to ensure students, staff and families have access to the resources they need to discuss suicide prevention and to seek help.

• If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health crisis, call or text 988 immediately.
• If you are uncomfortable talking on the phone, you can chat the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988lifeline.org.
• You can also text NAMI to 741-741 to be connected to a free, trained crisis counselor on the Crisis Text Line.

Due to the varying ages of students in the elementary setting, here at Prairie, we choose to take this month and focus on discussions of coping strategies, resilience and boosting self-esteem. We acknowledge that within each family it is important for you to discuss this topic on a level that you see appropriate, but also want to provide you with resources for having those tougher conversations. Please feel free to reach out to Mrs. Mingori, our school social worker, if you would like more guidance on having these discussions or if you feel your child would benefit from being able to talk with her.

Resources for Suicide Prevention Month:

• https://www.counseling.org/knowledge-center/mental-health-resources/suicide-prevention-month
• https://988lifeline.org/promote-national-suicide-prevention-month/
• https://www.sprc.org/resources-programs/suicide-prevention-month-ideas-action
• https://afsp.org/national-suicide-prevention-week
• https://jasonfoundation.com/get-involved/suicide-prevention-month/
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVhqZgbMQy4 (“My Life is Worth Living” a YouTube series for teens and their parents)