Panda Nation News

Congratulations! We've successfully completed the first marking period of the 23-24 school year! Bravo to everyone!

We all are so proud of our scholars for their hard work and perseverance! Get ready to celebrate with your child on Tuesday, November 7th when they bring their report card home, and be sure to join us on Thursday, November 9th for our First Quarter Recogntion Assemblies. K-2 is at 9:00 and 3-5 is at 2:00.

And as if that's not enough, we have plenty of things to celebrate this week too!

• This is Red Ribbon Week and Panda Nation is embracing this year's theme: 'Be kind to your mind-be drug free!" Be sure to join our Spirit Week celebration so your child can join in!
• Tuesday, October 31st will be really busy & exciting!
• At 9:00 we'll bring everyone together for our annual Constume Parade.
• We'll announce the winners of the Pumpkin Book Characters Contest
• From 4:30-6:00 the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority and our PTO will host a Trunk or Treat event in our bus lot.

Then... starting Wednesday, we'll soar to success in to November and the 2nd marking period!

Panda Love to all!🐼❤

Mrs. Schou, Principal

Mr. Engel-Cope, Assistant Principal

Mrs. Melissa Bean, Academic Dean

Success is the sum of small efforts-repeated day in and day out

Robert Collier

On November 8th at 1:30 we'll host our first Panda Round-up! Let me share what a Panda Roundup is and why it's important.

• What is a Panda Round-up? Panda Round-up is a time for Panda Nation to come together in our house teams once every quarter to build community and celebrate each others accomplishments.
• Why are Panda Round-ups important for our students? Recognizing & celebrating success is crucial for students' social, emotional, and academic growth. By coming together as school to recognize individual and group accomplishments, we lift everyone up and lay the foundations for future goals.
• What will we celebrate at this first quarter Panda Round-up?
• House Team Chants: Each House will share their chant
• Excellent Attendance: Any student with a 94% attendance rate earns a MAGIC ticket with reward options
• Positive Behavior: Each house team is awarded points based on the number of office referrals. The house team with the lowest number of referrals gets the most points, but EVERY team earns points.
• Our Ability to Make Beautiful Music: Ms Baker will lead all of us in singing a song to celebrate our strength & unity

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. 30-Nov. 3: 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
• Nov. 7: Report Cards Distribution
• Nov. 9: 9:00: K-2 Recognition Assembly
• Nov. 9: 2:00 3-5 Recognition Assembly
• Nov. 9: 6:00: PTO Movie Night
• Nov. 10: Veteran's Day-SCHOOL IS CLOSED
• Nov. 22-26: Thanksgiving Break
• Dec. 1: Fall Picture Retakes

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