What talent!

 I want to take today's post to spotlight some amazing masterpieces from our youngest artists!  Way to go preschool!  Thank you for turning our hallway into a beautiful gallery! 

Fantastic first day!

Thank you to our entire community for pulling together to make our first day back with students so very special!  We promise to partner with our families and community to do our very to ensure that each child has the very best school year possible.  We look forward to building upon today's excellent foundation over the coming days, weeks, and months.  

Welcome back, Panthers!

 

What a team!

What a team!  What a fantastic first day!  We had a phenomenal kick off to the school year during today's initial institute day.  It was so special to have everyone back together and in-person.       

We started our day outside with some friendly competition and team building, before delving further into our equity, diversity, and inclusion work, and our health and safety routines. 

Our "Welcome Back" family event and grand opening ceremony were the perfect cap to a perfect day! 

We couldn't be more excited about the year ahead!

Wednesday's Family & Community Events

Building strong relationships and developing a caring sense of community is essential for children to learn and thrive.  Creating a nurturing learning environment is at the very heart of our work together.  As a first step in this work, we will be holding our “Welcome Back” family event next Wednesday, 8/18, from 2:30-3:30PM.  To help with social distancing, families with a last name starting A-L should come from 2:30-3:00, and families with last names starting M-Z from 3:00-3:30.  Everyone entering the building must wear a mask and practice safe social distancing.  Our goal during this time is to ensure that every child and family has the opportunity to walk through the building, see their teachers, and re-familiarize themselves with in-person schooling.  This is also a great opportunity for families wanting to drop school supplies off in advance.  

Our “Grand Opening” ceremony and celebration will immediately follow this event in the courtyard at 3:30PM.  Thank you to the PTA for sponsoring an outdoor ice cream social following the ceremony.  Please see below for a welcome message from our PTA, and learn more about how you can get involved and help support our school community.

New Teacher Orientation

 We are very excited to welcome our outstanding crew of new teachers to our excellent East Prairie team!  We had a fruitful first day of new teacher orientation - here's a look into the "perfect square" team building activity we did to kick things off.  Trust, communication, and collaboration are essential components of how we successfully work together as true teams to support learning for both kids and adults.

Please join me in officially welcoming Ms. Khan (1st grade), Ms. Spedale (MS language arts), Ms. Torres (2nd & 3rd grade EL), Mrs. Bersson (primary special education), Ms. Charneske (PE), and Ms. Frank (MS social studies) to the Prairie!

Chalking, Chatting, & Chilling

The clouds parted and the sun came out just in time for our Monday afternoon family event.  With great tunes blasting from our speakers, many East Prairie families came together to get creative, connect, and eat A LOT of popsicles!  We are very excited for what is sure to be an outstanding school year!