Wednesday Word

Dear Sunflower Families,

Tomorrow marks the end of 3rd quarter. Friday, March 3rd is a record and report day for teachers so they can complete report cards and prepare for parent/teacher conferences. School will not be in session on Friday. Our goal is 100% attendance at parent/teacher conferences. Please see the Sign Up Genius links below to sign up for a time with your teacher. Please let the school know if you would like a translator at the conference. Conferences are in person, but we can also do them via Webex or a phone call.

International Night is tomorrow night from 6:00-7:00pm! We have over 20 families who have signed up for booths and will be sharing different aspects of their cultural backgrounds. This is a great school event that we hope everyone will attend! Shout out to Mrs. Soukup and Mrs. Buselt for all of their hard work organizing this for our school community.

This Saturday from 9am-2pm our Garden Gnomies (Garden Club) will be hosting a kick off to Garden Week. Our Garden Gnomies would love some extra hands on Saturday. Please check out the information below and feel free to stop by and help out!

Lastly, next week is National School Social Work Week. We would like to shout out Anna Lara who spends two days a week at Sunflower working with our scholars and families. The them this year is "We Rise" as school social workers rise to share hope, to listen and understand, to challenge inequities and to support a school community.

As always it is an honor to serve as the Principal of Sunflower Elementary.

Melissa Blevins

Know a Sunflower staff member that deserves a shout out?! Fill out the google form below! We use these shout outs as nominations for our staff member of the month recognition.

Dear Sunflower Families,

We can not wait to see you in the building on March 8th and 9th, 2023 for Spring Parent-Teacher Conferences. Your scholars are three-quarters of the way through their academic year and have been working with our staff to meet goals, build their community, and find success on their path as AVID scholars. Please use the link below to sign-up for a slot to meet with your scholar’s teacher. Our goal is to have 100% attendance.

Just a reminder there will be no school for students on Thursday and Friday of Parent-Teacher conference week (March 8th and 9th, 2023.) This is followed by Spring Break the following week (March 13 - 17, 2023). A huge shout out to all the families who will be helping PTO by donating food and snacks for our staff on these long days.

Check out 3 tips from Sunny the Eagle for Parents at Parent-Teacher Conferences in the video below.

Come travel the world with us during International Night Thursday, March 2nd from 6:00-7:00PM. This event is open to ALL Sunflower families.

Parents, just a friendly reminder that students can only bring in water to have during the day. They can pack a juice box or Gatorade for lunch time, but should only have water in their water bottles. Please refrain from sending your students with hot chocolates, coffees or fountain drinks and make sure that any outside breakfast/lunch items are finished before entering the building. Students can either eat a school lunch or a lunch from home. Food from a restaurant can not be in packaging from the restaurant.

We have multiple openings at this time. We have posted for three Paraprofessionals and one for our Lead Lunchroom Monitor. This position works Monday-Friday from 10:45-1:15. You can apply online by clicking the linked job titles or contact Melissa Blevins at melissa.blevins@usd497.org.

Use the sign up below to volunteer in our lunch room!

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0C45A8AE2DA5FCC70-lunchroom

5th grade will attend School of Economics on March 7th. The bus will leave promptly at 8:50am and we will return by 2:30.

If you have great photos of our students at school events/clubs, we would love to have them for the yearbook! The more photos we get, the better the yearbook will be!

The yearbook staff will review all photos and determine the final yearbook content. We cannot guarantee that all submissions will be used in the book. Pictures will be accepted until March 1st. Please label them so we know what grade level each photo is.

Please email your pictures to Nancy at nlett@usd497.org.

The Lost and Found is getting really full! Items not claimed by the end of the day Thursday, March 2nd will be donated! Please stop by or have your students check for lost items!

KEEP is a program approved by the State Finance Council, as recommended by the SPARK Executive Committee, to support Kansas families and children recovering from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on learning. KEEP provides qualifying parents and guardians with a $1,000 award per eligible student to pay for a variety of educational goods and services that promote educational learning recovery and facilitate academic enrichment opportunities. Beneficiaries can spend their award funds in an online education marketplace that offers a variety of approved educational goods and services. KEEP is not a loan or grant. If awarded, applicants are beneficiaries of KEEP funding. The first round of awards will be issued during the first 60 days following the program launch and will be issued to those who qualify based on applicants whose income is 185% or less of the Federal Poverty Guidelines. Apply here.

Save the Date!

March PTO meeting will be Tuesday, March 7 @ 6pm

Webex only https://usd497.webex.com/meet/pr11683

Teacher conference meals
Conferences are coming!
Wednesday, March 8th we will be providing easy grab and go items. Thursday, March 9th we will have a taco bar set up as well as sides and desserts.
Please have items for Wednesday in the teachers lounge by 1:30 pm and on Thursday by 10 am.

Sign up to bring items here

Read-a-Thon Thank you

A big thank you to all the scholars who participated in the Read-a-Thon! The website is still open for donations through 3/9 and funds will be used for the Educational Support Fund.

https://www.read-a-thon.com/school/Sunflower-Elementary-PTO_52567

A big Congratulations to our Top 10 Readers: Tristan R, Audrey O, Nina V, Kira C, Cayleen A, Chloe C, Brady K, Hugo C, Bennett K and Amara R!

Our scholars read over 52,000 minutes!

Marathon Club will start back up after spring break on Wednesday, March 22nd! As a reminder, we run on Wednesdays after school from 2:20pm-3pm and on Monday mornings from 8am-8:25am. If you were a member of Marathon Club and ran in the fall, you are good to go! If you would like to become a member of Marathon Club, please fill out the consent form (link below) before coming on your first day. We are excited to see everyone on Wednesday, March 22nd!

Parents/Guardians of Marathon Club participants- If you have not already, please sign up for our Remind 2022-2023 notifications. This is how we communicate to club members.

https://www.remind.com/join/kkfgk39

Consent form for Marathon Club 2022-2023

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1aX_AehmreyG6Bl7ovUwr6KDdleq89H1xea0N2snFmjE/edit

This Saturday is the Opening Day of our “Garden Week”. On Saturday, March 4th (9a-2p), Girl Scout Troop 1571 will be donating 4 new raised beds they built (to earn their Bronze award) for our SF Garden. We will be working in the garden that day to empty the old beds, and reconfigure with the addition of the 4 new beds, and then fill them all back up. It is sure to be an exciting day and the beginning of an exciting garden season. Our Garden Club members have been working hard for this. If you are able to come out and join us (working or supporting) we would love to see you. Our next Garden Club meeting is Mar 8, 2023@ 7:45 am.

SF Garden “Wish List” (used in good condition or new)

• Stepping stones

• Border (brick, rock, etc) for our Kindness Rock Garden

• Water features (solar)

• Bench

• Wind chimes

• Garden Gnomes

• Butterfly Bush

• Rocks for painting

• Kid size gloves

• Watering cans

Are your students interested in garden club? Fill out the link below:

https://forms.gle/JdoaVztTG1VGHtWv9

Mar. 2 - International Night @6pm

Mar 2- End of 3rd Quarter

Mar. 3 - No School

Mar. 6 - K-2 to Lied Center

Mar. 7 - 5th to School of Econ.

Mar. 8 - Conferences

Mar. 9 - No School - Conferences

Mar. 10 - No School

Mar. 13 - 17 - Spring Break - No School

March 31 - PTO Sponsored Glow Party