Panda Pulse
November 20, 2020
Happy Thanksgiving Penny Road
On behalf of Penny Road Elementary School, we would like to wish our families a Happy Thanksgiving Holiday. Mrs. Hoke
Dates to Know
November 23rd-24th - Remote Learning All Students
November 25th-27th - Thanksgiving Break, No SchoolGiving Tree 2020
Happy Holiday greetings Penny Road families. As we all know, this year has been one that has presented challenges in everyone’s lives. In some cases, these challenges are unique, but in some cases, these challenges are the same as they have been in the past. As we start the season of thanks and giving, we are reminded of our annual tradition here at Penny Road Elementary School, The Giving Tree. Year after year, because of YOU and others in our community, PRE children and their families have been blessed with an abundance of love and a gift for the holiday season. Traditionally we adorn the tree in our school lobby and allow families to choose children to give a gift to. As we look to end 2020 with all the unique and challenging opportunities it has brought us, we still want to help our PRE children and families. To do this, we will pivot as we embark on helping to make their holidays a little brighter. This year we will be collecting Walmart gift cards to benefit our very own Penny Road Pandas whose families need additional support this holiday season. To participate, we are asking you to join us by donating Walmart Gift Cards in increments of $20. Our goal is to be able to present each family with $40 in gift cards per Penny Road Panda student. Ultimately, our goal is to collect three hundred $20 gift cards allowing us to meet the needs of our students first and siblings if we are able.
We will be collecting gift cards from Monday, November 30th until Friday, December 4, 2020. Gift card donations may be sent to school in an envelope marked “The Giving Tree Donation”. They may also be brought to school during carpool pick up and drop off and placed in the red “The Giving Tree Donation” bin. Digital gift cards may be purchased using Penny Road
Giving Tree as the “Recipient’s Name” and using: pregivingtree@gmail.com as the "Recipient’s Email". Digital gift cards will be printed for distribution to our families.
In addition, if you have extra or want to provide gift wrap (bags and paper) you can drop that off too so we can provide it to our families to wrap the presents purchased with the gift cards.
We thank you in advance for supporting our endeavors to help make the holidays a little brighter for our Penny Road Families! If you have any questions regarding this program, please reach out to pregivingtree@gmail.com.
Volunteer Opportunities
We have 2 volunteer positions open with the PER PTA.
- Audit Committee: The Audit Committee meets quarterly to help the PTA Treasurer review the books, making sure everything matches up, and that we have signed reimbursement forms and receipts for all checks written. It is helpful if a PTA member interested has an understanding of accounting principles and monthly reconciliation knowledge. Contact Board Treasurer, Barb Wright at: pennyptatreasurer@gmail.com
- The Website Coordinator will help to revamp the PTA website and manage the information to keep the website up-to-date. If you are savvy in ways of website design, have had experience managing and using weebly.com this is the position for you. Revamping the site will require more time along with updates regularly as needed (minimum of weekly) to keep the website up-to-date. Contact VP of Communication, Tiffany Gibb at: pennyptacommunication@gmail.com
Teacher appreciation
Warmest wishes this holiday week! What a great reminder to take the time to give thanks to our amazing teachers and staff! With all the unique challenges this year the PTA does not have an official room parent program, but we encourage you to still find ways to thank our teachers and staff now and every day!
Here are a couple of ideas:
- Parents: email the teachers and/or staff person (s) and let them know how much you appreciate them (could be their teachers this year and former teachers and staff)
- Have your child email their teacher (s)/ staff person (s) to let them know how much they appreciate them (could be their teachers this year and former teachers and staff)
- Don’t forget to include a note to our: instructional assistants, office staff (principal, assistant principal, data manager, secretary, specialists (PE, Media, Music, Art), AIG/ Intervention, Special Ed, CCR, IFT, ESL, OT, SLP, nurse, school counselor and social worker.
- You can also mail in a drawing, letter or special note to the school and make sure to make it clear which teacher/ staff person it is for
While we don’t have an established room parent program this year, we encourage you to reach out to your child’s teacher to see how you can help virtually. You can offer to help send out parent information, send reminders for special teacher birthday’s, etc.
Please find the Google Link: (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zVLObu0Ck2oJSRrRiUqeK36gdetYCnQxm7YbiEEKlpQ/edit?usp=sharing) to learn more about our favorite teachers and staff at PRE (if you don’t see a teacher or staff, feel free to send a cheerful note to let them know you are thinking about them)
How to contact your Penny Road PTA
Email: preptaofficer@gmail.com
Facebook: Penny Road Elementary PTA
Website: http://www.pennyroadpta.com/