Patriot Post 09.19.2023

• Message from Mrs. Bishop
• Calendar
• PACE Application
• Education Go Get It- Spirit/Dress Up Week
• What's for lunch?
• Join PTA
• New Volunteer Opportunities
• Chuy's Fundraiser
• Dessert Bar Sign Up
• Shepard Merch
• Book Fair
• Family Art Night
• Fundraisers
• PTA Reflections
• Other PTA Updates
• District/Community Events

Hey, Shepard Families!

We had a great time at the Shepard PTA's Sock Hop last week! Many many thanks to our PTA for putting on a great party! The kids were super tired last Friday after a night of partying. We can't wait for our next big event.

On October 5, we will have our second annual Art Night. Join us at Shepard from 6:00-7:00 pm while your children journey around the school building creating beautiful artwork and being inspired! It coincides with PTA's Read a Thon Fundraiser since we will have our Scholastic Book Fair going on in the library at the same time, AND it's the kick off to PTA's Art to Remember event that allows you to put your children's artwork on lovely gift items for family and friends. The Art to Remember gifts were a huge hit with my son's grandma last year.

We have lots of adventures ahead this fall! Read below for all the details!

September

20| Wear Camouflage or Military Colors

20| 4th Grade Field Trip to the Outdoor Learning Center

21| Wear Your Favorite Hat

22| Wear Shepard Spirit Wear or School Colors

25-26| Spirit Night at Chuy's

29| Reading Fundraiser Begins

30| Book Fair Saturday Shopping, 1pm-4pm (Volunteer)

October

2-5| Book Fair, Before/After School & Lunches

5| Family Art Night 6:00-7:00 pm

9-13| Student Holiday- No School

16-18| 5th Grade Outdoor School Camp

23| Spirit Night at Cici's Pizza

24| Picture Retakes

Monday, September 18-22nd PISD is having a Spirit Week to celebrate College & Career Night. Students can follow along with the dress up days as follows:

Monday, 9/18-Wear Your Favorite College Colors

Tuesday, 9/19-Dress Up as Your Future Career

Wednesday, 9/20-Wear Camouflage or Military Colors

Thursday, 9/21-Wear Your Favorite Hat

Friday, 9/22-Wear Shepard Spirit Wear or School Colors

PACE stands for Plano Academic and Creative Education and is the cornerstone of the district's gifted and talented education program serving students in kindergarten through 12th grade. If you would like to find more information and the application for PACE, please go to this site: https://www.pisd.edu/giftededucation See instructions at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Xv9IbxIh0zK9d7eEB6yFBtWMNEGbjgm8Nyl-h6jTG3s/edit?usp=sharing

The deadline to submit referrals is October 20, 2023 5:00 pm.

Contact Sherre Shafer (cmapus PACE teacher) if you have questions or need a paper copy of the form. sherre.shafer@pisd.edu

Dine at Chuy's Tex Mex off I-75 between Parker and Spring Creek Pkwy on September 25-26th in person or order online for pick up. A percent of every food purchase made using the online code SHEPARD or dining in showing the image above will be donated to our Shepard PTA.

Chuy's Tex Mex at 3408 Central Expressway, Plano, Tx. (469) 241-9393 and order.chuys.com

Please consider helping stock our sweet staff's dessert bar! Sign up for a treat HERE (homemade or store bought is fine!) Or you can click HERE if you'd like to make a monetary contribution, and we will shop for you! Funds will also be used towards necessities like plates and napkins :) Drop off by 9am September 27th.

Sign up link: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0948AFA728A1F85-staff

If you have purchased the grey Patriots (Sport-Tek brand) tshirt pictured above and have any quality issues with it please email shepardmerch@gmail.com to let them know you would like a replacement. They will be replacing any grey shirts with issues until September 22 but not any later. Thank you for your understanding and patience. We talked with our vendor and are trying to make this right for you.

New Shepard Merch is still available online to purchase!! We have several options for youth and adults. New t-shirts are $20, stickers are 1 for $3 or 2 for $5, yard signs for $20, and jibitz for $5. Don’t forget here at Shepard every Friday is Spirit Day and we encourage everyone to wear their Shepard shirts or colors!

Our Book Fair is coming soon! Celebrate reading with hundreds of fun, engaging, affordable books. Giving kids access to enjoyable books, especially the opportunity to choose their own books, motivates them to read more often. Every purchase supports our school.

SAVE THE DATE to Shop our Book Fair:

Saturday 09/30 1:00-4:00pm

Monday-Thursday 10/02-10/05:

7:20-8:00am 11:00am-1:00pm 2:55-4:00pm

Shop the last day during Art Night:

Thursday 10/05 6:00-7:30pm

Don't feel comfortable sending cash to school with your kid? Set up an e-wallet for a safe and convenient way to shop the fair. Learn more by going to scholasticbookfairs.com/ewallet.

We need your help! Share the joy and excitement by volunteering for a shift or better yet, shifts! Volunteer opportunities include: set-up/ decorations, helping students make wishlists, cashier and clean up. Do not worry about not having any experience! Someone will be there to show you what to do. Come and join the fun by clicking on the link below:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C084FAAA622A7FDC34-scholastic#/

We hope you join us for our second annual Family Art Night at Shepard on October 5th from 6pm to 7pm. Families will get to participate in multiple art projects, shop the book fair, and hear more about the Art to Remember Fundraiser. This is such a fun even so we hope you can make it! Reminder children must be accompanied by their parent/guardian.

We have some new volunteer opportunities approaching fast. We would love your help!

>Scholastic Book Fair September 30-October 5th needs volunteers for setup and break down as well as cashiers throughout the week. Sign up at https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C084FAAA622A7FDC34-scholastic#/

Remember if you are interested in volunteering for a field trip, party, and/or event at Shepard during the school day you must fill out a volunteer application which also includes a background check. You must complete the application every school year even if you have volunteered in the past. Please go to plano.voly.org to apply now so you can volunteer at our next event. If you have any questions about volunteering please contact Taylor at shepardvolunteer@gmail.com

Shepard Families we have our major PTA fundraiser of the year coming up soon, a Read-A-Thon! This year we are asking for families to encourage their students to read and ask for sponsorship from family and friends for said reading. We'll be raising money for our school all while growing our minds and having fun with the power of reading books!

Your students have also been working on special art projects during their art class at school. These art projects are being sent to Art to Remember so that you can have the opportunity to purchase fun items with your student's art on it (mugs, coasters, ornaments, blankets, etc.). All purchases made will benefit our school. More information will come home at the end of the month!

Hope is a beautiful thing! Express your ideas about what makes you hopeful through art! The PTA Reflections Contest is going on now through November 3rd! Students can showcase their talent with a visual, musical, film, photography, literature, or dance submission! Ask Mrs. Rodriguez for more information and you can also go to https://www.txpta.org/reflections-participation to find the entry from and rules.

Here at Shepard we encourage all families, teachers, staff, and friends of Shepard to join our PTA (Parent Teacher Association). You can join on our website HERE. Every member will be added in a drawing for a free Studio Movie Grill gift card! Becoming a member of the PTA doesn't mean you have to volunteer, it means you want to support our students, staff, and families at Shepard Elementary. By joining our PTA ($13 single membership, $25 family membership) and contributing to our fundraising campaigns throughout the year, you are making ALL kinds of quality programs and events happen for ALL of our students. Part of your membership dues go to the Texas PTA and National PTA and you actually receive all kinds of special discounts by being a member. Just go here to find out more. We can't wait for another fun and successful year!

The Shepard PTA website is also where you will be able to find our calendar of events, purchase spirit wear, and much more! Please feel free to head over there and look around. You can also find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ShepardPTA

If you are interested in volunteering in the library this year, please fill out this Google form https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfWH4ApwaS5ZVNmYUl4_5Pzxr_c9vX7hvPWUEa8N0mrpLTj8g/viewform?usp=sf_linkbe You can also reach out to our PTA Library Coordinator, Jessica at shepardelementarylibrary@gmail.com

Throughout the year you can submit pictures of your student(s) to our PTA yearbook team. Any pictures you took on the first day of school, Sock Hop, field trips, etc are great to turn in. You can submit them online at https://images.jostens.com/0BDtoSeT1IIcf78VDTsl6Lg Thanks for helping us make sure all of our students at Shepard are included in the yearbook!

Here at Shepard the PTA helps coordinate after school clubs. This semester there is an opportunity for you to pay for your child to take weekly chess classes. Premier Scholar League Chess will have classes on campus every Wednesday for 12 weeks. The cost is $212 and registration can be found at pslchess.com

Also, we would like to thank Heidi from PSLC for donating chess sets to all grade levels to enjoy during indoor recess.

*In order to make this opportunity available to our school, we need one adult to volunteer in the class once a week. Please contact our VP of Volunteers for more information at Shepardvolunteer@gmail.com The volunteer positions will be posted on Voly soon.

The PTA School of Excellence Award is only given when a PTA and school have achieved a high level of family engagement. We know this to be true for Shepard! Plano ISD Council of PTAs reported only 8 schools to earn this award, of which we were one! A big thank you to our amazing PTA, community, and our last Membership Chairperson, Alyssa Briggs.

• Love Your Shepard PTA?: Make it official by joining today!
• Drop Donations in the World Wear Project. For a list of accepted donations click here.
  
• Support Shepard Elementary through Box Tops.
• Connect your Tom Thumb loyalty card to Shepard Elementary
• PTA membership, spirit wear and yard signs can be purchased all in one place, at the same time at the Shepard PTA website.

Calling all Shepard artists! The Kindness Card Contest is going on now through September 28th! Plano ISD and The Plano ISD Education Foundation is seeking student talent to assist the district in designing artwork for the district's official 2023 Notecards published in November and utilized by district administrators and staff throughout the year. Contact Mrs. Rodriguez for more information emily.rodriguez@pisd.edu.

Does your child have an eye for design and like helping others? They might want to consider entering the Fire Prevention Contest! They could help Plano and the Fire Dept. by creating a poster about fire safety! This year the theme is focusing on safety while cooking. Posters are due October 4th. Contact Mrs. Rodriguez for more information emily.rodriguez@pisd.edu

Support the Planoettes and visit their tailgate for some good food at every Wildcat Football home game.

The Patriot Patio is now open for guests to come have lunch with their student. Our Patriot Patio is the area just outside our cafeteria, which we organize with table and chairs for our visitors. We utilize a Sign Up Genius sign up system so that we make sure there is space available. You may sign up for one spot per visitor(or family). When you come to have lunch with your child, please bring your driver's license so we can scan you into our Raptor badge system. All visitors must bring a driver's license to be verified in Raptor. (Remember that you may only have lunch with your child- they may not bring a friend.) We do welcome younger/older siblings for lunch!

Here is the link to sign up! https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0549AEAB2DA4FB6-shepard5

September Lunch Menu can be found by clicking the file below. You can add funds to your child's cafeteria account and see the breakfast and lunch menu through the School Cafe website at https://www.schoolcafe.com/pisd or download their app in the app store.

Click below to see information about the Free and Reduced Price Meal Program Eligibility for 2023. https://www.pisd.edu/mealprogram