Prairie Elementary September News
Principal Kristen Jones
September Dates to Remember
9/10: Red Friday
9/13-9/16: Grades 3-6 take Panorama Survey
9/17: No School for Teacher Professional Learning Day
Mathletics for Grades 4-6
Our Math Club sponsors are handing out permission slip/sign up sheet today. Attendance is crucial for our Prairie teams to be a success! Practices are on designated Mondays right after school in the library until 4:00. SMSD competitions will be held virtually from 4:00-5:00 on four Wednesdays starting in October.
Please be sure your child can attend every practice and competition before you sign them up. We look forward to having Mathletics again this year!
Reminder: Non-Food Celebrations at Prairie
Prairie hopes to assure a school environment that promotes and protects student health, well-being and ability to learn by supporting healthy eating, physical activity and healthy choices. Since 2017, we take part in non-food birthday celebrations at Prairie. We also encourage a balance of healthy food and treats for occasional classroom parties. We want to create guidelines that help us with healthy choices for all of our students.
- Allergies: Due to the increasing number of students with food allergies, schools have had to be extremely careful with any food items entering the school building. It is a safety issue and something that we need to take very seriously.
-
Promoting Healthy Lifestyle: The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that
one in six school-age children are overweight; triple the proportion in 1980. The agency has projected that one in three children born in 2000 will eventually develop a form of diabetes linked to being overweight.
-
Equity: Some parents are not able to provide treats for their child on birthdays or special days because of financial hardships.
Panorama Social Emotional Survey for Grades 3-6
This school year (2021-2022) the Shawnee Mission School District is once again utilizing the Panorama Social-Emotional Learning survey to assess student’s perseverance, grit, determination, school culture and student-teacher relationships. The Panorama Social-Emotional survey takes approximately 30 to 45 minutes to complete and will be administered once each semester. The first survey window is scheduled for September 13 through September 24, 2021. Parents/Guardians would have opted their student(s) in or out of the survey during the 21-22 registration process. Survey data will be reviewed at the district and classroom level to determine areas of strength, as well as areas where more instruction and/or support is needed. Once survey results are returned, parents/guardians are welcome to see and discuss the results with their students’ teachers, social workers, and counselors. Parent Teacher Conferences in October will be a great time to discuss results. Sample survey questions can be found here and here.
We encourage you to visit the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE) website to learn more about how Social Emotional Learning benefits your child and their environment. All data is maintained by SMSD and will remain confidential. Please visit this site for more information about the Panorama SEL survey.
StoneLion Puppet Theatre Virtual Field Trips in October!
Each classroom will participate in a 45-minute virtual session that incorporates science, social studies and art! Workshops will happen live Oct 1-12. StoneLion Puppet Theatre is dropping off kits of supplies for each student to create their very own project. See grade level themes below:
Kindergarten: Compost Cookies
1st Grade: Trash Talking Puppet Stages
2nd Grade: Bee Pollinator Puppet Stages
3rd Grade: Hummingbird Marionettes
4th & 5th Grades: Quetzel Marionettes
Suicide Awareness and Prevention Month
September is Suicide Prevention Month, and Sept. 6th -10th is Suicide Prevention Week. Our school social worker, Amanda Mingori, provided professional learning around this topic for our Prairie teachers. Although our students are too young to have building wide awareness events this month, our teachers will provide lessons around the following topics this month and throughout the year:
- Growth Mindset, Grit, and Perseverance
- Discussion of Current Coping Skills for all emotions
- Making sure they are healthy/safe/helpful
- How to be a supportive classmate
- How to know when a friend’s problem is too much for you to handle and how to find adult support
Please remember:
If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (En Español: 1-888-628-9454; Deaf and Hard of Hearing: 1-800-799-4889) or the Crisis Text Line by texting 741741.
Prairie Elementary
Email: kristenjones@smsd.org
Website: prairie.smsd.org
Location: 6642 Mission Road, Prairie Village, KS, USA
Phone: (913) 993-4400