Patriot Post 09.12.2023

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

Hey Shepard Families! We are super excited about the Sock Hop this Thursday at 6 pm. Please feel free to send your kids to school on Thursday in their most adorable 50s Attire.

Are you new to our community and curious about what a Sock Hop is? Check out this link!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sock_hop

September

14| Sock Hop Dance, PTA Family Event, 6-7:30PM (Volunteer)

15| Planoettes and Wildcat Cheerleaders at Morning Carpool

18| Wear Your Favorite College Colors

19| Dress As Your Future Career

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

9-13| Student Holiday- No School

16-18| 5th Grade Camp

23| Spirit Night at Cici's Pizza

Come to the Shepard Sock Hop for popcorn, ice cream, and a family friendly dance party! Wear your 1950's era outfit to school all day (optional) and join us for a rocking good time in the evening on September 14th from 6:00pm to 7:30pm in the cafeteria. We have created a Sign Up Genius for various volunteer opportunities and would love for your help to make the Sock Hop a success! Please go to https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C084FAAA622A7FDC34-sock The Sock Hop is sponsored by our Shepard PTA.

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

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

Below is the September Wellness Calendar that gives you ideas to help you and your child maintain an active and healthy lifestyle.

City of Plano is hiring school crossing guards for AM and PM shifts. Specifically, Shepard will need an afternoon crossing guard for a while right in front of Shepard Elementary! Other schools around Plano are also in need. Details can be found in the document below.

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

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

>The Sock Hop on September 14th (Thursday) needs volunteers for set up, student monitors, and clean up. Sign up at https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C084FAAA622A7FDC34-sock

>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

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!

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

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#/

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

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.

It's only the second week of school but you can already start submitting those adorable back to school pictures to our PTA yearbook team. Anytime you take pictures of your student and friends at school, 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!

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.

There will be a Parent Information Webinar about exploring advanced academics opportunities in PSID on September 12th at 5:30pm. Zoom link: https://shorturl.at/gjX68

Come to Paint N' Party where the kids can enjoy a fun activity and get their picture taken with a Plano Senior High cheerleader. September 16th from 8:30am-10:30am. Reserve your spot HERE.

https://www.pisd.edu/Page/6305

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