October 4, 2024
Dear PTE Families,
I hope this letter finds you well and you have been enjoying the little bit of fall weather we have experienced! Thank you to all of the families who supported PTE at Chipotle on Wednesday night. I hear it was busy, and I appreciate your efforts to continue to support us!
Fall Break
Fall break is next week! I hope you all enjoy this time to relax and recharge. Whether you're traveling or staying local, I encourage everyone to take advantage of this break for some quality family time and fun. Continue to have your child read each day and work on those math facts! Limiting screen time is always a good thing too!
Skill for Success - Growth Mindset
The skill we are focusing on for October is Growth Mindset! We are working on persevering and not giving up when something gets difficult. This is a great one to practice at home. Have high expectations for your child and help them work through frustrating things. Use these times as growth opportunities. The more we all use the common language, the more it will sink in for our kids!
Ghosts and Goblins 5K/2K Family Fun Run
We hope you can join us at the Ghosts and Goblins 5K/2K Fun Run on October 26th! The PTE theme this year is CRAYONS! We want to welcome everyone to the PTE PACK! Feel free to wear your favorite color and don a pointed cap! This event is a wonderful opportunity to get outdoors, be active, and spend time with other families in our Carmel community. All proceeds benefit our students as this event is sponsored by the Carmel Education Foundation. All ages and abilities are welcome! Whether you plan to run, jog, or walk, we hope to see you there for what promises to be a day full of energy and excitement.
Parent-Teacher Conferences in November
Mark your calendars! Parent-Teacher Conferences are scheduled for November 7th and 8th. This is a valuable opportunity to connect with your child’s teacher and discuss their progress, strengths, and areas for growth. More information regarding sign-ups will be sent home soon. We look forward to partnering with you to ensure your child's continued success.
Grade-Level Updates
We have some exciting updates happening in each grade level:
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Kindergarten: Kindergarten will finish their first Wit and Wisdom module this week. Students have spent a lot of time learning about the five senses by reading different books. This week students will tie all of their learning together by having collaborative conversations and by completing sentences detailing how our five senses help us learn. Students will show how to add details in pictures with labels.
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1st Grade: First grade is getting ready to finish our first Wit and Wisdom module. Students will use the skills and strategies taught in Module 1 to write their own narrative. We are continuing addition and subtraction to 20. We are finishing our culture cases. It has been fun to learn about our students' traditions. We had a great time at the zoo last week!
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2nd Grade: 2nd grade is wrapping up W&W Module 1: A Season of Change. We took a gallery walk from the beginning of the module through our last text. We celebrated all of the new learning we have accomplished throughout the module. We are taking all of that new information and answering the essential question: How does change impact people and nature? The weather has finally cooperated and we were able to celebrate our picnic lunch! The kids enjoyed eating on the playground with all of their friends!
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3rd Grade: Third grade has been having a great time learning about the sea in our first ELA unit. Our students have worked hard completing explanatory essays, Socratic Seminars, and chalk talks! We cannot wait to learn more about sea creatures and the scientists that study them.
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4th Grade: After Fall Break, there are many wonderful topics being covered in fourth grade! We are extremely excited to begin our second module in our new English Language Arts curriculum! Students will explore informational texts and poems about extreme settings, and how those settings affect the characters or speakers in the text. In Social Studies, students will learn about early Indiana history. As students read about Native Americans, explorers, and settlers, they will make connections to their learning from our recent field trip to Conner Prairie.
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5th Grade: 5th grade is wrapping up Wit and Wisdom with a compare and contrast essay based off of Thunder Rolling in the Mountains main characters, Chief Joseph and Sound of Running Feet. The class has really enjoyed learning about Native Americans and the westward expansion conflicts. We are ending a science unit on repeating patterns in the universe. We are finishing up our Boosterthon celebrations this week.
As always, thank you for your ongoing support of our school community. I look forward to seeing many of you at our upcoming events, and I wish you all a wonderful Fall Break!
Warm regards,
Kim Piper
Principal
Important Dates
october
7 - 11 | Fall Break - NO SCHOOL |
15 |
Picture Retake Day |
16 | Late Start |
18 |
5th Grade Event - Headless Horseman |
22 | Kamilla Benko - Author Visit |
25 | Fall Classroom Parties Fall Tailgate, 5-7:30pm |
26 |
Ghost and Goblins Fun Run |
Make sure to bookmark this site so you always have the latest dates of things happening around Prairie Trace!
shop to donate
Need some new clothes for your kids? Get a discount and give back to PTE at the same time! Shop Tea Collection between Sept 23 - Oct 8 and use promo code SDF24PRAIRIE and get 20% off and they will give 15% back to PTE. It's a win-win!
join bj's and support prairie trace!
fall tailgate - october 25th
Get excited, Hawks! Our Fall Tailgate is right around the corner. Don’t forget to bring cash for the pizza and drinks provided by the PTO. Food trucks will be available as well, and they accept all payment methods! The event runs from 5pm - 7:30pm.
ghosts & goblins fun run / walk
Joins us for the Carmel Education Foundation (CEF) GHOSTS & GOBLINS 5K/2K! It will start at 9:00am, but come early for the entertainment. This annual fundraiser is hosted by the Carmel
Education Foundation and benefits CCS students and teachers through educator and student grants, scholarships, and district-wide programs. This event is for serious runners as well as
anyone who likes to walk or jog. Choose either a 5K or 2K course and invite your whole family (and all your friends) to join in the fun.
Prizes available for individuals, pairs, and teams! Everyone will get “treated” with snacks at the end of the course.
PTE family directory
Prairie Trace utilizes DirectorySpot for our Family Directory. It gives you all the school and class info you need, directly from your phone or the web.
This is the only directory PTE utilizes for class information. So if you want to have information for playdates and birthday parties, this is it!
A huge THANK YOU to our custodial and maintenance staff for all you do to keep our school clean and running efficiently. We appreciate you so much!
author visit - october 22
We are excited to host author, Kamilla Benko, on Tuesday, October 22nd. She will be speaking to grades 3, 4 and 5. She is the author of several middle grade chapter books. Author visits are a great way for our Hawks to continue to develop and satisfy their personal reading interests while covering many Indiana academic standards as well. To learn more about Kamilla and her books, visit her website. https://www.kamillabenko.com/. We are working with 4Kids Books and Toys to give students the opportunity to buy autographed copies of some of Kamilla’s books. If you wish to purchase any of these books, please fill out the order form linked below and and return with payment no later than Monday, October 14th. Prices include a discount and tax.
Please carefully read the book descriptions. Many thanks to Kamilla for graciously providing this visit for our students.
5th grade event - headless horseman
Calling all 5th Graders! Join us for some spooky fun at the Headless Horseman Event. This will be a drop off event but chaperones will be present. We will have pizza and stix from Hot Box and drinks. We'd love for the students to wear their 5th grade shirts if possible.
The cost for the event will be $25 per student if you are NOT a Conner Prairie member. If your student has a membership at Conner Prairie, the cost is $15 per student. You will need to provide us a copy of their membership. If your student has an Access Pass membership, the cost is $12. You will need to provide us a copy of that pass. Please email your membership/access pass picture to PTE2032@gmail.com.
We are looking forward to this exciting event! Please RSVP by October 10th.
rSVP for headless horseman event here
If you have additional questions, please email them to PTE2032@gmail.com.
We are already starting to plan for the 2025 Cultural Fair. If you would like to have a booth, or have any questions, click the link below!
Picture retakes are October 15th in the morning for anyone that was not at school on the original picture day, or was not happy with their original pictures.
Carmel high school open house - Nov 3
Don't wait until freshman year! Bring your student to Carmel High School now and start building excitement early. By getting to know our building and programs, students can feel more connected and confident when they start high school. Don’t miss the chance to introduce your K-8 student to all the amazing programs we offer and let them explore what CHS has in store!