PLE Principal Update
October 1, 2021
Dear PHamily,
It has been lovely welcoming our students every day in our school. They have settled in so well. As I walk around the building each day, a great deal of learning is taking place in all classrooms. I continue to be amazed at the high level of commitment from each staff member. Our first month has been busy and productive. Thank you to our amazing PTA for organizing the traditional Ice cream event. We had a great turn out. It was so great seeing many of you at our Ice Cream Social last week. It was nice to be able to see you in person after a year of remote learning and social distancing!
This month we are highlighting our fourth graders
Our fourth graders were rebuilding marshmallow toothpick STEM towers using giant marshmallows and skewers instead of toothpicks and mini-mallows. The STEM challenge promoted problem solving, teamwork, and communication.
Walk to School Day
Walk to School Day is next week on Wednesday, October 6th! Students can meet the PedBee and receive some fun prizes.
Walking, biking or riding the bus to school promotes healthier habits and enables our children to incorporate regular physical activity they need each day while also forming healthy habits that can last a lifetime. When families decide to lace up their sneakers or strap on their bike helmets to get to school, they help reduce the amount of air pollutants emitted by automobiles. The whole community also benefits from efforts to enable and encourage more children to walk, bike or ride the bus to school safely (benefits include: less traffic congestion, stronger sense of community, safer streets, improved accessibility and economic gaines).
If families are unable to walk or bike to school, consider parking at one of our neighborhood parks (Lake Hills Park off 164th Ave SE behind PLE - take the gravel path up from the parking lot to school; or Evergreen park off Lake Hills Blvd) and walking the rest of the way to school. Click the following link to view pedestrian and bicycle paths and routes to PLE https://gis-assets.bellevuewa.gov/Resources/RoutesToSchool/Ped/PL.pdf
Advanced Learning Identification- Grades 2, 3 and 4
Parents of students in grades 2, 3 and 4 can apply for their children to be tested for Advanced Learning to see if their child needs services. The application process is online at our website. Please share this link with all families in your newsletters:
https://bsd405.org/services/advanced-learning/application-process/
The deadline to apply is October 29th.
All students in Grades K, 1 and 5 will be screened via the Advanced Learning universal screening process and do not need to apply to be considered.
Action Team for Partnership
The Phantom Lake Elementary staff is looking for volunteers to join our Action Team for Partnership. Please send an email to Dr. Macias (maciasm@bsd405.org) if you would like to join.
Purpose:
The Phantom Lake ATP Team's purpose is to bridge the gap between school and community. To intertwine family and school as one united team of both knowledge and strength. Our goal is to develop equitable plans and activities for all and family to access, engage, and contribute to, that will promote student academic and social emotional success. We strive to expand our team by inviting and providing space to hear more voices and perspectives from our PLE family and community members.
How often does the team meet?
The team will meet 1 time a month throughout the school year.
Shared Responsibilities:
- Develop a One-Year Action Plan for School & Family Partnerships
- Ensures the activities in the plan happen
- Evaluates the activities that take place
- Publicize events that involve families and gather ideas for new activities
- Group poll/ survey- translated for families to see ideas for what parents find to be most valuable/ need at the time
- Reach out to a variety of resources from the community to assist families and provide support
Meeting Dates and Times:
7:30-8:30 AM
- Sept. 27th
- Oct. 25th
- Nov. 29th
- Dec. 13th
- Jan. 24th
- Feb 28th
- Mar 28th
- Apr. 25th
- May 23rd
Virtue of the Month
Virtues can be defined as character strengths which are important for a person as well as a society to function optimally. Virtues allow people to reach their full potential and live more purposeful lives. When students learn about virtues from an early stage, they are able to achieve great things in life. Each month our students focus on a new virtue.
September - Courage
October - Compassion
November-Commitment
December - Flexibility
January - Integrity
February - Respect
March - Responsibility
April - Confidence
May - Perseverance
June - Kindness
Virtue of the Month: Compassion!
For October, our virtue of the month is compassion! A perfect way to ponder compassion comes from professor Mason Cooley: “Compassion brings us to a stop, and for a moment we rise above ourselves.” When we show compassion, we stop our own worries and troubles to think about others. We reach out to the people around us, hear their troubles, and do our best to help them feel appreciated, seen, and loved. This month we will celebrate compassion at PLE with Unit Day and a school-wide assembly. We will also be sharing the below read aloud with students.
Bullying Prevention Month, Disability Awareness Month and Unity Day
October is Bullying Prevention Month, Disability Awareness Month, and we will celebrate Unity Day on October 20, 2021. To highlight Disability Awareness month, we will provide school wide resources to share in classrooms, and feature this event at our school assembly. As part of Bullying Prevention month, all students will be taught a unit from our social emotional curriculum that focuses on bullying prevention. The Bullying Prevention Unit provides teachers and students with an opportunity to engage in evidence-based preventions strategies at the elementary level since it is a unit that is taught K-5 in all 18 of our elementary schools. To celebrate Unity Day, we will have an assembly leading up to October 20th, and discuss ways to show unity as a school community. On October 20th, we will celebrate worldwide Unity Day by wearing orange.
Preschool Handbook
The preschool team will be sending you a printed copy of our Preschool Family Handbook to have for your reference. It contains procedures and other program information that may be helpful, It can also be found at the link below.
2021 Online Technology for Families
Most resources will require your student's BSD credentials. All students in grades K-12 have a student email which is also their username. Students in grades K-8 can only send and receive email from within Bellevue School District.
Email/Username: this usually follows the pattern "s-lastnamefirstinitial@bsd405.org"
(example: Jane Doe; s-doej@bsd405.org)
Password: s#studentidnumber
(example: student ID # is 123456; password is s#123456)
You can check your child's username and student id number by logging in to Synergy ParentVue, or by contacting parenthelp@bsd405.org
Please see attached Online Technology Tools for Families
School Spirit
Arrival and Dismissal Tips
For arrival and dismissal, thank you for waiting in line to pick up and drop off your child. For everyone's safety, please do not drive into the other lane as many of our students and families are crossing. We appreciate everyone's patience.
One tip that may help with arrival and dismissal is to take a right turn only in to the parking lot, if possible. This helps keep traffic moving smoothly, and for our buses to be able to enter and exit the parking lot in a timely manner.
Conference Days
K-5 Grade Conferences
We have Elementary Conference Days Early Release on the following days:
10/11/22
10/12/22
10/13/22
*Classroom teachers will be contacting parents to schedule the meetings.
- Right at School: They will be providing childcare on those days. They will be treating it like they do our normal Wednesdays. There will be no additional charge for students already enrolled on Mondays and Tuesdays, but if more families are planning on using our service than normal they will need to contact our customer service.
- Boys and Girls Club: They will be providing childcare on those days. They will be treating it like they do our normal Wednesdays.
Preschool Conference
The preschool team is working on a plan for preschool conferences to take place in November. All the preschooler are assessed in the TS GOLD system and the first check points is due November 15th. They will plan the conferences after that date so we can share the data with parents.
PLE Curriculum Night
PLE will facilitate a LIVE Teams event for our curriculum night. The LIVE Teams event will include an opening by Administrators, Counselor, and PTA President. We will be welcoming our families, sharing the purpose and structure of the Back-to-School/Curriculum Night, explaining school-wide focus areas for the year, sharing of opportunities for family engagement, and introduction of specialists and their roles in their children’s education. The Bellevue Schools Foundation (BSF) video will also be shared at this time. This opening Live session is approximately 25 minutes and will be recorded for viewing by families at a later date in the event families have a conflict with that date/time.
Right after, our grade level teachers will facilitate a Team event. Parents will use the link below to join the event. Grade levels will also record the meeting, so families who have multiple children can watch the video at their convenience time.
PLE Curriculum Night
6:30-6:55 PM School-Wide Live Event
6:55-7:00 PM Transition
7:00-7:30 PM Grade Level Presentations
PLE Scholastic Book Fair is back!
Dear Parents and Families:
The Scholastic Book Fair is back! While the Fair will be held online this fall, we’re so excited to connect our community through the joy of reading and create a fun virtual experience for our kids. Mark your calendars for October 11 – 24, 2021!
Our Virtual Fair will feature:
▪ A fully virtual Book Fair experience where you and your child can browse nearly 300 titles by grade, meet popular authors, watch book videos, and discover the magic of reading.
▪ Direct access to over 5,000 additional titles with familyfriendly prices at the Scholastic Store Online
▪ Rewards that benefit our school directly—25% of every purchase will go back to our school community. We can’t wait to bring the magic of storytelling to Phantom Lake Elementary.
Check out our Virtual Store to learn more and get a head start on stocking your bookshelves! https://www.scholastic.com/bf/phantomlakeelemschool
In community, Nannette Demmler Phantom Lake Librarian demmlern@bsd405.or
Family Connection: Judy Hunserberg
Family Connections Welcome Form Only for New Families or Families that did not do a Welcome Form last school year!
If your student qualifies for free and reduced lunch or if your family is facing financial hardship, you can apply to programs offered by our community partners. If you are interested, please complete the online form for each BSD student so that your family can be added to the appropriate community program list. Please select your home school when completing this form. Note: Being on a program list does not guarantee participation as these programs are funded and managed by our community partners (Bellevue LifeSpring, Backpack Meals, Jubilee REACH, Assistance League of the Eastside, Eastside Baby Corner, Congregation for Kids and more!). Please complete the form in this link: https://familyconnections.bsd405.org
BSD’s Family Connections Centers are open to all BSD students and families. In addition to providing families with food and hygiene items as needed, staff will continue to provide families with information about resources and services available in Bellevue. To learn more about our Family Connections Centers, please follow this link: https://bsd405.org/departments/family-and-community-engagement/family-connections-centers/
Welcome Form to New Families
IF YOU ARE NEW to BSD for 2021-2022 school year please complete Welcome Form.
PLEASE DO NOT complete another WELCOME FORM if you have already completed one last year. To access the Welcome Form in English, please click here.
You can change your language preference on top once you have open hyperlink(rt click).
A Family Resource Center
Lunch Update
Beginning Sept 27, our daily entrée choices (Breaded Chicken Burger and Veggie Burger) will be paused due to pandemic related national supply chain issues which have made sourcing food extremely difficult this school year. Most days, we will offer an entrée containing meat and one vegetarian entrée. If there is only one entrée planned, the entrée will be vegetarian and may contain dairy and/or eggs. Frequent menu changes are to be expected as we deal with at times, last minute substitutions from our food vendors.
PTA Trunk or Treat
Mark your calendars for the upcoming Trunk or Treat event on Saturday, October 23rd from 3:30-5:30pm! We had a blast doing this event last year; it’s a great chance to get outside as a family and come see creatively decorated car trunks in the PLE parking lot! Families can sign up to decorate their car trunks in any theme of your choice; treats are optional and costumes are welcome! Signups for trunk decorating will be available soon - please check the PTA website at www.phantomlakepta.org or Konstella for updates.
After-school programs sponsored by the PTA
After-school programs sponsored by the PTA are starting up this month! Choose from Smart With Art, PlayWell Teknologies, ParisAcademy (language immersion for Mandarin, Spanish and French), and Chess Club. Each Club meets on a different afternoon. Please go to https://www.phantomlakepta.org/programs.html for more information on each program and registration.
Fall into reading with the Read-A-Thon!
Fall into reading with the Read-A-Thon! The Phantom Lake PTA Read-A-Thon is a fun fall fundraiser that helps us raise much-needed funds for school supplies, classroom resources, teacher & classroom grants, field trips, family events, staff appreciation and more! Students earn fun new prizes just by raising donations and reading! Our Read-A-Thon is revamped this year to make it easier and more fun for students and families. Let’s get reading! More details to come soon.
PTA Corner
Hello Phantom Lake Phamilies!
Greetings, from the Phantom Lake PTA! The year is off to a great start, and we’re so happy to be back! We want to make sure all Phantom Lake Phamilies are included in our school community as much as possible, and here are two ways we would love to hear from you and keep in touch:
- Join Konstella! To register online, CLICK HERE and click on “Find My School” in the top right corner, then search for Phantom Lake Elementary. To register on your mobile device, download the iOS or android app, then tap on “Register” and type in our private invitation code LQE9BO. After you register, you can connect with different social groups (or start a new one!), join your child’s classroom/s, check out the calendar of events or see how you can help support PLE in the Eagle’s Roost committee page! Parents and guardians can easily customize notifications and privacy preferences in Settings.
- Join PTA! We are stronger with YOUR support and involvement! Click here to join!
- Come to the next PTA meeting! Mark your calendars for November 18 at 6:30!
Previous Newsletters
Upcoming Events and Information
October 6- Walk to School Day
October 7- Back to School/Curriculum Night at 6:30 PM
October 8 - No School
October 11-13 - Early Release for Conferences
October 11-24 Book Fair
October 15-29- Read- A-Thon
October 20 - Unity Day! Wear orange to school
October 23- 3:30 PM Trunk or Treat
October 25- 4th Grade Smarter Balanced Assessment (ELA CAT)
October 26- 4th Grade Smarter Balanced Assessment (Math CAT)
October 29- 5th Grade Smarter Balanced Assessment (ELA CAT)
October 29- Read A thon End
November 1- 5th Grade Smarter Balanced Assessment (Math CAT)
November 1- Prizes for Read A thon
November 4- Picture Day
November 5- Picture Day
November 11 - No School Veterans Day
November 25-26 - No School Thanksgiving
December 3- Picture Retake Day
December 20-January 3 - No School Winter Break
Questions? Contact Info.
Rachel Pearson, Assistant Principal
Mrs. Alysia Carey, School Counselor
Mrs. Debbie Gordon, Office Manager
Rhiannon Kreal, PTA President
Mrs. Judy Hunsberger, Family Engagement Specialist
Website: https://bsd405.org/phantomlake/
Location: 1050 160th Ave SE, Bellevue, WA 98008, USA
Phone: (425) 456-5600