Clarks Creek Chronicles

Dear Parents,

Happy September! We have had an outstanding first month of school! Thank you all for helping us begin our year so smoothly - from you, as parents, to our outstanding staff, bus drivers, and everyone else who has played a role, THANK YOU! We had many parent volunteers from our PTO helping our youngest students beginning on day one, and we all commented on how quickly all of our students were in their new classrooms on that very first day. This was thanks, in large part, to their help!

Our teachers have been working hard to get to know all of their new students and have already begun looking at student data to help them understand every child's specific needs.

As we go throughout the year, you will receive updates from your child's teacher frequently. In addition, this newsletter will arrive in your inbox. Separate emails with specific information will also be sent, as needed. We strive to communicate the information that we know you'll need. You can also watch the news updates on our website or on Facebook and Twitter. As always, feel free to contact your child's teacher or the main office if there is other information that you need from us.

We hope to see you at school soon! If you are interested in volunteering, please contact your child's teacher. Our library is always looking for volunteers to help shelf books, as well! In addition, we have events coming up this fall during which we hope to see you and your family. The first is coming up on Sept. 11th - our first-ever all-school FREE chili supper for you and your family. We hope to see you there! (Sign up and more information is below.)

We are excited for another amazing year of learning and growing for all of our students!

Sincerely,
Mrs. Donovan

Our state places a great emphasis on "College & Career Readiness," which, in short, means that all of our students will be ready for whatever lies ahead for them with their post-secondary training. Whether college, other training, the workforce, the military, or something else entirely awaits our students, we want them to have the skills they need and be prepared for whatever they want to do.

One way that we can foster College & Career Readiness in elementary school is to help students understand the range of options and jobs that are available to them. Many students understand what certain jobs are - they may say they want to be a doctor, a police officer, a teacher, or whatever job their parents have. But, how many know what a chemical engineer, neuropsychologist, diesel mechanic, or pharmaceutical technician do? We would love to help our students broaden their understanding of positions they may hope to have someday.

This is where YOU come in! What do you do? Would you be willing to spend a few minutes being interviewed by a Clarks Creek student about your job? We are interested in helping our students explore all different kinds of careers that are out there for them in the world! What do you do? If you'd be interested in sharing about your job with our students, please fill out the form below. We could do your segment LIVE on Tuesday morning announcements at 8:50 a.m., or if your schedule is better suited to doing a pre-taped segment, we can do that, as well.

We hope we have so much response that we won't be able to get to everyone! If that's the case, we'll do our best to present a variety of careers/jobs. In the interview, there will be 5 or 6 questions we'll ask you to answer; it should take about 5 minutes. We'll send you the questions ahead of time so you know what to expect.

If you're up for it, click below to fill out the form. If we are able to use your position for a segment, we'll be in touch! Thanks in advance for your help!

Thanks for helping our students be "College and Career Ready"!

ILEARN reports for students who took these tests in grades 3, 4, and 5 were returned to schools and were sent home last week.* Please contact your child's teacher, Mrs. Donovan, or Mrs. Perry if you have any questions about the scores.

*If you are new to Clarks Creek and your child was in third or fourth grade at another school last year, your scores have now been sent to us, as well. Those will be coming home to you this week.

Your child’s attendance is one of the most important indicators of academic success. Although, we know that there are definitely days when your child/children may be sick and need to stay home, we want to encourage students to be at school every day when they are well. When students are at school, they are always learning. Teachers are instructing from the minute your child enters the classroom until the time they pack up and leave for dismissal. The engaging learning that is taking place in the classroom can’t be re-created once your child returns to school. Students who attend school every day are more likely to have higher grades and score higher on classroom assessments. Again, we know that there are going to be times that your child/children must miss school and we understand this, but wanted to make you aware of how attendance may impact your child’s success.

Some of the things that you can do to help support attendance are:

• Schedule all doctor’s appointments outside of the school day, if at all possible.
• Share with your child how important it is to be at school all day, every day.
• Make sure to communicate absences in advance when you know about them ahead of time, so the classroom teacher can better plan for helping your child learn any content missed during the absence.
• Help make sure that your child arrives at school on time each day. The doors open at 8:30 and students need to be seated in their classroom each morning by 8:50 or they are counted tardy. Car riders should plan to arrive by 8:40 so students have time to get to class on time.
• Schedule vacations during times when we are off of school. If you must take students out of school, incorporate some educational experiences into the trip and be sure to write this on the pre-arranged absence request. Educational experiences are viewed very differently to the state.

Working with your child/children each day is a pleasure. We want to make the most of each and every minute we have with your child.

PUT SAFETY FIRST - As we begin this new year, we have been working to ensure that all of our students know what to do in emergent situations. We have completed our first fire, severe weather, and lock-down drills of the year. Students who ride buses to school have participated in a bus evacuation exercise, as well. Teaching students the procedures for these emergency situations is just one way we work to "put safety first"!

Students and teachers have been working daily on showing PRIDE. Each Friday we hold our PRIDE credit drawings and we are so excited about the number of credits that have already been given out to students who are meeting Clarks Creek's expectations! If you have not already asked your child about PRIDE credits, please take the time to ask him/her.

We are working on earning our next school-wide credit award. We look forward to a special event - coming soon!

I wanted to share some news with you, as we welcome a new “classmate.”

One of our students has a service dog that will begin attending school. The dog, a beautiful chocolate Labrador retriever named Eva, paid a successful visit to the classroom last week, and as such, will become a full-time support beginning today. Eva is well-trained and will spend the days with her student moving throughout our school.

I’ve no doubt that many of you will hear wonderful stories from your children about Eva, as they may see her in the building, and I simply wanted to share the news with you so you can talk with your child/ren about the important role that service animals play in our world. Eva will be working while she is here, and unlike most of the dogs our students have encountered, she is not here for play. This will be a great way for our children to learn about "jobs" in a very different way.

We continue to use the Safe Visitor identification and badge system. In order to eliminate 'wait time" once your photo ID is scanned, you can pre-register for any visit that you will be making to school. Whether coming for lunch or coming for a scheduled volunteer time, you can input your information ahead of time, so that when you arrive, you will scan your ID and your name badge will be immediately printed.

Pre-register here: https://secure.safevisitorsolutions.com/Safe/Visitor/plainfield2807

Click the red button, above, to see the entire parent calendar of events. New events will continue to be added throughout the year, so you may want to bookmark the link and check it frequently! A few important dates are listed below, but be sure to check out all of them on the calendar.

• 9/4 Midterm of Quarter 1
• Trash Bag Sales Begin
  
• 9/9 PTO Meeting 6:30pm- library (enter door 2)
• 9/9 LQA, Mrs. Fast, and Miss (Rachel) Smith's Student Pictures
• 9/10 Clarks Creek and remaining LQA Students - Picture Day!
• 9/11 September 11th Event - details below
• 9/11 Chili Supper - See Info Above and Sign Up to Attend
• 9/19 PTO Fundraiser @ Sweet M's Boutique 7:30-9:00
  
• 9/20 All students should be up to date on immunizations or have talked to Mrs. Coffelt about plans to do so
• 9/23 - 9/27 Fall Book Fair
• 9/25 Trash Bag Sales - Due Date
• 9/26 Grandparents' Night - 4:30-6:00 PM (open house format)
• 9/26 PTO Fundraiser @ Red Robin 4:00 - 8:00 PM

On September 11th, we will participate in our annual Patriot Day remembrance and celebration of our local heroes. We invite all local law enforcement, firefighters, EMTs and other first responders, along with any current or retired military personnel to come to school at 3:00 that afternoon. At that time, we will begin having all of our classes come through Town Hall to shake hands and thank these great Americans. Following this, our students will participate in a silent dismissal to honor all of these guests, to remember those lost on September 11th, and to remember those who have worked to provide safety for all of us - both on September 11th and every other day of the year.

Please spread the word and invite your friends and family who are in any of the professions mentioned to attend this special event. Please sign them up (or ask them to do so themselves) ahead of time on this link: https://goo.gl/forms/agIPI2e78fkgiiY83

We look forward to having another great turn-out of our local heroes! Be sure to ask your child about the event that afternoon when he/she gets home. It's a special one!

Sept. 9th will be picture day for LQA students attending that day and for students in Mrs. Fast and Miss Rachel Smith's rooms. September 10th will be picture day for all other Clarks Creek students and LQA students. Picture forms have been sent home. You may also purchase a picture package and look at all of the options by clicking the button below.

Purchasing pictures is a family decision and is completely optional. ALL students will be photographed to be included in the yearbook whether a picture package is purchased or not. (Yearbook orders are taken in the spring.)

If you have some time to donate at Clarks Creek, talk to your child's teacher about current needs. In order to protect the safety of all of our students, all volunteers need to complete a Volunteer Background Check and have it cleared prior to the first volunteer experience. This can take a couple of weeks, so be sure to plan ahead! These are also needed prior to chaperoning field trips, etc. The form can be found at https://www.plainfield.k12.in.us/o/clarks-creek-elementary-school/page/volunteer-with-us--5

Another thing we ask all volunteers to complete annually is the Volunteer Confidentiality Form. This form is available in the school office and should also be completed before the first volunteer experience.

We appreciate the help of all of our volunteers! We couldn't do it without you!

Just a reminder...

School BEGINS at 8:50. This means that students must be in the building, have emptied their backpacks, and be seated at their desks by this time. If you bring your child to school by car, plan on arriving by 8:40 to allow your child plenty of time to accomplish all of this.

Our car-rider procedures were detailed in the "Back-to-School" edition of the newsletter. Please refer back to that if you need specific information. However, just a reminder to please limit the distance between yourself and other vehicles in the parking lot so we can get everyone in off of Elm Drive at dismissal. Thanks for your help!

If you still need a car tag for picking your child up, please register at this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeJK3R2q8yjMHetab5djZT1qAjUZ6FiniixkdH95lqmbDOT1g/viewform?usp=sf_link

You can find our school menus, prices, and other information by clicking the red button below.

If you're looking to find the menus from the website, go to the Clarks Creek home page, then follow these steps:

• Click "Explore" in the top right
• Click the "Parent Info" link
• Scroll down to "Food Services"

From there, you'll be able to click on the various menus and find pricing details and other information about breakfast & lunches.

We know that parents often want to come in and eat lunch with their children on special occasions. You are welcome to do so by following the usual school visit procedures - beginning with stopping in the office to sign in and get a visitor tag. Please be aware, though, that space for visitors is currently VERY limited. As such, we have established two places right outside the cafeteria for our "parent lunch dates" to eat.

Also, be aware that we will only allow those visitors who appear as parents/guardians or emergency contacts in PowerSchool to visit for lunch. If you have a special friend or family member who is not already in our system who wants to come for lunch, please notify your child's teacher and Miss Conley at the front desk ahead of time that you are allowing this person to visit your child for lunch. All visitors must be processed through the Safe Visitor system before going down for lunch.

Don't forget to bring your ID!

This year, Mrs. Ellis has been working with all of our kindergarten students on social skills in the first few weeks of school. They have begun learning about feelings and coping skills.

They will continue to work on additional skills through the end of September, including: listening/following rules, sportsmanship/friendship, tattling, respect for others, and empathy. We hope this builds on what you have already worked on at home and gives all of our youngest CC Quakers a good foundation for developing friendships and being "good citizens" throughout their lives.

With several weeks of what could still be very warm weather, please keep in mind that our dress code does not allow for tank tops/spaghetti strap tops; all shirts worn to school should cover the top of the shoulder. Flip flops, slides, other strapless shoes, and heels are also dangerous on the playground and should not be worn to school. Please refer to the Student Handbook for more information. Thanks for your help!

Upcoming Meeting

The second PTO meeting of the year will be on Monday 9/9 @ 6:30 in the library. Please enter through door 2 and walk down the hall to the right to the library.

The Book Fair is Coming!

The fall book fair is just a few weeks away! The first fair of the year will be the week of Sept. 23rd. If you'd be available to help with this great event, please email clarkscreekpto@gmail.com.

Nightmare on Elm Drive

Planning is underway for our annual Halloween event will be happening soon. Email clarkscreekpto@gmail.com if you'd like to help organize the event. We'd love to have your help!

Find Us on Facebook

Stay up to date with lots of different PTO information. Find us here: https://www.facebook.com/ClarksCreekPTO/

See additional dates for fundraisers in the list of school events, above.

Textbook rental is now due. Our school treasurer is happy to help you work out payment arrangements if that is necessary. Please contact her at dcutler@plainfield.k12.in.us . If you think you may qualify for free or reduced lunch support (which includes assistance for textbook rental), please click the link below to apply.

Tryouts Coming Soon! September 10th, 2019

Plainfield Youth Basketball Club (PYBC) will be having their annual tryouts this September for boys basketball teams grades 2nd-6th.

Click on the link to register for tryouts and additional information.

Registration Link

2nd grade: Sept. 10th HS 6:00-7:30 PM

3rd grade: Sept. 10th HS 6:00-7:30 PM

4th grade: Sept. 11th HS 6:00-7:30 PM

5th grade:Sept. 11th HS 6:00-7:30 PM

6th grade: Sept. 11th HS 6:00-7:30 PM

Final Evaluations for 3rd & 4th Grade are Sept. 15th from 12-1:15 PM. 5th & 6th Grade Sept. 15th 1:30pm to 2:45pm.

Email: clarkscreekinfo@plainfield.k12.in.us
Website: http://www.plainfield.k12.in.us/o/clarks-creek-elementary-school
Location: 401 Elm Drive, Plainfield, IN, United States
Phone: (317)839-0120
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClarksCreekElementary/
Twitter: @ccquakers