Rocky Point Weekly Update

Please note that tomorrow, Monday, October 20th is an early release day. Students will be dismissed at 11:20am. There will be no 21st Century, however PACES will be open as normal. Please ensure your child and your child’s teacher knows how he or she will be going home tomorrow.

The week of our Hispanic Heritage Event has arrived! At this year’s event, in addition to delicious food and student dancers, we will be having a car show, a dancing horse and a raffle. Please see the attached flyer, which is being sent home with students to buy a raffle ticket in advance. Hispanic Heritage Raffle

Our Hispanic Heritage Celebration event will begin at 5:00pm and all families are welcome!. We are asking for a donation of $5.00 per car at this event. Again, all funds raised at this event will go towards the continued support of students and staff. We are continuing to look for parent volunteers to help in planning and set up of the Day of the Dead altar. Please contact Mrs. Adriana Perez, our family liaison, at adriana_perez@pender.k12.nc.us or Mrs. Ali Buckley, our PTO president, at rockypointpto@gmail.com if you have any questions or would like to volunteer or be a vendor as they lead the planning of this event for this Friday, October 24th!

Thank you to all families that have already graciously given donations for this event. We are continuing to ask for grade level donations to support fundraising efforts at this event:

• Kindergarten, Third Grade & Fourth Grade: Can Drinks

• First Grade: Candy for game

• Second & Fifth Grade: Water & juice boxes

Donation Flyer

We would like to celebrate the accomplishment of one of our Rocky Point Elementary parents and Rocky Point community members, Desmond Jordan. He won first place in his power lifting competition in South Africa. He finished first in squat, bench press, deadlift and best lifter. Team USA won 1st place also. He is a pillar in our community, a positive role model who regularly volunteers with our 21st Century after school programs across multiple schools and we are beyond proud of this achievement! Congratulations on being a World Champion!

Pender County’s School Month of Awareness continues this week. This week, October 20-24, is Bullying Prevention Awareness Week. Bullying Prevention Awareness includes educating individuals about the types of bullying, how to individually address bullying through skills and how to report potential concerns to others. Wear ORANGE this week to support bullying prevention awareness! Please note the calendar linked here: Month of Awareness Activities

Additionally this week our school will be participating in the following anti-bullying activities each day:

• Monday, October 20th - Unity Day: Creating a Unity Wall in which we will be writing messages of kindness in our hallway.

• Tuesday, October 21st - Kindness is Contagious: Join us in performing as many acts of kindness as possible today! Ex. complimenting others, helping others or writing a positive note to someone

• Wednesday, October 22nd - Mix It Up: Students are going to strive to interact with others who they haven’t sat and played with today at lunch and recess.

• Thursday, October 23rd - Digital Kindness: Students will discuss with staff members how to be kind and responsible on social media and how to stand up to cyberbullying.

• Friday, October 24th - End Bullying Together: Students and staff will commit to a school-wide anti-bullying pledge in each of our classrooms and display it outside of classroom doors as a reminder for everyone to see!

As I have been sharing previous weekend emails, our reading challenge at RPE in conjunction with the PCS Million Minute Reading Challenge is ongoing. Please make sure to complete your child’s paper reading log each night. Again, we will enter all information into the google form for our school during each student’s media time each week. Please note this time can include independent reading or partner reading with you or a sibling. In addition to this reading challenge, in alignment with our Wit and Wisdom curriculum, short fluency passages are coming home with students. Please take the time to listen to your child read these passages each evening.

In addition to reading at home, teachers in grades 2-5 have begun sending Chromebooks home with students for them to complete targeted practice in our online program Freckle. Please support your child in completing a total of 45 minutes each week in reading and math through this program. Help guides are linked below:

K-2 Freckle Math Instruction Guide

3-5 Freckle Math Instruction Guide

Reminder for all interested students to submit artwork to be the cover of this year’s school yearbook. All artwork must be submitted to your child’s homeroom teacher by this Friday, October 24th! The winner will receive a free yearbook along with the artwork featured on the cover!

Our students have been working extremely hard throughout the first quarter and have made great progress. Report cards will be coming home with students on Tuesday, October 28th. Each of our teachers have the goal of having conferences with 100% percent of our families. Please respond to their invites in order for them to schedule a conference with you. If you need to reschedule, please let them know or send an email to rpe_info@pender.k12.nc.us or give us a call at 910-675-2309 and the office staff will pass along the message.

We will be having a Veteran’s Day Assembly to honor our families and veterans within the Rocky Point community. A reminder to please send in photos of veterans in your family, in our community or close to your heart for us to include in our pre-ceremony slideshow. You may also share them via email to rpe_info@pender.k12.nc.us.

t’s that time of year again! Pender County Schools is inviting student submissions for the annual PCS Holiday Art Contest. Each year, members of the Board of Education select winning pieces to be featured on the district’s official holiday cards sent to community stakeholders and partners.

Submission Guidelines:

• Deadline: Thursday, November 6, 2025

• Upload Link: https://bit.ly/48Z6IAs

• Limit: Up to three (3) pieces of artwork per school

• Information Required with Each Submission:

• School name

• Teacher name

• Student name

• Student grade level

• Title of artwork

Please ensure all entries are uploaded by the deadline to be considered. We look forward to seeing your students’ creativity and celebrating their talent across the district this holiday season!

Throughout the year, you can find school lunch menus for each grade level by following THIS LINK.