Notes from the North Park Hive

Dear Families,

Time sure is flying at this point. I cannot believe it's the last week of April. There are so many special events and activities. As a mom myself, I know it can be hard to keep up! I hope the newsletter and reminders help us all to stay on top of things. The big excitement this week is the North Park Derby tomorrow and our Movin' On Up Night on Tuesday! We are also having our SBDM parent election on Tuesday during the day in the school lobby or during our family night! Check out our candidate running for office below.

The ABC Countdown Days continue. ** The Derby themed day was moved to our actual NPES Derby on April 27th.

Our kindergarten pinwheel challenge is underway! If you missed the video last week, check it out here at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_SZZSFPAxI

Due to your generosity during our fundraising this year, we set a goal to take the entire school to a special field trip for free. We are going to be able to take the ENTIRE SCHOOL to Possibility Playground at Hayswood Park in Corydon, Indiana on May 4th. This is a very special place and we are excited to take the entire school. A permission form is coming home this week. We had hoped to have those permissions forms returned by last Friday. If you did not return yours yet, please turn it in ASAP. You can read more about this playground (32,000 square feet - Indiana's largest!) by clicking the link below.

Have a great week!

Please call the NPES office at 270-351-4464 or email laurabeth.hayes@hardin.kyschools.us if I can help you with anything!

Sincerely,

Mrs. Hayes (principal)

There are still group pictures left for most classrooms that you can purchase if you missed out. These are $13. Please call the NPES office at 270-351-4464 or stop by between 7:10-3:00 any day. We'd love for these to find homes if possible!

We are thankful to have a strong candidate for our SBDM election - but we still need you to vote!

Join us THURSDAY, April 30th, from 3:00-4:00 to walk and connect with other families!

Help NPES receive money to help our students at no extra expense to you. You are already purchasing the items. Just scan your receipt and if there are any Box Top items NPES will receive $0.10 per qualifying item. Download the app and help us help your children!

In the month of March we earned $16.90 with your help. Let's see how much we can earn in April!

We LOVE seeing students reading at home with their families!!!! Read together at home and send in your leaves!

KINDERGARTEN STUDENTS WILL RECEIVE 10 TICKETS EACH FOR GRADUATION. Tickets will be sent home and all of the final plans will be shared at the beginning of May.

Thank you for understanding that we will NOT budge on this number of tickets and we will not make exceptions. We want the experience to be special and memorable, and it is NOT pleasant if there are not enough seats. You will be able to stream for additional family members. This is more tickets than most graduation ceremonies and many school events for my own children have only allowed 2 family members. Thank you for understanding as we strive to make it a great night for our students and families!

Kindergarten graduation will be May 20th at North Hardin High School (gymnasium) in the evening. We will have TWO sessions: one for 1/2 of the classrooms and one following for the other 1/2 of kindergarten classrooms. There will be a ticket limit per family. This is required in order to control the crowd and allow for it to be a pleasant experience for everyone. As future Trojans, it is very special for our students to "graduate" at North Hardin. There are many reasons why we conduct this event inside instead of outside. This is our third year in keeping this tradition and we have the event very streamlined and organized. We will share more specific information closer to time. We are very firm on our guidelines regarding graduation and will stick to those guidelines for everyone's best interest - especially our students. We will live stream the graduation via HCEC-TV, just like the high school graduations. This is a HUGE event (over 3000 people attended last year), and we appreciate your support and cooperation so that it is a great night!

When we share about kindergarten graduation, we often receive many questions about a preschool graduation. Graduations are typically held when a student "leaves" a building (5th grade, 8th, grade and 12th grade). Since our kindergarten students leave our building to go to the feeder elementary schools, we only have a kindergarten graduation at North Park. We are excited that our preschoolers stay with us for kindergarten! Each preschool teacher has a celebration with students in the classroom. They will share more information with you closer to time.

We countdown the alphabet the last 26 days of school at NPES! This is a fun tradition that helps our students review letters and keeps the days fun and engaging for everyone! This is for PRESCHOOL AND KINDERGARTEN STUDENTS (preschool will participate until school ends for them).

****PLEASE NOTE THAT APRIL 22nd is "G is for Gold" for Pirate Day and April 27th is J is for Jockey for the North Park Derby.

Please watch the short video below from Mrs. Hayes regarded "Pinwheels for Progress." Listen to learn how you can help your child earn a pinwheel in the school to place in the front landscaping. Students LOVE this North Park tradition!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_SZZSFPAxI

Use the links below to play some really fun FREE interactive activities to practice counting, letter identification and letter sounds!

https://boom.cards/fastplay/d8ai (Identifying Letter Sounds)

https://boom.cards/fastplay/fcws (Counting)

https://boom.cards/fastplay/bkcm (Matching Uppercase and Lowercase Letters)

Our Derby is an event for preschool and kindergarten! It is a fun event! PRESCHOOL families are allowed to attend and watch. Kindergarten families - we are not leaving you out, but there is nothing to watch your children "do" at this event. Our preschoolers "run" with their stick horses and kindergarten students serve as the spectators, wearing hats and dressing up. We collaborate with NHHS to make it feel like the "real Derby" and have it at their stadium/track. The Derby starts at 9:15 AM at the NHHS track. You will need to enter by the NHHS tennis courts and drive back to park behind the football stadium near the baseball fields (between NHHS and North Middle). We cannot take up spaces in the North Hardin main parking lot. This will be filmed by HCEC-TV and you can watch it later.

PLEASE MAKE SURE ALL CHILDREN HAVE GOOD SHOES FOR WALKING (kindergarten) AND RUNNING THE RACE (preschool). Although fancy shoes look cute for their derby outfits, they cannot walk in them from NPES to NHHS. Thank you!

We are so proud of our fitness team! Our students did AMAZING all around! It was our first time competing and our primary team WON the competition. Many of our kids maxed out with perfect scores! We ran an intermediate team (3rd-5th) for participation only since they are technically too young to compete. We were told that, if our kids had been old enough, we would have WON that award AND the overall award, too! WOW! I love seeing that our Tiny Trojans can do BIG things - they just need support, encouragement and opportunity. Thank you to Coach Ace and retired teacher Kermit Olive for their hard work and effort.

**Coach Ace has planned a family demonstration for the fitness team from 8:00-8:45 AM on Thursday, April 30th.

We are excited to host our annual Movin' On Up! night at NPES. This is a fun family event for both preschool and kindergarten students transitioning to either kindergarten or first grade. We will have a scavenger hunt for incoming kindergarten students and our exiting students will get to visit a tent for their feeder schools (Vine Grove, Radcliff, Woodland and Meadow View). It will be a great night to help prepare for these big transitions. We will also have inflatables, read alouds, a bubble dance party, food for sale (from North Middle Beta - cheap prices!) and more! Come on out and join us!