September 2026 Sunflower Patch

September

2- CW & SES Title I Reading Parent Night (see info below) @ 5:45

- PTO Meeting @ 6:00

4 - School Store (during lunch)*

7 - Labor Day - NO SCHOOL

9-SITE Team Meeting (Still room for a few more parents. Click HERE to be on this advisory team.)

11- PTO Tailgate (see info below)

14 - Girls on the Run - practices begin

30 - Fall Picture Day

We are excited to welcome Amplify CKLA as our new K–5 English Language Arts resource! It has been many years since our district has adopted a unified elementary ELA curriculum, and we are thrilled to provide our students with a high-quality, research-based resource grounded in the Science of Reading. This exciting step brings all of our elementary classrooms into alignment with a shared curriculum, creating a consistent, engaging learning experience for every child while strengthening instruction in reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Our teachers have been learning, collaborating, and planning together to ensure a successful launch, and we are excited to partner with families as we begin this new chapter in literacy. We can't wait to watch our students grow into confident, capable readers and writers this school year!

Welcome to the Sunflower library. Students will check out books from the library on A, B, and C days. They may check out three books for a two week period. During Library, students learned the importance of taking good care of the books and being responsible for returning them.

This year our reading incentive program is Reading With Heart!

The goal is to encourage independent reading to practice the skills being taught in the classroom. Students can earn brag tags for reading books from eight different genres. The program was explained during library lessons this week. The program is optional.

Students will bring home permission slips. If your child would like to participate, please read and sign the permission slip and return it to Mrs. Armbruster in the library or Mrs. Selley in the office. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to email Mrs. Armbruster at cassandra_armbruster@usd368.org

As students are traveling each day with lunch boxes and water bottles in their backpacks, please make sure that proper care is taken for library books!

We want to keep our books dry so they are in the best condition for students to use for years to come!

Please make sure that all lids are fastened tightly and secure!

Sunflower Cottonwood PTO is holding their 3rd Annual Read-A-Thon this year!

Read-A-Thons get your reader excited about reading and give friends and family the opportunity to encourage your child to read even more.

Our Read-A-Thon starts September 1, 2026.

We have started to send home instructions on how to activate your reader's personal page. This is where you will be able to view and record their progress by minutes read.

We encourage you to activate your reader's account today by clicking on the link provided https://www.read-a-thon.com/readers/r/woGrHn/1?utm=email and following the simple instructions.

We've chosen Read-A-Thon because it will not take much of your time, gives your child a reason to read and helps in the development of stronger reading skills. PTO will have weekly fun incentives and prizes for classes and individual students throughout the month to make this even more fun!

Fundraising is not required to participate, it is only a bonus! We hope EVERYONE participates.

Thanks so much,

Sunflower Cottonwood PTO

Being a part of the PTO is a great way to stay informed and involved in your kids' school! There are no obligations— all we need is your email to keep you in the loop with monthly newsletters and if you ever decide to volunteer in any way we’d love the help!

School Store is the first Friday of every month during lunch. Students have the opportunity to bring a small amount of money from home and purchase little Panther items!

We are looking for a parent or two to help run the store each month. If you are interested, please click the link to sign up!

School Store Volunteers

It’s been exciting to have kids back in school! With a couple of weeks of the new school year under our belts, we thought this would be a good time to remind parents of the importance of calling the school the morning your child is absent if your child will be not be in school that day. Here are some important tips and reminders:

• If your child is going to be absent from school, please notify the school before 8:30 am THAT SAME DAY. This will prevent the school from having to mark them as an unexcused absence.

• It is best practice to notify the school via email. Please email your child's teacher along with the attendance secretaries in the front office ( sunflower-office-attendance@usd368.org ) to let them know your child will be gone and how the absence should be marked (ill, out of town, etc...) To avoid a call from the attendance-dialer, be sure to include the sunflower-office-attendance in your correspondence. When you use the above email address for attendance, the attendance secretaries and Mrs. Kinaman, our school nurse receive the email. Please note this email address for attendance.

• When you contact the school, if you anticipate an extended absence, please note length of the absence then be sure to send a doctor’s note upon your child returning.

• If you are not able to email, please call the school at 913-294-8040.

Your partnership in notifying the school the day your child is absent will help the school to prepare your child's missed work. It will also help families avoid unnecessarily receiving an unexcused absence letter from the school outlining state truancy laws. (Although, state truancy laws are important for families to know: An unexcused absence in Kansas is when a parent does not notify the school of their child’s absence that same day. When a child has 3 consecutive unexcused absences, 5 total unexcused absences in a semester or 7 total unexcused absences in a school year, the child is considered truant by Kansas state law and the school is required to report them as such).

Thank you so much for your continued partnership in making this a great school year!

• Current school policy based on guidelines from Miami County Health Department for all Respiratory Viruses (COVID, Influenza & RSV) are as follows: Any person with a positive case shall remain in home isolation until fever-free for 24 hours without the aid of fever reducing medications AND overall symptoms are getting better. Contact school health staff for any additional questions.

• Please work with your child's classroom teacher on the best time to have treats in the classroom.
• Birthday party invitations should NOT be handed out at school unless there is an invitation for everyone in the classroom. They should not be distributed to anyone outside of your child's classroom. This would include placing in mailboxes or handing out on the playground. Thank you for understanding.

Picture Day is scheduled for Wednesday, September 30th!

NEEDING HELP? Giving the Basics (www.givingthebasics.org) is a free program available to USD #368 students that provides the necessities of life, not covered by government assistance programs, that most people take for granted such as laundry soap, shampoo, deodorant and other personal care hygiene products.

Giving the Basics distributes products to more than 140 organizations and 350 schools, including USD 368, making the basics accessible to 250,000 people monthly.

We also have resources available to help families with school supplies, school clothes or food items.

Giving the Basics/Harvesters Form

If you need assistance, please fill out this form and Mrs. Drinkert, our Sunflower School Counselor, will reach out as soon as possible!

jeri_drinkert@usd368.org

913-294-8040

• Healthy Futures Dental Clinic will be coming to Sunflower on October 12 & 13, 2026. If you would like your student to participate in this FREE Dental Services program at school, you must opt your child in by completing an enrollment consent form.
• Please see the attached flyer with more information and click here to enroll: Dental Enrollment Consent Form

The faculty and staff look forward to a positive and productive year at SUNFLOWER ELEMENTARY!

There are many ways to stay connected at Sunflower Elementary. It is important that you connect in all three ways if possible.

· Infinite Campus (Web Browser & App)

· Panther Alerts

· Facebook

Information on each of these communication tools can be found below.

The success of any educational institution depends on the support and cooperation between parents, teachers, and students. All of us must work together as a team to provide the best education program for our students. We look forward to working with you and your child this year.

There are 2 versions of the IC App available for download in the iTunes App Store and Google Play. They are Campus Parent and Campus Student. To use the Campus Student or Campus Parent apps, mobile devices must be on an Android version of 4.4 or later and iOS devices must be on a version of 9.0 or later.

Parents - Sign up for IC to receive emails & texts from your child’s teacher & school.

NEW account? Trouble logging in? Email molly_jones@usd368.org (put IC in the subject line). If you signed up at Cottonwood, you will use the same account for Sunflower.

Students & parents have different login pages.

1. Click the INFINITE CAMPUS box above.

2. Choose Campus Parent or Student.

3. Enter Username & Password provided by your school.

4. Click LOG IN

Email: staci_wokutch@usd368.org
Website: www.usd368.org
Location: 1401 East 303rd Street, Paola, KS, USA
Phone: 913-294-8040