Jefferson Community Newsletter

Dear Jefferson Families,

As we head into the holiday season, this is a wonderful time to make math part of your family routines in simple, meaningful, and fun ways. Here are a few easy strategies to help your child strengthen math skills at home—without feeling like extra homework!

🎄 Holiday Math-in-the-Moment Ideas

1. Kitchen Conversations
Baking and cooking offer great opportunities for real-world math. Invite your child to measure ingredients, double a recipe, or compare fractions while making holiday treats.

2. Deck the Halls… With Patterns!
Have your child create patterns using ornaments, wrapping paper designs, or colored holiday lights. Ask them to describe the pattern and predict what comes next.

3. Count It Up
If your family is traveling or running errands, turn it into math practice—count holiday decorations, estimate distances, or track how long each part of your trip takes.

4. Game Night = Great Math Practice
Board games, card games, and dice activities build number sense, strategy, and problem-solving—plus they bring the family together.

5. Holiday Shopping Helpers
Let your child help compare prices, estimate totals, or calculate change. This builds financial literacy and confidence with numbers. Let them make a budget for all of the items on their wish list.

Have a blessed Holiday Break!

Dr. Tami Eshleman

December 2nd-3rd - 3rd-5th MAPS REading

December 5th - Cookie Dough Delivery

December 9th-10th - 3rd-5th MAPS Math

December 11th - DIBELS Testing

December 12th - 4th/5th Hygiene Talks

December 16th - Music Concert

December 19th - Holiday Jamboree

December 22nd - Jan. 2nd - No School

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”. ~ Nelson Mandela Last year, Jefferson had several opportunities to get books into the hands of our students. We had a Book Blast, Bingo for Books, Toys for Tots Book Giveaway, One Book One School and RSVP books. We are going to continue to focus on the importance of Literacy but now we are adding Numeracy.

What is Numeracy? The ability to understand and work with numbers. Numeracy is the ability to apply strategies with accuracy and efficiency. This is more than memorizing math facts. Stay tuned. . .

North Platte Camps, Sports, and Learning Opportunities

North Platte Public Schools has created a site to check out all the different events for students in the North Platte area. Please check back often to see how your child can grow beyond the school setting.

Next meeting is Monday, December 8th at 6:00pm in the Library!

Cookie Dough Delivery will be Friday, December 5th.

North Platte Public Schools is committed to providing PE daily to our elementary students. Please make sure students either wear or bring tennis shoes to school daily.

North Platte Public Schools works collaboratively with families to ensure that students are in school. Jefferson has a goal of over 95% attendance. We are proud to share that Jefferson had 95.76% attendance school-wide for the November 2025. Woot! Woot!

Mr. Furlong will be handing our Attendance Incentives. Mr. Furlong, along with Mrs. Hahn will be facilitating our Collaborative Attendance Plans.

North Platte Public Schools believes in the importance of children being in school. Jefferson Elementary will be monitoring building, grade, classroom, and individual student's attendance. We are gifted with prizes for students who maintain less than Five or More Absences. We also recognize students with Perfect Attendance. This year we are monitoring our Monthly Absences by Grade, please make sure your students are coming to school.

If your child will not be in school, please call the office before 8:00am. If students are seen by a medical professional, please provide a note to the office. Students who miss more than 10 days are required to have an Attendance Meeting with Principal and/ or Dean and Parents. As required by state statute, student who are chronically absent will have a referral sent to the County Attorney.

Students who have a temperature above 100* will be sent home and will not be able to return until they have been fever free for 24 hours without medication.

Jefferson Elementary participates in the Community Eligibility Program (CEP). CEP schools provide free breakfast and lunch to schools. We are fortunate to provide this resource to families. If students bring their own lunch and want to buy a milk, they must bring $0.50. Some students want to have a second entrée, parents would have to provide funds for additional entrées.

Here is the link to the Sodexo Website for North Platte Public Schools.

Hug and Go​

​Jefferson is a Hug & Go School. As a learning environment, we want to make sure our students have a positive experience. Our teachers and staff love your students and will take great care of them!

Arrivals

Students may be dropped off on 3rd Street and enter the doors by the gym or they may be dropped off at the Main Entrance Doors. After 8:00am, ALL students needs to be dropped off at the Main Entrance on 2nd Street.

Walking Club (Optional)

To assist families with multiple drop-offs and to get to work, we start Walking Club at 7:45. Students are expected to follow all school rules once they enter the building. This means that all cell phones and electronics are put away. Supervision begins at 7:30am when all students will report to East Gym where they will sit in their grade levels. At 7:45am, students will begin Walking Club.

• Kindergarten and 1st will walk in the East Gym.
• 2nd and 3rd will walk in the West Gym
• 4th and 5th will walk inside loop in the West Wing .

At 7:55, teachers will meet their students and transition to their classrooms.

Dismissal

Dismissal will take place in three zones:

• Kindergarten/ 1st - South Entrance
• 2nd/ 3rd and Bus plus Daycares - 3rd Street
• 4th/ 5th - Southwest Playground

If there are siblings, the older siblings go to the youngest sibling's dismissal.

At 3:35pm, all students not picked up (except Daycare) will be brought to the office and parents will be contacted.

Per Handbook, students are expected to be picked up or to leave school grounds immediately after dismissal. In the event no one can be contacted to pick up a child after school, police may be called after 4:00.

Parent Portal Link

Instructions: Login to Parent Portal (If you don’t have a parent portal account yet, email us at parentportal@nppsd.org
Click on “More”, then “Online Registration”
Click on “Start" by "Next Year Existing Student Registration”

You will see your students listed, then click “Begin Registration.” Follow the instructions to verify and update your family and student information. If you have any questions you can contact the Welcome Center by emailing parentportal@nppsd.org.
Note for new families to NPPS that have already registered their student(s) for this fall, do not need to do the annual OLR update at this time.
Note for split household families: The first guardian to sign-in to complete the OLR Update process will take precedence. The remaining household guardian will be unable to update information through the portal. If you have updates to your information please contact the Welcome Center by emailing parentportal@nppsd.org.

The Campus Parent App puts school information at your fingertips with real-time access to announcements, assignments, attendance, grades, schedules, and more.
Parent engagement has a direct correlation to student success. Students with engaged parents are more likely to have higher self-esteem, lower absenteeism and earn high grades or test scores. So what are you waiting for? Log into Campus Parent and get engaged today!

Jefferson Elementary is a Title I School. All teachers and paraprofessionals meet the professional qualifications as required by Federal Law. Parents have the right to request credentials of staff.