News from the

Eagle's Nest

Notes from Mrs. Schacht

Vaughn Families,

The end of 1st quarter is Friday, October 10th! We are so proud of the progress our students have made and the hard work they've shown each day. I hope you'll join us in celebrating a great start to the year at our PTO Family Fall Carnival on Friday, October 10th from 5:00-7:00 PM. It's always a fun evening for the whole family.

We also have wonderful news to share. VES has been rated an "A" school by Arkansas Division of Elementary and Secondary Education based on the 2024-2025 assessments! This is a testament to the hard work of our students, staff, and families working together. We're proud of this achievement and motivated to keep growing learners.

I'm also excited to invite all VES families to attend the Bentonville Schools Parent Night Series: Conscious Discipline. These sessions are designed to support parents in learning the same principles and tools we use at VES to build emotional regulation skills, positive behavior, and strong relationships. You'll find more details in the flyer.

Parent-Teacher conferences are just around the corner! This is an important time to connect with your child's teacher about their progress toward grade-level standards and individual goals. Our goal is 100% participation because we believe strong partnerships between school and home lead to students success. Be on the lookout for communication from your child's teacher soon about how to sign up for a conference time.

Finally, you may have heard that the Bentonville School Board recently approved the addition of Commissioned School Security Officers (CSSOs) across the district. The district is currently hiring for these positions, and we expect to welcome a CSSO to Vaughn in the near future. This is another layer of support to help us ensure a safe and secure environment for our students and staff.

We look forward to seeing you at the upcoming events!

Kindly,
Kendra Schacht
Principal, Vaughn Elementary School

Tip: How to View your Child's Academic Progress

Bentonville Schools uses TeacherEase, an electronic standards-based reporting system to record and report student progress toward learning targets. For more information about the grading scale and instructions to access your child's grades, please read the TeacherEase Parent Letter.

Instructional Video: How to View Your Child's Progress

Important Dates

Fall Parties – Friday, October 31st

Our Fall Classroom Parties are scheduled for Friday, October 31st. You can find the time of your child's party on the school calendar.

Volunteers Welcome

Volunteers are invited to attend and help with the celebration. To ensure a safe environment for all students, all visitors must bring a valid state-issued ID to be scanned in the office. You'll receive a visitor badge at check-in.

Important Note: Visitors without a valid ID will not be allowed to go beyond the front office. These visitors will not be able to visit classrooms and attend the party.

Costume Guidelines

Students may wear costumes to school that day as part of our Strong Choices Week spirit day: Say Boo to Weak Choices! Costumes must be school appropriate.

School appropriate costumes:

Do not include gore, blood, weapons, or masks.
Keep the face fully visible at all times.
Safe for regularly scheduled activities. Costumes should be comfortable and safe for movement throughout the day, including recess and activity classes.
Inflatable costumes will need to be deflated outside of the class party time.

You can view events for the year on this master calendar. Please check back frequently for updates as we add events throughout the year.

If you are unable to view the events in the calendar linked above, click here:

VES Event Calendar

You can also view events on our website: VES Website Calendar

A Note from Nurse Brittany

Hello Parents!

October is almost here and I am ready for everything Fall. Just a few reminders: please make sure every student has a change of clothes in their backpacks for spills and accidents. As the weather gets cooler, please make sure to switch them out for warmer clothing. All students should have a fresh water bottle daily to stay hydrated. Vaughn will be having a Flu Clinic on October 23rd. This is completely voluntary. Paperwork will be sent out the week of October 6th and all forms are due OCTOBER 14th- NO EXCEPTIONS. Please note that students who sign up for the flu clinic will not receive a vaccine if any portion of the forms are late or incomplete. I do want to say that seasonal allergies have been rough. I am seeing a lot of students with red, itchy, swollen eyes and runny noses. Please make sure that if your student has issues with seasonal allergies that they get the remedy of your choice to manage symptoms. I do not have allergy medication except for eye drops and can only administer them if your student has a signed health history for this year and only twice a month. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me. I am very happy to help!

PTO Posts

October is a fun-filled month between Eagles Nest, Fall Carnival, Spirit Nights and Classroom Parties. Below are all the logistics for each fun event!

10/3 Eagles Nest 7:05-7:25am

Our Eagles Nest Store happens the first Friday of every month and is a favorite event for the kids. Kids are allowed to purchase items that range from .25 to $5 in the cafeteria and fourth grade hall between 7:05-7:25.

This is a cash only event and it is best to send your child’s money in an envelope or baggie with their name and amount on it. If you want your child to bring home change please write that on there too!

10/4 Virtual Silent Auction Opens

This year we are holding our silent auction virtually and have some amazing businesses that have donated gift cards that will be for sale, too. The silent auction is also going to be open for a longer period of time from 10/4-10/11.

The virtual option will allow you to place bids/purchase gift cards, be notified when you are being outbid, be notified when the auction is expiring, and pay for the auctions you win all in one easy location. This is a great fundraiser to share with friends and family that are not located here but please note that we will not be shipping items.

All gift cards/baskets are to be picked up 10/13-10/15 at the front desk. If you have any questions please email: vaughnptopresident@gmail.com

You can start bidding on silent auction items 10/4 by clicking here!

10/10 Fall Carnival 5-7pm at VES

We are excited to welcome families to the school for our annual Fall Carnival event on 10/10. This is a ticketed event and everyone over the age of three needs a ticket for entry. If you purchase tickets by clicking here before 10/2 they will be sent home in your child’s Tuesday folder on 10/7. If you purchase after 10/2 you will need to show the receipt you were emailed at the door for entry. You may also purchase tickets at the door with credit card or cash.

Click here to purchase Fall Carnival Tickets

This year our carnival will feature our favorite activities from year's past like the cakewalk, games, and crafts. We are also adding a few fun new additions like an obstacle course, a bouncy house, a dunk tank, and a petting zoo! Oh and there are great food options from our food truck partners.

It is important to note that the Cake Walk is a cash only event and all proceeds go directly to our Eagles Give Back Program run by Mrs. Snow and Mrs. Mayo to help fulfill needs for our students throughout the year.

The petting zoo is a new event this year. Event attendees will not only be able to pet the animals but they will also be offering pony rides and feed for the animals for a small charge and is cash only.

We will also have some yummy food truck options this year like Holey Moley Donuts, Twin’s Shaved Ice, and Carstens Concessions that will take cash and card and offer everything from donuts, shaved ice, corndogs, lemonade, and MORE!

10/13 PTO Meeting 8:30-9

We hold our meetings in the cafeteria, but also have a virtual option to join https://meet.google.com/cvj-kywp-rkj. You can see the full meeting schedule on our website by clicking here.

We will be planning our Cookies with Santa event during this meeting, join us to share your suggestions!

Spirit Nights

These are fundraisers where local businesses give us a portion of their sales for that particular day/time. We have one coming up at Slim Chickens and Flashback Pizza!

Fall Classroom Parties

The fall classroom parties occur on 10/31, below is the schedule by grade. Your teacher will be sending out a Signup Genius for donations for your classroom party. The homeroom parents for your child’s class will run the party, but will need help. Please jump in to help during the party and cleaning up afterwards!

Kindergarten: 12:30–1:15
1st Grade: 1:30–2:15
2nd Grade: 10:15–11:00
3rd Grade: 9:05–9:50
4th Grade: 11:30–12:15

Parent Directory

The parent directory is the only way you can share/receive the contact information of other students at the school. This document is shared the first of each month with the people who sign up. This is for personal use only. You can join that here.

If you have any questions or suggestions please email: vaughnptopresident@gmail.com

We are looking forward to an amazing October together at VES!

-Amanda, Jessica, Jennifer, and Kelly

Updates from Activity Classes

Tales from the Library

We’re excited for a fun-filled month in the library!

📚Book Fair: Mark your calendars! Our Fall Book Fair will run October 4–9. We’ll be open during the school day, and we'll kick it off on Saturday, October 4th, from 8:00 am-10:30 am. Don’t miss the chance to find great new books!

🎉Reading Challenge: By now, everyone should have received information about our new reading challenge format through Beanstack. We have lots of fun challenges, exciting rewards, and awesome prizes for students who participate. You won’t want to miss out on the reading fun! Mrs. Halbmaier will be available during the Parent Teacher Conference late nights to answer any questions. You can also email her at chalbmaier@bentonvillek12.org if you need Beanstack help.

P.E.

We have had a blast in P.E. so far this year! In October, the students in 3rd and 4th grade will be focusing on soccer skills. These skills will include passing and trapping the ball, kicking for accuracy and distance, and dribbling the soccer ball. Our kindergarten and first grade Eagles will be busy learning and reviewing skills such as kicking, rolling, bouncing, and throwing. All of our Awesome Eagles will be learning about teamwork, communication, and sportsmanship as well!

Thank you!

-Mrs. Mackey, Coach LaValle, and Coach McFadden

Digital Literacy

Hello, Vaughn family! Mrs. Amos here. This month in Digital Literacy K-1 is diving into keyboarding. We are talking about using our home row keys and posture. 2nd-4th grades have been working on keyboarding skills as well, along with computer fundamentals. As always, we talk about staying safe online.

Music Notes

Let's Make Some Music! 🎸

This month we'll continue to explore sound and movement in music class!

Kindergarten: We've been working on moving our bodies (and scarves and a GIANT parachute) to match the loud, quiet, fast, and slow sounds we here.

1st: We've been working on creating our own movements to a new song called "Fall, Fall, Here Comes Fall."

2nd-3rd: We've been using instruments to review ostinato and learn about adding melody through improvisation.

4th: We've been learning to play the ukulele.

Innovation Lab

In the Innovation Lab this month, our students are engaged in many exciting hands-on activities.

Kindergarten students are exploring push and pull forces through soccer science. They will create their own games that demonstrate these concepts.

First graders are beginning to look at traits found in nature. They will start observing patterns in both plants and animals.

Second graders are investigating the properties of crayons. They have already started making their own class crayon, where each student chooses a color, and they will mix them to see what new color they created together.

Third graders are studying plant traits and what plants need to grow. I hope to take them outside for a little exploration, where they can find plants that demonstrate different parts of a plant.

Fourth graders are working on building challenges. Their first challenge was a huge success! They tested whether their structures could hold up various items.

I am so proud of all the creativity and curiosity our students are showing this month!

Art

Vaughn Artists will be creating Fall inspired art this month. All grades will create works of art that focus on our Elements of Art. We will talk about artists and make 2D and 3D art inspired by the works that we study.

Across the Grade Levels

Fourth Grade

VES 4th graders had a blast on our first field trip of the year! We walked over to the Benton County Fairgrounds and explored many of the things that the fair has to offer besides rides. We experienced the petting zoo-full of goats, pigs, cows, and even donkeys! We were able to learn about the Master Gardeners and all that they can offer. The show barn hosted us to be able to walk through and see the different sheep, goats, pigs, and cows that have won awards. The Farm Bureau tent allowed the students to have hands-on experiences milking cows, pumping water by hand and getting to play in a corn pit. We can't wait to see what our next field trips have in store!

Third Grade

Third Grade Celebrates a Magical End to Their First Reading Unit!

Our third graders recently wrapped up their first reading unit by diving deep into the world of classic fairy tales—and what better way to celebrate than with Alice Day! After reading Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, students explored key themes and narrative elements they've been studying, such as character, setting, plot, and theme.

The celebration was more than just fun—it was cross-curricular! Students flexed their creative writing muscles by imagining new endings for familiar characters, applied math and science skills in Wonderland-themed activities, and reflected on the many ways fairy tales connect to the world around them.

It was a joyful, enriching experience that showcased both their hard work and their creativity. We loved watching our third graders bring their learning to life in a 3rd Grade Wonderland!

Second Grade

2nd Grade Spotlight: Ancient Civilizations Come to Life!

Our second graders have been hard at work exploring early ancient civilizations. As part of our learning, students listened to the folktale The Magic Paintbrush and then created their very own paintbrushes. Just like in the story, their paintings “came to life” ... but with a twist! Students transformed their artwork into clay creations, bringing their ideas off the page and into 3D. It’s been a wonderful way to connect literacy, art, and history all in one engaging project!

First Grade

First Graders are working to understand and implement the counting collection process. First, we choose a collection and we make a good guess to estimate how many we have in our collection. Then we develop a plan for counting and begin! After counting, we record our counting on paper and then, we share our strategies with a friend. Strategies are important for counting collections. Some strategies include sorting by color, size, and other attributes. Students also work on counting different ways (ex: by 1s or by groups of 10).

Kindergarten

Kindergarten in Motion: Learning Through Pushes and Pulls!

Our kindergarten scientists have been busy exploring how things move! When bowling, they tried out different sized balls and discovered how size and the amount of force (or “muscle power”) can change the results. They also had fun swinging a wrecking ball to knock down walls and designing clever push-pin paths to keep a rolling boulder from crashing into Tiny Town. If their first plan didn’t work, they made changes and tried again—learning that trial and error is part of the STEM process, just like real engineers! These hands-on activities help our learners see that pushes and pulls are everywhere.

Counselor Connections

Core Value for October: Knowledge

Click the link to find out how to incorporate the core value at home

CEV Parent Podcast

School-Based Therapy

VES school counselors can provide referrals and will work with parents and school-based counseling professionals who have partnered with Bentonville Schools to obtain therapeutic sessions for students who qualify. This allows students to receive quality mental health care on our campus during the school day while missing as little class time as possible. Our school-based therapy providers include:

Ozark Guidance/Arisa Health (OGC)
Eason and Associates
Community Service, Inc. (CSI) - currently full

If you desire more information about school-based services for your child, please reach out to our counselors at vescounselor@bentonvillek12.org or 479-254-5500.

Strong Choices Week @ VES

October is National Bullying Prevention Month and we will have discussions with all classes about the difference between being rude, mean, and bullying. Be sure to review the common language below with your child.

Rude, Mean, Bullying Poster.pdf

Social Skills Handouts-5.pdf

Sharing & Caring

If you are needing help with Christmas Assistance, please click the link below or scan the QR code in the graphic to learn more about how to apply and receive support.

https://sharingandcaringkids.com/christmasassistance/