St. Vincent students celebrate Mardi Gras in style

Grant School is covered in an extra layer of love this week. Valentine’s love that is. Every student hand made a special Valentine’s Day card to decorate the campus that will then be shared with the student body so that each student will receive a card. This follows a student run fundraiser bringing in more than $700 for the outdoor education program. Students in sixth grade sold candy grams last week that will be distributed this week as part of the school’s Valentine’s Day fun. Grant Shamrocks are also preparing for a special author visit sponsored by Copperfield’s Bookstore. Author Cammie McGovern will visit the west side school on Feb. 26 and share her Just My Luck novel with students in fourth through sixth grades. Copperfield’s website (copperfieldsbooks.com) states McGovern’s debut middle-grade novel presents a heart-filled story of a likable boy who doesn’t realize that his natural gifts are recognizable and valued by his family and teacher.

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Penngrove Panthers in Mrs. Newman’s and Mrs. Januleski’s classes celebrated a very special graduation. Students completed their DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance and Education) instruction. Petaluma Police Chief Patrick Williams and PPD Officer/ DARE instructor Zilverio Rivera joined Principal Amy Fadeji in honoring the students at a ceremony held at the campus’ multipurpose room.

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This week, students at St. Vincent de Paul Elementary prepared for Mardi Gras by accessorizing their school uniforms with purple, green and gold hats, necklaces and other colorful accouterment on Fat Tuesday.

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Get your groove on. At La Tercera Elementary School, six classes of students all participated in the school’s Healthy for Life Zumba physical education instruction. Maybe this class was in preparation for jumping and cheering for the multiple grants received by teachers at the school last week from the Petaluma Rotary Club supporting student field trips and reading programs.

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The third annual Art Adventure Week at Sonoma Mountain Elementary was a huge success, according to principal Michelle Gochberg. “We had so many exciting projects planned for the week, culminating with our Reach for the Stars mosaic created by all of our students.” Students worked with art teacher Jacki Yurth to hand make each of the one-of-a-kind stars that resulted in the giant “Reach for the Stars” mosaic for the columns at the entrance to SoMo’s campus. Old Adobe Union School District (OAUSD) superintendent Dr. Jason Yamashiro stopped by campus to lend his artistic talents to the star-studded mosaic. The week of arts and engagement also included each student receiving a silkscreen SoMo Art Adventure Week logo t-shirt.

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What was daily life like in Ancient Egypt? Just ask the sixth graders at McKinley Elementary School who have written and performed their own plays, reproduced Egyptian board games, researched and made Egyptian food for a feast, learned about ancient gods and more. The students also shared their knowledge with their peers throughout the hands-on learning experience. Keep your passports out, India is the next country students will be exploring. In the fourth grade, McKinley Mustangs have been tinkering, inventing, and coding this past week. Students took the Makey Makey Game Controller Challenge, and then programmed Dash Robots with Rick Phelan from the Sonoma County Office of Education (SCOE).

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Harvest Christian School second graders visited North Bay Industries where they learned about the American flag. The students watched flags being stitched, saw the different iterations of the flags, and learned how to properly fold a flag. What a fun field trip.

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Home, Sweet New Home. Word is the construction of the new reptile room exhibit cages for the Petaluma Wildlife Museum are complete. Onsite installation is scheduled to take place by the end of the month. According to the museum website (petalumawildlifemuseum.org), the museum houses more than 50 species of insects, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals. Be sure to stop by and visit the student docent program and see the new terrariums next month.

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(Maureen Highland is a mother and executive director for the Petaluma Educational Foundation.