THE CHALKBOARD: Spring means planting season at St. Vincent

What’s happening in Petaluma-area schools.|

Spring is in the air, and in the St. Vincent Elementary School garden, according to the teachers and staff. This week’s kindergarten gardening community service project saw students bringing in soil, seeds and flowers as part of the recent science lesson about plants. The students put their new understanding of plants to use as they enjoyed the hands-on learning opportunity by replanting the school’s planters, creating colorful signs of spring for all to enjoy. The campus also was a buzz of activity on Family Night during the annual book fair. Students in grades kindergarten through third spent some extra time at school on Wednesday evening for some fun outdoor activities and book shopping.

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This week is Adult Education Week, and the Petaluma Adult School is celebrating. As the only K-12 adult school in Sonoma County, PCS Adult School will join other California adult schools in honoring teachers and students in programs that prepare students for higher education and employment, according to principal Carol Waxman. The week’s theme is, “Today’s Students, Tomorrow’s Workforce.”

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Harvest Christian School math teacher, Mrs. Darcy Thomas, challenged the seventh-graders and three eighth-grade students to a Math Treasure Hunt. Three teams each had to solve math problems to uncover clues that led them to finding a treasure chest with candy in it. It took an hour and a half to complete the task, and they were rewarded with some treats, all as part of Mrs. Thomas’ goal to make math fun. Mrs. Thomas also taught the seventh-graders and eighth-graders a little about the art of origami and creating a colorful cube. They folded pieces of paper origami-style, putting it all together for some great-looking cubes.

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McNear Elementary third-graders enjoyed a beautiful spring day exploring the shores of Shollenberger Park. On this outdoor field trip, students participated in hands-on learning activities with the Petaluma Wetlands Alliance volunteers, including bird watching and dissecting owl pellets to better understand the local habitat.

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At Wilson School, GATE students and other interested students had the chance to learn some engineering, followed by putting their new-found skills into practice building bridges. Aaron Josephs, Wilson Wildcat’s technology support, ran the innovative bridge-building activity with the help of community volunteer Jim Stauffer. At the end of the eight-week curriculum-based program, the students submitted their bridges to be tested. Some faired better than others, but the bridge that held the most weight without collapsing was declared the winner. This year, fourth-grader Noel Barajas was named the bridge-building winner with his bridge design withstanding 150 pounds before it succumbed to the weight/pressure. Second place was awarded to Michelle Lauritzen in fifth grade and Leslie Miller, also in fifth grade, was third.

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Sonoma Mountain Elementary School couldn’t be any prouder of his two super-spelling students: Emily and Nazia. The young ladies “Spelled their hearts out at the Sonoma County Spelling Bee,” shares principal Michele Gochberg. After many rounds of challenging words to spell correctly in front of the judges and audience, Emily placed sixth overall and Nazia went all the way to first place. Nazia will represent Sonoma County - and, of course, Sonoma Mountain Elementary - at the California State Spelling Bee on May 13. K-U-D-O-S to all those who participated, especially these two outstanding competitors. But it is not surprising to see their success since SoMo reported, as of last Friday, the campus’ Accelerated Reader program tallied more than 100,000,000 words read this school year. Old Adobe School District Superintendent Dr. Jason Yamashiro issued his reading challenge earlier in the year across the entire district. SoMo’s students reach their goal - and earlier than planned. Keep up the great work, SoMo Lions.

(Maureen Highland is a Petaluma mother and executive director for the Petaluma Educational Foundation. She can be reached at schools@arguscourier.com)

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