THE CHALKBOARD: Penngrove students put on the miles

Penngrove Elementary supports healthy living through their campus Mileage Club. The school is offering Mileage Club for fingrovrst through sixth graders every Thursday afternoon during lunch recess. Penngrove Panthers run or walk the track to earn colorful feet charms. They earn a charm for every 2.5 miles (20 laps) they cover. There are students who earn a special charm for covering a half-marathon distance (just over 13 miles) and some earn a bonus charm for completing a full marathon (26.2 miles). Together the students have ran more than 800 miles so far this year. Mileage Club is not a replacement for physical education classes. It is meant to be an additional opportunity for physical exercise that helps provide Penngrove Panthers with a simple way to increase physical activity among the school day. “Our sole purpose is to improve the health and well-being of children at school through daily physical activity in a non competitive, supportive and fully-inclusive environment,” according to Mileage Club Leader Elizabeth Smith.

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Harvest Christian School fifth graders visited Petaluma High School’s Wildlife Museum for their second-quarter field trip. High school students shared live snakes, chinchillas, iguanas, tarantulas and cockroaches as they led the young guests on museum tours. Students also learned about bears and leopards on the North American continent as well as zebras, elephants, lions and more on the African continent all through visual displays located in the museum. The campus museum with high school students as tour guides is a great local resource for both students and the general public.

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On Jan. 16, a class of 18 Coast Guard Master Chiefs partnered with Two Rock Elementary School’s sixth-grade students to take the very important first steps on implementing the recently received Petaluma Educational Foundation Impact Grant Garden Habitation Grant on campus. The garden will be used as an outdoor classroom for instruction and project-based learning for third- through sixth-grade students. Teachers in those grades will be blending and incorporating the principles of science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics (STEAM) into the project. Students will literally get their hands dirty through project-based learning activities in the garden with implementation of the Common Core State Standards. The Habitat Garden will also serve as a nesting place for current and future birds, insects and other critters that live and are native to the Two Rock Valley. “As students learn to be good stewards of the earth and identify ways to improve the local habitat they will also learn to work collaboratively, discuss ideas, analyze and defend their points of view, and problem solve within their classroom learning groups,” shared Principal Mike Simpson. The unique location of the school in a rural environment and its importance to the variety of agriculturally based farms and dairies continues to provide a strong foundation for its students and the fostering of an appreciation of where they live and how they can better serve their world. 

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New furniture for some Kenilworth Junior High classrooms was the big news recently. The Petaluma City Schools bond passed in June 2014 is providing the opportunity for a few local schools to pilot a modernized-furniture plan for classrooms. Most of the current furniture at KJHS came from the old Kenilworth Junior High campus where the new East Washington Place shopping center now stands. “We are piloting some different furniture to see what works for our classrooms,” announced Emily Dunnagan, principal of KJHS. Mrs. Crozier received the first set of new furniture to test with her students before winter break. McDowell Elementary also had some of the new school furniture delivered from the pilot program for Petaluma City Schools. Students in Mrs. Nealon’s second-grade class are excited to test out the new furniture. All PCS classrooms are expected to be outfitted for 21st century learning for the 2015-2016 school year.

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