Community spirit cleans river

River Clean Up Day was a day of community spirit and hands-on learning for the many student volunteers who helped at the event. According to the Friends of the Petaluma River, the Fall Petaluma River Trash Cleanup event held last Saturday resulted in the removal of 2,458 pounds of trash and debris with the help of more than 200 volunteers. Great to see school groups, Girl Scout troops and other organizations coming together to make a difference in their community in this way.

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Have extra plastic bags? A small group of students at Mary Collins School at Cherry Valley are working with principal Fran Hansell to make plastic bag jump ropes for children in an orphanage in Jamaica. The group of four to eight students, who helped out at lunchtime last week, braided the plastic bags and linked them together to create jump ropes for the youngsters to use. Hansell says the idea is to get students thinking about using recycled products for sustainability and service to the greater community. She hopes this effort will take off and other groups will join in helping support the program. For more information on how to get involved, contact Hansell at MCCV.

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Middle school math teacher Krista Wigert at Live Oak Charter School and her eighth grade students walked a scale model of the solar system last week. Wigert’s math class created a scale model of the solar system while studying exponents and scientific notation as part of a class project. In order to make the distance from the sun to Pluto a walkable distance (1.2 miles), the sun was represented by a beach ball at D Street and Payran, and Pluto was a single grain of amaranth at D and 10th streets. A corn kernel, a peppercorn, a walnut and an artichoke pit represented other planets (Sun = beach ball, Mercury = chia seed, Venus = peppercorn, Earth = corn kernel, Mars = millet grain, Jupiter = avocado pit, Saturn = walnut, Uranus = marble, Neptune = marble, Pluto = amaranth grain). The class walked from the sun to Pluto, pacing out scale distances and placing the planets along the way. Students were amazed to see how much of the solar system was just “space” according to Wigert. With the blood moon just taking place this past Sunday, the timing of this local “space walk” was perfect.

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Ms. Jaton’s class at McKinley Elementary School recently finished reading Boy of the Painted Cave. To demonstrate their knowledge of the novel, these creative students carefully followed a rubric and designed their own board games based on the story. Ms. Clemmens and Mr. D-Z’s students then presented their games to classmates in the school’s multi-purpose room. Students played the games and provided feedback to the individual creators. Now that is some hands-on learning!

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Last Friday, Petaluma Youth Ag Day took place at the Sonoma-Marin Fairgrounds. The free annual agricultural experience for students in kindergarten through fourth grade provided an opportunity for the youngsters to learn about the agricultural history of our community, and its continuing impact on Petaluma. More than 800 students, teachers and parents attended the event where hands-on demonstrations, information booths and other activities were available to support the educational field trip.

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Continuing to support those impacted by the Valley Fire, the St. Vincent Elementary and High School communities were able to raise $4,400 with a pancake breakfast, and the SVES community also hosted a “free dress for charity” event raising $3,974.22 in support of the Valley Fire survivors. The students made a banner to send well wishes and love to the families that lost their homes. We wish all the students in the effected area our support as many school campuses re-opened this week for Lake County residents.

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The Kiwanis Club of Petaluma recently granted Harvest Christian School several teacher grants. The individual $50 grants are for classroom supplies. The campus also received an additional grant of $200 for new PE equipment.

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