Grant students walk, run have fun

Grant Elementary School has been working with St. Joseph Health implementing iDo26.2. This is an innovative walking/running program designed to encourage and enable regular physical activity in our Sonoma County youth as part of a healthy family lifestyle, and to create a positive exercise experience.|

Go, Grant Shamrocks, Go! Grant Elementary School has been working with St. Joseph Health implementing iDo26.2. This is an innovative walking/running program designed to encourage and enable regular physical activity in our Sonoma County youth as part of a healthy family lifestyle, and to create a positive exercise experience. The program requires goal setting, focus and endurance intent on supporting improved student health and academic performance. Grant students are encouraged to make exercise a habit by walking, jogging or running on a school grounds course at their own pace during school, after school or while walking and running with family members. Students work towards completing at least one marathon distance of 26.2 miles (13.1 miles for grades K-1). Successful “marathoners” are celebrated for their efforts at school assemblies and receive a Shamrock iDO26.2 colored bracelet to wear proudly. So far, Grant students have run 77 marathons, totaling 2,017.4 miles. That is the distance from Petaluma to the Missouri/Illinois state border!

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Harvest Christian School’s annual ‘Cans of Love’ food drive benefits the Mary Isaak Center here in Petaluma. The Harvest Christian Lions actively participate in a ways to help out those in need in our community and serve others. Harvest Christian has been giving to the center annually for more than 10 years, according to principal Jonathan Wraith. The junior high school students of Harvest Christian deliver the donated non-perishable food items and volunteer for one day at the Mary Isaak Center helping in organizing food, cleaning and gardening. Harvest Christian School will be taking donations for ‘Cans of Love’ through Feb. 12. For more information, call the school office at 763-2954.

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Petaluma Junior High seventh graders kicked off One Community, One Read with the book “Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry” in their English classes.  The students are reading the novel and participating in different activities through the month of February, including responding to questions on Twitter (@PJHSReads) and posting pictures of themselves and staff reading the book on Instagram (@PJHSREADS). “We have invited our faculty, staff, and parent community to participate in our One Community, One Read project too,” shares principal Renee Semik. “We are excited to see how all are experiencing this story together, leading to great discussions and a deeper understanding of the material.”

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Wow, that went by fast. Students are celebrating the 100-day mark of the school year this week. Valley Vista’s Vikings made their own unique hats they proudly wore to school, St. Vincent de Paul Elementary kindergarteners made crowns they decorated with 100 items. McKinley’s youngest transitional kindergarten students celebrated the 100th day of school by bringing in 100 things from home (pieces of popcorn, raisins, crayons, pasta shells), and then were given a 100-day passport to complete. Students were able to choose between a wide-array of 100th-day activities, reinforcing their understanding of place value and the meaning behind the number of 100. Cinnabar School kindergarteners are counting and displaying various items that they collect to illustrate what 100 pieces of different objects look like. Students set up their 100 items in their classrooms for the 100th-day parade. TK-3 grade students participate in touring each other’s classrooms to showcase their 100-item collections.

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Cinnabar Elementary School superintendent/principal Traci Kern reports that the middle school students are sharing their knowledge with fourth grade students through the math mentoring program. Middle school students use their Google Chromebooks to teach the younger students about protractors and angles, with their teachers supporting the math lesson. The lesson between the two age groups adds up to more than a successful math activity, it creates a sense of community between the grade levels that goes beyond the classroom.

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The weather changes dramatically this time of year. We go from pouring rain to bright sunshine in just a few hours. With the sunshine, all the plants in the Old Adobe Charter School garden begin growing. This means it is time for the students to begin getting soil ready and planting seedlings in order to have a spring harvest, shares principal Jeff Williamson. The Old Adobe garden is loved and tended by staff, students, and parents. The edible garden and living science lab for all students from kindergarten through sixth grade gives the students a tangible way to learn about ecology and the environment that connects them to their food and the earth.

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McDowell Elementary School joined the growing list of schools, including Penngrove Elementary School, that are embracing the opportunity to participate in Global Play Day highlighting the importance of unstructured play among our students. According to the program’s recent press release (globalschoolplayday.com), last year, a small group of six educators, took action and created Global School Play Day after continuing to see things encroaching on playtime for children. They were also inspired to take action by the TEDx talk from Dr. Peter Gray. More than 65,000 students participated after only four weeks of social media promotion from those original educators. This year, more than 118,000 students registered to participate in Global School Play Day on Feb. 3.

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Break a leg! Miwok Valley Elementary School fifth graders are taking the stage with two performances of “Pirates” for their school community this week.

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McDowell Elementary School students are excited to welcome the founding group of transitional kindergarten students for the 2016-17 school year. Next year, McDowell will also be adding a fourth grade classroom, and then one grade level per year until the school returns to being a TK-6 school in 2018-19. The McKinley staff looks forward to the new addition of a kindergarten class for the 2016-17 school year working towards the campus being a TK-8 school.

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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)

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