The Chalboard: Schools busy as holidays near

After a hiatus of two years, Grant Elementary School was finally able to hold its annual Heritage Night event, according to the campus Library Coordinator Alice Crysdale. Families were invited to come and share their cultural background with the rest of the school. “We had countries such as Taiwan, Peru, England, Poland, Australia, New Zealand represented. Folks brought foods, books, pottery, musical instruments and many more items of interest to show the children,” Crysdale reported. Students were given a passport and were invited to roam around from country to country, learning all sorts of interesting details about the foreign lands represented. “The 6th graders were ambassadors and facilitated several games, some of which were from the continents of Africa and Asia. The evening ended with a potluck provided by the parents of our school. Traditional foods were brought and shared with the entire community,” she said. Adding to the excitement of the evening was a performance by dancers from the Keenan Irish Dance School.

At Petaluma Junior High School, the motto for the school community is to be: “Brave, Authentic, Neighborly, Trustworthy, Accepting, and Mindful (Bantam).” During the first rally of the year back in October, the focus was on celebrating this school motto. In this rally, students in 7th and 8th grades competed against each other in a variety of events: horse racing, airplane toss and musical chairs, with the purpose of showing school spirit and appreciating being together as one Bantam community. Students also celebrated the school’s 7th and 8th grade girls basketball season, as well as cross country season, plus the formal introduction of the Associated Student Body (ASB) members. Each week, the school holds a Friday lunchtime raffle with student names being drawn from tickets submitted by students throughout the week. Students earn "Bantam tickets" from PJHS staff during the week for demonstrating any one of the core attributes promoted on campus throughout the year. Assistant Principal Ray McClintock reached out to local businesses including Ray's Deli, Petaluma Market, In-n-Out Burger, Baskin Robbins, and Crumble Cookies for the gift card prizes. Keep up the great school spirit, Bantams!

It has been a busy week back from Thanksgiving break for Sonoma Mountain Elementary (SoMo). The campus read-a-thon continues after the program kicked-off last week with “dress like a book character day.” Adding to the fun is the start of school tours and this Friday there will be a community gathering with a festive transitional kindergarten through 3rd grade sing-a-long.

Mary Collins School at Cherry Valley (MCCV) hosts a monthly donation drive every third Saturday at Petaluma Market for Food for Thought. Most recently, teachers Jackie Johnson and Mike Watt worked with 12 middle school students and one former student from Petaluma High gathering olive oil, pasta sauce, and more along with the wish for $20 donations that would pay for a turkey for each recipient. The wonderfully supportive shoppers went above and beyond. Amanda Wood at Food for Thought reported back the MCCV team of volunteers collected 371 of most needed items valued at $1,974.13 AND $2,086.71 in cash donations for a grand total of $4,060.84 for the special Thanksgiving Food Drive. Kudos to all for a job well done supporting those in need. MCCV also participated in the campus’ traditional Pumpkin Pie Social bringing back the sweet tradition with kindergarten and first grade students at Mary Collins School who used their math skills to make pumpkin pies, learning reading skills by singing songs about trees, and creating art by crafting crowns from leaves. All this hard work culminated in a Pumpkin Pie Social, hosted by the students for their families. Students sang songs, shared what they were thankful for, served pumpkin pie and, of course, enjoyed pie with lots of whipped cream.

Meadow Elementary just wrapped up the 2022 Cardboard Challenge, shares Principal Catina Haugen. “Students are invited to create games, art, models and more from cardboard. It was a total success,” she said. When families came to campus to see all the creations on Wednesday night, they were treated to a cardboard Godzilla, a vintage truck, a car wash, games to play, a horse stable, parade floats and much more. Haugen offers a huge thanks to the teacher coordinators, Mrs. Howell-Olson and Mrs. Kandler, who supported the program where simple builds to very complex structures demonstrated the Waughsome creativity found on campus.