Pennekamp Dragon Flash Newsletter March 26, 2013 Page 1 ot 3

Dragon FlashNewsletter

March 26, 2013

In This Issue

Principal's Letter

MBUSD BudgetUpdate

Pennekamp Pride

SpotlightPennekamp

Latest News

MBUSD/CommunityNews

Upcoming Dates

3/26/13PRIDE Awards Grade 4Cafeteria 8:30-9am

3/27/13PRIDE Awards Grade 3Cafeteria 8:30-9am

3/29/13Sports Day-wear yourfavorite team jersey!

3/29/13PRIDE Awards Grade 5Cafeteria 8:30-9am

4/1/13-4/5/13Spring Break-No School!

4/8/13School Site CouncilMeeting 3-4pm Rm 10

4/12/13PRIDE Awards Grades 1-2Cafeteria 8:30-9am

4/13/13Pennekamp Open TennisTournament

4/18/13Staff Appreciation Lunchhosted by 5th Grade

Principal's Letter

Dear Pennekamp Parents and Guardians,We have so much to celebrate at Pennekamp School! Over the past few

weeks, our Dragons have read, collected, performed, voted, served, anddanced with enthusiasm, dedication, and joy. Our Dragon spirit continues tobe strong. Here's the latest Dragon buzz...

1) Our collective student community read more than 300,000 minutes in theLA Kings Royal Readers 81 ROAR-ing Dragons Read-A-Thon. The minuteswere tallied and I am proud to announce the students at each grade levelthat recorded the most reading minutes:

DK/TK Daisal K FinnGrade 1 Abigail Grade 2 EmilioGrade 3 Blake Grade 4 GiovanniGrade 5 Juliana

2) Our book collection drive was amazing. We collected 507 books that weredonated to the Girl Scout Gold Award project nominees. Thanks for spreadingliteracy across the world!

3) Our amazing 4th grade students presented their folk dance moves tosmiling parents at the VAPA workshop showcase and our K students wowed •honored guests with their "3 Piggy Opera" performances. We wrapped uplast week with engaging theatre presented by the students in Rooms 13 and14. Their delightful performances in "Character Matters" reminded each ofus to "think before we act".

4) All students voted on an official name for our new mascot and "Spirit" wasintroduced on Friday afternoon. Congratulations to Room 11 for proposingthe winning name!

5) The-Richstone Feast was a success! Our 5th grade students were amazingand it was an honor to see them in action. Their leadership positivelyimpacted our community and the Richstone Family Center. All proceeds willbe donated to the Richstone Family Center, which is dedicated to preventingand treating child abuse in our communities.

6) On Friday, Pennekamp Dragons danced and sang at our ROAR-ingDragons Read-A-Thon celebration - way to go readers! This was a truecelebration of literacy and fun.

I am a strong supporter of student leadership and believe that all childrencan both serve and lead in our immediate community, world, and planet.With your support, we help shape the minds and hearts of our students to beresponsible citizens. I will be sponsoring one final school wide service-learning project for the year, "Kids Writing for Kids". "Kids Writing for Kids"was created and planned by a group of 4th grade students, Albie, Elizabeth,Zayde, and Adi. They wanted to brighten the days of their peers in a localhospital. This voluntary project will begin after the spring vacation. Thisopportunity will allow our students to demonstrate two school-wide goals;writing and the 4 C's of 21st Century Teaching and Learning (Creativity,Collaboration, Communication, and Critical Thinking).

Thanks to everyone for your active participation in our community ofexcellence. You make such a difference at Pennekamp and your time andspecial talents are appreciated.

-Pennekamp Dragon Flash Newsletter January 15, 2013 Page 1 of4

Dragon FlashNewsletter

January 15, 2013

In This Issue

Pennekamp Pride

SpotlightPennekamp

Latest News

MBUSD/CommunityNews

Make Your Pledge Today!

MBEF for Better Schools and Brighter Futures

Upcoming Dates

1/16/136:30pm School Boardmeeting recognizing Ms.Fletcher

1/17/13January Dragon Dinner atCPK 11am-10pm (seebelow for flyer)

1/17/13Staff Appreciation Lunchhosted by 2nd Grade

1/21/13Martin Luther King DayNo School

1/26/13District KindergartenInformation Meeting9:30am at Pacific

2/4/13School Site Council

2/9/13Pennekamp Parent Partyat The Lakes El Segundo

2/11/13Pennekamp LiteracyMonth

2/14/13Staff Appreciation Lunchhosted by 3rd Grade

2/18/13-2/22/13District Recess (NoSchool)

Happy New Year! Make your New Year's Resolution to pledgeto MBEF. We need you more than ever as every dollar raisedat Pennekamp, stays at Pennekamp. Help us pay for the 15%of salaries that MBEF provides to our school to keep our classsizes reasonable, science lab and library open, and so muchmore.

Please give today at www.mbef.org/aivetodav.

Letter From Principal Debbie Mabry

Dear Pennekamp Parents and Guardians,The beginning of each New Year is an ideal time to clarify expectations

and policies on student safety and positive school climate. Our school safetyprocedures include monthly drills, such as fire, earthquake, or lockdown.Our teachers beautifully guide students to understand that these drills areimportant and that we practice these drills so that we can remain safe in anactual emergency.

On Thursday morning, we will practice a lockdown drill. We wouldengage in formal lockdown procedures if we were notified of a direct threatto the safety of students at school or within the immediate community. OnThursday, on/or around 8:30am, you will receive a phone call from ourSchool Messenger communication system; please check you phone to verifythat your received a call from Pennekamp School. If you do not receive acall, please email our office manager, Debbie Snook, at dsnook@mbusd.org.Our school lockdown drill is an ideal opportunity for us to verify contactinformation within our emergency communication system. Thanks inadvance for your assistance.

All students, staff, and parents are responsible for creating a safe andpositive school campus. Please take a few moments to review the followingexpectations:

• All volunteers and visitors must sign in/out at the school office andwear a badge when on campus. MBUSD also requires that allvolunteers complete three important volunteer forms and be TB free,prior to volunteering.

• The Pennekamp School campus is a "Learning Zone" from 8:00am to2:45pm every day. We have multiple start and end times across ourcampus. Please minimize disruptions to the learning environment bylimiting chatting in the halls/in front of classroom doors and byrefraining from cell phone conversations until after 2:45pm.

• Students in grades 1/2/3 are dismissed at 2:15pm. All dismissedstudents are expected to follow Pennekamp expectations, such asusing polite, respectful language and engaging in polite socialinteractions. Primary grade students may wait quietly on campusuntil 2:45pm in the patio area of the cafeteria, under the supervisionof a parent/guardian.

Pennekamp Dragon Flash Newsletter December 5, 2012 Page 1 of 5

Dragon FlashNewsletter

Decembers, 2012

In This Issue

Principal's Letter

Pennekamp Pride

SpotlightPennekamp

Latest News

MBUSD/CommunityNews

Upcoming Dates

12/3 thru 12/7Book Fair and TeacherFunraiser

12/3 thru 12/7Parent/TeacherConferencesMinimum Day scheduleGRADES 1-5, DK/TK/KFriday only-all earlysession schedule

12/5/12We Care Wednesday12:45pm PK Playground

12/5/12Family Night at the BookFair 6-8pm

12/8/12E-Collection EventMBMS 9am-1pm

12/9/12Manhattan Beach FireDept. Spaghetti Dinner

12/9/12Manhattan BeachFireworks 7 pm

12/10/12School Site CouncilMeeting

12/11/12PRIDE Assembly Grades1/2

12/12/12PRIDE Assembly Grade 3

Principal's LetterDear Pennekamp Parents and Guardians,At Pennekamp School, we believe that all Dragons should receive anengaging, well-rounded, creative, standards-driven education. Successfulschools use data, such as day-to-day student performance standardizedtesting (e.g., STAR), local assessment, and student and teacher feedback forstrategic planning and instructional guidance.Following a thorough review of data, we have identified the following goalsthat are critical elements of student achievement and school improvement inthe specific area of English Language Arts (ELA):

• Increase reading comprehension: Simply put, readingcomprehension is the act of understanding what you are reading.Reading comprehension is an active, interactive process. Withoutcomprehension, reading is nothing more than tracking symbols on apage with your eyes and sounding them out.

• Increase fluency: Fluency is the speed, accuracy and prosody(expression) that a person uses when reading a text. Fluency has thegreatest impact on reading comprehension. Children with high fluencyrates tend to read more and remember more of what they read.

• Increase literary response and analysis: Goal is to have studentsunderstand literacy so they are able to analyze, interpret andevaluate written work. They should be able to analyze elements suchas characters, time and sequence, plot, setting, figurative language,or point of view.

• Increase writing strategies: Writers need consistent opportunities towrite to improve skills. Writers need practice with the conventions ofwriting; mechanics, usage and sentence formation.

Last week at the PTA meeting, I presented information on Pennekamp's goalto improve literacy development across all grade levels. Several parentsasked if the information could be shared in our weekly e-blast so please clickHERE for a shortened version, which highlights key items of thepresentation. Thanks for your positive feedback.

The "big idea" is that the school and home must share a common goal ofliteracy building to maximize success of our children. Strive to carve out aminimum of 15 minutes an evening to read with/to your child or discussreading or writing.

Wishing you a wonderful week of reading at home with your Dragons! Seeyou at the PTA book fair on Wednesday evening in the cafeteria.

Warm regards,Debbie MabryPrincipal

Make Your Pledge Today!

MBEF for Better Schools and Brighter Futures

MBs.F

Did You Know... Our Manhattan Beach Schools rank in the top1% of all public K-12 schools in California? Your donations

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Dragon Flash Newsletter 10/2/12 Page 1 of 5

Dragon FlashNewsletter

October I, 2012

In This Issue

Letter FromPrincipal Mabry

Latest News

MBUSD/CommunityNews

Upcoming Dates

10/1/12Pennekamp Valet Opensfor Business

10/2/12Walking School Bus Kick-off

10/4/12YAA Fundraiser Note CardOrders Due

10/8/12School Photo make-up day

10/8/12School Site CouncilMeeting

10/8/12State of the Schools2511 Manhattan Ave. HB

10/10/12Charleston Gift WrapOrders Due

10/11/12Staff AppreciationLuncheon hosted by 1stGrade

10/13/12 TEDxManhattanBeach Journey to Purpose

10/13 a 10/14Family Portraits

10/15 a 10/16Safe School AmbassadorTraining

10/20/12Father/Daughter Sock Hop

10/28/12Skechers Pier to Pier Walk

Letter from Principal MabryDear Pennekamp Parents and Guardians,

We have had such an exciting start to the new school year! We have newevents, new student activities, and new instructional programs to maximizethe learning and creativity of your wonderful children. Our 5th gradeteachers just received one additional iPad cart so this year each student willhave their own iPad for school use. The 5th grade team is planning excitingways to integrate this technology into the classroom for optimal studentbenefit and purpose. Thank you PTA for your generous donation of theadditional cart and for your support of creativity and technology.As we provide 21st century instruction to your children, adults could alsobenefit from engaging in thoughtful discussions on learning, human spirit,and education. TEDX Manhattan Beach will be presenting a daylong event onSaturday, October 13th from 9:00am-5:00pm at Manhattan Beach MiddleSchool. The event will showcase speakers, artists, and entrepreneurs whohave found their passion and purpose, even when that purpose wasnontraditional. Take a look at their website for more information -www.tedxmanhattanbeach.com .Pennekamp's first "Dragon Fest" was a spectacular way to end a greatmonth! The event was an enormous success and it had something foreveryone; great games, food trucks, and friends/family. I am still enjoyingmy temporary air brush dragon tattoo! We ended the warm evening with ourfeature film, "How to Train your Dragon". Congrats to the PTA crew ofvolunteers for planning and organizing this event. One of the things thatimpressed me from my very first day at Pennekamp is the "can do" attitudeand positive outlook of our parents. The goal that unites us all is the desireto provide our children with a stellar education. From those parents whosend your children rested and ready to learn, to those who volunteer yourtime, to those who have given monetarily to PTA and MBEF, thank you. I amhonored to collaborate with each of you.I'm looking forward to another great month of school. Be sure to check ourwebsite often for information and join our Twitter account (PKDragons) foradditional updates.

With Dragon PRIDE,Debbie MabryPrincipal

Latest NewsPTA Membership - great news!Thank you to all families who have generously donated to the PTA. We areat 80% participation as of this week. We can do it-100%-if everyone helpsout with what they can. Remember the first class to reach100% participation will receive $200 and all classes to 100% will receive$100. Your PTA dollars go to support and enhance a wide range of programsto enrich your children's education at Pennekamp, including the Visual andArts Programs, Technology, Science Lab, Library and more!. Click HERE toJOIN THE PTA today!! Go Pennekamp!!

Pennekamp Success!Thank you to all who volunteered and attended the 1st Annual PennekampCarnival & Movie Night. Face paint, soccer balls, jumpers, gold fish and food

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