~ International Lunch ~

This past Wednesday students celebrated French-Canadian culture as a K-12 school. Students had the opportunity to learn a bit about the history, arts and culture of Quebec that makes it a unique part of Canada. The cafeteria prepared a traditional Quebecois meal, including Tourtière (meat pie), poutine style fries, pea soup and sugar pie. The cafeteria was decorated by student work and radiated Quebecois music. The response to the food was overwhelmingly positive.  This was our first school-wide cultural celebration and lunch of the year. We look forward to a Spanish celebration in the spring.

5th graders ACT!

We wanted to let you know that many 5th graders volunteered this weekend in honor of MLK day!!! 

Many students... 

• helped Power Play Sports move to their new location
• donated to Goodwill
• helped neighbors shovel
• helped a neighbor dig our their car
• went to the Manor and played the piano and games with the residents
• helped with the chores due to the power outage
• donated home cooked meals to the food shelf and to Meals on Wheels
• helped Rowan Dodge Family with dinner and plowing
• made cards to area organizations as a thank you for their service.  

2015

What are your hopes?  That phrase is everywhere this week as we move into a new year.  I've heard it being asked of students as well as seen and heard it in just about everything I watch or read. What are OUR hopes?  As we think about our students at PAML we have grand hopes for them! We hope they are happy, healthy and curious learners.  We hope they are active, social and kind.  We truly hope that they become connected to others, compassionate and giving as they spend their precious years here at PAML and beyond.  We hope this for each other and for our families in the community. Please continue with all of the wonderful support you give to our school in terms of having your students here, excited and ready to go each day and helping them at home each evening.  We are all in this together as our children navigate the interesting waters of Middle School!

A Giving Community

I'm so proud of our school and I can't say it enough!  The last few weeks we have had such a spirit of giving here with students finding ways to help others.  We've had a Bake Sale to help a school in Kenya, which initially was a bake sale at the Winter EXPOsition, but changed to a Rolling Bake Sale that went through the ML and HS, then became a donation opportunity for others. So far, they have raised over $500.00 for this school.  Here's a link if you are interested:  St. Charles Lwanga School.  

In addition, two grades have brought in 720 items for the local food shelves! This is an average of about 2.7 items per student enrolled in our school!  That's impressive!  One grade did this did this instead of the usual Holiday Gift Exchange.  

And as if this is not enough, we have 7th grade students participating in a in-service to the community day tomorrow on Dec. 23rd.  Students will be baking bread (baguettes) with Chef Jeff to deliver to the food shelf, holiday gift cards are being made to go with meals from Meals on Wheels, Ornaments are being made for the tree at The Manor, ML students are reading to Kindergarteners and Cookies are being made to thank the teachers at the school!  Whew!  That's "alotta" goodness! 

EXPOsistion 2014

It's been busy at PAML - lots happening.  One exciting event is our Winter EXPOsition tonight.  What's an EXPOsition?  Our Expo teachers and students share what they have been working on so far this year.  It begins with a concert from our bands and choruses, then ends in the cafeteria with some demonstrations of other Expos.  

This year there is a food drive and bake sale spearheaded by 6th grade, both to benefit two VERY different organizations!

Lost and Found

Inevitably items get lost at school.  If your child has lost something, they can check the large lost and found bin in the cafeteria.  If it's a small item (jewelry, electronics, etc.) they can check in with Mrs. Herman in the office.  It's always challenging when things get lost so a rule of thumb is, especially with expensive items, don't bring it to school or if you need to, leave it with your teacher or even in the office.

Camouflage

Students in Mrs. Clark's Science class spent time looking at the needs for some animals in our environment to be protected through camouflage. They learned about camouflage as one of the most widespread adaptations which increases an animal's ability to his itself from predators.





 As a culminating activity, small groups of students hid fish around the school.  There's one in each photo here.  Can you find all three?









Around 35 fish were hidden and if found by Mrs Clark, she placed a small sticker on the fish, to inform the students that she had located it.  She found almost 25 of the fish, but 10 eluded her!