School will start two hours late tomorrow, Feb. 3rd.  Classes will start at 10:25.  It is still an early release – so it will be a really short day!  Dress warmly.  I’m sure it will be indoor recess.  Not going to get much above zero!

As a result of school cancelation on 2/2, Thursday’s menu will be the Nacho Cheese & Beef menu from 2/2 with a Beef Pattie Sandwich alternate. The Sweet and Sour Chicken menu from 2/3 will be served Friday, February 4 with a Crispy Fish Pattie Sandwich alternate.

SNOW MAKE-UP DAY

There WILL be school on Feb. 28 to make up the snow day.

By now you all know that school was dismissed at 1:00 this afternoon.  Thank you for all your cooperation and flexibility in helping all our students get to where they  needed to go.  I know there were several glitches with the ICCSD’s automated phone calls.  The district is working with Global Connect to try and find the source of today’s problem.

Community Service Projects

We are wrapping up our January Community Service Projects.  This month we donated “Pennies for Peace” and collected items for the IC Animal Shelter.  Thank you for all your generosity!

PTO Meeting Postponed

The February PTO meeting has been rescheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 8 at 7 pm in the library.  Child care is provided.

• Cat toys (Wands, Feather Sticks, etc.)
• Kitty Condos, Cat Havens
• High quality dry kitten/cat food
• Nylabones, squeaky toys, and tough dog toys
• Hypoallergenic dog food
• Large Rawhides, Bully Sticks, Chew treats
• Large and Extra Large winter weather dog coats
• Litter such as Yesterday’s News, Feline Pine, Carefresh, and wood stove fuel pellets (no wood shavings)
• New or gently used cat/dog carriers – all sizes.
• Large bath towels or blankets cut into 4’ x 4’ sections
• Revolution
• Frontline
• Lysine 500mg
• Sterile Water
• Bleach
• Newspaper
• Paper towels
• 3M kitchen sponges
• Pill crushers (not splitters

Once students have read a book, they write a short summary about the book and conference with their teacher about the books they are reading.  It is a great way to encourage kids to branch out in their reading and try something new!

Our current Community Service Project is “Pennies for Peace.”  This is being organized by  members of a student book club.  Students are raising money for schools in Afghanistan.  We are only collecting pennies for this drive.  Please contact Liz Callahan if you have any questions about this project

At Penn, we believe it is important to give students and staff many opportunities to make a difference in the lives of others.  We do this through a variety of community service projects.  When we choose projects, we try and find a balance between local and global projects.  We also try and offer a variety of options.  Many times these projects are suggested by current or former students.  Examples of projects have included:

making placemats for North Liberty Veterans’ Day Dinner

making blankets for wounded soldiers

writing letters to former students serving in Afghanistan

collecting mittens and hats for others

“Hat Day Fridays to benefit the Family Resource Center

adopting 3 acres of rainforest; donating money to earthquake victims in Haiti and hurricane victims in New Orleans

donating pet supplies to the animal shelter

designing cards to sell that benefit Paws for a Cause and the North Liberty Food Pantry

We have had a great start to the “2011″ part of the 2010-2011 school year.  One of my resolutions is to do a better job of keeping this page updated!  Feel free to send me a gentle reminder if it doesn’t get updated at least once a week.  Seriously!

PENN READS

Penn Elementary This month, Penn Elementary is reading the book, Winter’s Tail: How one little dolphin learned to swim again. Coincidentally, this same dolphin was featured on the Oprah Winfrey show today. Check out this link with your kids! Great story! 

http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Winter-the-Dolphins-Prosthetic-Tail-Video

PENNIES FOR PEACE

Mrs. Callahan, a fourth grade teacher, has a book club that is collecting Pennies for Peace.  This is an organization that raises money to educate students in Pakistan and Afghanistan.    http://www.penniesforpeace.org/ for more information.  Each classroom has a bag in their room to collect pennies until January 13.  The book is called Listen to the Wind by Dr. Greg.  This is the author of the best-selling book Three Cups of Tea. One penny will buy a pencil.  A little will go a long way for those students.  Thanks for thinking about it.

ZIO JOHNNO’S

Penn Night at Zio Johnno’s is back!  Zio Johnno’s will donate a percentage of proceeds to Penn for orders placed on Monday, January 10th.  Check out the Penn web page for more details!

YEA!  Thanks to Penn’s webmaster, Jessica McCusker, our Penn webpage is now up and current.  Jess will continue to make improvements to the site.  Please let us know if you have suggestions.

PENN FRIDAY HAWKEYE FRYFEST !

This Friday all students and staff are invited to wear that black and gold to mark the start of the 2010 Hawkeye  football season.  We will be setting our own Penn record for the Hokey- Pokey at the noon recess!

Email updates from teachers

If you have an email address – be sure to share it with your child’s teacher.   Teachers will be using email distribution lists to share information throughout the year.  We hope this proves to be an easy way to keep you updated on what is happening at Penn!

Stay in touch!

There are a number of ways to stay in touch with all the great things that are happening at Penn.  You can access all these from our Penn website:

Principal’s Page – This is my newsletter.  I will try and update once or twice a week.

Facebook – Quick announcements and FYI items

Twitter – Short posts about things that are happening in the classrooms and hallways of Penn.