January 2020 Pennell Newsletter
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Pennell families,
Happy New Year! I hope you all had a restful and relaxing winter break filled with family time. It was a true pleasure seeing so many of you this December at our Winter Concert and classroom festivities as we wrapped up 2019. As we embark together back to school in 2020, we continue to appreciate all your support at home for your Pennell Penguins as they learn and grow each day in school.
Enjoy your January! As always, feel free to reach out to me with anything you might need.
Josh Leight
Principal, Pennell Elementary School
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January Important Dates "At a Glance"
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1/2 School Resumes Post-Winter Break
1/10 Pennell School Spelling Bee
1/10 4 Schools 1 Book District Wide Kickoff Day
1/13 PTO Meeting with Guest Speaker
1/14 PDSD Speaker Series
1/17 11:15 Dismissal
1/20 School Closed; PTO Skating Party at Ice Works
1/22 5th Grade Field Trip to Camden Aquarium
1/24 3rd Grade Field Trip to Arden Theatre
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Pennell December 2019 "In Review"
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Pennell's Annual Spelling Bee
We are excited to announce the 2019-20 Pennell Elementary Spelling Bee! This contest is an official qualifier for the Delaware County Regional Spelling Bee, as well as the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington DC broadcast each year on ABC and ESPN! Each 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classroom hosted a mini spelling bee between December 2nd and 6th. The top three students from each classroom bee will advance to the school-wide spelling bee on January 10th, 2019! The School Bee Competition will be held at Pennell at 1:30 p.m. This event is open to all family members of students in the Spelling Bee. Clearance are not required. We appreciate your support of our school’s spelling bee, which helps to build the academic skills of our students and benefits them regardless of the outcome! Best of luck to all participants!
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Pennell STEM Opportunities
Pennell is excited to have our 4th and 5th grade students participate in two STEM Challenges upcoming.
2.Pennell 4th & 5th graders will also participate in a STEM design challenge in conjunction with the Philadelphia Museum of Art's Designs for Different Futures Exhibit. Students will be working in teams to answer the question: What would you design that supports and empowers people to bridge a divide? This project will be completed in technology class.
Our work will be displayed in the Philadelphia Museum of Art and parents will be invited to the museum to see it on March 8, 2020!
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To help us celebrate Pennell's 50th Anniversary we are asking Pennell alumni to consider donating old Pennell shirts and memorabilia (photographs, newspaper clippings, yearbooks, etc.) back to our school to contribute to a display in our lobby and a spring celebration of the school's 50th anniversary. If you are interested in sending in any items, please do so by
February 13th, 2020. Please be aware that all donations of memorabilia given to the school will become the property of Pennell for inclusion in our decorative installation and celebration
. If you would like to send in items, please send them in a bag with your student's name somewhere displayed so we can properly thank you for your contribution.
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PDSD's annual "4 Schools 1 Book" project will begin again on Friday, January 10th. This project asks that all parents in PDSD across our four elementary schools spend time reading a chapter of a book each night to their children on a schedule with students' classmates across the district. Please look for more information to come home soon about this project and get excited to read with your children!
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Dismissal System Changes
After a two month experiment with an alternative dismissal system, we are returning to the previous dismissal system that will have all students dismissed at 3:20 PM including 5th grade safeties. The only students noticeably impacted by this change will be 5th grade safeties. We appreciate your flexibility and support as we increased our 5th graders responsibilities in their roles as safeties during the past two months. They did a tremendous job!!
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Managing Absences and the Law
Sending in an absence note electronically is as easy as 1-2-3!
- Handwrite a note including a parent or guardian's signature.
- Use your phone to take a picture of the note.
- Email the picture of your note (or doctor's note) to pen-attendance@pdsd.org within 3 days of your child's absence.
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Girls on The Run at Pennell
Pennell is proud to host a "Girls on the Run" program starting this spring thanks to coaches: Ms. Trofa, Ms. Cardwell, Ms. Newburg, Ms. Pyne, and Ms. Dotzman. Only 18 girls will be able to participate from grades 3-5 through an online lottery system. Sign up online at
https://www.gotrpa.org.
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PDSD Speaker Series
Click here for more information from PDSD about this year's speaker series for families and community members about key topics relevant to parenting and education this school year including vaping, isolation, and anxiety/stress. The next session will take place on January 14th regarding "Isolation: The New Drug of Choice."
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Updating Emergency Contact Info
Please take a few minutes to log into Skyward Family Access to review and/or update the emergency contact information for your student(s).
Directions for how to complete this update are attached using this link.
Thank you in advance for your partnership in helping us keep our records up to date. Please complete this update as soon as possible for each of your children. We sincerely appreciate your efforts.
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Core Essentials Newsletter
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Pennell's Winter Concert Video
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January Updates From the Pennell PTO
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Thank You!
The PTO would like to thank our families and friends for supporting us in ALL our December fundraisers: Holiday Shop, Cannoli Kits, Chick-fil-A Trays, Manbroso’s Night, and Spirit Wear!! WHEW! Things are fairly quiet in January, as we will have our Ice Skating Party and Pen’s Den. Looking ahead, we will be selling Gertrude Hawk and Discount Cards…and DON’T MISS our Family Bingo Night, which benefits our 5
th
grade, on February 21
st
!
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Ice Works Skating Party
Join us for our annual Ice Skating Party at IceWorks open to all Pennell families on January 20th, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, from 9:45AM - 11:45AM. Tickets including skate rentals are $10 per skater.
Order
forms will be coming home when we return from break!
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PTO Meeting Date Change
Due to an informative Speaker Series on “Isolation” being held at Northley on our regularly scheduled PTO Meeting night, we have rescheduled the meeting to Monday, January 13
th
at 6:30pm in the library. 5
th
grade committee will meet at 6pm that evening as well. Please join us to kick off the New Year with some fresh ideas and exciting events!!
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Pen's Den
Our next Pen’s Den will be held Thursday, January 16
th
! Please send your child in with a couple of dollars to purchase fun school supplies!
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Family Bingo Night
Pennell's Family “Pajama Jam” Bingo Night will take place on February 21st at 6:00 PM at SVHS. All proceeds support the 5th Grade Committee. Please see the attached “Save the Date!”
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Variety Show
Save the date for our 2020 Variety Show!! The show will be held on March 27
th
at SVHS! Information to come home in January on how to participate!!
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Pretzel Sales
Our 5
th
Grade Committee continues to sell pretzels for $1 during student lunches on Fridays. Thank you for supporting our 5
th
graders!
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Twitter & Instagram at Pennell Elementary
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Twitter is a primary platform through which our school communicates the incredible things happening at Pennell on a daily basis.
Please consider creating an account and subscribing to our school and teachers' accounts!
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Pennell's January Lunch Menu
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