Pekin CSD - Packwood, Iowa

Grateful Hearts Food Program is open to help SE Iowa families. See more information below.

Once again the Elks of Fairfield generously donated a dictionary to each and every third grader. The students are so excited to receive them and appreciative of these outstanding aids to their education. THANK YOU ELKS!

Fifth graders completed their first math unit which focused on finding the volume of rectangular prisms and are now in unit 2 working to learn the traditional algorithm for 2-digit multiplication and long division. Parents may rest easy because this is the way we all learned and still use today. If your child needs help, you will know what to do. Each Friday students take a three minute timed test over addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division. They work to complete 50 problems in three minutes. Many have passed both addition and subtraction and only have multiplication and division left this quarter. A few have even passed all four! Those students get to play math games on their chrome books during the testing time. I always say, “Practice makes progress.” The more they practice the better they’ll get, so quizzing them at home, while riding in the car, or having them practice facts on computers or iPads will benefit them greatly. Mathematics is an important part of our daily lives. It is my hope that I am able to help students become more confident, competent problem solvers. Mrs. Reneker

The 2021-2022 school year has been off to a great start! I have been very impressed with the 5th grade class as a whole. We have been working hard on building reading stamina. In September each student had an AR goal which was met by a good percent of students. For the month of October one of our reading focuses is reading a book at their level and completing a cereal box book report. Students will be designing a cereal box to advertise their book. They are LOVING getting to create their own design. We have also been focusing on theme, compare and contrast, and sequence of events. These are all skills that students have been working on across multiple texts this year. I am super excited to see how much these students will continue to improve and grow over the next few months. Kaitlin Book

I was honored to be represented on “Dress up like Staff Day” by this great guy! Let’s be honest, his tie, shirt, vest, pants and shoes are better than any of mine…not to mention he’s a handsome guy! I know we aren’t supposed to have favorites, but come on!!!

Pekin Elem. Parents, I want to personally thank all the families who have already participated in our SchoolStore fundraiser! We are on our way to reaching our goal, but we need everyone's help to complete phase 4 of our playground expansion project. If your family has not participated, there's still time! This safe and easy fundraiser is 100% online so there is no face-to-face selling, collecting money, or delivering products. Your child will receive a prize just for participating, and more prizes will be awarded when goals are reached. Please help now. It really will make a difference. Go to https://www.schoolstore.net/sid.t?0000178734 to show your support. Thanks Pekin Elementary School P.S. Family participation is the key to our success, and we are counting on you!

Pekin's "Homecoming Week" has been terrific! The school decorations have been wonderful. The assemblies have been full of spirit, enthusiasm and pride! The Graduating Classes of 1971 and 2001 are back to visit as well! Go Panthers!

The Pekin School District Administration Team is working with U.S. Cellular to try and improve cell service, not only at the school, but in the surrounding communities. To do this, the district team is putting out an anonymous survey (link below) for people to fill out if they have issues with cell or data service. The data collected from this survey will be used by U.S. Cellular to know what areas they need to visit to perform site surveys to help them figure out what they need to do to improve service. Please fill out the survey if you have cell phone performance issues. If you know someone that has issues but does not access social media, please share this link with them so they can fill out the survey, or assist them by filling out the survey for them. We are looking for locations close to the Pekin District and neighboring areas. Thank you for your assistance on this matter. Please assist us by sharing this on your Facebook Page to get it out to as many community members as possible. Survey Link: https://forms.gle/J6GDtqkUvDD2vCZs7

My name is Angela Arendt and I am a 6th Grade English/Language Arts Teacher at Pekin Community Schools in rural, southeast Iowa. I am collaborating with Pekin’s K-12 Computer Science/STEAM Coach to bring passion projects to the classroom. A passion project is an idea started by Google. 6th-grade students (ages 11/12) are allowed time during the week to build their knowledge on something that they enjoy doing and are passionate about. This assignment replaces the standard research project that you remember the teacher assigning to you and picking the topic for you. As a teacher, I am required to teach the 6th grade standards that include informational text, writing, conventions of grammar, and speaking & listening. With a passion project, students are asked to research a topic of their choice through reading multiple articles, interviews, watching videos, etc... Once they have their research completed to their liking, they then determine a way to present that information to the class, throughout our district, and local communities. Some of the topics that the students have picked are landscaping/turf management, baking, muscle cars, making a video, animation, zoology, life of a chicken, cows and farming, making dog treats for health problems, welding, electronics, pirates, soccer, lego building, longboarding, cats, motocross, video game development, the military, and hunting. These are just a few that are materializing in this differentiated classroom. We need you! Here is how you can help my students. At this time, some materials we need are: mulch, holiday decorations (this can be recycled - there is a student who will be decorating the garden area in front of Pekin for each holiday), flowers that can be replanted, baking supplies (flour, sugar, eggs, baking powder, baking soda, cream, vanilla, sprinkles, oreos, butter, milk, chocolate melts, cake pop sticks - students have to make from scratch), and eggs that can be incubated. Our students would love to talk to you! If you would be willing to video chat with one of them if any of the above topics are your passion or expertise, it would be great! If you know someone that would love to talk with a student - spread the word. We have a Zoom board in the Computer Science/STEAM classroom that we can set up a chat. If you could come to the school and talk to them, that would be great! If our students could come visit your work, that would be great! Help us spread the word about our Pekin Panther Passions! PLEASE reach out! Here is my email angie.arendt@pekincsd.org I’d love to hear from you!

The month of October for 6th grade ELA - For independent reading, 6th-graders were assigned a book project for the month of September. This month they are working on AR Goals. They will have until October 29th to complete their goal. Keep in mind that AR goals may be lower than they are used to. There are a few reasons for this. First, the reading goal time is just one month. Secondly, 6th-grade books are getting longer, and lastly, they are getting harder. I still encourage all students to read at home and pick a book that they enjoy. Reading should be for enjoyment. For whole group reading, we have read the story Knots in My Yo-Yo Strings by Jerry Spinelli, Just Once by Thomas Dygard, and Football vs Futbol, and non-fiction article. Our reading strategies focused on story plot, main idea, idioms, and finding text evidence. In October, we will be following the Halloween theme by reading the play The Hitchhiker by Lucille Fletcher and listening to the original Orson Wells radio interruption. Then read the paired non-fiction article Halloween: The Hidden History. Our reading strategies will focus on suspense, foreshadowing, flashbacks, connotative and figurative language. In writing, we are using our grammar and spelling skills to write a scary story. Passion projects are underway and students look forward to Fridays when we have the time to work on them. I have attached a document that you can read that explains Passion Projects and the progress we are making with them.

Here is a tentative schedule for this evening. We are also attaching the order for senior recognition. Thank you and Go Panthers!!!!

Pekin Banking is open for business with our newly trained tellers, Brin, Briggs, Kynsley, and Kendra. Thanks to Pilot Grove Saving Bank of Packwood, and Kortney Heald, for helping students learn about personal finance. Pekin Banking is open each Wednesday. For more information please contact Kortney at the bank or Di in the elementary office.

Here are a few reminders to Pekin parents. 1. All students at Pekin will dismiss at 1:30 p.m. on October 21st for the District Cross Country meet. This is a change in the original school calendar. 2. Only students eating breakfast, or who have appointments with staff, are allowed in the building before 8:05. All other students are asked to wait outside until the 8:05 bell. So, as the weather turns colder, or is rainy, please make sure your child dresses appropriately. Students are welcome to stay in the car with parents until the 8:05 bell to stay warm and dry. 3. Pekin Elem. will not have a school-wide Halloween parade. Individual classrooms will celebrate with special activities as their daily schedule allows. 4. Encourage your students to wear blue on Oct. 13th for National "Stomp Out Bullying" day. 5. Encourage your students to wear teal on Oct. 25th for Spina Bifida Awareness Day.

The Cardinal Pekin Dust Devils Trap Shooting team will be hosting informational/parent meetings on October 18th (Cardinal Elementary School Safe Room) and October 19th (Pekin High School Commons) at 6:30 pm. At the meetings, we will cover the following: Brief overview of our program Q and A Registration process Fall Fundraiser Information All interested can attend either meeting. If you are unable to attend but would still like information or plan on participating, please contact Jill Silvers at cardinalpekintrapteam@gmail.com.

“We’ve got spirit. Yes, we do. We’ve got spirit. How about you?” Pekin Elementary is gearing up for Homecoming week. Please join us by showing your school spirit with each of the different dress up day themes. Join us in cheering on the football team to a victory Friday night. Go Panthers!! Dress-Up Days for Pekin's Carnival on the Boardwalk Homecoming Tuesday: Dress like a Teacher/Student/Adult Day - Students dress like a teacher or adult in their lives and Teachers/Staff dress up like students! Wednesday: Twin Day - Coordinate with a friend to be twins! Thursday: Circus Day - Dress in your favorite animal print ( no costumes) Friday: Spirit Day - Dress in your best school spirit clothes - show everyone what it means to be a Panther!

These young men and their coaches have been working hard! It was fun for our administrative team to be able to cook breakfast for them this morning!Thanks for being such good people and student-athletes! Great things are coming your way! We are proud of you!

Mike Mefford is assisting Gabe Gentry with his Passion Project for Mrs. Arendt class. She helps facilitate the learning by finding community resources to help students learn more about executing their ideas. What a great way to learn, and strengthen the great Pekin community connection.

Third grade students and teachers were so excited to have Ethan join us back at school. He had been recuperating at home from a kidney transplant he received just before school started this year. To celebrate his return we took an all-class “Welcome Back Ethan” picture, made cards, watched a fun movie, and had treats. It was a very special afternoon!

Fourth Grade News! Coming into fourth grade brings a new responsibility for the 47 students who are in the class of 2030. Each student has begun the journey of learning how to use a daily assignment planner. The assignment planner is used as a home-school communication tool to let parents know what the students are studying in classes as well as any homework that may be completed for the next day. They are also message areas for correspondence between parents and teachers. This is a great tool to help the students stay organized to ensure a successful fourth grade year. In Reading the fourth graders started the year learning about the “Power of Yet” and “Don’t Stop Believing” growth mindset mottos for Mrs. Scholtus’s classes. For this the students listened to multiple stories, discussed not know things “yet”, but what things they would learn throughout the year and worked on goal setting before starting the academic year. Then the fourth graders started using 95% Phonics program to learn how to break down words and spell words. There will not be lists to study or Friday spelling tests this year as it is embedded into the phonics and writing work. This was done last year with a huge amount of success!! Reading class started with reviewing multiple strategies using task cards. Currently the students are reading their first story “Because of Winn Dixie” from our “Journeys” series. The students are also working toward their AR points goals for the first quarter. Please have your child read 5-10 minutes every night to help them work toward their goal. In Math the fourth graders are continuing to use our math series, “Everyday Math.” This is an aggressive math program that should help our students reach a deeper understanding of math. Everyday Math has many activities and experiences to assist the students learning. We started this year with working on a place value, numbers and operation unit. We are now starting to work with geometry, multiplication and division. The fourth graders will also continue expanding their knowledge of math by using many on-line math programs. In Science we are training our brains to think, write, draw, and teach like scientists, more specifically, Energy Scientists and Electrical Engineers. We have been experimenting and creating parallel and series circuits. We are observing different components of a circuit and how they present energy through light, sound, or motion. We will continue our studies with magnetic energy, electromagnetism, energy transfer, and waves of energy.

Third Grade News Third grade takes the prize this year for the largest class total in the elementary! There are 60 kiddos , 26 girls and 34 boys., who as teachers we hope are anxious to learn a lot this school year. Being departmentalized for the first time in the 3-5 wing, these third graders see Mrs. Millikin each day for science or social studies, Mrs. Coble for language arts, and Mrs. Atwood for math. Early in this year everyone is learning the responsibility of keeping daily “take-home” folders for homework and completed work. This organizational folder will then be replaced next year with a daily planner. Party committees have been organized for Halloween, Valentine’s Day, and Easter in which each student serves once during the year on refreshment, movie, and clean-up groups. Everyone is already looking forward to the first party! Millimoney auctions have quickly become a favorite end of the day experience on Friday. Millimoney can be gained during any class period. Students can spend incentive millimoney they have earned on items up for bidding during a live auction. Students can even bring items from home for selling if a parent has given permission. PBIS is another school-wide incentive with rewards for demonstrating appropriate behaviors in all aspects of the school setting. Each Friday students have a chance at a weekly prize drawing and throughout the school year work to accumulate tickets that add together for larger prizes for students’ PBIS achievements. Boys and girls are really starting to “dig in” to the subject areas for third grade by now. In Mrs. Coble’s language arts periods, they are working on restating questions and reviewing spelling patterns. Science classes with Mrs. Millikin are conducting explorations using a FOSS kit. The subject is: Matter and Motion. This kit promotes a “hands-on” approach to learning. So far students have worked on concepts involving magnets, forces, wheel-and-axle systems, and eventually will be engineering a cart. In math, with Mrs. Atwood, classes are studying telling time to the nearest minute, rounding to the nearest 10 and 100, and beginning work in multiplication. We all believe we are off to a fantastic start in third grade!