Pilgrims, ghosts, colonists and math

Melanie Lewis

The month of October was a full one at El Morro Elementary School. We

were busy bees.

After a school assembly to kick off the Fall Fundraiser, the

students did an incredible job selling gift items to family and

friends for the holidays in a quick two-week period. It was a great

success and they exceeded the goal by leaps and bounds. The delivery

of goods will arrive on Thursday for the students to get to their

customers.

The Pilgrim overnight field trip, offered to all fifth-graders,

was a great success as well. After spending a night aboard a ship in

Dana Point Harbor, re-enacting the life of a person at sea in the

early 1800s, the students had great respect for their present day

lives.

The Boo Blast was a night of fun for everyone. The list of

volunteers it takes to put this annual community event together is

long. It is with the work of these volunteers that it all comes

together.

We move into the month of November with the Reflections art

contest directed by a PTA committee encouraging all students to

participate, by creating original art in the categories of

literature, photography, music and visual arts. The contest will end

Dec. 17, and contestants have an opportunity to compete with all

students in California to make the state finals. Our math challenge

books will be given out this month to all students who wish to

participate in the extracurricular math program, which correlates

with the state standards that the teaching staff follows all year.

We are selling beautiful poinsettias offered by the Hines Nursery

as one of our annual fifth-grade graduation fundraisers. They are

offered for sale through our students through Wednesday and delivered

Dec. 1 and 2 at El Morro.

We end our month of November with our annual Colonial Days

celebration. This is a two-day event on Nov. 22 and 23 where the PTA

committee transforms the multipurpose room into a colonial village.

All of the students spend time going through the different activities

that are managed by parent volunteers dressed in colonial and

American Indian attire. Some of the activities include quilting,

candle making, knot tying and clay design.

The above activities are made possible to all of our students with

help from PTA funds. We encourage parents to volunteer and partner

with their children in their education at El Morro.

* MELANIE LEWIS is the president of the El Morro Elementary School

PTA.