Waimanalo School has been awarded a $3,000 grant to promote reading as a family activity. The award from the Department of Education was made possible by a donation from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation. Ms. Alma Ueno (Second grade teacher), Ms. Carleen Abalos (Waimanalo School Library Media Specialist), along with the help of Waimanalo School Principal Mrs. Marian Holokai, submitted the proposal to the Public Schools of Hawaii Foundation.

The project, "It's In the Bag!," will provide each student in the second grade with a tote bag containing one or more books based around a theme. Several different follow-up activities related to the theme will be included in the bag. A different bag can be taken home each week. Parents will be encouraged to set aside a special time daily to work together with their child on the contents in the bag.

Activities in the bag will include music, art, puzzles, cooking, games and more, thus allowing and appealing to different strengths and interests of the child. The project promotes parents to become more involved in their child's reading and to provide a `bonding' time for the parents and child.

Basically, the project goal is to make reading and learning more fun for the students. The project will give the parents the opportunities and resources to become more involved in the child's learning. It will relate and connect reading, writing, speaking, math, science, social studies, music, art, and social skills so that children can learn thematically. It will also strengthen students' reading, writing, and speaking skills. n

Sidewalk Civic Lesson

Recently, the sidewalk around the Waimanalo School and Public Library jack-hammered into oblivion. The process took two days in which the jack-hammer ran almost non-stop from 7:30 until 3:00 in the afternoon. The students found themselves frustrated with the noise and trying to hear the instructions over the noise. The Eighth grade News Writing class was particularly upset with the noise since the day the jack hammering quit--the lawn mowers unleashed their noise. The eighth grade journalists decided to do something about it. After discussing alternative solutions--from sabotaging the operation to writing letters--they decided the best course of action was to make their noisy plight known by writing letters to the editors. The letters explained the situation and suggested some common sense solutions, such as: mow the lawn and perform noisy construction work after school and on school holidays. A week later Haunani Martin's letter was published in the Honolulu Advertiser Letters to the Editor section. Mention was also made of the many other letters received from Waimanalo School Eighth grade students. Unfortunately, the students did not receive any response to the letter from the higher-ups of education. The students however learned a lesson in becoming involved in community issues. n

Canned Goods Drive

The elementary and intermediate student government held a canned goods drive from October 23 to October 30. The goal of our council was to collect 700 cans--which is about one can for every student and staff at our school. We collected over 800 cans--well over our goal. Besides having this food drive, the students also had a lucky number drawing. Teachers and staff donated prizes so as to help support our drive and make it more successful. The caned goods were collected and donated to the First Baptist Church of Waimanalo to be distributed to the needy by Pastor Bruce Kishimoto.