Tigers Study Their Way To The Top for CAO

Superquiz team member Jenna reacts with LM CAO Champ Haley when they find out they’ve won the event.

Scroll down to view photo gallery.

Haley is the first girl in seventeen years to win gold in Science. Go girl!

It was a banner year for La Mariposa and the Camarillo Academic Olympics.  For the first time ever, our Superquiz team, The Tiger Tribe, won the Superquiz.  La Mariposa also snagged 14 individual medals, the most of all the elementary schools.  This medal count includes winning gold in five of the ten individual categories.  Looks like our tigers jumped into their smarty pants with both feet for this one!

Alex is the first student in CAO history to win gold in both creative writing and art.

The Camarillo Academic Olympics culminated with the Superquiz Finals and Awards Ceremony held at Monte Vista last Friday night.  Students marched in and received their medals on the podium in front of a cheering crowd of parents and Camarillo VIPs.  A huge Tiger congratulations goes out to:

• The Tiger Tribe Superquiz Team: Manas Khatore, Jenna Chui, Evelyn Li, Matt Kim, Karolina Dzieciol.
• Haley Jeffers: 1st Place Science, 1st Place English Grammar, 2nd Place Math
• Manas Khatore: 1st Place Geography, 2nd Place Math, 3rd Place Science
• Alex Masci:  1st Place Art, 1st Place Creative Writing
• Jenna Chui:  2nd Place Creative Writing
• Sophia Pantoja: 2nd Place Speech
• Tanvi Patil: 3rd Place Speech
• Andrew Chan: 4th Place Current Events
• Matthew Yang: 5th Place Art
• Nicholas Truitt: 6th Place Current Events

The Tiger Tribe–2014 Division II Superquiz Champs–blowing off a little steam before the final stage of the competition Friday night.

Big Tiger hugs go out to Speech Coach, Dorothy Hanchey, and Superquiz Coaches Nilay and Nidhi Khatore.  Special thanks to Kathryn Masci for the perfect data entry and all of our judges, proctors, drivers, and tabulators:  Barbara Velji, Erica Williams, Nicole Sadowsky, Christy Pantoja, Ann Hudacko, Cathy Schafer, Jeff Miller, Jill Heybl, Kelly Long, Cindy Laudato-Wong, Yanzhen Xu, Kari Wetter, Lily Li, Natalie Swarts, Mickey Hirsch, Melissa Short, Jennifer Kwast, Alexis Chavez, Catherine Pedrosa, Michelle Fisher, Maria Redekopp, Madhuri Patil, & Linda Fitzgerald.  Programs like CAO do not happen without volunteers like you!

The Tiger Tribe

Manas & Haley receiving silver medals for math.

Manas & Haley receiving silver medals for math.

Hailey receiving her gold medal in English Grammar.

Manas receiving his gold medal in geography.

Alan receiving his medals in Current Events.

Principal Williams and Superintendent Michael giving medals to Alex and Jenna.

Alex and Jenna receiving their medals in creative writing.

Tanvi and her bronze medal in Speech. “I – WANT – MY – APPLE JUICE!”

Sophia and her silver medal is Speech.

Waiting on pins and needles.

On the podium.

My that’s a big trophy!

10 Tips to Maximize Back-To-School Night

Back-to-School Night is this Wednesday. Sept. 18th at 6:00 pm.  Many of you are old hats at this–you know the drill and are experienced in juggling multiple classrooms for your multiple Tigers.  However, many of you are rookies, and aren’t sure what to expect.  So from an old hat to you–here’s a few tips to make the most of your Back-To-School Night.

10 Tips To Make The Most Of Back-To-School Night

Leave the Kids at Home:  Aside of the event being terribly boring for them, having your kids in tow distracts you from taking in all the information being presented at lightning speed.  In May, La Mariposa hosts an Open House night.  Open House is the time to bring your children and let them celebrate their success with you.

Attend the General Assembly:  The general Assembly starts at 6pm.  You’ll hear a short bit from our PTA–listen hard–what they have to say this evening is the most important things you need to know all year from them.  The principal will introduce the teaching staff and then spend a few minutes talking about the school’s goals for this year.  Knowing the school’s goals will help keep the expectations your children’s teachers are about to share with you in perspective.

Visit Your Child’s Teacher:  There are two sessions for classroom visits.  They start at 6:30pm & 7:00pm. This allows you to attend a session for each of your children’s teachers.  If you have three children attending La Mariposa, you and your spouse will need to divide and conquer.

Find Out The Best Way To Contact Your Child’s Teacher:  Chances are, you’ve already submitted contact information so the teacher can get a hold of you. Now you need to know all the ways AND the best way to contact him or her.  Is it via email, a note in your child’s agenda, by phone?  What time is best to contact them?  How long will it take for them to respond?  Knowing this information goes a long way in avoiding future frustration and misunderstandings.

Listen For The Teacher’s Expectations:  Your child’s teacher will spend a good portion of their time outlining their behavioral and academic classroom expectations for the year.  If you have any questions, now is the time to ask.

Ask What Your Teacher Needs:  While mugs and gift cards make great gifts come holiday time, there are other ways to show your child’s teacher you appreciate them all year long.  Maybe they are building their classroom library, need specialized art supplies, or just need to replace basic classroom materials worn with years of love.   Teachers are often shy about requesting these things, but they may share some of their classroom needs if you ask them directly.

Know About Classroom Volunteer Opportunities:  Volunteering in the classroom is a great way to show your child you care about their educational world.  It also allows teachers to do projects and field trips they just couldn’t manage without extra sets of hands (or wheels).  Make it a point to find at least one way you can illustrate the importance of education by contributing to your child’s classroom this year.

Take Note of Resources:  Along with expectations, your child’s teacher will spend some time on sharing at home resources.  Now more than ever there are tons of online resources to help cement classroom lessons and extend learning.  Know where these resources are so you can refer to them when the time comes.

Make An Appointment To Discuss Concerns Specific to Your Child:  The classroom teacher only has twenty five minutes to get a year’s worth of information to parents.  Save any questions and concerns you may have about your child for an email, phone call, or conference.  Back-to-School Night is not the time or place to discuss your child’s specific needs.

Get There Early and Check Out Our New Spirit Wear:  Our PTA will be selling Spirit Wear from 5:30-7:30 in front of the MPR.  Our new styles will be available (T-shirts start at just $10).  You might even find a great deal on one of our close out items, too!

The La Mariposa PTA wishes you all a Happy Back-To-School Night.  We’ll see ya’ Wednesday night!

–Kamala Nahas, Pawprint Editor & Three-peat Tiger Parent

La Mariposa to Welcome New Teachers & Principal for 13/14

La Mariposa welcomes six additions to our community this fall: one principal, four classroom teachers, and one resource specialist.

2^nd Grade: Katrina Salas is our newest 2^nd grade teacher.  She comes to us from Dos Caminos where she has worked the last three years as both a 2^nd grade teacher and a Title 1 teacher.

3^rd Grade: Devon Hanks will be joining the 3^rd grade team.  She comes to us from CLU where she worked as the administrative assistant for the California Reading and Literature Project.  Prior to that, she was a 3^rd grade teacher in Bakersfield.

3^rd Grade: Shaun Blumfield comes to us from Dos Caminos where he was a 4^th and 5^th grade teacher for the past 6 years.

4^th Grade: Kathleen Ruiz will be joining the 4^th grade team, coming from Tierra Linda.  She began  teaching in California in 1996. She  taught in two other counties before moving to Ventura County to teach.  She began teaching in PVSD in 2000.    Most of her teaching within PVSD has been teaching math and science at the middle school level.

RSP:  Ceylina Duran is our new Resource Specialist.  She comes to us from Mesa Union School district where she was a Resource Specialist.

Principal: Erica Williams comes to us most recently as principal of Dos Caminos where she focused on staff and instruction to raise their test scores 56 points in one year.  Read more…

Tigers On Track For Success

By Caitlin, Kailyn, and Karolina, student contributors

Coach Thompson’s 4^th and 5^th grade track team is in gear at La Mariposa. The sprints that the athletes have been trying out for are the 50 meter dash and the 75 meter dash. The jumps are long jump and high jump. To practice the long jump, we run and jump into a pit of sand.  For high jump, you run and jump over a bar and land on a big mat.  We have also tried out for the 800 which is two laps and the 400 which is one lap. There are two people that qualify for each race in each division to go to the Rotary Track Meet on June 1^st at Camarillo High School.  If you aren’t on the track team or didn’t qualify for the track meet, you can still come and cheer your school on.

Congratulations to the 3rd Grade Speech Team

After weeks of hard work and rehearsing our 3rd Grade Tigers headed over to Las Colinas for the PVEF Speech Tournament.  We had forty entries in the forensic categories of Storytelling, Poetry, Expository/Demo, and Dual Interpretation.  Students participated in two rounds of competition before settling in for the participation ceremony where our own 4th graders, Edison H. and Haley J., performed their award winning speeches from last year.  At the end of the ceremony they announced the students that would compete in the final round.  Congratulations to our three finalists:

• Gabriela J., Storytelling
• Tanvi P., Storytelling
• Baylee F. & Braden T., Dual Interpretation

…and a big tiger HIGH FIVE to ALL of our 3rd grade participants that had the courage to compete…WE ARE ROARING WITH PRIDE!

Click here to view the complete results.

Special thanks to coaches Julie Hughes, Christina Culp, Dorothy Hanchey, & Natasha Scrivner!

5th Annual Dinner Dance Hits the Mark

Last Saturday, the La Mariposa PTA sponsored our 5th Annual Dinner Dance & Auction.  Held at the Camarillo Ranch Red Barn, we all had a blast raising money for technology and music.  When all was said and done we raised $36,000!  That means by the end of the year ALL of our classrooms will have SMART boards installed and guarantees funding for our music & tech teachers for the 2013-14 school year!

None of this would have been possible without your generous donations and the tremendous amount of hard work of the Dinner Dance committee led by our extremely dedicated Dinner Dance co-chairs Aaron Laskey and Kat Gregory.   Huge tiger hugs go out to:  Rachel Barlow, Denise Bolish, Lisa Carraway, Darby Catalano, MIdhelle Fisher, Romey Henderson, Jill Heybl, Jill Hodges, Elizabeth Jensen, Kathryn Masci, Beth Sassower, Natasha Scrivner, Tom Scrivner,  Patti Stouch, Kelly Widerburg, all their HUSBANDS, and everyone else that we may have forgotten to mention!

Special thanks to Cindy Laudato-Wong for sharing her photos with us!

Pictures From Flag Retirement Ceremony

Special thanks to Pack 3831 and Diana Goodson.

Our Trip to the Olivas Adobe

By Karolina, Haley, Jenna, Emily, and Alex

In January, fourth grade classes went on a field trip to the Olivas Adobe. The first thing we did was learn about the house and how it was made of adobe bricks. Later we got to go into the freezing mud and make adobe! First we took a handful of mud and put it in a box that would shape it. Once it would be dry, it would be hard enough to build your house with. We learned that water destroys adobe, and the Olivas family that lived in the house had to protect it by grinding limestone into a powder and then put it in water which makes paint. The family then had to paint it over the adobe house so that when it rains, the paint will protect it from collapsing.  

Tigers Socked The 100th Day of School (In a Good Way)

By Pam MacCallum, La Mariposa PTA 100^th Day Coordinator

La Mariposa’s sock drive for the 100^th day of school on February 15^th was a huge success!  With everyone’s help, we donated a total of 1458 new pairs of various sizes and colors of socks to Child Protective Services of Ventura County.  They are extremely thankful.

We have been donating socks since 2005.  With your help, we have provided socks to thousands of needy children in Ventura County.  

Be A Hero, Donate Blood at La Mariposa

The United Blood Services will be at La Mariposa on April 9th.  Be a hero and sign-up for La Mariposa’s on-campus Blood Drive by clicking here or calling (805) 654-8014. Please use sponsor code 8902 when making an appointment. Please note, you must not have donated blood in the previous 8 weeks (since Feb. 12th.)

Why Donate Blood? 

From http://www.aabb.org

A blood donation truly is a “gift of life” that a healthy individual can give to others in their community who are sick or injured. In one hour’s time, a person can donate one unit of blood that can be separated into four individual components that could help save multiple lives.