ParentSquare2024 Penn Musical, “The Music Man”
Penn’s school musical this year is “The Music Man.”
You won’t want to miss Penn’s talented student performers as they act out the play that follows fast-talking traveling salesman, Harold Hill, as he cons the people of River City, Iowa, into buying instruments and uniforms for a boys’ band that he vows to organize – this, despite the fact that he doesn’t know a trombone from a treble clef!
This year’s musical also includes the talents of a few P-H-M elementary and middle school students:
- Mary Cortes, 5th grade, Prairie Vista Elementary School
- Maxwell MacMillan, 5th grade, Mary Frank Elementary School
- Anniston Steele, 7th grade, Grissom Middle School
- Ezra Carrico, Katherine Hawkins, Benjamin Robertson and Noah Rohde, all in 8th grade, Schmucker Middle School
This isn’t the first year Penn’s musicals have included students from younger grades. In 2016, younger students also participated in “Mary Poppins.” But this is the first year in recent memory to have this many!
Visit bit.ly/PennMusicMan to purchase tickets.
FIRST-IN District Robotics Competition, March 2 & 3
The 2024 FIN Mishawaka FRC District Event will once again be held at Penn High School March 1st – 3rd (open to the public on Saturday, March 2 and Sunday, March 3). The event will be held in Penn’s Main Arena. See below for a daily schedule:
Saturday, March 2
- 10:30 – 11:00 a.m., Opening Ceremonies
- 11:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m., Qualifying Matches (No matches during Lunch, 1:00 – 2:00 p.m.)
Sunday, March 3
- 9:30 – 10:00 a.m., Opening Ceremonies
- 10:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m., Qualifying Matches
- 12:30 – 1:00 p.m., Alliance Selections
- 1:00 – 2:00 p.m., Lunch
- 2:00 – 5:00 p.m., Playoff Matches & Awards Ceremony
For elementary aged children, there’s also the Next Gen event from 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. on Saturday. The event will be upstairs–above Penn’s Main Arena–in the Fitness Center. This event is open to all children, not just P-H-M students. Children have the opportunity to do hands-on STEM activities, even operate a robot! Click here for pictures from last year’s event.
This year’s game is CRESCENDOSM presented by Haas; click here to view a video about the game. FIRST© Robotics Competition teams will use their STEM skills and creative power to turn up the volume as they design, build, and program their robots for action-packed game play. Watch the game animation to inspire ideas.
During our 2023-2024 arts-inspired robotics season, FIRST® IN SHOWSM presented by Qualcomm, FIRST Robotics teams will celebrate the roles STEM skills play in the arts and design, and how these skills help build a world of endless possibilities for students. Click here to learn more about FIRST® IN and the District event being held at Penn High School.
You Are Loved!
Fourth grade teacher Mrs. Julia Rulli wants all her students to feel valued for their unique gifts believing when children feel loved and respected, they learn and grow to their fullest potential. This is how Mrs. Rulli and her students came up with this year’s classroom theme, “You are Loved!” Mrs. Rulli bought each of her student’s a t-shirt to help remind them of this every day.
Principal Mrs. Amy Fadorsen loved the idea of the shirts so much, that she worked with former Horizon teacher Marci Messer (who designed and printed the t-shirts) to make them available to the entire school. Mrs. Rulli’s students came up with the idea of donating all proceeds from the sale of the shirts to the Early Childhood Intervention Center (ECIC) at the Center for the Homeless in South Bend; they wanted to help the children. Horizon families and staff helped raise $450 to donate to ECIC!
For Valentine’s Day, Mrs. Rulli’s students paid the love forward by putting together personalized Valentine’s goodie bags for each and every Horizon staff member! They then hand delivered each goodie bag to the staff. What a great way to our staff how they are appreciated, valued and of course LOVED!
Students even made goodie bags for the news crews from WNDU and ABC 57 who visited Mrs. Rulli’s class today to do feature stories. A story was also later featured on “NBC Nightly News, with Lester Holt, Kids Edition” on February 22, 2024. NBC Nightly News-Kids edition is a digest of the top headlines, broken down for kids to best understand the world today. Click here to watch, scroll to 23:26.
