Los Angeles Laker Slava Medvedenko visited Ms. Moriyama's Room 19 as part of the Lakers' "Read to Achieve" program.  

  Before his arrival, students were taped asking various questions which will be shown on TV at a later date. The first thing students saw was that Pennekamp's doors were a bit too short for Slava to fit through without ducking!  

He greeted Room 19 and enjoyed interacting with his attentive audience. 

Parents also had a great time meeting a Laker in person! 

Everyone listened closely to what Slava had to say.  They each received a copy of the "Read to Achieve Pledge":

Reading is fun and books are cool too,

I will read a book daily to learn something new.

I will learn different words and I will listen in school,

when teachers read stories and share reading rules.

I will practice my skills in every way,

reading is something I will do every day.

Reading offers great adventures to me,

reading will help me be the best I can be.

There were a lot of great questions for Slava!  Room 19 wanted to know if he had a pet, what his favorite subjects in school were (biology and history), how old he was when he started playing basketball, how tall his parents are (both 6'2"), how tall he is (about 6'10"), how many languages he speaks (5 which include Ukranian, Russian, and Polish ), how tall he was when he was 8 years old and many others.

Mr. Keldrauk (part of the 1st place MBEF Basketball Challenge Pennekamp squad and runner up in the MBUSD principal's free throw contest) dropped by to join in the fun!

Lucky Room 19 students received autographs and will remember spending time with a Los Angeles Laker!  Watch for Room 19 during commercial breaks of Laker games.