Tomorrow is our field trip to the Children's Museum.  We will depart about 8:45am and return around 12:30pm. 

Students need a lunch & drink in a non-breakable container. (no sodas please)

Students are encouraged to wear a Stellar tshirt, but we understand if that's not possible.

We are in need of more parent volunteers to accompany us.  If you are willing and able,...
 
1~ please let me know and

2~ ensure you are registered in the district Raptor program.  The office clerk, Mrs. Clarke, can assist you with that. 

You would need to bring a lunch and arrive at school arbout 8:30am.  Thank you!

Today the children brought home a yellow paper with information about the end of the year Geography Challenge. 

How many state capitals can you recall?  Start learning them tonight!  A good strategy is to begin with a group of states...
 ~you know
 ~you have visited
~where you have family or friends
~that are nearby.

Once you know those expand the list every couple days until you have learned all 50 capitals.  

We also sing a song of the state capitals to help us learn them.  It goes to the tune of Yankee Doodle.
Use this link to sing along!

Tonight is Stellar's Chick-fil-A spirit night!

Come to Chick-fil-A by Super Target on 120th & Washington between 5:00 - 8:00pm. 

You may come in or drive through.  Just make sure to say that you are from Stellar when you order. 

Don't forget to check in with the PTO representatives and say, "I'm from Ms. Maloney's Class!" 

The class with the best attendance wins a...

Chicken Nugget Party
OR
Ice Cream Sundae Party

Whooh!  Let's get ready to PARTY!

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Thank you to all the students and families who came out on a cold snowy night to celebrate our writing.  It was great to see you!  I know the students were proud to show off their Reading Response Journals, Passport Summaries, and Math Response Journals.  But most of all, they were excited to share their animal report Power Points. 

I hope you realize just how much work went into these final projects.  It all started about two months ago when we learned about ecosystems and geography in Science and Social Studies.  Then we researched our animals using the internet and books.  First we identified important "key" words and wrote them on our note catchers.  After that we used our words to write our own sentences.  This is how we made sure we were not plagiarizing by copying the authors sentences.  Next the students met with me to have revision conferences before finally typing their report and adding pictures.
 
Next week we will write our writing sample for the end of Second Grade.  I am looking forward to seeing how much they have grown since the beginning of the year.  Thank you for all your support.  Please encourage your children to write at home.

Student Council is sponsoring a fundraiser called Bucks for Books.  Funds collected will go towards purchasing new book sets for the bookroom. Their goal is to increase the variety of books and provide additional sets of teacher favorites.

Contest:  The  class that raises the most money for this fundraiser will receive $25 towards a party of their choice!

So start collecting your loose change!  Look in your car, under the couch, and check your pockets!

It starts Monday, April 15 and ends on Friday, April 19.

Stellar is participating in Bandimere Speedway's Race to Read.

Children recieve prizes for reading and have a chance to earn tickets to Bandimere Speedway's opening night, The Night of Fire and Thunder!

Children are already expected to read nightly.  Why not let the minutes count for Race to Read too?

It's easy!  For every 15 minutes you read, you get to color ONE section of a picture.  It takes about 4 hours of reading to complete a colore sheet.

Send completed sheets back to school.  Awards will be given each week.

Have FUN!!!!

In February our class collected an amazing 976 Box Tops!

That's incredible!

For this great accomplishment, we earned a Pizza Party!!!!  We will have it on Friday, March 22 during lunch.  No need to pack a lunch that day. 

Thank you so much for saving those Box Tops!  It helps our school raise extra money for resources.  We will continue collecting them through the rest of the year.

We all have our ups and downs but today was a particularly tough one.  

One of the biggest hurdles we have to behavior is accepting responsibility for ourselves.  A lot of children blame others when they find they are in trouble.  There are many children who are making poor choices.  The behaviors range from actually touching others to actively listening to others when you should be doing your work.  All these behaviors and finger pointing take the focus off teaching and learning.

Many children would probably benefit from sitting completely alone or isolated from their peers.  Unfortunately there are just not enough spaces in the room to accommodate this need.  I move around the room and use proximity as much as possible, but there are times when I must be with groups of students.  It is at these times when children have the most difficulty.  

I appreciate the support of many parents.  It makes a world of difference when we deal with these problems at school.  I hope I can count on your continued support as you talk with your child about their role in the problems our class experienced today.  Together we can help them find success.

There will be a "Meet the Candidate Night" at school on Tuesday, March 19th at 6:00pm.

These are the candidates being considered to be Stellar's new principal. 

This event will provide an opportunity to...
 
1.  meet the candidates
2.  ask questions
3.  provide written feedback to the Superintendent

I hope you can make it!

The focus of Unit 8 is fractions.  Students should be able to read and write fractions.  Help focus children on the denominator (lower number).  It is very important to understand that it represents the number of EQUAL groups.

For example...

1/4 means one out of four EQUAL groups.
2/3 means two out of three EQUAL groups.
5/6 means five out of six EQUAL groups.

Fractions two ways:

1.  Fractions of  a whole region.  This is using pictures to represent a fraction of a whole.  Often it is a shape.  Think of a cake or a pizza being divided into EQUAL parts. 

2.  Fractions of a whole collection.  This is about sharing a collection of things EQUALLY.  Think of 3 children sharing a dozen cookies.  Each child would get 4 cookies.  What fraction of the dozen does each child get?  There are three EQUAL groups so each child gets 1/3 of the cookies.  1/3 of 12 cookies is 4 cookies.  Watch OUT!  Children often look at the number of things in each group and use that for their fraction.  So in the above example, they say each child gets 1/4 because they see 4 cookies in each group.  But 1/4 means one out of four EQUAL groups.  There are NOT four groups!

Children need lots of practice with fractions! Find opportunities to demonstrate this at home when you are sharing things equally or dividing up a cake or pizza.  There are also two interactive fraction games on Everyday Math Online. 

Students must login to access these games.  Refer to the card that was attached to your child's report card.  Everyone's login is their first name and last initial followed by a randomly generated number.  For example:  John Smith might be johns53  
All passwords are 123

Both games explore the relationship between fractions by comparing picture cards.  In Fraction Top-It students find the larger fractions.  In Equivalent Fraction Solitaire students find fractions that are equal.

We will take the unit test at the end of the week.  Thank you for supporting your child's understanding of parts of a whole whether they be regions or collections.