Books and Reading

Take Home Reading Books:

This is just a reminder about Take Home reading books. Please make sure that you keep the book in the gallon size baggie that it comes home in. It's easier to keep track of the book and the white piece of paper. Then it makes it so easy to take it from the homework folder and put it in the crate where the parent helper will take them to get a new book. Also, make sure that you initial the white paper after your child has read the book and they are ready for a new book. A new book will not be given to your child until the paper has your initial next to the date. Thanks!

 Book Orders:

This message is for all of those that ordered from the Scholastic book order. I'm hoping that the book order will be back before we go off track. If it doesn't get here in time, I will come into school and I will either arrange a time to meet all of you at school one day, or deliver the order to your house. But, I wanted to assure you that one way or another, the books will get to your children in time for them to enjoy reading them while we are off track. 

 

 Library will be this Wednesday!! 

Please make sure that your child's library book is returned to school in the next two days. It's very difficult to call the day of library when they have left the book at home. I've suggested to the children that they leave their library book in their backpack in order to keep track of their book. Thanks for your help with this!

Remember that we will be going off  track on October 9th. We will be off for 4 weeks! During this time I hope that you will make sure that your child keeps reading for 20 minutes every day and practicing their math 36 club facts. Thanks so much!

Fall Festival is Coming Tomorrow after School!

Tomorrow is Eastlake's Fall Festival. I encourage you to come and support the PTA in this fundraiser for the school. You can buy tickets when you get to the school. All of the fun will start at 4:30. I will be there for the first hour volunteering at the wristband pick-up area so come and say, "Hi". If you've never been to the Fall Festival, you must come and join in on the fun. There will be a lot of games, good food and you can bid on some wonderful items at the Silent Auction. 

I'm finally done with the Guided Reading testing and have all of the reading levels for all of the children to start the new year. This means that finally we can get the take Home reading Program going for the class. The books will be sent home in gallon size baggies with your child's name on it and a sheet with the books your child may be bringing home on their GR level. Please make sure to initial next to the book your child's reads or a new book will not be sent home. Also, please try to keep the book in the baggie. It's easier to transfer the book from homework folders, to the reading crate for the parent volunteers, switch books upstairs and then new books back into baggies and then homework folders. I've found that books won't become lost if you follow this system. Be on the lookout for these books probably next week. Thanks!

 Book Reports: The Whale Book Report: Your child needs to write 2-3 lines about whatever book they have read this week. They may also color a picture to go with the report.

****Please make sure that your child's name is on ALL of their homework before sending it back to school. It's hard to try and figure out who the papers belong to when several are sent in with no name. Some times the children can't even identify their own homework, so if you wouldn't mind checking to make sure their name is on all of the pages this would make all of us very happy! :) .

Thanks everyone for the continued donations that have come in to school. We are always still in need of donations for our class store. We will be holding store next week and the children are very excited. They have been trying hard to earn Dragon Bucks in the classroom. Dollar Store items, individually wrapped purchased snacks, or gently used items from home are the things we are looking for to "sell' at the store.

Remember that the best way to get in touch with me is through my district e-mail at sheila.staley@jordandistrict.org

New Class and a New School Year!

Welcome to the Staley Review! This blog is where I hope to have all parents come and read about important happenings in the classroom. I will send out an email when I post something new.

Today I want to talk about a few things:

1.Spelling: Last week's spelling test will hopefully be coming home tomorrow. I'm teaching the children how to record their spelling test scores in their Data Notebooks on their spelling, dictation and high frequency words graphs. 
 Please make sure that you help your child study their spelling words each week. Thanks!

2.Road To Success: I noticed that only about half of the class has been signed up for The Road to Success Reading Program this year. It would be great to have our whole class signed up. I sent home the sign-up code at Back-To-School Night in the packet with the yellow cover. If you no longer have it, please let me know and I will email the code to you. 

As far as when I will be posting, one week I may post 2-3 times, and other weeks it may be only once or not at all. Sorry, but I try to only post when necessary. Please sign up to follow the blog with GFC (Google Friend Connect) on the side bar. 

Thanks again for all of the donations that have been sent in. If you would still like to donate something, we still need items from the dollar store for our classroom store. The children are earning Dragon Bucks in the classroom. We will have store once a month and needs things for them to buy. Anything, even gently used items from home, would be great for our store.

Always remember, the best way to send me a message is through my district email: sheila.staley@jordandistrict.org

100's Day Party and Other Interesting Things

Tomorrow, Tuesday, March 3rd, 2015, we will be celebrating 100 days of being in school! Hopefully you were able to see the email I sent out earlier today or the note about the party on hot pink paper. Every child needs to bring 100 small things to count at school. They can bring 50 of one thing and 50 of another thing. Some things that have been brought in the past are popcorn kernels, uncooked dried beans, buttons, hard cereal, cotton balls, Lego's, and many other options. Also, they don't need to dress up like they did in 1st grade. We have other things we do in 2nd grade. It will be a very fun day! 

Take Home Reading Library:
Things have slowed down with the children and their books from the Take Home Reading Library. Here are some things that will make it work better for the students and the parents who volunteer to trade out the books.

• Parents: Please make sure to initial next to the book that your child reads. If you do not sign/initial the white paper next to the book that is home, even if your child reads the book, a new book will not be sent home the next time. If you have lost the white paper with a list of books on your child's reading level, please send a note back and we will send that paper home.
• Gallon Bag: Please keep the book and white paper in the gallon size bag that it comes home in. This is the best way to keep track of the book and paper. This also helps in the trading in and out process of books.
• If you have lost a book, please send $6.00 back to school to pay for a book or a new book will not be sent home. Thanks. 

Parent Teacher Conferences: They will be coming up in a few weeks on March 18th and 19th! A paper will be coming home at the end of the week with information that you'll be able to sign up online for an appointment time. I hope to see all of you there.

36 Math Club

We need more kids passing off their Math 36 club facts.

If you would spend 5 minutes every night practicing, this

will help your child pass off their facts. We have some great

parent volunteers who come in twice a week to test

the children. There are still many of the children that need to pass off the addition facts, so let's get practicing. We celebrate our kids each Friday at 1:15 who pass off

math 36 club facts during the week. We want all children to feel the excitement of being honored in front of all of the 2nd

graders and receive a certificate of completion.

I will be working on the volunteer calendar after I post this blog post. Hopefully it will be up tonight or tomorrow. It's always a busy night at my house, so I'll do my best! Thanks for your understanding. 

Welcome Back on Track, Subtraction with Regrouping and Volunteer Schedule

I wanted to let you know a few things happening this week and other things having to do with being back on track. 

• -There will be no spelling this week being it's a short week. There will be regular homework otherwise, due on Friday.
• -We are now in room 116. 
• -P.E. is on Tuesdays the next 9 weeks.
• -Library will be on Wednesdays.

After math today I wanted to make sure I let parents know about a few things. Please make sure when your child regroups, that they show they have done so by crossing out numbers and putting down the new numbers from borrowing the new ten.

I've noticed that many of the children tried answering the problem with not going through the process of crossing out numbers and writing down the new numbers in the tens and ones place column. The picture above shows what your child is expected to do with the problems. I'm hoping that this only happened today because we have been off for three weeks. When they do the math problems at home, please go over them with your child to see they are saying the poems and doing all of the steps before writing down an answer. Thanks! 

 Volunteering: 

Once again we have a weird situation of only having a few weeks left on a month and trying to figure out volunteering. If we could look at another month's last 2 week schedule, I'd like to follow that. Here is who would be on the schedule. If you think it won't work for you, please let me know. I'll do my best to have the March volunteer schedule up at the end of February. Thanks for your understanding.

 Wed. Feb. 18th=Cherie Visker( Reading/Fluency)

Thurs. Feb. 19th=Trisha Dent (Take Home Reading),Brenda Whipple (Math 36 club) and Amber Peterson(Reading/Fluency)

Friday Feb. 20th= Trisha Dent(I think?) Music and

Cherie Visker and Alexa Harker (pre-spelling test and Homework)

Monday Feb.23rd= Becky Sorensen (Take Home Reading) and Michelle Sorensen (Reading/Fluency)

Tues. Feb. 24th= Cherie Visker ( math 36 club)

Wed. Feb. 25th= Trisha Dent and Rachael Merino (Meet the Masters) and Lonnie Dzineku (Math 36 club)

 Thurs. Feb. 26th= Tara Ashby (Take Home Reading and 36 Club), and Amber Peterson (Reading/Fluency)

 Friday Feb. 27th= Angela Cummings (Music) and Cherie Visker and Alexa Harker (Spelling tests and homework)

Thank you Volunteers!!!