February 2016 Newsletter

Spartan Times

FEBRUARY 2016

UPCOMING Greetings from the 6th Grade Class
DATES
Our Spartan Spirit jar filled up was a drama where we each portrait. It is difficult to draw
Saturday, February 13 again! Whenever it fills, our read and acted out a even half of our faces! Going
Basketball Tournament @ school gets to have a re- part. Our class also worked along with art, we are making
St. Annes for 3rd/4th ward. At the end of January, on creating our own folk ta- our Valentine’s boxes for our
we filled the jar and had a les. We were able to share contest that is coming
Monday, February 15 dodgeball tournament with our stories with the rest of up. There will be winners for
No School the whole school. We had the class. They were quite the most creative, most
District Board Meeting colors that were different funny and had lessons we effort, and funniest.
6:30pm teams; like team Yellow, and could learn from them. An-
team Pink. In the end, the other thing we are reading is Happy Valentine’s Day!
Thursday, February 18 Purple team won against The Mouse and the Motorcy-
Basketball Game @ Home Pink. It was fun! cle with the whole school and Milroy School Sixth Graders,
5/6th 3:30 3rd/4th 4:30 our families. Anna K., Kaitlynn G.,
In reading, we read a story Halle I., Brynea S.,
Monday, February 22 called “Morning Traffic.” It In art, we are making our self-
Charter Board Meeting Nicholas S., Brandon
5:45pm
The Science of Ice Cream!
Monday, February 22
Homework Help 3-4pm We are back into the swing of 5th and 6th graders were able and enjoy it. Yum!
The 5th and 6th graders were to make their own ice cream Ms. Buysse
Wednesday, February 24 learning about matter and its
Trip to SMSU properties in science
class. They learned that salt
Friday, February 26th lowers the freezing point of
YMCA School Trip fresh water. They also
learned what happens to the
Saturday, February 27 particles as something chang-
Basketball Tournament@ es from a liquid to a solid. To
Balaton for 5/6th go along with this lesson, the

Sunday, February 28
Basketball Banquet 5pm

Monday, February 29
Homework Help 3-4pm

Friday, March 4th
Science Fair

Tuesday, March 8th
Spartan Club 3-5om

Monday, March 21st
Board Meetings
Charter 5:45
District 7:00

March 24-28th
Easter Break

March 28th –April 1st
Scholastic Book Fair

Monday, March 28th
Parent Teacher Conferences
11-7
BLOOD MOBILE TBA

Tuesday March 29th
School Resumes

PAGE 2 News From 5th Grade

I LOVE to READ Month is in a classroom goal of reading 25 tion of America and are study-
full swing in 5th grade despite hours this month. ing The American Revolution.
the weather working against Our Science Fair projects are
us! February is actually In Math, we are still busy with off to a great start.
bursting with activity so it is our unit on operations with
hard to get the winter blues fractions, and of course con- We are looking forward to
here at Milroy School! We tinuing to brush up on our Valentine’s Day celebrations at
are about 1/3 of the way math facts. In Reading we the end of this week, a trip to
through The Mouse and the have a few more weeks of SMSU to see a play, and a
Motorcycle, the book we are reading about inventors and school trip to the YMCA at the
reading for our school–wide artists. In Social Studies we end of the month.
book club. 5th grade also has continue to study the coloniza-
Mrs. Suelflow

1st Grade

This last month in 1st grade polar bear. Our writing to life on their papers. In the
has been a busy and fun project for this month was month ahead we are looking
one. We have enjoyed do- writing an “expository” forward to celebrating the 120th
ing projects about winter, text. This is a fancy word day of school and showing off all
talking about winter, and for writing a report about a that we have learned about
writing about winter. Did real event or animal. After numbers on that day! Look for
you know that polar bears reading and learning about an article in the next newsletter
are the biggest type of the polar bear, the kids about our fun day ahead and
bear? We learned that wrote their first “report”. It our Mystery Readers!
after studying about the was fun to see the skills we
have been practicing come For the 1st Grade Class,
Preschool News
Ms. Griebel

The preschool class spent in the ocean. A few inter- Some penguins can sleep in trees
time learning about pen- esting facts we learned and they sleep standing up.
guins all over the about penguins include:
world. We did a science Penguins can live in cold There are many different kinds of
experiment using crayons and warm places. penguins.
and water to show how the
penguins waxy feathers Penguins black and white We are excited to see what we
keep them from getting feathers hide them from learn about next!
wet even though they swim their enemies.
Until next time,
Penguins eat krill and squid.
Ms. Lyngen’s Preschool Class

SPARTAN TIMES

FEBRUARY NEWSLETTER PAGE 3

2nd Grade News for 100 days. The class will be look like in 100
working on a variety of activities
Second graders will be cele- related to the number 100. Stu- years. Second graders
brating their accomplishments dents will make shirts with 100
in becoming 100 days smarter tallies. Color 100 pictures for will predict and write
on February 11th. Hard to be- their crowns. Make a bubble
lieve, we have been in school gum machine with 100 gum how they might look at
balls. Get to see what they will
age 100. We will work on math figures related to differ-

ent items that can be bought with $100. Lastly, stu-

dents will celebrate with a snack resembling the num-

ber 100. Mrs. Jensen

100 Days Smarter In Kindergarten

After 3 snow days already in piece puzzle, built towers using
February, The kindergarten 100 plastic cups, and made an
class FINALLY was able to cele- art project using the numbers 1
brate the 100th day of school -0-0. We also used the fun Ag-
this week. The first 100 days of ingBooth app on Ms. Wendorf’s
kindergarten went by so fast! phone to find out what we will
We had a crazy, fun-filled day look like when we are 100 years
to celebrate all of our learning. old. The pictures were so fun-
ny! Our last activity was writing
As a class, we worked together 100 reasons why we love Milroy
to chart 100 words we knew onto paper hearts to display in
how to write. The kindergar- the hallway.
teners worked so hard to make
sure they were spelling their The 100th day of school was
words correctly, and there were long anticipated. But neither
no repeats. We also made 100 snow nor wind could prevent us
day hats, and counted by 10s to kindergarteners from partying
add 100 colorful stickers. Also like 100 day rockstars. We cele-
practicing groups of 10, we cre- brated all of the hard work and
ated fruit loop necklaces learning we have done in the
grouped by 10s (and some of us last 100 days, and had a great
probably ate close to 100 pieces time.
ourselves too J).
100 days smarter,
After lunch, our adventure in
100s continued. We worked Ms. Wendorf, Lexi, Sam, JoElla,
together to complete a 100 Carson, and Abby

ECFE in February

We hope you can join us this month for our Read-a-Rama or Daddy and Me Event!

ECFE – United Way Read-a-Rama has been rescheduled to Monday, February 22nd. The activities are geared toward preschool
aged children 3-5 year olds, but all are welcome to attend. The event will take place in the school gym at 6:00.

Daddy and Me Event scheduled for Monday February 29th at 6:00pm in the preschool classroom.

Bullying: What It Is and What It Is Not Part II

January’s Newsletter had part I, focusing on any bad intention and it is important intention to harm others or gain real
what bullying is, this month we’ll focus on not to create a big conflict, because it or perceived power. Therefore, any-
what bullying is not. was not an act of bullying. thing that happens once is not an act
of bullying.
It is not always easy for people who have A single act of telling a joke about
been offended to understand the differ- someone – Making fun of other people All of the behaviors mentioned above
ence between a deliberate act and an is not fun for them, but the line be- are unpleasant, sometimes inappro-
accidental one, many times they can only tween having a sense of humor and priate, and many times need to be
see a situation through their own per- making fun of someone is very fine. It is addressed, but they are not to be
spective. This perspective can lead to the important to teach kids (and grownups) treated as bullying. Understanding
belief that “this was a hurtful situation” that things they say as jokes should also the serious nature of bullying helps to
therefore I am being bullied. This is not be amusing for the others. If not, they delineate the line between bullying
always the case, yet it is very important should stop. Unless it happens over and and unpleasant altercations or
to distinguish between bullying and other over again and done deliberately to events. In today’s world bullying car-
hurtful acts as they are resolved in very hurt someone, telling jokes about peo- ries quick and severe consequenc-
different ways. There are many examples ple is not bullying. es. Breaking the pattern of bullying is
of hurtful, yet non-bullying actions. The important and something ISD 640
following are specific examples provided Arguments – Arguments are just heated takes very serious, therefore under-
by Family Matters’ Ronit Baras: disagreements between two (or more) standing what is and is not bullying
people (or groups). It is natural that must be well defined and understood
Not liking someone – It is very natural people have different interests and in order to respond appropriately to
that people do not like everyone around disagree on many things. Think about it, any given situation. Likewise, it is
them and, as unpleasant as it may be to most of us have disagreements with important for students to understand
know someone does not like you, verbal ourselves, so it is very understandable what bullying is and is not so that they
and nonverbal messages of “I don’t like to have disagreements with others. The are able to 1) not engage in bullying
you” are not acts of bullying. argument itself is not a form of bully- activity, 2) understand how to re-
ing, although some people turn argu- spond to bullying type of actions, and
Being excluded – Again, it is very natural ments into bullying, because they want 3) learn the important skills of conflict
for people to gather around a group of to win the argument so much. They use resolution in hurtful but not bullying
friends and not everyone will be friends every means to get what they want and situations.
with everyone, so it is understandable find a weakness in the other person,
that when kids have a party or play a abuse knowledge or trust they have Bullying should never be taken lightly,
game at the playground, they will include gained and use it against the other per- but much like “the flu” it can often be
their friends and may exclude others. son. It is very important to distinguish mislabeled, therefore it is important
While we challenge students to involve between natural disagreements and to understand what is and what is not
everyone, this doesn’t always happen. It bullying during an argument. bullying as well as how to properly
is very important to remind kids they do intervene. Bullying is never OK and
the same thing sometimes too and, alt- Expression of unpleasant thoughts or when dealt with appropriately can
hough exclusion is unpleasant, it is not an feelings regarding others – Again, com- often be stopped quickly. As educa-
act of bullying. Exclusion is different from munication requires at least two play- tors, parents, and community mem-
the intentional isolation discussed earlier ers. Although it may be unpleasant to bers invested in our youth, we need
in this article as isolation is a calculated hear what someone thinks about you, it to be well informed and well
and targeted activity intended to hurt is not a form of bullying. In every com- equipped to deal with bullying as well
someone. munication, there are disagreements as equipped and willing to ask the
and some form of judgment about each question “do you have the flu or just
Accidentally bumping into someone – other’s attitude and behavior. If some- flu like symptoms?” When we do this,
When people bump into others, the reac- one says to you, “I think this was not a information and not emotion can lead
tion depends mostly on the bumped per- nice gesture” or “You insulted me when us in dealing with these very difficult
son’s mood. If they have had a bad day, you said this”, this is not bullying but an situations.
they think it was an act of aggressive be- expression of thoughts and feelings.
havior, but if they are in the good mood, Isolated acts of harassment, aggressive -Wade McKittrick
they smile back and attract an apology. behavior, intimidation or meanness – ISD 635 Superintendent
This is also relevant for playing sports, like The definition of bullying states that
when kids throwing the ball at each other there is repetition in the behavior. Bul- Watch for part II of Bullying: What It is
hit someone on the head. It is very im- lying is a conscious, repeated, hostile, and What It Is Not in February’s News-
portant for teachers and parents to ex- aggressive behavior of an individual or letter
plain that some accidents happen without a group abusing their position with the