Our Lady of Guadalupe School

Flat Stanley visits Stockton, CA from Hannah M.’s House

September 13, 2008

Dear Mrs. Chu and  Second grade class,

I arrived safely yesterday in Stockton, California. I am staying with Hannah M’s aunt Liz and uncle Bill. Today I meet Hannah’s cousin Christine, she thought I was adorable. My face turned a little red, especially when she picked me up.  I get to share a bedroom with their rabbit snowball. She’s HUGE!!!!  I hope she doesn’t think that I’m one of her toys.

Today I will be visiting Tully C. Knoles Elementary School with aunt Liz.  She will be introducing me to her second and third grade class.  I’m a bit nervous, but she has assured me that I will be just fine.  Well class have a wonderful day and I will be writing you soon.

Sincerely,
Flat Stanley

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Dear Flat Stanley,
We are so excited that you arrived safely in Stockton. Give Aunt Liz, Uncle Bill the second and third grade classes at Tully C. Knoles Elementary School our love.

Mrs. Chu was thrilled to hear about Snowball, she has two rabbits at home.  One rabbit’s name is Snoopy and the other is Ace. Snoopy is big too but Ace is a little guy. They’re so lovable.

We are looking forward to hearing from you again. We will be posting your Stockton visit on the OLG website soon. Your hosting family is the first of our friends to respond to our travel itnerary. Please thank them for sharing their time with us.

Your Fremont Friends,
Mrs. Chu and the Second Grade Class at OLG.

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Dear Mrs. Chu and the Second Grade Class,

I am having a fabulous time with Hannah M’s family.  My visit at Tully C. Knoles was great.  Everyone was so excited to meet me, the children had lots of questions for me.  I felt like a celebrity.  They wanted to know who mailed me to Mrs.Walitsch and where I came from.  I told them that I was from Fremont, California, Hannah Martinez mailed me to her Aunt Liz, and that I attend OLG school.  Oh, there was a fire drill while I was visiting.  The children and I walked quietly down the hall and lined up in the yard until the all clear bell rang.  The weather has been great here, I’ve been told that it gets extremely hot in the summer, but so far its been perfect!  Talk to you soon.

Hola Mrs. Chu and the Second Grade Class,
I went out to dinner with Aunt Liz, Uncle Bill, and Christine.  We went to their favorite Mexican restaurant-Suzy’s.  I had chips, salsa and enchiladas. It was DELICIOUS!!!!  On the way back, we past by the beautiful University of the Pacific, it is one of the oldest universities in California. Students who attend UOP have an opportunity to study, music, engineering, pharmacy, business, dentistry and law.  Stockton is also home to San Joaquin Delta College, Haggin Museum, and Micke Grove regional Park (which has a small but wonderful zoo) is the San Joaquin County Historical Museum.  There is so much to see and learn about Stockton and I can’t wait to share it with all of you.
Yours truly,
Stanley

Hello Mrs. Chu and the Second Grade Class,

I was so happy and excited to hear from all of you.  I miss all of you very MUCH!!!!  Mrs. Chu told me about the test you are taking, I bet you are all doing great. I also heard about your earthquake drill and how you too have to walk quietly so that you can hear the instruction that are being given-very important.

I have been very, very busy. Aunt Liz and I went over Hannah M’s grandma’s house, she is so pretty and nice.  She let me have some candy out of her candy jar, said that I was cute, and took a picture with me. Gee-I feel so special.

On Monday, we went on an adventure, I saw corn fields, vineyards, walnut orchards, farmers working in the fields and some cows.   I learned that “throughout Stockton’s history almost every major fruit, nut and field
crop has been grown, some with greater success than others.  Current major crops include asparagus, cherries, tomatoes, walnuts, almonds, and feed crops.” I don’t know about all of you, but I sure am getting hungry.

Stockton was founded in 1849 by a German immigrant by the name of Charles M. Weber. It was “officially named after Commodore Robert F. Stockton, a naval officer.” It servers as a “major shipping point for the many of agricultural and manufactured products of Northern California.”  Stockton is the 13th largest city in California, (out of 478), It’s 83 miles to San Francisco and 101 miles to South Lake Take.  Stockton is known for its Asparagus Festival that attracts over 100,000 visitors each year.  It also has it own symphony and opera company.  The Delta provides thousands of miles of waterways for water skiing, sailing and other water activities.  (www.visitstockton.org)

By the way, my room mate Snowball is great, she gives me bunny back rides, sniffs at my hair and makes a lot of noise when she drinks her water.  Aunt Liz and Uncle Bill send their love and so do I.  I will be coming
home soon.

Love,
Flat Stanley

Hi Stanley!

Tully C. Knoles School sounds like a very exciting place to be. Today we had a very long test called an ITBS assessment. We finished the Language Arts piece and tomorrow we are going to do the Math. It was
very different but it was fun. We also had an earthquake drill in the afternoon. We must all be very quiet so in a real earthquake we will be able to hear any instructions that are being given. Some of us were kind of noisy so we will have to redo it.

Yummy! the Mexican food made our stomachs growl. We have 22 students in our second grade class; 11 boys and 11 girls. Our school is very small compared to your school. We have 214 students in grades K-8.

Fremont is midway between Oakland and San Jose. We can see mountains from our school,  Lake Elizabeth, a very large park, is 2 blocks from our school. The city of Fremont is building a water park at Lake Elizabeth. We are very excited about this water slide. We See Mission Peak a mountain that looks like the peak of a mission house from our school.When it is very cold we can see snow on this peak.

Well Stanley, give your host family a big hug tonight before you go to bed. Don’t snore too loud when you sleep, you might wake Snowball and she’ll “thump” you. Tell Aunt Liz that the children were so very happy when Mrs. Chu read your email to the second graders. They giggled, oooed and ahh’d at all the wonderful geographic information that you shared.

Take care and give the second and third graders our love.

Your pals,
Mrs. Chu and the OLG Second Graders

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Sunday, October 5, 2008

It has been a pleasure to have Flat Stanley as our guest.  He has been wonderful and very polite.!!!!!!!  Uncle Bill and I want to especially thank our Hannah (M.) for including us in her class project. We hope that you have enjoyed learning about our city-Stockton.  There is so
much more to do here and learn.  We hope that you and your families we come and visit.  We have beautiful tree lined streets, great weather and fantastic parks with lots of fun things to do, for instance, fishing, lots of ducks,  paddle boats rides, and picnic areas.   On a windy day you can fly a kite-I’m sure Stanley would enjoy that!!!  Uncle Bill and I are excited that you are learning about the different cities in California and about other countries as well.  Have fun, study hard and enjoy all the wonderful things you will be learning in your second grade this school
year.

Love,
Aunt Liz and Uncle Bill