First Grade- Mrs. York

We are looking forward to our last nature walk tomorrow!  It looks like the weather will be spectacular!  Be sure to have your child dress accordingly to protect against ticks.  We will be on school grounds this time examining plants, trees, and soil.  The children will complete their sketches in their nature journals and will then be allowed to take them home.  It is our hopes that the children will continue to be observant and curious about the great outdoors, sketching and labeling what they see in the rest of their journal.  Have fun exploring and enjoying nature with your child!

                                                                          

We have just completed a math unit on volume using snapping cubes to measure volume.  Volume is how much space an object occupies so the children enjoyed creating an animal of their choice and counting the cubes to determine its volume in cubic units.  The children were quite proud of their creations!

Here are a few pictures celebrating beach day in our classroom!  The children filled the pom pom container and it was decided that we would spend the day at the beach in our classroom reading, writing and snacking on our beach towels!  It was a fun day!

Be sure to visit the Boxford Town Library to see the many displays celebrating books!  It is a sight to behold and you will be amazed by the creativity displayed by the children of Boxford and their teachers as well as parents.  As you know our class read the book Miss Smith's Incredible Story and created favorite characters that you will see as the flowers blooming from the flower pot.  Just as Miss Smith's characters came to life in the story so do ours!  Hooray for books and the magical world they allow us to enter!  

It has been an exciting week!  Our class has been chosen to announce the morning news.  Each morning a different child from the class is selected to read the morning announcements.  The children and I are so proud of their classmates for wanting to do this.  I am hoping that everyone will want to do this.  Who knows where this will lead them to in the future!

Thank you all for the time you took out of your busy lives to come in to the classroom for the March conferences!  I do enjoy meeting with my student's families to share all the hard work that is accomplished at school each and every day.  With spring fast approaching, we will be on the "home stretch" this last term of school.  I know how fast the time will fly and will continue to keep the children focused on learning first grade skills and appropriate social and behavioral skills as well.  This can be difficult when the weather gets warmer and the days are light out later.  Continue to have your child wind down at his/her usual bedtime in order to get the necessary rest.  School will be busy right up until the end!  Happy Spring!

Hello to all of you!  Looking forward to seeing you next week at your scheduled conference time.  Please remember that conferences are scheduled for fifteen minutes so be sure to be on time.  Thank you!

March is Nutrition Month!  The children are having fun answering the nutrition questions announced each morning.  We have done quite well answering them!  We will do research over the internet to help us find the answers.  Encourage your child to share the knowledge they have learned about good nutrition.  Hopefully they will be asking for those nutritious snacks we like to see them bring to school.  The math homework sent home on Thursday to collect food data should be returned on Monday.  I made an error when filling in the date.  Thank You!

Good luck to my students performing tonight in the talent show!  Have a great weekend!  Don't forget to set your clocks ahead.  We are ready for spring!  Let there be more mild, weather days like this past week!

Many thanks to Lucette Robinson for these great pics!

Welcome back to school!  Vacations are always wonderful but returning back to the routine of school is also welcomed by students and teachers.  Reuniting with friends, sharing in common experiences, and being productive are what we all need to feel good!  I saw evidence of that this week!

I look forward to seeing you all once again.  I truly enjoy conferences so I may once again share your children's hard work with you.  I find the school year flies once conferences are over so we will try to stay focused and on task to get what we need to get done before the school year is over.

As some of you know, Alden Rolfe and family will be moving to China!  What a wonderful experience it will be for him and his family.  We will miss him dearly!  I  am hoping we might be penpals with his new schoolmates in Shanghai China.  I will keep you posted if this will be a possibility.  FYI-  Alden's last day will be on Wednesday, March 7th. 

What fun we had this past Tuesday on Feb. 14th- Valentine's Day!  We started the day with valentine's day math activities.  The highlight of course was at the end of the day enjoying party snacks and opening valentine's day cards.  Lucette Robinson was in to take pictures that I hope to post soon of the festivities!  Hope it was a wonderful day for all of you as well!

Enjoy the February vacation whether in Boxford or wherever your travels take you!  I look forward to seeing you soon at March conferences.