First Grade- Mrs. York

Dear Parents,
The children have been excitedly working on their organism work!  Much has been accomplished in the last two weeks!  The children have read books, gathered facts, created an organism hallway display, made their organisms using model magic play doh, next will be creating the habitats out of shoe boxes, and completing reports!  It has been a whirlwind of activity!  I know how excited the children are to have you come in to see all their hard work!  Thanks so much for your support!

Other exciting news is that our class has been selected to announce the news in the morning over the PA system!  The children are all anxiously awaiting their turn!  It is amazing how confident they have grown over the course of the school year.  This is evident in their willingness to have a turn!  Who knows... we may have a budding reporter in the making here at Cole School!

Lastly, I'd like to thank you for your part in making Teacher Appreciation Week so special!  The cards were beautiful,  and the food and candy delicious!  My favorite part was when Mr. Middleton-Cox asked the children to say thank you to the teachers all together after they counted to three with him over the PA system!  It was very cute!

See you at the EXPO on Friday!

With regards,
MaryAnne

Yesterday was quite a special day!  The children were invited to the cafeteria to participate in Cole School's first Arbor Day celebration!  After listening to a few speakers talk about the importance of trees and how vital they are to our environment, we proceeded outside to plant a pear tree by the little red schoolhouse behind Cole School.  The children were fortunate as well to take home a small white pine tree to plant in their own yards.  Hooray for Arbor Day!

As you may have heard from your child, we have some important events this month of May and in June.  Just wanted to keep you in the loop!

May 24th (Fri.) -  First Grade EXPO (9:15) and Museum of Science visits Grade 1 at Cole School.

May 31st (Fri.) - Open House in Room 106!  Hope you can come in for a short visit (8:15 - 8:45).

June 6th (Thurs.) -  Spring Audubon field experience

June 14th (Fri.) -  Plum Island field trip to Sandy Point Beach to study tide pools!  All parents are welcome!  Please check on your CORI status.

Last day of school-  Tuesday, June 25th- 1:15 dismissal!

Hard to believe that we have just 36 more days of school!

With regards,

MaryAnne York

Hello and hooray for Spring!

Can't believe we are on the home stretch with the end of school looming just ahead of us!  The next three months will fly by and I feel we have so much left to do!  As usual, we will continue to fill our days with much curriculum so my little friends will be prepared for Grade 2!

We will be busy focusing on informational writing (nonfiction writing) in these next few months.  I will be sending home an idea topic paper for nonfiction ideas so we can do some research to begin writing about our chosen topics.  In preparation for this, please have a conversation with your child about what interests them.  With Dotti Patch's assistance I'm sure we can find some books in the library or research topics online to find out some facts on any given topic.  The children have been exposed to many nonfiction literature during storytime, independent reading time, and Scholastic News.  Now they will have an opportunity to be the author of this important genre!

I would also like to let you know that we will be having a high school intern in our classroom after April vacation.  Her name is Brianna Laughlin, a former student of mine!  It will be a wonderful experience to have her in the classroom working with the children and assisting my students with many different activities!  I am thrilled that she has asked to spend her internship in Room 106!

Many thanks to Robin Beardsley and Elizabeth Palmer for their assistance in Books in Bloom projects on display at the Boxford Town Library.  Every year the Boxford Library requests that our elementary students choose a book and create a display that depicts this book in a creative floral-type way.  I was thrilled with the results and hope you have an opportunity to visit the town library to see the many different ways that Cole kids collaborated on an artistic creation with the help of their teachers in the past/ and room mothers this year.  Many, many thanks for taking over this project this year!

FYI-  I am looking ahead at my calendar to plan an Open House for some time in May.  I will let you know when it will be so you may plan accordingly!

Also, there will be a first grade EXPO coming up in May as well!  Watch for the date on that!  I will let you know when we will be having our spring Audubon field trip.  Looking forward to a nice, warm day for that!

With regards,
MaryAnne

Sending warm wishes to all of you!  As I look out the window and see the snow falling on this brisk, winter day I question whether or not spring will arrive tomorrow.  I have faith that the warm, spring days will be upon us soon and that there will be no more snow days!  Hope the children enjoyed their day off from school!  I was busy with home improvement projects!

Tomorrow will be a fun day with the performance of Jay Mankita performing and singing about good nutrition.  Be sure to ask your child about it!

I would like to ask that you remind your child to write their name on the top of any homework paper as I remind them to do on papers completed at school.  I have been receiving many papers in the homework basket without names on them.  Thanks!

Continue to have your child pack hats, mittens  or gloves for the chilly days we continue to have.  Boots and snow pants if necessary. 

Be sure to send in nutritious snacks daily!  We have been studying the food pyramid and deciding in which food group our snacks belong.  It's been fun to answer the daily nutrition question announced each morning over the loudspeaker.  We have been correct most days this month when the office has announced the answer at the end of the day!

With regards,
MaryAnne

Greetings!

Just realized I had put on my schedule an Open House for March 8th some time ago.  I'd like to reschedule that Open House for a bit later in the school year.  With assessments, report cards, and just trying to get caught up with "stuff", I would like to hold off on another Open House at a later date TBD.  Thanks so much for your understanding!

I was delighted to see your child's efforts in the work completed in their reflection journals!  Thank you for encouraging them to reflect in more meaningful ways about their weekend books!

It's healthy nutrition month...this month of March!  I will be closely observing what choices your child makes for snacks each day.  Hopefully, they will request some fruits, veggies, whole grains, dairy, etc. to help them stay focused and alert at school.  We are looking forward to a special performance at the end of the month by Jay Mankita, a musician, who sings about eating healthy foods!

We have been working on measuring length in our Unit 9 Math in Focus lessons.  It has been a fun math unit to work on!

Fundations has been a terrific phonics program to pilot this year!  We are on Unit 9- closed and open syllables.  The children have been working hard to differentiate between the two to help them when they read.

Can't wait to meet with you next week and show you evidence of the growth that your child has made this second term!

With regards,
MaryAnne

 

Thank you for all your at home support with 100th day projects!  The day was quite special with all the fun activities and our classroom decorated with the many creative 100th day projects!  Our valentine's day party was another fun event!  Thanks for the yummy goodies!  The children are looking forward to tomorrow's end of the day popcorn movie party!  Have a wonderful vacation!

I am hoping everyone is staying warm on this chilly Monday!  Happy to see the sun out for awhile at least before the next snowstorm arrives this evening and into the morning.  We will see in the morning if it is necessary for a school delay.

I've been enjoying watching TV on a Monday morning with all that is happening in our nation's capital.  Hopefully, my students have watched a bit of President Obama's inauguration on this Martin Luther King Jr. holiday!  It is so rewarding to teach my students how lucky and fortunate they are to live in this great country of ours and what great heroes like Dr. King and others have done to shape and improve it.   I will be reading other biographies of famous Americans this year and encouraging them to try this genre of literature when they choose books to read.

I wanted to let you know that I have found using unifix cubes along with the Math In Focus Unit # 8 (Adding and Subtracting to 20) that we have been working on in the classroom, to be quite helpful.  If you feel it would be beneficial to send home some of these cubes (19  of one color, 10 of a different color) to help your child with homework, just jot me a note.  I have a lot of cubes left over from last year when we were using Math Trailblazers.  With additional practice at school and at home, the skill of adding 2-digit numbers with 1 digit numbers by making a 10 (i.e. 12 + 7 could be thought of as (10 + 2) + 7 ) and then having the children combine the ones so they will be able to add the equation 10 + 9 more easily.  Thus, having the children use cubes first, making 2 different color cube trains for 12 + 7 and then removing 2 from the 12 to make a ten and adding it to the the 7 will make it more concrete and less abstract.  Also, it may aide them in completing the homework as well. 

We are well into Term 2 and busily working in many different areas!  I will be sure to send out my newsletter in a timely manner at the end of the month elaborating on the different curricular areas covered this month!

Thanks for your continued support at home!

With regards,
MaryAnne

Greetings and salutations to one and all!  I am wishing all my friends and families a healthy, safe, new year!  I always enjoy my time off to recharge and relax a bit but do look forward to returning to school to see all my little friends!  It was a pleasure seeing them today and we are off and running with six months of school to go!  Hopefully, everyone will stay healthy and be in school for all the important grade 1 work we do each and every day! 

Please remember to send your child with snowpants, boots, hats, and gloves or mittens each day!  It was quite cold today and the children were outside for two recesses- 10:50 and 12:30.  I saw a lot of rosy cheeks when they came in and know how brisk it can be when the wind is whipping around the school yard!  I will be outside tomorrow for recess duty so I will be dressed like an Eskimo and will let the children know that they will be able to put a pom pom in our jar for smart kids who are dressed for the elements!  Hopefully, that will provide and incentive for remembering to wear warm winter attire!
 
I would like to alert you to a new activity that the children will be doing starting this month.  When the children bring home their weekend books, they will also be bringing home a reflection journal.  My goal for them is to help deepen their understanding of what they are reading to you.  If you could write down a question or two after they read their book to you, it will strengthen their comprehension skills.  I will give you some suggestions of questions to ask or you may pose your own.  Once again just a reminder, weekend books are due back on Monday.  Thanks for your at home support! 

Greetings to all!

I can't tell you how excited we were to receive the big yellow envelope from The White House!  Having the children write letters to President Obama advising him on what they hoped he would do this second term was very empowering!  Any time we can engage students with authentic writing experiences, whether it is a note to Grandma and Grandpa, or a get well card to a friend, we are teaching them the power of their words.  Encourage your child to help write the grocery list, make a to do chore list, make posters or signs for holiday gatherings, write letters to toy companies if dissatisfied with a product, etc.  Encourage them to do their neatest work to reinforce careful formation of letters for legibility!  Have them watch you write neatly serving as a model to them.  Insist they spell high frequency words correctly and to sound out/ or tap out the sounds to more difficult words.  We encourage writing independence at school but helping them learn to revise and edit their work is also important!  Happy writing!