Wrapping Up a Great Year!

On Wednesday afternoon, Lily popped our final balloon!

It seems like just yesterday our room had 20 balloons hanging from the ceiling and then we were down to #1! #1 revealed another one of our favorites..... a dance party!

Our last day was SO bittersweet.  We started it, just like we start nearly every morning...... with a song.

Next, our families joined us for Meeting for Worship where we listened to the story, What do You do With an Idea?

We also enjoyed a reception with our families, friends, and teachers!

After lunch and music, we enjoyed some Afghani ice cream (vanilla ice cream with cardamom and rose water) made by Mrs. Etemadi-Cusic.  Most of us really enjoyed this special treat.  Then we headed back to our classroom where we listened to the story, Last Day Blues.  In the story, the students want to make a special gift for their teacher and come up with the idea of a special letter.  Reading this story to 1A made me a little sad, but just after the story, I was quickly cheered up!

Many of our 1A students hid themselves in the cubby area and created a very special note for me just like the kids in the story did! 

We ended our day with some dancing, some tears, and LOTS of hugs!  

Parents, thank you so much for sharing your children with me.  They are such great kids, with huge hearts, and amazing personalities.  They will always be in my thoughts and I hope you keep in touch as I'd love to hear about how they are doing. You and your family are always welcome to stay with us in Colorado should your travels ever take you that way.

1A friends, thank you for making this last year such a memorable one.  We grew, we learned, and we had a lot of fun!  I hope you always look back on your first grade year with fondness and I hope you keep in touch too (if you click on the envelope to the right, your message will get delivered right to my email).  Good luck to all of you! I'll miss you!

Have a wonderful summer!

A Mystery from Down Under

We were super excited to reveal another set of Mystery Reader clues this past week.  The students in 1A are getting good at figuring these mysteries out!  Here were our clues:

• I have one son and one daughter.
• My birthday is in February.
• My favorite food is hamburgers.
• I really like watching and playing soccer.
• I am from New Zealand.  

That last clue sealed it FOR SURE and Lily and her classmates knew without a doubt that our Mystery Reader was her Dad, Mr. A!  

Mr. A shared a book from his childhood, that he's also shared with Lily and her brother, titled Miss Twiggley's Tree by Dorothea Warren Fox.  This book might be one that I share in Meeting for Worship coming up soon as it's filled with excellent messages that connect beautifully to Quakerism.  

After reading the story, Mr. A taught us a little about his country, New Zealand.  We learned some of the important facts and how to count to ten in Maori, one of the official languages of New Zealand.   

We also learned about their national symbol- The Kiwi Bird!

We even got to make a Kiwi Bird of our very own.  I'm convinced Mr. A would make an excellent teacher as organized as he was with our supplies!

Our finished birds:

It was another wonderful Mystery Reader Visit!  Thank you, Mr. A!

First graders, did you name your Kiwi?  Post a comment to share with all of us to tell us your Kiwi's name or your favorite part of this Mystery Reader visit.  

It's December!

It was a delightful December PLUSS Day!   We started our day with an all  Lower School Meeting For Worship.  Mrs. Derengowski, our Lower School Assistant Principal, read the book The World Belongs to You by Riccardo Bozzi.

Next we gathered in our classroom for a day of just being together!  1A students played many different games together and enjoyed each other's company.  

This was quite the game of Nintendo Monopoly!...... It could have gone on for hours longer!

Our day wrapped up with an all Lower School DEAR (Drop Everything and Read!) time!  We all grabbed a good book or two and found a cozy spot to read.

Some of us even curled up by the "fire!"

During closing circle we all agreed we should have more PLUSS Days just like this!  It was such a nice day together!  

First graders, what was your favorite part of our December PLUSS Day?  Please post a comment to share with all of us.

MFW And A Trip!

Yesterday, first grade visited the Meeting House for the first time.  In an effort to ease into it, our first visit in first grade consists of a period of reflection outside.  The children found a good spot, observed the exterior of the meeting house, and created a sketch.  Here's a few collages of our time (Sophia was absent and the photo of Max didn't turn out- sorry):

Several students said this was their highlight of the day yesterday!  I enjoyed it too.  Later this week we will go inside the Meeting House.  Beginning in October, parents are welcome to join us for Meeting For Worship during our first visit of the month.  Stay tuned to the FSB website for these dates coming soon.  

Today we took our first LS trip of the year.  After collecting soap, toothpaste, and deodorant, we gathered our donations and headed to CARES, a food pantry in our community.  

 

We just talked about bucket filling earlier in the day and knowing we helped someone else, helped to fill our own bucket.  Here are our totals: 53 bars of soap 2 liquid hand soap 22 tubes of toothpaste 18 deodorant 2 toothbrushes WAY TO GO 1A!! Parents, I hope you're having a great week.  I look forward to seeing you on Thursday evening for Back to School Night beginning at 7:00.  If you'd like to order books from Scholastic, please get your orders in by the end of the day on Wednesday.  Click here to place your order: First graders, post about a way you filled someone's bucket this week (other than donating to CARES)!