Dear TES Families,
I hope this newsletter finds you well as we welcome the first signs of Spring. The daffodils are blooming, the birds are chirping, and the grass is getting greener! It's hard to believe we're already wrapping up March and heading into the final stretch of our school year.
This month has been filled with exciting learning opportunities and memorable moments for our students and staff. We have had several field trips and capstone projects to highlight student work. Please read below for all the exciting details of the great things your children are doing here at TES!
Lisa Moore
Principal
Please note: The Last Day of School is now June 13th
Lego Letters and Counting with Ten Frames
Preschool has been so lucky in March. They had a leprechaun visit the classroom and leave gold coins. Of course the leprechaun was enticed with students' traps and lucky charm string rainbows placed all over the room. Students have enjoyed learning letters with legos. Building lego letters has been a weekly occurrence in preschool. Students have also enjoyed using ten frames to count manipulatives. Preschool students can count to 100!
- Mrs. Kovalsky
Sun, Moon, and Earth...A Solarbration!
During the month of March, First Grade had fun learning all about the Sun, Moon, and Earth! Students visited the RVCC planetarium, and spent each evening observing the night sky. Students tracked the moon phases in a Moon Journal. We wrote similes about the full moon. We finished off this unit of study with our First Grade Solarbration. Families were invited to school to see us perform songs and a reader's theater. The first graders were able to showcase all they have learned and how well they are reading.
TEF sponsored Circus Minimus Residency April 7-11
with a parent performance on Friday, April 11th, at 9:00 AM
- Mrs. Barnes, Mrs. Chapman, Mrs. Hall, and Mrs. Saksa
Reading, Flat Stanley's Adventures, and Learning about Landforms
Second grade kicked off March with the school wide Read Across America events! We read books with partners, in our dens, shared our favorites, and some of us even got to make “Oobleck” at the after school Suessabration! It was a great way to share our love of reading. Second Graders continue to be busy with their Flat Stanley project. Each classroom is getting postcards from all over the world. With each post card, students learn some facts about that place, and use globes, maps, or Google Earth to find where it is located. Our thanks to all our families’ relatives and friends who are participating in this project. Getting these postcards is a highlight of the day!
A new activity added this year was a virtual lesson to enhance our Landforms unit. Park Ranger Rob from the Homestead National Historic Park in southeast Nebraska certainly had the students’ attention as he shared photos and information about the Great Plains. A favorite part was learning about wildlife found in the plains, and then seeing animal skulls. Our students did a great job identifying animals and answering questions asked of them. It felt like we all took a quick trip to Nebraska! Second Graders are hard at work preparing for their April Capstone Project - a Poetry Cafe in their classrooms on April 15th.
Poetry Cafe on April 15th - Parents are invited to visit their children's classrooms to hear Poetry Readings and read poems on display, written by our young poets. "Bee our Guest" invites have been sent home in backpacks - 9:00 for 2N and 2S/B, and 10:30 for 2B.
- Mrs. Barnes, Mrs. Bristow, Mrs. Nugent, and Mr. Strange
Push and Pull
Third Grade is on the move! Both our science and social studies units involved movement. In science we experimented with balanced and unbalanced forces, gravity and magnets. The students cleverly found uses for magnets to push and pull things. In social studies we looked at movement through the lens of immigration. The vocabulary words push and pull took on a whole new meaning as we studied the factors that pushed people from their homeland and pulled them to America, especially during the big waves of immigration during the Industrial Period. Learning about Ellis Island and the journey to America is fascinating to both the students and teachers! Additionally, we had our Capstone Project Publishing Party for our informational writing unit. The third grade teachers appreciate you celebrating these wonderful writers with us!
- Mrs. Emge, Mr. Frankoski, Mrs. Kouzis, and Mrs. Nichols
Art in Our Schools...and the Tewksbury Library
Come and celebrate artists in your school on display at the Tewksbury Library and see a variety of art from the Tewksbury School District in Grades K-8th!
Thank you for your continued donations (bubble wrap, packing materials, newspaper, Amazon mailers) to send home ceramics safely. We continue to need more and welcome additional supplies as the whole school will be working on ceramics in Art.
Preschool is getting ready for Spring by using a variety of interesting scissors, and practicing lots of fine motor skills, to create a grass and flower paper collage. Kindergarten and First Grade students just learned about the amazing abstract artist, Wassily Kandinsky, and read the great story titled, "The Noisy Paintbox" . The students also did lots of cutting, gluing, and tracing by creating concentric circles, and repeating small, medium and large skills. Second Graders are finishing their coil pots and glazing them very carefully. I'm so very proud of my Third Grade artists because they have just completed an awesome job with a Pop Art inspired Onomatopoeia Projects. These students layered printmaking, ben day dots (see photos below), and cut out and collaged these word bubble shapes that fit within one another to create a 3D masterpiece! What is a ben day dot you ask? Ben Day dots are of equal size and distribution across a specific area, and are commonly applied to line art or graphic designs. Fourth Graders also finished glazing and wrapping their ceramics and now we begin a moving up day T shirt contest!
- Mrs. Pecora
Celebrating Books and Biographies
We kicked off March with Read Across America Week, our school-wide celebration of books and reading! It was wonderful to see our students and families so excited about reading! Our younger students have been learning about the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award. The Geisel Award winners are engaging books that are perfect for beginner readers. With our 3rd and 4th grade students, we have been focusing on biographies.
This biography unit, which incorporates listening, engaging discussion, and notetaking will continue through April. The Surprise Books that the older students worked on have been hugely popular with our younger readers! It is wonderful to see how our students inspire each other to read and engage with books!
- Ms. Rose-Mason
¿Te gusta el brócoli?
Kindergarteners practiced sharing their opinions about foods they like and dislike with a song called "¿Te gusta el brócoli?" which is easy to find on YouTube. First Graders are creating collaborative characters with "El Laboratorio de la Imaginacion" a fun Spanish program. Second Graders learned all the rooms in our school in Spanish and worked as teams of architects to design "La Escuela Perfecta", their imaginary dream school. Students in Third Grade finished up the Mi Casa/My House unit by making foldable houses. Fourth Grade students finished up the La Ropa/Clothing unit with some dramatic and hilarious skits taking place in a clothing store. That is pictured (left).
Also, this is a reminder that all families have access to the songs and games on Rockalingua to practice Spanish vocabulary at home! It is a great website and kids love to play the games but I prefer not to spend precious class time on screens. Log in with username and password: holatewks.
- Senora Obercian
Ozobots
This month, students in Kindergarten through Grade 3 explored the world of robotics with OZOBOT! They discovered how to code and control these tiny robots through hands-on learning, sparking creativity and problem-solving skills. By mastering the art of color-coded commands, they made OZOBOT move, dance, and navigate obstacles. In addition, Kindergarten and First Grade students practiced their engineering skills by using the KEVA planks and learned how to think like an engineer.
In the upper grades we have been learning the features on the google toolbar. We are learning how to organize our documents in Google Drive. Third Grade student have been learning Google slides and how to be creative when making a presentation. Second Graders did an amazing job of typing their poetry poems up for a book. Grade 4 students have moved on to learn about the graphic art design program called CANVA. We are making posters to beautify the school hallways. Things are busy here in Technology class.
- Ms. Rinehart Havens
Getting Ready for the Big Day and Enjoying March Musical Madness
March has been a busy and exciting month in music class! Our students have been working hard and making great progress as we prepare for our upcoming concert.
🎼 3rd Grade – Recorder Karate Champions!
Our 3rd graders have been showing off their recorder skills as they earn karate belts for each song they master. Right now, we are working on the blue belt song, and everyone has been practicing hard to reach the next level! Keep up the great work, 3rd graders!
🎺 4th Grade – Concert Prep in Full Swing!
The 4th graders received their band instruments this month and have been working hard to get ready for the concert. From flutes to trombones, they are learning how to play their new instruments and working together to perform as a group. It’s exciting to hear their progress each week!
🏆 Music Genre March Madness!
The entire school has been participating in our Music Genre March Madness Bracket! Each class voted on their favorite music styles, and after some close matchups, the most popular genres in our school were Metal, Rock, Pop, and EDM! It was fun to listen to different styles of music and see which ones were the most loved by our students.
Great job to everyone for a fantastic month of music! Keep practicing, and we can’t wait to hear all of your hard work at the concert! 🎶👏
Spring Concerts
May 2
Grades K through 2 9:00 AM
Grades 3 and 4 9:45 AM
- Mr. Shaffer
Fourth Grade Service Learning Projects
Throughout the school year , you may have noticed you receive some notices for different benefit drives. In the Fall we collected pajamas and we just finished a canned food drive. What you may not be aware of is that each of our fourth grade classes choose and organize one of these activities. It is a great opportunity for our students to both demonstrate leadership and put their classroom/academic skills into real world work.The students are responsible for writing the school letter, visiting classrooms, making posters and then organizing the collections. It's always special when we make the final donation and they are able to see the results of their efforts. Thanks to all families who support their causes and to our fourth grade students for their hard work. Be on the look out for one last project.
- Sheila Donovan, MSW
School Counselor
Spring Allergy Season: How to Help Your Child Stay Comfortable
Spring is a beautiful season, but for many children, it also brings sneezing, itchy eyes, and runny noses. As trees and flowers bloom, pollen fills the air, triggering seasonal allergies. To help your child feel their best, try these simple tips:
Check the pollen forecast – On high-pollen days, keep windows closed and encourage indoor play.
Rinse away allergens – Washing hands, changing clothes, and taking a bath after outdoor play can help remove pollen.
Try a nasal rinse – A gentle saline spray or nasal wash can help clear pollen from nasal passages and ease congestion.
Manage symptoms – If your child has allergies, talk to their doctor about safe options like antihistamines or nasal sprays.
Stay hydrated – Drinking plenty of water can help soothe dry, irritated throats.
If your child has severe allergy symptoms, let their teacher and school nurse know so we can help! Here’s to a happy, healthy spring!
- Nancy Auld-Morogiello RN, BSN, CSN-NJ
Tewksbury Elementary School Nurse
908-832-2594 x2011
Maschio's Food Service
Maschio's Food Services, Inc. is the contracted lunch provider at TES. See the following links for more information about the lunch service provided by Maschio's as well as PaySchools, our point of sale service system. You can find their menu on our school website at the following link:
https://tewksburyschools.nutrislice.com/menu/tewksbury-elementary/lunch