Updated Supply List

If you are reading this you probably got my post card today saying that your child is in my class this year. YAY! Thank you for checking out my blog already! This will be a place for me to share important information, update you on the things we're doing here at school, or just share something awesome that I found!

The purpose of this post is to give you my personal supply list. Hopefully you aren't an overachiever parent (oh wait that wouldn't be so bad!) who already bought the supplies from the Merrill Road list. But if you have don't worry we can still use that stuff! You will just find that I took off some things that we don't need, and added a few things that we do need!

So if you can't wait until after Meet the Teacher on Friday (or if you can't come to that) here is a list of the supplies your child will need for First Grade! I will be passing out this same list on Friday to all who can make it!

Ms. Bowes First Grade Supply List

* 1 – backpack WITHOUT wheels
* 1 – box of tissues (needs to be restocked frequently)
* 1 – pencil box (labeled with name)
* 1 - 1 inch 3 ring binder (WHITE, with slip in front to add a cover)
* 1 box – 24 count "skinny" crayons (regular, no glitter, etc.)
* 8 – glue sticks (needs to be restocked frequently)
* 2 bottles – waterless hand sanitizer (needs to be restocked frequently)
* 1 box – Ziploc gallon bags --BOYS (please no Hefty brand zipper bags- These hardly hold our materials!)
* 1 box – Ziploc sandwich bags -- GIRLS
* 1 spiral notebook (wide ruled is the best for first graders!)
* 1 ream – white copy paper (needs to be restocked frequently)
* 1– yellow  paper 2-pocket folder with prongs
* 1- green paper 2-pocket folder with prongs
* 1- red paper 2-pocket folder with prongs
* 1- plastic 2-pocket folder with prongs in matching transportation color:
car rider/walker- orange ; extended day- green; bus/van - yellow

* Optional but highly recommended:  1 pair headphones (ear buds or regular) labeled with student’s name. (for individual use during computer time)- Walmart has a few $5.00 pairs, or you can find them at the Dollar Store!

* Please purchase plain-covered materials without designs or logos. Do not label your child's name on the folders or binder, I will take care of that :)

Additional items we will need but are not required:

* disinfecting wipes or spray (Clorox, Lysol, etc)
* tape (scotch, double sided or shipping tape)
* snacks (pretzels, crackers, goldfish etc.- avoid sweets and "junk food")
* address labels (Avery 5160)
* Expo board cleaner spray
* colored printer paper or stationary (for newsletter and reminders)
* sheet protectors
* Tempera paint

Small toys and games are always accepted for treasure box treats! Think of me next time you clean out your child’s room/toy box!

I hope to see you all on Friday at 2:15!

Back to School! Back to School!

Yup it's here! The night before school starts... for teachers at least, (the kiddies come back next Monday!)

As I finish up the school work for the night and settle in to enjoy my last evening of the summer, I am reflecting over the last 63 days of summer vacation. I definitely had a blast visiting my family in Pennsylvania and Ohio over the last few weeks. Here is my summer in review!

My brother David is off to college at Penn State next week. Here’s a picture of me with my brothers and sisters at his going away party up in my hometown of Latrobe PA. 

 

Two weeks later my sister Breanna got married in Pittsburgh. 

And now she’s packing up to move from Pittsburgh to Oklahoma City next week! Can’t wait for my first trip out there to visit their new place!

A week later my cousin Derek got married in Ohio. 

I was helping with the sound during the ceremony so I have an aerial view of the whole thing!

I'm so happy for my sister and cousin and I can't wait to plan more of my own wedding!!

In between all the weddings and family time I got to do some touristy things up north! 

Phipps Conservatory was absolutely gorgeous. 

The conservatory had thousands of flowers and plants for our viewing pleasure!

 

And I would love to spend more time at the Cathedral of Learning at Pitt campus. It looked like real life Hogwarts and had all these fun classrooms to explore. 

And best of all I got to relax this summer and enjoy the slow paced living in Ohio where I used to spend my summers. The landscape is breathtaking and the weather is amazing there in the summer! I was actually wishing I had jeans and a sweater at one point! 

One of my favorite summer past times is watching sporting events! I happened to catch a Pirates game..

 .. and you know summer is almost over when football season starts! I am so excited to watch the Jaguars play from this spot this year

and the Steelers from my TV so I can keep up with my home team!

My favorite part of summer is getting to hang out with my fiancé and sweet doggy Leigha! Here she is looking extra comfy on one of our lazy days!

All the reminiscing has put me in a good mood and a great mindset to start back to work tomorrow! I’m excited about going back and seeing all of my coworkers and hearing about their summer vacations!

Oh and in 8 days I get to meet my next class of first graders! Yay yay yayyy!

I hope you enjoyed my casual post since the next time you read it will probably be about school stuff instead of personal stuff.

Spring Give Away!

How is it that the days always seem to fly by when you're not working!? I had a great time being lazy this past week but I am excited for some hugs from my firsties tomorrow :)

Coming up this month we're talking comprehension strategies. Now that we're developing as readers, we are ready to slow down and think about our stories. We will do this with the help of the Reading Remote! Yes that's right, a remote! Each student will create one and use it during their reading time. I am so excited to teach students how to use their remotes to monitor their reading, clarify, make predictions, retell, infer, make connections and more! Here's a peek at the remote as it is now, I'm already thinking of changing around a few things!

I figured before we started talking about comprehension strategies I better make sure my parents know whats coming up! I made a Comprehension Strategy Guide that explains what each strategy is, and what it sounds like. I hope it's a useful tool for helping my students grow as readers! 

CLICK HERE to get your own copy of this handy guide!

Check back for Reading Remote updates!

Literacy Week Fun!

What a busy busy week!! We celebrated Literacy Week here at school and there were lots of activities going on! We had celebrity readers, story tellers and a school wide sleepover! I enjoyed having one of our parents read to the class and they did too!

In addition to all the fun activities that were planned we somehow managed to squeeze in some fun lessons! :)

Like using Scholastic Book orders to cut and sort fiction and non fiction books....  

We read the story Me on the Map from our textbooks, and created a cool diagram to represent where we live!

As we talked about shapes in math I got out the old geoboards and the kids loved making shapes with the rubber bands!

Make sure to check back next week because Monday is the 100th Day of school so you know we'll be having some fun with that!

Real Reading and MORE!

January has been a busy month since we've been back to school!

We've started talking about "Real Reading" and Metacognition.  We discuss how real readers stop and think about their books,they  make connections, predictions, and ask questions about what they read. We've made a "real reading salad" and practiced during independent reading.

Our spelling pattern was silent e for the last two weeks so we spent a lot of time noticing how the e on the end of words is silent, but it makes the vowel say its name! We  made these cute little baggies with the sneaky e guy.  Doesn't he look very sneaky!? hehehe. (borrowed this from http://firstgradewow.blogspot.com/2012/07/sneaky-e-is-back.html)

ANNNND we've been practicing for our upcoming PTA performance for the parents. Here's a silly picture I took last week during one of the practices!

Save the date! February 7th, 2013 at 6:30 in the cafeteria! 

Don't worry, we'll be up on the stage the night of the performance! :) 

Our annual canned food drive is starting in a few weeks, I went through my cabinets today and set aside a few items to donate. Our school has participated in the Souper Bowl of Caring canned food drive for the last several years, and we've always collected a HUGE amount of nonperishable items as a school. There's even a drawing for free Jags tickets for the school that collects the most items. Every 10 items donated is a chance at the drawing! I'm so proud to be part of such a kind and caring school. I hope I can encourage my class to collect at least 100 cans! More information will be sent home in the daily folders next week!!

9 more school days until the 100th day :) (Feb. 4th)

December Rewind!

December was a short month but boy did we do a lot in first grade!

Functional Writing is the best because we get to make crafts, tasty snacks, have lots of fun, then write about it! We made PB&J and S'mores. They used play-doh to make creations, and then of course all the Holiday crafts. I was too busy with the glitter and hot glue to snap pictures of the crafts but I hope the families enjoy our hard work and craftsmanship :) I did manage to get some pics of the food we prepared (go figure)...

We made all this, and wrote about each one, all while meeting CCSS Writing Standard 7!

While working on RL.1.1-1.3 we did a retelling of Jan Brett's The Mitten. Students used picture cards to retell the characters, setting, the events and the details. They placed each picture into a mitten-- brown paper bag ;) as they retold the story verbally. The details and vocabulary they used as they retold at their seats was amazing. Definitely a proud teacher moment <3 My favorite part is when bear sneezes and they get to dump out their bag :)

 

If you're wondering about the paint strips on the corners of the desks those are for students to monitor their thinking, and show me their level of understanding on any topic at any time. For example while reading a book I may ask students to show me their understanding of the plot. The dark color shows that the information is confusing and the student is struggling. In the middle is a lighter color which means it's becoming clear but I still don't understand. The lightest of the colors signifies their understanding is clear. I use this during math, writing, or even when I give a set of directions. It shows me quickly who needs help, while teaching students to self monitor. This is a good way to introduce rubrics to youngens! I got this idea from Comprehension Connections :)

The best part of December was our Holiday party. It was so great that all the families sent in items for us to have a feast on! I (and every single child!) appreciate all the donations to our party! The very next day we watched Polar Express and I made CREAMY hot chocolate in my crockpot. None of that powder stuff either!! I used milk, chocolate chips, vanilla and some other secret ingredients to make the "best hot chocolate EVER" as quoted from several of my kiddies :)

And I'd have to say my favorite thing of December was the "snowball" fight. Mrs. Berg and I wrote sight words on marshmallows and had our classes duke it out in a friendly contest! They got to toss the marshmallows at each other for a few minutes, then they had to pick one up and read the word on the marshmallow! SOOOO FUN!!! I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as your enjoying your Holiday Break! :)

Maybe.....one day I will get better at updating more often :)

Long Weekends

Are the best for Pinteresting :)

I hadn't had the time lately so it felt good to catch up!! Among Pinterest I spent the weekend cleaning, lesson planning and the hardest task of he weekend-- Taking care of a sick man!!

I found a ton of holiday ideas on Pinterest and I can't wait for secret Santa so I can put the pins to use!

I also found out I must get some dominos for class! I saw several math activities with dominos that I would like to do in class.

If you have a set of dominos you could donate to the class or even a set we could borrow we would be most grateful!

Heres one of the activities I want to do with them!



I hope everyone had a great long weekend and I am so thankful for all the veterans and military men and women who protect us every day! God Bless.