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.

Trick or Treat!

Today our regular lessons were replaced with Halloween themed lessons and it was a complete success. I had way more planned than what we got to but it was amazing :)

During Literacy Block we used our 5 senses to describe a pumpkin then used other adjectives to create our own pumpkin creations. I wish I would have taken a picture of all of them, their imaginations are incredible!

For Math we added two dice together and ate the candy from the answer on the mat. First player to eat all their candy wins... but I think everyone is a winner at this game!!

I think one of the funniest parts for me was "spooky" story time! I pulled down all the shades and turned off all the lights. After I give them a fright with my story, they got to use their flashlights to tell stories of their own.

Snack was amazing today, thanks to all the parents who sent in items for our Halloween Trail Mix :) It was a big hit!

Loved these Monster Cups for our juice! :)

{gotta remember to get the sticky back googly eyes next year!
Thank goodness I had a helper to glue the eyes on before snack time}

........and since I haven't posted yet this week, I have other pictures to share  :) 

Skills block yesterday--  CVC Spelling word segmenting and blending activity. 

Writer's workshop on Monday -- The Little Red Hen dialogue lesson. They represented dialogue in both pictures (speech bubbles) and in written form. (with macaroni quotation marks!). Love this lesson and love when they put dialogue in their stories :)

Today was a blast but I'm one tired teacher! I wonder who will last longer tonight.. my candy bowl or me?!

New Spelling Routine-- starts MONDAY

First off I want to say thank you, the first week of spelling homework was a success!! Most students completed all their assignments and it reflects in their test grade! You will get their test back in their Friday folder next week.

The turning in of spelling homework was kind of a mess, so I have decided to provide a spelling notebook to complete all written homework in. This will help cut down on making copies of the activity sheet, and also and the loose papers being turned in on Fridays. I apologize for not having these ready last week but I feel that it’s still early enough in the year to make the change.

Your child will still pick 4 activities each week, and complete one nightly from the activity sheet, but now all written work will be kept in one place all year. Please follow these guidelines to complete spelling homework each week:

1.       Turn to the first “empty” page in your journal.

2.     Pick your activity from Box 1. (the activity list has been glued to the inside front cover of the notebook)

3.     Find your spelling list in the back of your homework folder (same place as before)

4.     Write the date and the spelling list number at the top of your page.

5.     Complete spelling activity (use the back of the page if you need more room!)

6.     Have your parent initial somewhere on the page to show you did your best work. (Parents will initial the pages, NOT the activity page glued on the front of the notebook)

7.     Leave all spelling pages inside the notebook (DO NOT tear the pages out).

Repeat this two more times during the week. Please only do one activity per page, but you can use the backs of the pages for the next activity if they are “empty”. When you do your activity from box 2, simply write what you did at the bottom (or on the back) of one of your pages from this week and have your parents sign.

Bring your notebook in every Friday for the teacher to look over before the test.

I will be making the notebooks this weekend so they will be ready for next week’s spelling words. I will be explaining the new routine to the students on Monday and we’ll do a practice page so you can see what I am expecting for the spelling homework assignments.

Please contact me if you have any questions!

Red Ribbon Week and other Updates!

It's hard to believe it's only Tuesday and this week has been full of so many blessings so far!! We've been collecting non-perishable items for the local food shelter and for a little extra encouragement I promised a trip to the treasure box for each set of 10 cans a student brings!! We have about 12 items so far so please help us help out the less fortunate in our neighborhood! Items may be sent in up until Friday.

Now on to the good stuff :)

PTA started Student of the Week so we have our first shining star :)

It's Red Ribbon week so we're having dress up themes each day this week, yesterday was hat day!! I forgot to take a picture of the slippers today :( Tomorrow is Team Spirit Day!

These girls just made my day with their enthusiasm for our rhyming game today! They crack me up :)

And to wrap it up we had 4 students move up to PURPLE today for being Role Models!! 3 of them moved up for impressing the cafeteria staff and one for their hallway behavior. Purple is NOT easy to get, so I was MOST impressed today!!! And look everyone else is on GREEN :):):)

Feeling SO blessed today, looking forward to the rest of the week!!

Weekly update!

This week was full of some of my favorite lessons! An introduction to schema, and using descriptive words in our narrative writing.

Schema is your feelings, experiences, thoughts, and opinions, it's your background knowledge. During Reading this week student's learned how we use our schema to help us feel and understand when we read.
We made a schema backpack for our Reader's Resource Guide.

After a lesson about descriptive words we made a web of describing words that we can use in our writing.

We have been adding to the web every day when I spot descriptive words in their writing. I'll have to post an updated picture next week!!

I hope you saw the note in your child's folder about Red Ribbon Week! Students are encouraged to participate in the dress up days next week.

Enjoy your weekend!

Making Connections

Reader's Workshop was about connections today. I've already accepted that we're going to have to cut back on the connection lessons (there are so many good ones!) since making connections isn't in our new Common Core Standards. BUT it's so important for children to think about and talk about books! Encouraging your child to share their reading connections helps them understand what is happening, relate to the character, and make predictions. The story (aka text) should be the "heart" of their connection, always referring back to it in their connection.

I posted a few pictures at the bottle, one of our chart and a two "action" shots of work time today. We read the story A Day at School (there was NO CHANCE someone couldn't connect to this story!) and filled in the response sheet!

Great pictures right!? No I didn't get the new iPhone... (sigh) I just brought in my iPad. The purpose for bringing it today was to start reading our new read aloud story, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum. I scored this book for free from iBooks :)

I loved that I could project my iPad screen up on the whiteboard so students can follow along as I read :)

We also had a chance to listen to an interactive app/book with Grover called "The Monster at the End of this Book" I bet your child can retell that story to you!!! -- The book was free app from codes at Starbucks :) LOVE freebies!!

**** Here's a chance for your child to get a freebie from ME!! ****

If your child retold the story "The Monster at the End of this Book" to you, please leave a quick note in their daily folder saying that they told you about the story and they will earn a special treat :)

It sure would be nice to have iPads for all the kids... they get so excited when they see me bring that thing out!! One day right??

Blessed

Last week has me feeling blessed in so many ways! Wal-Mart donated 20 $50 gift cards to our teachers as part of their new Teacher Reward program. I was lucky enough to get one of those cards and I registered our class on their website. It allowed me to make a supply list and a wish list for our class. You can find it by going to classrooms.walmart.com Then you search for Merrill Road Elementary and then you'll see my classroom listed. :)

Another positive for the week was my nomination for Teacher of the Year. I feel so honored to be recognized along with the other nominees, whom I personally look up to and am inspired by each day! I truly work with the most amazing group of ladies!! I know we all deserve the title so good luck to you all!!

I did come down with a slight sinus infection on Thursday so I went to the doctor right away and I got to feeling better quickly. I'm glad I didn't wait I've had the weekend to recover and I'm feeling great. I just hope my students can say the same. We had quite a few students out last week and a few feeling sick. It's always a good idea loading up on the vitamin C around this time of year!!

I had time this weekend to go through some old mail and (sadly) I found that both my subscriptions to National Geographic Kids and National Geographic Little Kids have ended. Each magazine is about $15 dollars for a subscription and it's a great way for kids to read engaging informational text. I recommend these magazines for every first grader!!

On the plus side I've found that National Geographic Young Explorer (which is a bit more expensive) actually has a bunch of their issues available online at http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngyoungexplorer/

The magazine with read the issue to the students or they may read it on their own which I love. I know what the kiddies will be doing during computer lab/centers this week :)

I have one picture to share from flag raising. Unfortunately I cracked the back of my phone resulting in horrible picture quality, but I hope to be getting the new iPhone soon so I'll be able to post pictures more frequently!


Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Lucy, Lucy, Lucy!!

I just got back from the TEACH conference that was held in downtown Jacksonville today and I am walking on cloud nine right now! First of all I was with a great group of girls that I work with and it was a huge event so of course tons of other amazing teachers I've met along my journey were there! To start the morning the first key note speaker was Lucy Calkins. We use her Units of Study for Primary Writing as a part of our writing curriculum and it's amazing!!! It was so inspirational to hear her speak about the newly adapted (in FL at least) Common Core Standards. I was honored to get a picture and have her sign my book!

Too bad it turned out blurry...

After two short break out sessions and lunch it was time for our next keynote speaker. Brad Cohen came out and gave a touching, inspirational, motivational, hilariously funny speech. I can't even put into words how amazing it was to hear him speak :)

It really has been a motivational and inspirational day and I can't wait to get back to school on Monday and do what I do best :) 

The Beginning

It is offically the end of the first week of the school year and I have to say, I would be happy if every week was like this one! Okay maybe a little less chaotic, but we all survived! I feel in love with all TWENTY of my students this week and I've just begun getting to know each one of them :) Some of the other classes have a lot lower numbers than our class, so I have a feeling I will have atleast one student moved to another class sometime next week. That's always hard but it's better in the long run! Twenty is just too many and we're having trouble fitting in the classroom!  =/

I spent a few hours up at school organizing my closet, it's finally functional yay!! I feel so much better now!!!

The rest of the weekend is for relaxing, seeing some amazing friends, and a little school work of course! Here's a peek at my new testing offices:

Taller than my old ones and I added motivational stickers to them :)

Thank you to all the parents for providing all the supplies and helping your children get into our first grade routine. I am excited to get the year rolling and get into our groove!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Supply List

Good Evening! If your just joining me for the first time I hope that means you got my postcard today! My name is Kayla Bowes and I will be your child's first grade teacher!

I have spent the last two days organizing and setting everything up in my classroom and I have discovered one thing: I have an overload of supplies!! This year moved into a new classroom that had a lot of things left behind by the departing teacher. Thanks to her I have been able to scale down my supply list for this fall. It works for your wallet and helps with my storage space!

Additional supplies may need to be restocked later in the year. I will communicate that on the monthly newsletter you will find in your child's daily folder throughout the school year. The items listed below are the only ones we will need at this time!

Ms. Bowes
First Grade Supply List 2012

* 1 – backpack WITHOUT wheels
* 1 – pencil box labeled with name
* 1 - 1 inch 3 ring binder
* 1 box – 24 count "skinny" crayons (regular, no glitter, etc.)
* 8 – glue sticks (Staples has a 10 pack of Elmer's purple sticks for $5 until Saturday 8/18)
* 2 bottles – waterless hand sanitizer (needs to be restocked frequently)
* 1 box – Ziploc gallon bags (boys)
* 1 box – Ziploc sandwich bags (girls)
* 1 ream – white copy paper (needs to be restocked frequently)
* 1– green 2-pocket folder with prongs
* 1- blue 2-pocket folder with prongs
* 1- red 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 on computers in the computer lab and in the classroom)

Clear front will allow a personalized title page!

Green, orange or yellow

green, red, and blue

* Please purchase plain-covered materials without designs or logos. Do not labeling 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 and/or spray (Clorox, Lysol, etc)
* tape (scotch, double sided or shipping tape)
* snacks for the class (pretzels, crackers, goldfish etc.- avoid sweets and "junk food")* address labels (Avery 5160)
* Expo Writing Practice board (dotted line white board)
* dry erase crayons
* colored printer paper or stationary (for newsletter and reminders)

Thank you for the support I am looking forward to a great school year! Hope to see you on Friday, if not Open House is September 13th at 6:30PM!

I will update later this week as I get schedules and information about the school year...maybe even some pictures!?! Leave me a comment if you like what you see :)

REALLY!?

Wow has it really been 5 months since my last post? I am ashamed of myself!! We all know how busy the end of the school year gets but I MUST get better at this! My new school year resolution is to keep my blog up to date!!! My students loved updating it with me I have to do that more often!!

It has been a busy summer. School really is my home away from home! Thankfully I could get into my classroom all summer because I had so much to do after moving rooms at the end of the year. Yup that's right you can find me in Room 64 this year!! I am so blessed that the parting teacher left me a room full of goodies and I am SO ready to put it to use! It was exhausting going through all of the stuff she left before I could move my own stuff in but I have most of it where I want it and the rest will find it's place soon!

In between unpacking I found time to make some new stuff courtesy of PINTEREST! I will have to snap some pictures next week during planning week and share :)

But before planning week is one last weekend of summer!!I'll be making the most of it :)

I hope you all have a great weekend and check back next week for pictures from my classroom!

Spring Break!!

It's not often that I have nothing to do for a whole week so I am enjoying every moment of this spring break. I will say I did miss teaching after just a few days out in the sun. So I took Leigha up to the classroom and taught her a thing or two...

 She listened to a lesson on the carpet... following all 5 carpet rules may I add...

...a little computer time to play on Compass Odyssey...

 ... independent reading in the library...

...and lastly, finding numbers on the number line!

We had a great day at school, and I rewarded her with a trip to the beach afterwards. :)

Enjoy your week friends!