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!

Cat in the Hat!

The Cat in the Hat came out of storage today :) The kids LOVED getting their pictures taken next to Cat!

We read the The Cat in the Hat and The Cat in the Hat Came Back and compared the two using our nifty hula hoop venn diagram.

Leap day was exhausting... glad it won't be back for four years! :)