A New Adventure

Dear Students and Families,

We had a wonderful year together! I am proud to have taught you and learned with you this year. You worked hard and I saw you grow a lot! I hope that you are proud of yourselves as well. I can hardly believe that you will be fourth graders in a few short months - it will be a new adventure! Rest well this summer and enjoy the time you have with your family. Remember to read often and never stop learning!

As you all know, I will also be beginning a new adventure next year. I will be teaching 3rd grade at Coulson Tough School in The Woodlands, a city north of Houston. I decided to make the move in order to be closer to my family, who live in Houston as well. It is sad for me to leave my Gator family! I have LOVED being a part of Hargrave for the past 4 years and watching the kids grow up before my eyes. What an incredible blessing!

I'll continue to post on this website for my new classroom, so you are always welcome to take a look if you're interested in what I'm up to next year! Please also keep me updated on your families as well - I would love your emails and phone calls!

Thank you for a wonderful year and meaningful friendships with you all. I will miss you like crazy!

Much love,

Miss Bates : )

Faster than a speeding bullet...

The Bates Bullets - Field Day 2008

As a child, Field Day was one of the highlights of the entire year. I was blessed to have teachers who understood how much the students looked forward to this event and made it a big deal. I wanted to do the same for my kids! We went all out - - - tie dying t-shirts, practicing team cheers, making signs - we had a blast! We went outside a little early to cheer for the purple teams from 1st and 2nd grade. GO PURPLE!

I decided to paint the kids' faces to show team spirit. However, the kids were in charge of the design. They worked together to come up with an idea for me to paint. Jeffrey suggested that we paint the girls' faces to say "Bates" and the boys faces to say "Bullets" so that we could be a walking billboard for our team. Arianna gave the idea to paint each in a different color. Great thinking!
Here they are... Looks awesome!


Our first events were the 50 meter dash and 50 meter relay. Our team ran like the wind! I was proud of how each kid did their best and worked as a team.

Here is our girls relay team, ready to race!
I was so very proud of the way the kids encouraged one another. Earlier in the day, we brainstormed words and phrases we could use to cheer for our team. I was glad to hear kids shouting phrases like "You rock!" and "Muy bien, amigo!" Me and my buddy, Mrs. Eldredge
Field Day events this year included a three-legged race and a individual sack race. Both were hysterical to watch! : )

Most years, I spend Field Day organizing the athletes and directing students to their events. It can be stressful with 25 kids to organize! This year, I got smart and decided to delegate my jobs to students. I had one kid who held the all-important list of events and athletes and he/she appointed an assistant to carry the list when needed. This team of kids ran the show! I was so impressed by their responsibility as well as their leadership abilities. The students were responsible for helping each other find their events and organize our team. WOW!

Go Bates Bullets! This is us doing our team cheer:

Deep in the heart of the Hargrave jungle,

You can hear the Bates team rumble:

Go purple

Go purple

Go purple

GO!

Tug-of-War...
We won!!!
What an awesome Field Day!

Cleaning Squads

I believe every child (and teacher!) should participate in keeping the classroom running successfully. In our classroom, that means that periodically we take time to organize and straighten up the room. I call this time a "power clean". When I was younger, I worked as a nanny for a wonderful family who "power cleaned" every Saturday morning. As I spent time in their home with their 4 young chlidren, I realized that the children took ownership in their home and their things and it gave them pride to help take care of them. I adapted the power clean philosophy for our classroom by assigning rotating jobs to the students for our weekly clean up. I've used cleaning squads in my room for several years and I've noticed that our room actually stays cleaner throughout the week when students know they will later be responsible for organizing our things! They take pride in having the cleanest and most organized classroom in Gator Country!

Our cleaning squads work board shows which squad the children are assigned to for that week. We have 8 squads (although only 5 are pictured here) and 3-4 children work together on their assigned task.

One of the favorite jobs is organizing the word wall. The kids not only straighten the magnetic words, but they also put them in alphabetical order!

(I think one of their favorite parts of this job is standing up on a miniature stool!)

Kids use "sweepers" to bless our custodial staff by picking up larger pieces of trash that will clog their vacuum cleaners. It is also a favorite cleaning squad!

Our classroom library is organized by genre and theme, but often books get "lost" and need to be placed back with their genre families. One of our cleaning squads helps the books find their homes again. I'm so blessed to have students who are willing helpers and eager to keep our classroom neat and tidy!

How To Eat Fried Worms

Have you ever tried eating worms? As we read Thomas Rockwell's How To Eat Fried Worms about four boys who dare each other to eat 15 worms, I decided to put the kids up to a challenge of my own. Who will be brave enough to try just one tiny worm?

Strangely enough, we had a lot of volunteers!
Even more strangely, both of our volunteers were girls... both were extremely brave and ate the worms without flinching!
As you can tell, I wasn't one of the girls who agreed to eat a worm!
Both girls lived to tell about their hair-raising experience with our novel study!
Now did you think I would actually let my precious 3rd graders eat worms?! Gotcha! These "worms" were actually tootsie rolls dipped in dark brown sugar. When the girls spilled the secret that the worms were quite tasty, everyone decided it was safe to try one. Yummy!



Now that we've all eaten worms, we can identify with the main characters of the story and we're even more interested in what happens in the plot. How To Eat Worms Cookbook coming soon!

New Teams!

Each six weeks, we change our desk arrangements and I allow the students to select their new tablemates. Although many teachers would say this is crazy and kids will choose to sit next to their friends and cause great commotion, I believe strongly in allowing students the choice in whom they work with. We do a lot of cooperative learning in our classroom, and I think it is important to have many different groupings of students. As much as possible, I allow students to select their groups and partners because I know that working with friends can teach students a lot. Often times, students learn a lot about themselves when they are allowed to select where they sit and whom they work with. Brandon may always choose to sit near the front of the room so he can see the board, while Diego may want to sit next to his best friend. It is quite interesting, however, to listen to the kids think aloud about where they should seat themselves. They often vocalize how they need to sit next to someone who is a positive influence or someone who stays on task. David may say "I don't think I should sit next to so-and-so because we talk alot". Qualandra may say "I work really well with so-and-so and I liked sitting near them last time." I think how to select teammates is an important skill to teach children. In doing so, they come to understand their strengths and needs as cooperative learners.

Each six weeks we vote on a "theme" from which our team names are created. This time we voted to choose names that are "imaginary places". What creative children I have! This team is "Take-N-Bake World"
This is Gold World
This is Candy Land
This is Money Island
This is Super Town

Our favorite part of working in teams is earning points together. Each team can earn points by staying on task, working quietly, cooperating with one another, using kind words and polite manners, following directions quickly, or finishing assignments with excellence. The points are displayed on the white board and on Friday the winning team is awarded a special prize.I am always proud of my students when they help each other and learn together!