Glad to meet you!

Hello new friends! I am so excited to begin our year together! I would like into introduce you to myself and my family. My name is Miss Megan Bates and I am joining Coulson Tough after 4 years teaching in the Fort Worth area. I graduated from TCU and stayed in the area to teach after college. We have recently moved to The Woodlands to be closer to my parents and my three younger brothers. I enjoy playing and watching sports (especially college football) and doing all sorts of art projects. I am thrilled to be joining Coulson Tough this year!

I am the proud mom to Cooper, who is 2. He is full of life and energy and he can always make me smile! He loves dogs, dirt, and daredevil stunts... such a boy! Cooper has recently become a part of my "forever family" through the miracle of adoption. He came to me when he was 7 months old as my foster child and has been a part of the family ever since. I have been a foster parent for several years, but I look forward to a break from fostering as we work through some of Cooper's special needs. He has been diagnosed with a condition on the autism spectrum as well as a genetic condition that causes some medical problems. Through it all, Cooper is such a blessing!!

I'm lucky to have a closely-knit family. My parents haved lived in The Woodlands for 8 years and they enjoy playing golf and riding bikes together. Two of my brothers, Adam and Jon, ( identical twins!) live in Florida and my youngest brother Colin is a senior at Texas A&M University (Whoop!) My nephew Hudson is 4 and he is such a blessing and a wonderful playmate for Cooper.

I look forward to getting to know your family as well!

Our Daily Schedule

7:50-8:10 Block #1 Warm-ups

8:10-8:15 CTUF Announcements

8:15-10:15 Block #1 Instruction

10:15-10:35 Block #2 Warm-ups

10:35-11:25 Specials (Art, P.E., Music)

11:25-11:35 Restroom/Water Break

11:35-12:05 Lunch

12:05-12:35 Recess and DEAR time

12:35-2:35 Block #2 Instruction

2:35-2:55 Class Meeting

2:55-3:00 Pack-up and dismissal

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!