All About Mrs. Gault and Supply List

ALL ABOUT MRS. GAULT

 

I am so blessed to be at an AMAZING school like Oakland Elementary! This is my 5th year teaching at Oakland and I have  enjoyed every moment! I attended the University of South Carolina where I received a Bachelor's Degree in Elementary Education and I finished my Master's Degree in General Education this summer at Anderson University. I grew up and went to school in the Boiling Springs community. I married the love of my life in December 2012 and we reside in the Boiling Springs area. 

On September 16, 2013 we added a NEW and BEAUTIFUL addition to our family; a beautiful baby girl named Harper Klae. Harper is the most precious gift we've ever been given. God chose to entrust this precious, hilarious, independent, rough-and-tumble girl into our care and it has been the best blessing ever.  I love EVERYTHING about my job, especially the wonderful 4th graders I get to spend time and work with each day! 

This will be my first year teaching all girls and I am super excited! I can't wait to prove to every girl that they are truly something special and they can follow their dreams and their hearts to reach any goal they want to pursue! I will never forget a couple of women who inspired me when I was a little girl.......Amelia Earhart when she decided that she wanted to be a pilot and Sally Ride when she was told she couldn't be an astronaut but guess what?? She was the first female astronaut! These two super women followed their dreams, they did not listen to the crowd telling them they couldn't. You can too! 

“If you are always trying to be normal, you’ll never know how amazing you can be.” – Maya Angelou

A Few FACTS About Mrs. Gault:

* She loves her family more than anything! 

 
* She LOVES football, especially the GAMECOCKS!!! 


* She loves to read, especially at the beach during summer! 

* Her favorite food is chocolate chip pizza from Pizza Inn..YUM!!

* Her favorite snack is ANYTHING sour...especially Sour Patch Kids...YUM!!! 

*She enjoys reading books by Patricia Polacco to her 4th graders and books by 
Jodi Picoult and Kristin Hannah to herself.

What are you reading right now?? 

At this moment, I am sitting in the hot, scorching, blistering sun watching Harper play while reading The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah and this book is amazing! This book shows just how strong a girl can be when she puts her mind to it. I have read a lot over the summer in between Harper's naps and completing my grad work what have you read over the summer? Also, is there anything interesting you want to share on the blog that you have done over the summer? Comment below if so and we will share in class. 

“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” 
― Dr. Seuss 

Here are a few pictures from my summer so far. We have been super busy! 

Hilton Head Island 

Getting our hair cut. 

Daufuski Island was fun but VERY hot! 

Charleston with some amazing teachers and friends! 

Columbia wedding with my best friend since 1st grade and teacher friend today! 

This girl loves LIFE and the beach. 

Meeting Doc at Disney 

Made it to Disney! Harper was so excited! 

Didn't make it to the fireworks. She was so tired. 

LOVED Pluto! 

Supply List for Our Room (406) 

Please have the following items when coming to school on the first day. If you have any questions please contact me at (Brandy.Gault@Spartanburg2.k12.SC.US)


2 plastic pocket folders (hole-punched)

Multiple packs of #2 pencils

1 package colored pencils

Pencil pouch

Several packs of notebook paper – wide ruled

4 white large glue sticks 

1 ½” Three ring binder with dividers (6 dividers)

2 packs of clear sheet protectors

4 marble covered composition notebook with sewn in pages *I will give you labels for these when you come to Meet the Teacher* (Social Studies, Science, Writing, Math) 

2 Highlighters

1 package of dry erase markers (wide tip) 

1 package of washable markers 

2 packs of sticky notes

3 packs of index cards

1 container of Clorox Wipes

Optional: Kleenex, Hand Sanitizer,and small treats/prizes 

Please arrange your child’s binder in the following way: 


(I will pass out labels for binder at Meet the Teacher)







1st – a clear sheet protector labeled Newsletter

2nd- plastic two pocket folder labeled Take Home Folder

3rd- another clear sheet protector labeled Homework

4th – a divider labeled: Morning Work

5th – a divider labeled: Reading  followed by 2 sheet protectors and 20

pieces of notebook paper



*Pencils, glue, colored pencils, and scissors in pencil pouch with name*




**Place extra dividers and sheet protectors in the back of binder**

We love our Moms!

Today we talked about our mothers and how special they are to us! We are so thankful for such amazing people in our lives and we want to wish everyone a Happy Mother's Day!

(be sure your child gives you the card they made for you today)  

“Mothers and their children are in a category all their own. There’s no bond so strong in the entire world. No love so instantaneous and forgiving.” —Gail Tsukiyama

I had students complete the following statement about their mom today....

I love you because....

Magnetism

We are currently learning all about magnets and this week students learned ways to make an electromagnet stronger. There are 3 ways and students learned these quickly when trying to create their own. 

Electromagnets

When an electric current flows in a wire it creates a magnetic field around the wire.

By winding the wire into a coil we can strengthen the magnetic field. Electromagnets are made from coils like this.

Making an electromagnet stronger

We can make an electromagnet stronger by doing these things:

• wrapping the coil around an iron core
• adding more turns to the coil
• increasing the current flowing through the coil.

Book Clubs On the 4th Grade Hall

CHOICE 

When starting book clubs this is the question we pondered on, do we give the students a choice of what to read or just assign books to certain groups? We decided that if we wanted the students to have a love for reading we must first give them the choice of what they want to read, what interests them, what makes them WANT to go home every night and pick up the book to read and then tell
their friends about.
We started out with each teacher picking around 10 books for the class to choose from and then after reading the book jacket for each book the group would decide on which one they wanted to read. We never expected the students to be SO excited about reading a book! Students were also given 5 jobs to pick from in each group that they wanted pursue for a certain time period, everyone worked very well sorting out the jobs and deciding who would be the best at what. When students got their jobs they immediately took action and started doing what they could to make sure they did their best to provide for their group.

These are the different jobs students could choose from: 

Stellar Summarizer

Word Wizard

Artful Artist 

Literary Luminary

Director 

I won't explain the jobs just yet, I will let the students blog about their jobs because they really are important to them and they are doing wonderful taking responsibility for the things their job requires.



Here are the books the students chose and some pictures from our first week doing Book Clubs. Each Friday one student volunteers to bring snacks for his/her group and they have a group discussion on the papers they filled out on their book and what they thought was interesting about the book so far.
At first we were a little worried about discussions going on other than book club discussions but that has definitely not been the case! Students are so engaged and eager to share with their peers and they can't wait to discuss what they have learned or what questions they still have. Stay tuned for the students to blog about their books in the upcoming weeks.

Here are a few pictures of the students and their first week with book clubs!