About Me

My name is Christie Bethel and I graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I have been teaching at Banks Road Elementary since it opened up in 2009. My current teaching experience includes teaching first grade at Willow Springs Elementary and 2nd grade at Lillington Shawtown Elementary. I am a Fuquay native, but now call Apex home. I love animals, especially my cat Bootsie and my parent's yellow lab Lucy. I completed my first half-marathon in April 2011. So when I'm not at school, you will find me at the gym or on a trail running or playing soccer with my friends. I was honored to be selected as Banks Road Elementary's Teacher of the Year for 2013-2014.

Meet our class!

Meet our class!

Class Schedule

8:45 to 9:15- Morning work, breakfast, and bathroom
9:15 to 9:25- Read Aloud/Calendar
9:30 to 10:15- Specials
10:20 to to 11:00- Writer's Workshop
11:05 to 11:30- Lunch- table 1
11:35 to 12:35- Math
12:40 to 1:00- Team Time
1:00 to 1:30- Recess
1:30 to 1:40- Snack/Restroom/Read Aloud
1:40 to 2:10- Science and Social Studies
2:10 to 3:35- Daily 5
3:40- Dismissal

Important Dates

- Friday, November 22nd- Jason Knowles’ birthday
- Wednesday, November 27th- Book-It! due for the month of November
- Thursday, November 28th- Thanksgiving- No School!
- Friday, November 29th- No School!
- Monday, December 2nd- Ansley Ayers' Birthday
- Wednesday, December 4th- Track out day

-Monday, December 16th- Hank Gozy's birthday
- Friday, December 27th- Will Poplin's birthday

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Newsletter volume 21

Math- We have continued to work on describing shapes using defining attributes. This is such things as: number of sides, number of corners (or vertices), straight lines vs. slanted lines, the number of angles, is it an open or closed figure, how many sets of parallel lines does it have, how many sets of interesting lines does it have, and is it a solid or plane shape. The plane shapes that we have been focusing on are: square, rectangle, circle, triangle, trapezoid, hexagon, and parallelogram or rhombus.

Writing- We worked on brainstorming our own activities that we can write how to stories about. Then together as a class, we did “How to carve a pumpkin.” We made sure that our details were in the correct order and were very specific. With this writing, we still need to make sure to write in a complete sentence and put capitals and periods where they belong.

New reading and word study groups- Based on assessments and observations from the first half of the school year, some of the students changed reading or word study groups. This is so I can best meet each student’s needs. Ask your child if they switched their reading or word study group.

“Soil Rocks!” Field trip- Last week with our in house field trip from “Science Fun for Everyone” we got to become scientist. We had Scientist Kristin lead us in lots of fun different activities. We learned about the 3 parts of the Earth: the crust, mantel, and core. We got to become geologist and find our very own rocks, minerals, and fossils. Then we got to use a classification chart and figured out what each item was. We also learned about different parts of the ground and got to explore some soil, looking for earth worms, humus, sand, and clay. We had a great time!

Important Information:
- Scholastic- Scholastic book orders will be due by Tuesday, January 22nd. If you would like to order online, our class access code is G229M.
- Yearbooks- If you would like to order a Yearbook they will be $15.00 each and checks need to be made out to Lifetouch. They will be on pre-order till Friday, February 1st.
- 100th day of school- 100th day of school is Thursday.  Make sure your child has their 100 items of something brought to school by Thursday!
- Book Fair- Banks will be having a book fair in the library. Families are welcome to attend on February 7th from 6:00-7:30. If you are not able to make book fair night at Banks, your child will have to opportunity to buy books during the school day on February 7th at 10:45. Last week in Friday Folders, a permission slip came home. This is if you want to give your child permission to read with the therapy dogs during the Book Fair Night.

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