IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Our planning begins!

As you know, our class has been fascinated with the idea of flight and airplanes and we have been incorporating this concept into our classroom on a regular basis. As part of our airplane project, our class has decided to build a large airplane in our very own classroom! On Wednesday morning, the kids were greeted by the suprise of a large refrigerator box and big blue platform to inspire their building. They were so excited about the possibiliities and wanted to jump right into building. However, we have discovered that airplane building takes a lot of planning. First, we had to decide if we wanted to build an airplane or a helicoptor. Next, we had to decide how big to create it. Did we want something that everyone could fit in? Or just a few friends at a time? Would this airplane truly fly or would we create it to play with?

After discussing some of the details, we started talking about how to figure out how large to make our airplane. Our class agreed it would be best to create a plane that fit everyone in it, so we had to figure out how many kids were in our class. We counted 20. Then we had to figure out the best way to make 20 kids fit inside something. Did we want to cluster together in seats? Or did we want to have one, long plane? Lucas brought up the fact that planes he knew of usually had a couple rows. We eventually decided on two rows. Next, we had to figure out how many kids would go in each row. We started lining children up where we plan to build the airplane and started counting children in each row. How could we make the rows even? Regan came up with a great idea. “Ten in each row!” I asked her how she knew. “Because ten plus ten equals twenty!” We tried out Regan’s idea and it worked- two equal rows! After lining up the kids in their rows, we had the idea to mark the floor with tape to show how large we needed our plane to be. If you have visited our room lately, you may see how big we plan to make this plane! We are going to need lots of help with materials- primarily cardboard, cardboard boxes, and duct tape. As we start to accumulate more materials we will sort them and then begin to make a building plan.

"How many rows?"

The plane is marked off!

Today was Block A Day at the Lab School, which means that we had our 4 wonderful Butler students/teachers in the classroom with us. During the time that the “Butlers” (as the children refer to them) are in the classroom, they are working with small groups of students, reading with children, helping facilitate learning during whole group time, conference with students, and providing them with even more love and attention…something that I am ALWAYS happy for them to get more of!

With all of our extra hands today, we celebrated our September birthday. Parents of our September birthday friends were able to come in and work with our three birthday children to make cupcakes for our class. I love this opportunity because it allows for students to create. And when our students create, they take pride in their work and in themselves! When given the opportunity, our children are beautiful creators!

After watching the puppeteer on the video make puppets on Monday, the children were so enthusiastic about making one of the puppets they saw on the video.  Today, we made the snake puppet!  The children were so excited to make the puppets and were so engaged during the process!  They had to dry, but we will be sending them home tomorrow!

We had our first experience at the school library today, and the children did amazing!  They did such a nice job of respecting the librarian, Ms. Dennis, and were so excited to check out a book.  The books have to stay at school, but we will be ensuring that the children can read their books they chose throughout the week until we go back next week to the library!

Heaven and Emily being supported by Miss Jeffrey while making their puppets.

Isaac and Jett working hard making the spiral for their snake puppet.

Miss Lauren and Jason working on his puppet!

Geneva working hard on her snake puppet!

Yesterday, during free choice time, I saw one of our students creating a very thoughtful construction out of blocks. It resembled a see-saw of sorts. When I asked Larry where he got the idea for his building, he said, “Remember that thing you got out for me that one day?”

Larry exploring with a balance during free choice time.

I immediately knew what Larry was talking about. A couple of weeks ago, I got down a balance for Larry and a couple other students to explore with. This new construction was Larry’s own balance creation! Take a look…

Larry's balance recreation.

Has anyone wondered about those papers that are coming home that say “Daily News” at the top of them?  Over the past two weeks our class has been doing an interactive writing activity at the end of each school day.  We start with our names, the title, and then the date.  (As a class each morning we are also working on what those date numbers actually stand for.  “What does that 9 mean at the beginning of the date?”)  Then I ask the question, “What was something special we did today?!”  The kids are always really excited about this and almost every hand shoots up to share an experience.  We talk about the day’s events and then decide on one item to write about.  Because this is at the end of the day, the Daily News goes in their mailbox to bring home the next day.  So if you are curious check out your child’s Daily News and have a conversation about their days.  I am sure it will bring out even more! 

**As an edit to yesterday’s post, I forgot one date.  October 6th at 6:00pm- We will have our second parent meeting at the school.  All are welcome!  Come and find out how you can get involved in the school.  The last event was so successful I am looking forward to seeing what happens next.