IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Good evening,

The anticipation for the visiting puppeteer is just growing by the minute.  Every adult that walks in the room is the puppeteer (the children think).  Today we listed some questions that we have for the puppeteer….”How do you make it move?  What can you use to make the puppet?  How do you decide what your show will be?” are some of the questions that the friends asked.

If you are free and would like to come in you are more than welcome to come in and help the children make puppets tomorrow from 11:15-12:15.

Below are a couple pictures of the train set and kerplunk (two new items in our room) that the children really enjoy playing!

Our new train set!

Jett enjoying Kerplunk!

Aidan takes his time and adds lots of details to his airplane.

This morning our class started a discussion on what we would like to accomplish in doing our airplane project. Most friends expressed a desire to build and create planes which we have already seen evident in the past month. I shared that I would like our class to create some sculptures of airplanes to show our knowledge of the different airplane parts and functions. The kids were excited but cautious. “How big will it be?” said David. “Once I build an airplane as big as that table!” exclaimed Lucas. I suggested we make a plan like a real engineer who might create an airplane. We looked at graph paper that an engineer or architect may use and talked about how to draw our plans for our plane sculpture. Zacharyah came up with a great suggestion to help our drawings take flight. “We should look at the books to get airplane ideas!” The plans are so detailed and elaborate, many of the kids also labeled each part of their plane using our new airplane terms.

Block A Students Pose for Photo in the Courtyard

A key feature of the IPS/Butler University Laboratory School is our collaboration with Butler University.  A part of that collaboration includes a 15 credit hour course called Block A.  This teaching methods course focuses on young children, literacy, math, Reggio inspired practice and project-based learning.  The course takes place on-site at our school in a classroom designed for college students, but the students will also have a practicum experience in our classrooms.  The preschool classroom will have three Butler students while each of the k-1 classrooms will have four students assigned to them.  The Butler students will (with a few schedule changes) be in our classrooms every Wednesday for the entire day.  Wednesday, September 14th will be the first full-day for the Butler students in our classrooms following a brief visit yesterday.  The teachers and children are as excited as our Butler students for this experience to begin!  The following comments by Block A students summarize how they are feeling about this opportunity:

“I walked into the classroom today and the children just put me at ease.  I felt so comfortable in the room; almost like it was my own.  I cannot wait to jump in!” – Katie Jones

“As soon as I walked into the classroom, a child ran up to me and gave me a huge hug.  That was the beginning of many hugs during my visit!  I have found my home for the semester!” – Colleen Wilson

“I can’t wait to start working with the kids!  I know I will learn so much from them as we learn together.  I was estatic today when I met two young girls whose interests are after those of my own heart – weddings, singing, dancing and family.  I am excited to make more connections with the kids.” – Amy Gaisser

“I am so excited to begin working with the students.  They were so full of wonderful energy and excitement.  I can’t wait to see what they are going to teach me!” – Kaitlyn Love

“I am overwhelmed with emotions.  Emotions of joy, happiness and excitement.  Emotions of unsure possibilities and unplanned paths.  I cannot wait to start this journey and to experience more and more of these emotions.” – Courtney Boyle

“How blessed I am to have the opportunity to work with these amazing students.  I can’t wait to start learning from them.” – Elyse Estridge

“Even though I only spent a few short minutes in Mrs. Argus’ classroom, it is clear to me that this is a special community.  They are not just a teacher and her students, but friends.  I’m so excited to grow together with them.” – Megan Rogg

“You know those moments when something good is about to happen…yeah, this is one of those!” – Chris Henderson

We have had a great start to our school year.  As we get into the swing of things our workshops are really starting to take off!  I think that Writer’s Workshop is now one of the kids favorite parts of the day.  Over the past few weeks we have been focusing on details in our stories, both illustrations and text.  It has been great to see the kids adding words to their stories.  They get so excited! 

In Reader’s Workshop we have been focusing on the different ways we can read books.  The three ways we have talked about so far are: 1. Looking at the pictures to help us tell the story,    2. Retelling a story we know,   3. Reading the words.  The past week or so we have been expanding on the 3rd way to read.  We have talked about how we can sound out short words or stretch out the longer ones to read.  It is so cool to see the kids get excited when they figure out words.  At the end of both workshops we share what some students have done in their independent time.  The kids get excited, run to me to share and then instantly ask if they can share in front of the entire class.  SO GREAT!  I can already see growth in so many kids.