IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Kristien and Reed explain their game!

Journey and Lucas carefully look over one another’s cards. Which will they trade?

As you may know, our class works together to earn Positive Points. These points are earned when as a class, we are peaceful, kind, following directions, or showing any other kind of exemplary behavior. About a week ago, we earned our goal of 100 Positive Points! As a class, we talked about and debated what our celebration would be. We eventually decided we would like to have an ice cream party. Then, Da’Sean brought up a neat idea, “What if we invited friends?” We felt that Da’Sean’s idea of sharing our celebration with friends was so great, we had to do it! On Friday, we decided to invite Mrs. Clark’s class for an ice cream and trading card party. We wrote and then delivered a letter to their class. Thankfully, they accepted our offer! Today, Mrs. Clark’s class came over at 2:15 and we began our trading event. The kids practiced our trading agreements of trading peacefully, being kind when they did not want to trade with someone, and respecting our agreement of “no re-trading”. We had such a good time visiting with one another and honoring one another’s artwork and hard work! After our trading event was over, we enjoyed ice cream together. To top it off, Mrs. Clark’s class had a special surprise to share with us- a class created limbo game! (Ask a friend from Mrs. Clark’s class about the inception of the game!) Reed and Kristien explained how the game worked and helped us carefully navigate the limbo game. Everybody had a chance to go through and then an impromptu dance party erupted- so much fun! We are so glad to celebrate good behavior and friendship in such positive ways!

Tags: art, creativity, friendship, trading cards

Our friends are busy trading!

This afternoon we had a special event.  Mrs. Argus’ class had earned a party for their class.  They were allowed to invite another class and they picked us!  So at the end of the day today we were invited to a Trading Card and Ice Cream Party!

I have not blogged about trading cards yet, but they were something that started in studio with Mrs. Grotjan.  They are cards that the kids design with different studio materials.  They create different pieces of art that can be traded with other students.  We have this as an option during Free Choice each day and there are friends who spend their entire time making trading cards.

Needless to say we were very excited to be asked to come to a Trading Card AND Ice Cream Party.  The kids were counting down all day!

Ice Cream for Max and Lucas!

Look at all of our friends eating the ice cream in Mrs. Argus' airplane!

All of our friends love trading cards!

Cameron and Monica are trading away!

Christian tries out yoga!

Mrs. Williams teaches us yoga!

 

Our class has been lucky enough to have begun learning a new life skill- yoga. Mrs. Williams, a friend who teaches at our school, has come twice now to teach us this valuable and fun skill. Yoga has already proved to be an engaging and calming time for us after lunch. Yesterday, we worked on taking deep and short breaths, and recognizing the difference. Today, we learned several new yoga poses, including the Cobra, Downward Dog, and the Lizard. Tomorrow, we will get to try them in combination and do the Sun Salutation. Miss Schmidt and I have been impressed with our friends keen listening skills during this time and peaceful behavior. We are so proud.

Today we had the pleasure of having Mr. Price, one of our parents, come in and share his knowledge of thinking maps with us!  He shared with us the thinking behind circle maps, and the children did such an amazing job using this tool to share their knowledge of plants.  It was such a great experience and definitely excited Mr. Nored and I for the myriad of ways we can use thinking maps in the future.

We have quite a bit of grass growing in our gloves, and the children are really excited because of it!  We will keep checking it out to see..will grass grow in all of the gloves?

The children last week painted beautiful paintings on watercolor paper.  Today some of the children began making stained glass paintings using acrylic painting and lamination.  They were so engaged creating really beautiful work that showed their ideas of friendship or their feelings toward the school.

Selam creating a beautiful painting using permanent markers, acrylic paint, and lamination

Look at our grass gloves!

Mr. Price faciliating a great conversation about plants!

Today we had our January birthday celebration!  Thank you to Olivia’s mom for coming in and helping her make the class cupcakes!

Smile!