IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Friends enjoy the dollhouse.

Today, our friends were greeted this morning by yet another new material- a dollhouse. It was neat to see that most of the children spent at least some of their morning arrival or free choice time with the new material. They took turns playing with different characters, creating an assortment of scenarios for their dolls, and practiced negotiating with one another who would play next.

Regan and Cameron learn a new math game with a clock!

Aidan, Lucas, and Da’Sean play The Very Hungry Caterpillar on our “stage”.

 

Tags: friendship

Monica, Da'Sean and Aidan tap dance on the platform.

This morning when the kids came in, they were greeted by a transformed classroom. They found many pieces of furniture and materials re-arranged, learning spaces re-defined, and some new materials to explore with. One of the biggest changes was to our class built airplane. After much class debate and discussion, we have taken a portion of the airplane to remain in the classroom indefinitely, made it smaller, and changed its location. It can still have friends work inside it during all workshops and play and relax during studio and explore. Inside are bean bags that the kids loved trying out all day. We have also re-arranged our whole group meeting area and added some new seating (logs) that they kids can enjoy while we have our whole group meeting times. The new arrangement allows for some more space and a different aesthetic feel to the room! Our studio space has also been re-defined. The kids were so excited to see a large, blue platform in the space where the studio table once stood. “What is this, Mrs. Argus?” Monica and Da’Sean asked. I asked our friends back, “What could it be?” Friends began dancing on it and immediately labeled it a stage. Then different friends came over, Michael and Aidan, and transformed it into a mini airplane. They pretended to fly on it. Lucas, Zek and Tajanaye came over a little later and Lucas exclaimed, “Its a flying carpet!” They sat and “flew” together and laughed and laughed. Later on in the day, Ruth and Regan showed a large group of friends magic tricks they could perform on the platform. I love the new dimension of art that this “stage” brings to our studio space. Art is not only of the visual arts kind!  

An airplane ride.

A magic carpet ride.

Tags: art, collaboration, creativity, inspiration

Today when friends were playing at the beginning of the day there were some small arguments happening over the toys as well as just not the best of sharing and collaborating with each other so we had a discussion about it before our Morning Meeting began.  We talked about how we are a family and we have to take care of each other each and every day.  So…our greeting was to say hello to our neighbor in the circle and say, “I care for you” as we looked at that person.  At first the children kind of giggled that they were going to say it, but I have to say it was pretty moving  watching each friend say it to their friend.  They stood a little taller and smiled when the person was saying it to them.  After the greeting, I asked the children how they felt, and they said that they felt good!

Our Friendship Circle where we played a couple of games today as well as do our new Friendship Handshake

Saa's Length Hunt work that he prepared today when we were looking for items that matched the string exactly!

This week we went on a hunt!  For the past two days the kids have been “hunting” for different lengths of items in the classroom.  Each student was given a string to find things that were the same, longer, and shorter.  They were so excited to find the items in the room!

Salhi is measuring away to find something that is the same length of his string.

We also have another new friend in our classroom!  Raki joined us today and will be with us for the rest of the year 🙂  She is a great addition to our wonderful classroom community.  As with out last new friend, our kids have been so welcoming and helpful!

Raki loves to smile!

Today was such a busy day today!  One thing that was exciting was that Mrs. Clark came with some friends to our room and told us that there was some grass growing in Madeline S. and Cha’kyra’s grass gloves!!  We were so excited to see it growing in their gloves so now we are curious whether or not it will grow in the other gloves.

During Math Workshop today, the children went on a length scavenger hunt, and let me tell you…such an engaging experience for the children!  I gave them a piece of yarn and asked them to find 5 items in the room that were shorter than the string they had.  Then, they had to write that object down and measure it.  The children were very excited about this experience, and what they do not know is that we are going to do it tomorrow except this time they have to find items that match exactly with their string.

At the end of the day today we met with our friends in Mrs. Argus, Miss Estridge, and Mrs. Clark’s classes.  We went in the gym and played Woof together.  Then we had a discussion about the message centers we have in our rooms.  Mrs. Clark led a great conversation with them about figuring out a way we could write messages to each other.  Sophia suggested putting the message centers in the hallway so that we can write messages to each other.  Then Oliver said, “We could tape them altogether!”  We are going to put this into effect on Monday so we are all pretty excited.

Some of Mrs. Clark's friends observing our grass gloves!

Jett measuring a book that is shorter than his string.

In the gym ready for some community gathering!