IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Miss Estridge celebrating the achievements of a lunch agreement follower!

Over the past few weeks, our class has been brainstorming ways for us to make a more peaceful lunch. One day right before winter break, we came to the conclusion we needed lunch agreements to guide us and our peers in a successful lunch time. As a class, we drafted five agreements and then asked our fellow classes for suggestions. Each friend in our class had a chance to present the agreements to the other classes and field questions and comments regarding them. We were met with overwhelming support from our peers and created draft posters with our five agreements on them.

1. Eat your food.

2. Talk in a whisper (soft voice)

3. Listen to all teachers

4. Stay in  your seat.

5. Be peaceful (kind and calm)

Each day at the end of lunch, the teachers on lunch duty have taken time to acknowledge friends from all the classes that are following these lunch agreements. They have been met with celebration from their friends and much applause. It has been a powerful experience to see the kids start to hold one another accountable for a more enjoyable lunch experience. I even had a friend (who shall remain anonymous 🙂 ) say, “Boy my family could use some lunch agreements!”

Friendly conversation!

Tags: friendship

Today during our Friendship Circle with Mrs. Argus’ class we discussed the idea of maybe having a handshake that everyone would do each day as we enter our Friendship Circle.  Ruth, in Mrs. Argus’ class, thought that maybe combining some of the handshakes that we have already seen would be good because then we would not be leaving anyone out.  So, we combined some ideas from Selam and Tevona’s handshake and then from David and Christian’s handshake.  The children were very excited to have this new handshake so let’s see how we do on Friday when it is our first day implementing it into the Friendship Circle.

The children have been very in to the idea of painting the past week so today I brought in a book about stained glass to talk about how that is created (which also fit into our idea of How-To books).  The small group of children noticed that there were a lot of black lines that drew what the image was on the glass and then the color was filled in between the lines.  So…that small group started to do that with paper, black felt tip markers, and watercolor paint today.  We will continue to explore this idea this week, and we will see where it goes!

Some of our friends working on the new handshake for the group!

Madeline S.'s image of a house, flowers, a sun, and sky.

Shaniyia working on her stained glass painting.

Our finished applesauce!

This past week we have been reading a lot of non-fiction books, specifically How To books.  On Friday, we read a How To Make Applesauce book.  Today, during Writer’s Workshop, we revisited that book and rewrote the steps ourselves.  After we had the procedure crystal clear we made our own applesauce.  Each student had a bag to dump into the crockpot to help make the fun treat.  After a few hours of cooking, we ate our applesauce for snack!

CJ and BreAnna added apples to our crockpot.

Our class really enjoyed their treat!

While our main focus in Writer’s Workshop was How To Books, I also noticed some impressive work during the kid’s independent time.  During our non-fiction unit our class has been talking a lot about using resources to help you write.  I asked many times, “How are you supposed to write about penguins if you do not know that much about them?  Use resources!”  I was so proud today when I walked around the class and saw nearly half of the class doing just that!  They were looking through books to get facts and help with illustrations. The kids are becoming such great writers!

Nytaiya is using a bird book to help in her writing.

David is using the book to help with his penguin illustrations!

Max & Reid are using snake books to add more facts to their writing!

So, we had indoor recess today.  When I came back from my lunch break, I walked into some of the kiddos walking into the classroom hooked together like a train and singing a song they had learned while in Mrs. Grotjan’s room.  Then, as the other friends came in to the classroom from Mrs. Argus and Miss Estridge’s rooms they just joined in the fun of the train link.  There was no instruction from me.  The children just hooked on and had a BLAST singing this song and having fun together.  It was a fun and unifying moment for our class that I had no part except being part of the train and enjoying the fun.

We began reading Charlotte’s Web today, and I cannot even tell you how engaged the children were when I read chapter 1.  I am really excited to continue to read this book as well as have engaging conversations about the content.

Miss Robinson helps Ruth try a new technique for her trading card.

Regan experiments with the ruler.

This week during math, we have practiced measuring things in many different ways. We began measuring items around our room with our own hands and then compared results with our friends. We’ve had several conversations about why the results were sometimes different. After investigating the different techniques of measurement, items measured, and then eventually one another’s hands, our friends decided that results were not consistent because people’s hands are different sizes, thus, different results! After our discovery that non-standard measurement can be inconsistent, we worked with a manipulative called the inch worms (you might remember we measured our 24 foot airplane with these) and measured different items around the room with inches in this way. Today, Miss Schmidt and I introduced the ruler to our group. We began by letting the kids investigate and experiment with the ruler. What did they notice? What markings are on the ruler? Is it the same size as anything around you? Tajanaye noticed something very powerful- “It matches the inch worms. I can line then up like this!” Tajanaye then lined up 12 inch worms next to the 12 inch ruler. The kids all looked in amazement- the ruler is made up of inches, 12 inches to be in fact! Ruth then brought up the fact that the other side of the ruler had different markings than the inch side (which had the numbers 1-12 to indicate each inch) and Ruth observed that these numbers went up to 30. She suggested that they looked awfully close to half inches. She also noted that, “No matter which way you look at it, both sides are still equal to 12 inches!” What a fabulous observation.

Tags: arithmetic, friendship, problem solving, think