IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

We’re back from our Winter Break and having a great week! Our students returned ready to jump right in. You might have heard about some changes in our room. The classroom has been rearranged, we have new lighting, and students now have a special spot for both our whole group lessons and walking throughout the school. These changes have been made in an effort to continuously move towards higher engagement and increased learning. The changes have been quite a topic conversation, but students are adjusting to them very well.

Another frequent topic of conversation this week was our field trip! Students were excited about our field trip ever since they returned to school on Monday. We spent time talking about what it means to be a good audience member and revisiting some of the things we learned during our Eric Carle author study earlier in the year. I am happy to say that the day went very well and the kids really enjoyed the show. The play was performed with mesmerizing puppets, talented puppeteers, and a black light.  After the three stories were over, students had the opportunity to ask questions and learn how the different puppets worked. I’m sure it won’t be long before the class is asking for our next field trip!

Here is a look at the red bird puppet they use in the Brown Bear, Brown Bear portion of the play.

We had a great time on our field trip today!  The kids really loved the Eric Carle performance at Clowes Hall.  The characters were giant puppets.  The puppeteers dressed in black so they could blend in with the background.  The puppets were florescent colors and stood out even more with black lights.   I was not able to take any pictures of the actual performance, but if you ask your child I am sure they will be able to tell you in detail about the show.  They were so excited today!

As a reminder, there is NO SCHOOL on Monday, January 16th in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Aidan counts the friendship links. Does it match the number of pictures?

What a great day! I have to comment on how enthusiastic and well behaved the kids have been since we have been back from break. Today was no exception. Before break,  we began creating a board with pictures on it of people in our class showing friendship. There is a sign that reads, “What is friendship?” We also started keeping a chain which has descriptions of each friendship moment on it that is documented. This morning when he walked in, Aidan noticed almost immediately that there were new pictures. He and Monica talked about the new pictures. “But it they don’t match the chain, Mrs. Argus!” Aidan exclaimed. I asked him what he meant. “There are only six chains, but there’s eight pictures.” I asked Aidan how many chains with descriptions we needed to add. He counted the chains again, then the pictures. Then he looked at his hand and held out two fingers, one at a time, “Seven, eight. We need two more chains! I counted on!” Later in the day, Miss Schmidt led a discussion with our friends about both new pictures. One was Angela helping her friend Michael zip up his coat for recess. Another was friends helping assemble our unifix cubes in two groups of five, to equal ten unifix cubes-such great teamwork. We wrote a brief description of each event on a link, and added it to the chain.

David points out a new friendship picture to the class.

Our trip to Clowes Hall today was a lot of fun. The kids were excited to see Butler University and asked a lot of questions about college on the bus ride there and back. We saw the play, A Caterpillar, a Bear, and a Moonby Eric Carle which showcased many of our favorite Eric Carle characters through really neat looking black light puppets.

Carriea shares Angela's heavy load to the library.

Tags: Butler, friendship, project, relationships

Hello hello!  Today was our trip to Clowes Hall to see three Eric Carle stories come to live before us!  The children did such a nice job and loved seeing the puppets tell the stories of some of their favorite Eric Carle stories.  Thank you to those who came to make it run smoothly and enjoy it with the kiddos in class.

Monday we started a new thing during Math Workshop.  I have made files for each of the children.  During the math game portion of Math Workshop (once a week) they can look in their file and do whatever is in it.  The file will contain things like number puzzles, writing number work, fill in the missing number, number games, etc.  This is an opportunity for me to reach each child in another way to help foster their personal growth in math.  The children this week have hundreds charts in their files, and they had to fill in the missing numbers that were present in the 1-100 chart.  The children really loved this game!  Most of the kiddos did it on Monday so on Tuesday they were looking for something else, but I told them that they only have to do it one day a week.  I love that they are eager for it!!

Yesterday we planted two bulbs that will hopefully bloom into beautiful flowers! The children loved exploring the bulb as well as planting it.  There were a couple of green leaves exposed after we planted them, and the children throughout the rest of the day swore that it was already growing!  We are going to measure the leaves each week to keep track of the growth.

Our morning meeting has changed a little bit.  After reading a book about morning meetings, it came apparent that it matters the order in which we conduct the morning meeting each day. Also having a sharing time is so beneficial to the children because it is one more time that the children feel they are being heard.  Children also love to share things about themselves so by having this formal share time they are able to do that!  So, our morning meetings look like this now:

Greeting (do various forms of greetings to say good morning to those around us)

Share Time (children will have the opportunity to share something.  Every child can share but they can share only one time a week so that it ensures that every child can have the opportunity.  There is a sign up sheet that the children can sign up to share their news)

Group Time (This will be a dance, silly song, an activity of some sort that allows for us to build our community)

Morning Message (This will be the time to go over the question on the board as well as attendance and calendar)

The children have really responded to this more formal morning meeting time and I am thrilled for that!  I think it will continue to build our community.

Cha'kyra looking at the root of the bulb

getting the dirt ready for our plant

Emily and Shaniyia exploring the manipulatives on the light table.