IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Over the past week or so, we have tried something new to show our learning: strategy posters. When a child uses a novel idea to help them work through a problem, they are asked to make a poster of their thinking to be displayed in the room. This poster then serves as a guide for other children who may be encountering the same type of problem. This not only encourages kids to take ownership in thier own learning, but also encourages them to look to one another for help when problem solving and collaborate. Right now, we have six addition strategy posters and three posters about what to do when you come to a new word in reading. Look for them at Family Night on Thursday at 6pm!

Tags: capable, problem solving, responsible

Today was a wonderful day! There were some changes to the day like in the afternoon we are strictly doing project work now instead of having project work and free choice. I began this afternoon’s project work time by showing the friends a stack of books all about planets. Then, I asked them how we were going to learn about the books. Selam suggested that we split up into groups and learn about the planets. So, we split up into 8 groups. Each group got to choose which planet they were going research. Then they took their books and began reading them. After some time researching their planet, we got back together as a group and talked about the experience, and I asked if anyone had any questions they wanted to figure out while studying their planet. Some questions were as followed:

“Why does the planet spin?”-Isaac
“Why is there a storm on Jupiter?”-Emily
“Why do the planets have their names?”-Sydney
“Why is Earth so close to the sun?”-Heaven
“How many years would it take to get to Uranus?”-Jonah

I loved hearing all of the really deep questions so tomorrow and the rest of the week we are going to begin answering some of those questions by researching them in books and on the Internet.

Today we were lucky to have Blue II and Trip (Blue III) come and pay us a visit from Butler! We were so excited to see the real mascots of the Bulldogs. Mark,the owner of the dogs, answered some really great questions and gave us some insight on the two dogs. The children while answering question, listening, and drawing a picture of the dogs also got to pet them! SO FUN!

Today we had a few new materials in the room!  We started our day with clay for sculpting and tree pieces for building.  It was very exciting in Free Exploration as the kids started to explore the new items in the room.  We had a few friends even sculpt trees!

J'Nayla's tree sculpture!

David's person that is made out of tree pieces!

Later in the day I asked the kids the questions, “Do trees have stories to tell?”  I was interested to see if the kids could create stories from the materials in the room. I was so excited when a group of friends started to create a story with the with the dinosaurs and tree parts.  They said that their drums put the dinosaurs to sleep!

David, Selah, CJ, and Reid are playing their drums and creating their story.

This process of creating stories with materials is something new that we are introducing into the classroom.  During our choice time, I might put out a few materials and pose a question to the students as I did today.  While I was in Portland, we studied something called Story Workshop.  It is where the kids create stories using materials.  We found that the materials help the students create rich stories.  This is something that we are still exploring, but for the first few chances the kids are loving it!  I am sure I will have more to share in the upcoming weeks!

Sascha and her bee story.

Friends work on plant stories. The pastels are rich in color and smooth to write with!

Aidan reads the question to friends who come by. “What stories live inside plants?”

This morning, a large group of friends explored storytelling about plants through the use of pastels. The stories are a wonderful reflection of some of our learning about gardens and growth. Sascha and Aidan also chose to incorporate bees into their plant stories and had some interesting ideas about what bees do with flowers. This hopefully leads to an investigation!

The creation of the greenhouse!

We were also lucky enough to be given a mini greenhouse by a friend of the classroom. This morning, Messi, Da’Sean and Monica worked with our Butler friends to put it together. They even planted four different plants- carrots, eggplants, tomatoes, and onions- yum! Hopefully, the greenhouse gets the germination process started and we can eventually transplant the veggies to our actual garden.

We get a visit from some special friends- Butler Blue 2 and Butler Blue 3- Trip!

Tags: creativity, garden, project, story telling

Blue 2 and Blue 3 enjoyed our classroom!

We learned Blue 2 is big and Blue 3 is little. When their owner says “icecream” their ears perk up. The same thing happens when he says, “Do you want to go get a new toy?” Their food is made out of seafood. Blue 3 weighs 18 pounds and Blue 2 weighs 58 pounds. Blue 2 is tan and Blue 3 has stripes. Blue 2 had big teeth, and Blue 3 had little teeth that were getting ready to fall out!