Apr
09
2012
Mrs. Argus
I also wanted to share about our field trip on Friday to Butler University! Please remember to send in your permission form if you have not already done so. Also, IPS has a wonderful program where they will provide us with boxed lunches free of charge. I do not know specifically what the kids will be having yet, so if your child has allergies/diet restrictions please plan to make other arrangements. Otherwise, feel free to NOT send a packed lunch. We will hopefully get to enjoy these lunches outside in Holcomb Gardens. 🙂
Tags: Butler, field trip
Apr
09
2012
Mrs. Argus
Hutton and Maggie enjoy Reader's Workshop in the courtyard today.
- Miss Schmidt and Cameron have a Reader’s Workshop conference.
I always love coming back to school after a long, well rested break. The kids are always so enthusiastic and excited to be back and there is a feeling of rejuvination in the air. Today’s day was no different. After earning our last positive point (for having a peaceful morning) we earned the privelage to officially have a garden outside the school and are eagerly planning its arrival. On Friday before Spring Break, we planted about thirty various seed starters. We voted on growing carrots, onions, lettuce, peas, and flowers in our garden and we were anxious to see if any germination had occured over break. To our suprise, there was little growth! “They didn’t germinate!” Messi exclaimed to the class during our morning meeting. We brainstormed why this may have happened. Michael shared that he knew plants needed LOTS of light and perhaps we simply didn’t give the plants enough of it. I shared that I thought the plants had plenty of light in the hallway, facing the large, courtyard windows but Michael very observantly pointed out, “Mrs. Argus, the tree camoflogued the light for the plants. They didn’t get any!” To our dismay, we realized Michael was absolutley right- there is a huge tree we didn’t notice was blooming blocking much of the light from outside. “So what now?” I asked our friends. We had an open discussion where all friends were encourage to share their thoughts. Aidan suggested moving the plants to a different location inside, perhaps closer to the windows. A friend suggested we try them in someone elses’ classroom. David said, “I think its time to put them outside!” Then friends started raising their hands and saying things like, “I agree with David!” and “I like David’s idea! Let’s do what David suggested!” For me, this verbage was a really neat affirmation of our collaborative spirit we have developed not only in this classroom, but throughout the Lab School. As a class, we carefully walked out all of our seed starters and found a bright and safe location in the courtyard where we think our plants will not only appreciate more light but also warm air. We are anxious to see what our plants do next.
Journey places some of the seed starters outside.
Regan shares two caterpillar friends she found outside with our class. We will investigate more about their needs this week!
We continued with Story Workshop this week. Regan paints a picture of a garden that grows something very special- little girls!
David also uses watercolor during Story Workshop.
Journey is working on a very interesting garden story- a tree that creates animals!
Tags: capable, collaboration, friendship, garden, problem solving
Apr
09
2012
Mrs. Clark
Today we explored with a new material during our free exploration. This morning, the kids had a chance to work with oil pastels to create stories about trees. Over the past few weeks we have been exploring water colors and clay, but oil pastels are new to us. I set them out and simply let the kids explore at first. Tylisha said, “These look like really cool crayons!” David added, “Yeah, except they are shorter!” As time went on the kids started to create scenes for our tree play. Some of them even designed their costumes that they would like to wear 🙂
Dorothy is creating a picture using the new oil pastels!
While writing books is not necessarily new, we added a new twist on our writing today. Our minilesson focused on adding details to our writing. We talked a little bit about how we had been working on our play and I suggested that the kids start adding details to that story if they were interested. I gave them the choice to start writing parts of the play or go back to their own older stories. I was so amazed that 3/4s of the class chose to write about the play and add more details!
David is adding details to his story version of our play.
Wyatt is adding details to his version of the play.
Finally, in math workshop today, we continued to work with a material that was new to us before Spring Break. The week before break we started to explore base ten blocks. Base ten blocks are a hands on approach to explain place value. Today we used a chart to break apart the different parts of each number (ie: showing that tens place and ones place.) Place value is such an important concept to understand, but at the same time hard to visualize. I am happy to say that the kids are really starting to understand this concept and have easily taken to the new material!
Kristien was creating a number using the base ten blocks.
Apr
09
2012
Mrs. Bucher
What a great first day back to school! After two weeks off, our friends were excited and ready to get back to our learning and having fun at school. Today we began exploring the ideas behind Story Workshop. Story Workshop, to sum it up, is making stories! When the children arrived at school today there were various materials laid out for them to explore and help make stories. As they were making stories with their materials, I typed some of them out so that the children could see what amazing imaginations they have! Once the stories become more developed the children will have the opportunities to make final drafts of their stories. It could be in written form, it could be in art form, it could be videotaped..there are lots of ways their stories could end up, but we are excited to explore this idea of Story Workshop more!
At the end of the day we had a wonderful conversation about what to do with this new knowledge of planets we all have acquired through our research. Some friends said we needed to share the knowledge with a class, some friends said we needed to share this knowledge with our families, some friends said we needed to share this knowledge with the other friends in our class. We also talked about how we would share the information-by telling people, making a book, making a big, big, big piece of paper with the information were a few ideas friends had. Tomorrow, I am going to start pulling a group at a time to explore how we are going to present our newly acquired knowledge!