IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Today was an exciting day! First we learned that we will have 1 new friend join our class on Monday (now it is up to 3 new friends) so we were talking about how supportive and welcoming we will be to the new friend(s) we will see on Monday. The children were being so sweet and saying how they were going to play with the new friend, Sarah!

Then we were outside during recess and Renna ran up to me to tell me that there was a butterfly that had been hurt and was now on the ground. I went over there and Zakeyah quickly asked if we could make it a home to make it stronger! A crowd began to form around this butterfly,and I quickly saw this as an opportunity to put into action what we had talked about this morning-being supportive and nurturing to this new pet of ours.

We took it in and every child had so many ideas about how we could nurture this butterfly and fix it! A fabulous conversation took place where we talked about what kind of home we were going to give it-examples where building it out of wood,borrowing a mesh butterfly home,volunteering family members to build it.

After we talked about the home, I asked our friends why we were doing it, and Maggie said, “to make it feel good.” Heaven then asked, “What is its name?” Again, a flurry of activity began as children were naming many names like Fluffy, Lei Lei, Ashu, Leah, Speeder, Crystal and more. At the end of the day we all took a vote and the name of our butterfly is….CRYSTAL SPEEDER!!

This experience is project work at its best..something provokes an interest, passion, emotional connection where it drives the children to think deeply, collaborate thoughtfully,and discuss intensely!

Today we experienced our first day of studio. Half of the children went to the studio with Mrs. Grotjan today. While there they talked about procedures and they did self portraits. After they were done with the self portraits Mrs. Grotjan mixed up the self portraits and then had the children guess who was on each self portrait based on the drawing itself. It was a great way for the children to look closer at the drawings.

While one half of the class was at the studio, the other half stayed with Miss Jeffrey and I for story workshop. Today I introduced watercolor painting, and it was such a hit! The children were making some really great stories with their work. I have attached some for you to see.

Today we finalized our peace agreements for the classroom.  Our agreements have been a week in the making.  Last week, as I shared, we talked about what we wanted to learn at school and that turned into our hopes and dreams for the school year.  This week I asked the kids, “How do we make sure that every friend is able to reach their hopes and dreams?  What do we need to do?”  As a class we decided that we needed to come up with agreements. Together, we listed everything that we thought was important to do in a classroom (ie: be safe, share, take turns, etc.).  We then sorted them into three categories; friends, materials, and ourselves.  Today we made an agreement for each category.

1. Respect Our Materials

2. Respect Our Friends

3. Respect Ourselves

The kids were so happy about these three.  Jonah even said, “there are only three…that’s so easy to remember!  When I asked what we should call them Reid responded with, “peace agreements so we can remember to be peaceful in class!”  That says it all doesn’t it? 🙂

During morning choice time today, we introduced the water color paints. Each child who made this choice had their very own place mat, paper, paper towel, pen, and paint brush. Together we talked about the proper way to use these materials and the appropriate steps to take when we are painting with water colors. First, we dipped our paint brush in the water. Then we dipped our paint brush in the paint, and lastly, we dapped our paint brush on the paper towel to remove the excess paint and water before we began painting. We also talked about using the pens and paint brushes gently, so as not to hurt either one. The students did a wonderful job with this experience. They really respected the process and materials beautifully. Together, we are finding the respect leads to more respect. If we can respect and be gentle with our materials, we can be more respectful of each other. Similarly, as we learn to be gentle with our friends, we have a better understanding of how to respect the materials around us!

Chloe uses the water color paints to paint her drawing of her family.

Evey morning, we have share time as part of our morning meeting. This morning started with sharing about the State Fair and family outings. Then a friend called on Regan to share, and she said something a little different.

“I think we should have, like jobs.”

After hearing a chorus of “yeahs!” We delved a little deeper to find out what exactly Regan meant by jobs. She shared that our class had jobs last year and she would like to see that continued. I then presented the kids with a question, “Well why do we need jobs?” Friends expressed the desire to keep our room tidier and assist in caring for the room. Then Sascha brought up an interesting math problem. She said, “Well we have more kids than last year, so we will need to have more kids doing each job. Last year we had 20 kids doing a job and it was 2 kids for a job. This year, we may need to do like 3 kids for a job, because we have more than 20.” Messi suggested something else, “Well what if some jobs had 2 people, and some had 3, and some had 2, and some had 3?” Bea shouted, “Like a pattern?!” Then another friend brought up another point. Tajanaye said, “Well what if we don’t want to do jobs everyday? Like just some days?” This led us to a discussion about whether or not jobs should be done every day or on rotating days. Friends took turns sharing their opinion and mentioned when they supported one another’s ideas. After a while of sharing opinions, Jo’Vyon suggested something- “We should take a survey.” With Jo’Vyon’s suggestion, we decided to vote on whether or not we would have jobs every day or on rotating days. By a little bit, we decide on having jobs every day. Later on, we revisited our conversation about jobs. It goes as follows.

Why should we have jobs? Mrs Argus

Because its like grownups jobs. Beatrice

So our room will look more tidy. Lucas

The people that clean want it to look nice. My grandma has a job. Tajanaye

My dad works at Fishers High School. Maria

My mom is a lawyer and gets people outta jail. Miles

My dad works on cars and fixes them and gets paid. BreAnna

My mommy works at a food place and a doctor place. Amiah

My grandma works at IPS, she helps people learn. J’Den

My mom is a doctor and helps kids, too. Beatrice

My dad is going back to college to be a nurse. Lucas

My dad, he works at Angie’s list! Dylan

My mommy is a nurse. Messi

Our conversation could have kept going, the kids were so enthusiastic to share about loved ones that they knew with jobs. I am wondering if Regan’s simple idea could turn into a larger investigation on jobs and their purpose… tune back to see!

Tags: collaboration, creative, inspiration, responsible