IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

During word study this week, we have been exploring the practice of word sorting.I have been picking a vowel and discussing with students the different sounds that vowel can make. Then, students have been going around the room “hunting” for words with that vowel in it. Yesterday we looked for “a” words and today we looked for “o” words. Students first wrote their words down on a dry erase board or clip board. Then, after about five minutes of hunting, we came back together to share our words. As as class, we listened to the words being shared and decided if they made a long vowel sound, short vowel sound, or a different sound. Deciding which sound the vowel makes can be a little challenging at first, but as we continue to practice this skill and tune our ears to hear them, students will be able to do this more naturally. Take a look at our “a” and “o” findings…

short, long, and different “o” words

short, long, and different “a” words

We were so excited to see the children today enter the classroom ready for a great day at The Lab School!

We asked a question today: What is a meteorologist? The children responded with great ideas-“someone who tells the weather,” “someone who studies meteors,” “someone who saves people.” We are going to study further what a meteorologist does and hopefully get a visit from one soon!

We have been focusing on telling stories for the past month. Today we started something new. We decided to have a more focused structure to how we are going to work Story Workshop. First the children will plan their story using whatever material they choose. The next day or once they are done planning their story, they will write their story down in a writers workshop book. They will use a printed picture of their planned story with materials to help them with their story. Once they are finished with that (should take at least two days) they can decide whether or not they would like to make a final copy (which would be added to our classroom library for all to read) or they can start planning a new story. This structure that we are using will allow the children to plan, write, edit, revise, publish stories throughout the year. Miss Jeffrey and I were really impressed today as many friends worked so hard writing down their stories!!

Since the beginning of school we have been doing addition number stories during math workshop. Today we began doing subtraction, and the children did a nice job working on those problems. Some were continuing to add the two numbers, but they did such a nice job for the first day! We talked about drawing pictures to help us figure the problems. Tomorrow we are going to use unifix cubes to help us figure out how to subtract!

On a personal note, my daughter Charlotte started school for the first time today! I can totally feel how you felt the first day of your child’s schooling! It was thrilling to see her be independent and excited to grow but sad to see her be independent and excited to grow.

Lucas and Jackson explore Dino World.

Dylan, Ayden, Jackson, and Hutton enjoy playing with the dinosaurs in Dino World.

Beatrice and Maria use watercolor to represent dinosaurs.

Addie paints a water dinosaur.

Today, our class looked an 8.5 x 11 picture of a T-Rex from the Children’s Museum. We talked about how the picture was just a representation of how big the actual dinosaur was- we knew he was much bigger than the size of the paper! Mr. Henderson and I challenged the kids with a simple question-  how could you show us how big a T-Rex really was? We pointed out there was a scale on the picture of 1centimeters = .5 meters and allowed the children to explore various measurement tools in our classroom. Some friends went straight to the rulers and yardsticks, some went for more non-conventional forms of measurement: using bears, unifix cubes, and looking closely at our dinosaur toys. One of the most exciting things about an inquiry like this is the conversation that happens while we are wrestling with new ideas. Many of our friends chose to work in pairs or small groups and talk through their thinking with one another. While we didn’t quite solve the mystery today, we will resume our work tomorrow and pick up where our thinking left off!

Here are a few snippets of insight from our friends.

I’m trying to see how many bones he has to measure him. 20 bones! He has 20 bones! Beatrice

If a T-Rex is a meter, that means he would be 100 centimeters. Lucas

I think he would have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 centimeters. Because that’s half of this stick. Makenzi (talking about half of the ruler’s 30 centimeters AND making the connection that we need half of something- incredible!)

We have to see how close it can be to the cubes. Dylan

Its very interesting! Jackson

J’Den measures our picture.

Maria and Amiah use the plastic dinosaur figurines to get a measurement.

Beatrice checks her measurements.

Jackson, Dylan, and Regan are on to something… they line up the yard sticks along the floor…

More friends work together to line the sticks along the floor.

Tags: arithmetic, capable, collaboration, problem solving, project