IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

As I mentioned earlier this week, the students have all come to recognize that they are authors every day in Story Workshop.  When we read the story What Do Authors Do?many of them made connections and realized we do all of those things as well!  Today we had an Author Celebration! The students chose a story that they are proud of and shared it with a friend.  It was wonderful to see how interested everyone was in each others stories.  There was a buzz of excitement throughout the room as the children read their stories.  I will be sharing their work with you next week on Parents In Touch Day!

Isabella shares her story.

Daysia listens to Jenesis’s story.

Emily and Himiko enjoy their special snack during our celebration!

Tags: capable, dinosaurs, project

This week in both Reader’s Workshop and Math Workshop, we have introduced partners.  There is a lot of power behind having partners as you work.  It encourages conversation, collaboration, and questioning.  The kids have really enjoyed working with partners.  We asked them today why it was important and here are a few of their answers:

“You are reading together and you can hear other people reading so they can help you.  If you were alone you couldn’t do that.” ~Andrew

“It is important because that’s how you make a new friend.  Friends help them sound it out.” ~Carriea

“They are important because you don’t have to raise your hand and wait.  You don’t have to wait or nothin’.  Your partner can help you.” ~Tylisha

“Your partner is a different reader so they can help you!” ~William

Joseph & Avelyn are partners in Reader’s Workshop.

Jonah and Oliver are partners in Math Workshop.

Wyatt, Aasha, and William are partners in Math Workshop.

Miles and Townes are partners in Reader’s Workshop.

Today we learned a new strategy to help us when reading the first sound/letter. It is called READY ROOSTER! Roosters get the day going. Ready Rooster gets your mouth ready for the first sound/letter of a word. I showed the word “beginning” to the friends and asked them to get ready rooster. You should have seen our 23 friends “pecking” their heads a little and getting their mouths ready to say that beginning “b” sound!!

We also did a class walk of beginning, middle, and end today. I read the book Swimmy to our friends, and then I read it again but this time they either had to go to the beginning of our room, the middle of our room, or the end of the room based on what part of the book I was reading. They loved listening and then getting to the part of the room quick! It was a fun way to demonstrate beginning, middle, and end!