IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

This morning, in word study, we played a new sight word game. It was called Kaboom.  The kids had to read the sight words on each card in order to keep the card.  If they picked a card that said kaboom they had to put all of their cards back!  While we talked a lot about playing for word study this was also a great conversation about games in general as we introduced this.  As a class we decided that all games do not have to have a winner.  Some games can be played together or just played for plain old fun.  It was interesting to hear what the kids thought about playing without finding a winner.

Later this afternoon, during math workshop, we had a wonderful conversation about efficiency.  As a class we have been using base ten blocks as a strategy to solve our math problems. Today, we talked about how using all ones (small cubes) might not be the most efficient way to use our materials.  A friend suggested that we use the rods (they equal 10) to get to higher numbers in a more efficient manner.  While this may save on time efficiency also helps us with our number sense.  If kids are able to understand that 10 groups of 10 make 100 they will have an easier time decomposing and building numbers in their heads.  This is a something that we will be working on throughout the year as we become even stronger mathematicians!

Last week, Mr. Henderson asked our friends, “Where do potato chips come from?” It led to some very interesting conversation about how exactly a chip is made. We came up with three main theories

1. chips are made by cutting a potato in half and cooking it

2. chips are made by mashing them and cooking it

3. chips are made by slicing a potato thin and cooking it

Today, our daily question asked the kids which method they believed would get the best results. We found that our class had almost an exact three way tie with the three theories. After some talking as a group, Breanna and Addie suggested something clever- why not try all three ways? We prepped three potatoes in three different ways and baked them. Friends wrote predictions as to which way they believed would work best. We talked about how we were being like scientists predicting and testing results. It also reminded us of chefs that have to create recipes for others to enjoy! After testing the three potatoes, we discovered that thin slicing was definitely the way to go with the rest of our potatoes. The results were delicious. We are finding that one of the best parts of sharing a treat as a class is sitting in a big circle and talking with one another. Miles commented that it felt like we “were a family” when we sat in such a way. J’Den said, “It feels like we’re all riding our bikes together when we eat like this.” Such a beautiful analogy for their feeling of community in our classroom.

Tags: cooking, curious, friendship, project

Yesterday Miss Jeffrey introduced Skippy Frog and Tryin’ Lion. Tryin’ Lion is continuing to try even when you get to those tricky words. Skippy Frog is when you get to a word you do not know, you skip it. Then you use the other words or the pictures to help figure out that skipped word. Renna and Jason did a great job today when they were doing some partner reading. They had “4 striped fish” on their page. They skipped “striped” because it was tricky. Then they looked at the fish on the page and noticed that each fish had stripes on it so they were able to figure out the word “striped” What great observers!

Today for our snack we used sunflower seeds, tomatoes, celery, marshmallows, and goldfish to make a “weather” picture. The children just LOVED making a picture with their snack and then gobbling it up!

In Reader’s Workshop last week the students were identifying the characters, setting, and events in their stories.  This week we have started to talk about problem and solution.  I read When Sophie Gets Really Angry and The Cloud and the students helped me find the problem and solution.  In Word Study we learned a new game, KABOOM.  Friends take turns reading sight words and if they read the word correctly they get to keep the card.  If you get a KABOOM card all of your cards go back into the pile.  The students really enjoyed working together on this new game.  In Math Workshop we discovered that base ten blocks are a really helpful material for our problem solving.  Many students realized that they could solve problems with bigger numbers using the base ten blocks.  We had another powerful closing meeting in Mrs. Clark’s room today.  It’s exciting to see the students building a stronger community between both of our classrooms.  Today, Mr. Ward read a story called Flabbersmashed which was all about friendship.  We gained valuable ideas about friendship during our discussion after the story!

Today, we got very exciting news… It is our turn to take care of the chickens! We have been waiting for this special opportunity.

We began by having a conversation about the chickens, the gardens, and our entire outside space. Christian and Journey had a lot to contribute to this conversation because they were in the class who had a project focusing on them last year! Students were interested in why the gardens were there, what they were used for, and our responsibility as caretakers!

Here are some pictures of our first experience outside. Tomorrow, we hope to find more eggs in the coop and have fresh feed to give o the chickens out of our hands!

Friends checking on the chickens.

Griffin with the chicken egg.

One of three of our chickens!