IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Today was such a busy day! During Math Workshop we introduced number lines to the class. We are working on counting on as a skill to help us solve problems. Instead of counting all of the numbers,start with the bigger number and count on. Some of the children were counting all of the numbers to solve the problems, but some started with the bigger problem, and then they just hopped however many more to get to the answer!

We are studying wind this week, and it comes at a very interesting time with Hurricane Sandy. I showed the children where the hurricane was today in relation to us and talked about if and what kind of weather we could see from the hurricane. We talked how we will probably feel a lot of wind and possibly rain from the storm. We decided that we needed to make a wind collage to be prepared for the windy day tomorrow. This week we will explore wind doing various activities including a balloon fly off, a car race, and an object tracks the speed of wind.

Today, we started using partner reading as an extension of our reader’s workshop time. This is an opportunity for students to read with peers who can challenge and support them during their reading growth. We created partner reading agreements last week, but hadn’t tried out the strategy until today. Students began by sitting back to back with their partner and reading independently. After this time was up, students were invited to sit elbow to elbow or knee to knee with their partner. Students take turns listening and reading to one another, asking questions and offering support when their friend needs it. They did a wonderful job reading to one another and were extremely supportive to their peer when they hit a trouble spot! I can’t wait to see how students grow and progress with their reading and with interacting with one another throughout the year. Here are a couple pictures from our experience today!

We got to start all kinds of fun new stuff today! I’m really excited about the learning that will be happening this week!

In Reader’s workshop this morning, we began talking about perspective. I read a book called Bee and Me. It is about a bee that is flying away from a dog, and end ups flying into house and unintentionally scaring a child, until the two learn about each other and decide they don’t need to be scared anymore. The students talked about how the child’s perspective was that the bee was bad and they needed to kill the bee. The bee’s perspective was that she hadn’t done anything wrong and the big mean child was trying to hurt her for no reason. The study of perspective has the potential to lead to much deeper understanding of empathy. I look forward to looking at different events, past/present/and fictional from differing perspectives with the students this week.

In Math Workshop, we are talking about adding 10 this week. Today and tomorrow, our story problems involve adding 10 to a single digit number. The last two days of the week, we will be looking at adding 10 to a two digit number (10-90). During share time today, when we looked at all of our problems and answers next to each other, this is what the kids discovered…

When you add 10 to a single digit number:

-the answers are teens (excluding 11 and 12, we discovered)

-the first number of the answer is always a 1

-the second number of the answer is always the single digit number you were adding to 10

The kids were super excited once they realized the pattern and discovered they could figure out the answer without solving the problem with a manipulative first!

During Story Workshop today, we continued down the road of critique and began talking about revising our work. We looked at a series of drawings a student had done of a butterfly. We noticed the changes that were made and that the child drew five drafts before creating their final draft. Then we talked about why someone might choose to work on so many drafts of one work. The students decided that the child who drew the butterfly was trying to make it the best drawing it could be. Then during share time, Abel showed us a revision he had done for a cover of a book he was working on. Tomorrow, we will connect critique and revision and learn how to ask a friend to critique your work so that you can enter into the revision process.

Last but not least, we are taking care of the chickens this week! Today, we collected close to ten eggs. The kids are excited because we will get to use these eggs to bake our October birthday cupcakes on Wednesday!

Madeline feeds one of our school’s chickens!

Ruth is doing her Xtra Math on the computer.

Last Friday we added a new math component to our math workshop.  As part of our day each student will be getting on the website called Xtramath.org.  This is a website that works on math facts and developing the fluency of math facts.  The kids get on the website once a day and it tracks what they did the day before and adds on to that.  Today we sent a paper home explaining how the kids can work on their math facts from home.  It’s free so please be sure to take full advantage of it!

This morning, the kids were greeted by something pretty exciting in our room- a kitchen set! Included with the kitchen were real fruits and vegetables and grains. We also included measuring cups and spoons, for pretend mixing. The kids were ecstatic over the addition to our room. Friends experimented and played with our various measurement tools and also did something we didn’t expect- they began writing! Various friends took clip boards and pieces of paper and began taking friends’ orders for meals! Then they would hurry back to the kitchen area and ask for the ‘cook’ to create the meal. The kitchen has unexpectedly become a wonderful literacy provocation as well as a measurement and math provocation.

Tags: arithmetic, garden, project, writing