IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

I’m sure you have heard a lot about our upcoming trip to the Children’s Museum.  The museum staff sent us a letter asking for our help to figure out which museum exhibit has a leak.  They also sent us a note that has some of the liquid from the leak on it.  During morning meeting the students received Curious Scientific Investigators Journals.  They decided that we needed to observe the note with the stain on it because that is something that scientists do first.  The students used magnifying glasses to look closely at the stain and then they drew and wrote in their journals.  They already have many theories about what the stain is and how to figure out where the leak is happening.  Many friends think that the water has some kind of salt or glue in it because the stain on the note is bumpy.  We also decided that we need to learn more about water before we go on the trip because that will help us solve the mystery!

The other day, Maria and her mom brought in some extra Day Lilies to share with our school. Today, we learned that Day Lilies are perennials which means they will grow back year after year! We learned how to split the Day Lilies and about a group of friends went outside to plant them by our William A. Bell memorial. It looks great!

While we were out there, we separated the Day Lilies into 10 plants. Our friends started talking math as we lined up the perennials…

Lets see, we have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten! Maria

Hmmm five and five. We need to do five on each side. Regan

How do you know five and five? Mrs. Argus

Because five plus five equals ten! Five on each side! Messi

Perfect!

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

Today we learned a new game called “Will It Fit?” in Math Workshop.  The kids had to roll two dice and create a number and make it fit in the puzzle.  This game makes the kids think about number order and distance.  It was a favorite today!

Today we asked our friends what other collages we needed to make in order to accurately give the weather forecast each day. Our friends suggested cloudy, tornado warning, windy, snow so tomorrow we will make one of those so we can continue to give accurate weather forecasts.

In Studio, our friends began to make weather symbols so that we can give the seven day forecast as well. They worked with different materials: collage, oil pastels, paint, and markers, and they were really beautiful! They are going to work on them next week as well so that we can begin using them for our forecast!

During recess today the children were having so much fun throwing the leaves in the air! It was so much fun taking pictures of them.

As a staff, we have been studying the work of master teacher Ron Berger. One of the things Ron suggests doing with classrooms is having critique sessions. We have decided to adopt this strategy to help improve our work! Last week, Mr. Henderson and the kids started talking about giving “likes” and “hopes” for friends’ work. We talked about how it always needs to be kind and helpful to the friend being critiqued. The other day, we did observational drawings of some pumpkins and squash. Today, we revisited those drawings and critiqued them anonymously. As a class, we did a quiet gallery walk and admired each person’s work. Then, we chose one work to write a “like” and a “hope” for. We shared our likes and hopes and talked about the importance of being specific so we can help one another. The kids did so well with it. We are excited to continue to delve into the idea of critique and we’re excited to see how this helps our class communities grow even stronger.