IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

I cannot even begin to tell you how great it was to be back at school and see everyone! Our friends did SUCH an amazing job today at school. We did a lot of things that were related to our study on weather. We made tornadoes in a jar, we made suncatchers to put in our newly remodeled courtyard, and we started a sun collage out of yellow materials! The children were so engaged and excited to explore these materials!

I have had a lot of friends in other classes that have asked about our study on weather so today I asked the children how we can share our knowledge with others, and there were some great ideas: write notes to tell the weather and give it to the classes, put videos outside so they can see what the weather is outside, and share our videos we have made with other classes!

Again, such an inspiring day filled with good conversation, engaged thinkers, and collaborative work!

Welcome back families! I hope you all had a wonderful Fall Break! It was great to see all the kids this morning!

We had a a great first day back from vacation, full of normal workshops, some new experiences and materials in the classroom, and our weekly library visit.

Our morning started with community circle, where we all shared in the excitement of hearing about visits with cousins, camping trips, visits to aquariums, and fall fun!

We began partner reading during readers workshop today. Each student was partnered with a friend in the class who they will be reading with during readers workshop from now on. We will be learning the procedures for partner reading all week, but the preview is that, during partner reading, students start out sitting back to back with their reading partner. During this time, students are expected to be reading their own books, independently, not talking with their partner. After a given amount of time, I will sound the rains stick and students will be able to move so that they are sitting next to or facing their partner. At this time, students will be able to read their books to each other, read their books together, or have a book discussion. The students enjoyed reading with their friends today, and I’m excited to see what other benefits arise from this new experience.

Other new and exciting things in our day were:

-new natural materials to tell stories with during story workshop

-new, soft clay

-autumn scented potpourri

-new books in the classroom library

-new “beautiful materials” in the studio

-new colored glass stones at the light pad

It was a great day full of “news,” and I’m looking forward to the rest of the week!

Today we had a few friends bring in games that they created over fall break.  It was so wonderful to see how some of our friends worked on these and were excited to share them with others.  Ruth brought a state game in and worked with others to create the official rules (because she had not written them down yet.)  Oliver brought in a game board that he had created on his own at home and played it with others!  Mr. Ward & I are looking forward to seeing more of these games!

It was so great to see all of the children back and ready to go today! We had a very productive day, so I thought I would give you an overview of what we did!

Morning Meeting: We met in Mrs. Clark’s room to talk more about leadership and some of the bullying issues we discussed before fall break.  The students had great ideas for how to be a leader.  The common theme was “we need to set an example.”  Mrs. Clark and I were proud to hear all of their ideas about leadership.

Reader’s Workshop:  We reviewed all of the story elements that we worked on before break and we put them all together today.  I introduced a retelling glove to the students.  This is another way to help them tell what happened in their story.  Ask your child if they remember what each finger of the glove stands for.  We will continue working with retelling gloves this week!

Word Study: The students worked independently today on a variety of different activities that we have done this year.  They loved having the chance to do independent work.  We will continue building our independent work time this week, which will allow me to work with students in small groups.

Story Workshop: We celebrated our personal narratives that we finished before Fall Break.  We also started an author’s study of one of my favorite authors, Todd Parr.

Math Workshop: The students learned a new game in their math box called Race to a Flat.  They used dice and base ten blocks to add numbers all the way to 100.

Closing Meeting: We received an exciting letter from the Children’s Museum today.  There was a leak in one of the museum exhibits and we’ve been asked to help them investigate the leak! They said they needed scientists for this job! We will be going to the museum on November 6th.  Check folders for more information and a permission slip!

Today there were many new things in our classroom! Friends noticed new Story Workshop materials, which are currently themed around gardening and the outdoors. Friends loved investigating the different types of seeds and tried out some dramatic play with garden tools. Friends were also greeted today by a large contraption with a big light on it- an indoor grow lab! The kids were invited to guess what they thought it was. Many friends thought it had something to do with growing things indoors… we will find out soon! We also did some work in our garden today. We talked about the importance of mulch and learned that it helps retain water and keeps weeds from growing. We plan on doing a little work in the garden each day this week. We also spent our recess time in this beautiful space just as a class and played games. Tomorrow, other classes from our recess time will be invited to spend time in the space. Its so wonderful- and now we can really enjoy its beauty!

We also have a new message center in class. Each child has a small envelope with their picture on it posted on the wall. Throughout the day, friends can write notes and messages to one another and put them in one another’s envelopes. The messages are small, so friends need to be very thoughtful about what they are putting on the notes. So far, it has been a big hit with our class. This is one of many ways we continue to develop our community of friends.

Tags: friendship, garden, project, responsible