IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

This week we have been reading informational texts on various kinds of homes.  Yesterday we read a book about houses on the water.  There was a great experiment in the back of the book to see if the children could make their own floating home.  The children were so enthusiastic about this experiment that during Free Choice they made their very own homes!

We made predictions on whether or not our homes would float or sink.

At the end of the day today we got a large bowl of water to see if they would indeed float.  Much anticipation was present as each child got their raft and put it in the bowl.  Zakeyah made a great chart to show how many floated and how many sunk.

Results-ALL FLOATED!  The children were super excited about these results!

This morning during Morning Meeting we revisited the idea of Bug Statements and solving problems with friends.  We wanted to show Miss Crume what a Bug Statement was and why they are so important in our classroom.  We had a really powerful discussion and I wanted to share a few of the comments from our friends.

DeOnna: “As you grow up you won’t have a teacher with you to help you solve your problems.  If you don’t learn now you’re never going to learn when you grow up.”

Emily: “It’s better to do a bug statement first instead of telling a teacher because you need to figure out your own problems.”

David: “If you have a problem and you already solved it you don’t keep it in your mind because that will get you more in trouble.  You have to let it go.”

In Story Workshop the students were given a story without punctuation.  Martavious shouted out immediately, “The punctuation took a vacation!”  The children had fun working together to put the punctuation back in the story.  This also really helped me see where they are with their understanding of punctuation.  In Math Workshop, we learned +10 -10 Bingo.  This game uses a hundreds board and practices adding and subtracting ten.

In addition to preparing for our Author Celebration, this week, we have been talking a lot about our community, in particular the human race and where we fit in it. We have had some pretty powerful conversations about race and the color of our skin. With that, we have talked about how all people are alike; all having a heart, all having feelings, being capable of feeling pain, etc.

Yesterday, I brought in two bags and told the kids I had a present for them. As a class, they needed to decide which bag to open together. They were told that they could only have the gift from one of the bags. I laid out two bags in our circle- a plain, brown paper lunch bag, and a beautiful, elaborately decorated gift bag with fun fish on it. As a group, the class chose the elaborate bag to open. We opened it and saw tons of Hershey’s Kisses inside. I asked the kids if they had any interest in what was in the plain, brown bag. We opened it as well and to the kids’ surprise it was filled with the exact same thing- tons of Hershey’s Kisses.

So what does this mean to us? I asked the kids.

After struggling through what we had seen (Its so silly! They are the same!!! Regan said) (Why are they the same?! said Dylan) we came to a couple interesting observations. I asked the kids, “So if these two bags were people, and you had to choose between who was the better person, could you choose?” The kids said,

It wouldn’t be fair to choose, we have to be nice to everyone and know them inside. Makenzi

Like we don’t know who would have better moves by looking. Like in karate. How would we know? Neither one is better. It wouldn’t make sense to choose. Dylan

We can’t see if one person is better- if they’re black or white. It doesn’t matter because we don’t know them. Tajanaye

Tags: collaboration, community, friendship

We are studying informational texts this week, and today I read a book about homes on the water.  I cannot believe how into the book they were!  Miss Boyle and I kept looking at each other while we watched them ask question after question.  The children were so inspired that they have decided to add a pond to Mouse City and then make a house on stilts to put over the pond.  We were planning and problem solving that today!

We also have been measuring a lot this week.  We had this awesome road and sidewalk that Isai and Sarah made, but then we did not know if the mouse spaces were going to fit so we had to measure them to see how long each one was, and then we had to measure the white space on our street to see which space fit the best.

Again, Mouse City has been such an engaging and purposeful way to teach various math concepts and collaboration!  And now, measuring!!

During Reader’s Workshop we have moved from studying the text features in informational books such as Table of Contents, Glossary, Caption, and Index to using those features to help us answer questions.  This week the students have a job to do using an informational book about weather.  Each student has three questions and they have to read to find out the answers.  The students have been really thoughtful about their work.  They have been reading their book and then using the new information to help them.  They have also been answering the questions in complete sentences with capital letters and punctuation.  Today I met with Emily and she was stuck on one of her questions.  I asked her to tell me her thinking and she said “Well I started off by looking at the Table of Contents.  Then I found the page that said Temperature and knew that it would probably give me the answer on that page.”  After using the Table of Contents she was able to answer her question.  I’m excited that now the students not only know what the text features are, but they are able to use them to help them while they read!