IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

The kids are so excited about our Author Celebration! This morning, they were greeted by a small stage towards the front of the room. They excitedly tried it out throughout the day, and later on in the afternoon, each child practiced reading their story on the stage in front of a live audience. We had so much fun listening and celebrating one another as authors. We also had time to share our stories with friends and small groups. It has been such a joyful day.

Yesterday Jett shared with us during our morning meeting that he was taking a hip-hop class after school.  The children were excited and curious.  Today, during free choice, Isaac and Jett were wanting to show some of their moves to each other.  Before we knew it there was a line of chairs and multiple performances ranging from singing to ballet to hip-hop.  I love that the children were inspired by Jett to show their performance talents.  What was fun was that at the end we had about 10 students in chairs watching holding clipboards writing the order of performances down.  They were so excited!  I have to say that the best part of this “concert” was that children felt comfortable to perform and supported by their applause-I even did a little rendition of “I’m a Little Teapot!”

We will see where this enthusiasm towards performing goes tomorrow!!

In Math Workshop, we have been asking the kids to challenge themselves with larger numbers.  Today we talked about breaking apart numbers into smaller groups.  This is called friendly numbers.  For example, if you are adding 50 plus 15  you can break apart the larger number to make it easier (or more friendly) to solve.  50 could turn into five groups of 10!  All of the sudden the problem seems much more approachable.  Townes used friendly numbers to solve his math problem today.  He shared it with the class.  Check out the picture below of him sharing his mathematical knowledge!

We have been working hard to prepare for our Author Celebration tomorrow! Friends have been putting finishing touches on their stories and helping. We have been practicing the skills of problem solving, negotiation, and being flexible in deciding how to present our stories, how many to share, where to present etc. I am really impressed with how seriously the kids have been taking this planning process and how they have been democratically solving issues that arise with planning. The children have totally taken ownership over this event. Make sure to come tomorrow at 6pm to celebrate our wonderful authors!

Tags: celebration, collaboration, story workshop, writing

BRRRR….what a cold day! Today we read a book about MLK, Jr.  Then we had a wonderful discussion about who he was and what he stood for-primarily peace and kindness were the traits we talked about.

Today we began our Family Fun Bag.  Each day we will send home the family fun bag with one child where there are some activities and books to do at home with your child.  This is a fun way to connect what we are doing in school at home.  We hope that you have fun with it and please let me know if you have any questions!