IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

This week we started a couple of new adventures!

The first thing we started this week was Story Workshop. I mentioned us starting to do some things with story workshop a couple of months ago, but this week we started doing it during the day. It is very similar to the other workshops in that we start off with a minilesson, then we do something called negotiations where I review with each child what they did the day before during story workshop. then I ask them if they would like to use the same material to tell their story or use a different material. Then the child go off and work with their material. This week the materials are watercolor paint, clay, blocks,and collage materials. During their independent time they are working on telling a story through their material of choice. Each day they continue to tell their story until they feel they are finished. When they are finished telling their story or when they feel it is necessary they can bring paper into their space and write their story down to go along with their material. After they are done working independently, the children sit down and we share a couple of works.

The children have LOVED this time each day and are so engaged. Oliver told me today that is was “AMAZING!” Their stories right now are focused on how we can tell incoming students to our school community what our school is all about. What I have noticed is that the children are really working on revising and editing which is a huge part of the writing process. Most of the children between yesterday and today stayed with the same material and added more detail or revised their story. I am thrilled to see how this influences their storytelling and their writing!

Another exciting part of the week is our big responsibility to take care of the chickens! Each day we have to check on the chickens twice. In the morning we have to feed the chickens one scoop of chicken food, and we have to check if there are any eggs. In the afternoon we have to feed any scraps leftover from lunch to the chickens, change their water, and again check for eggs. We have gotten two eggs so far from the chickens so that has been fun! The children have really taken this responsibility seriously! What has been fun, too, is that after we are done with the chickens in the afternoon we have been playing some super fun games which the children just LOVE!

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