IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Tajanaye tries out the drums.

 Today during studio and explore, several children were drawn to a medium sized, wooden basket that recently appeared in our classroom. Inside, our friends found special instruments from Mexico and Central America that Mrs. Argus has collected on trips. The kids loved trying out the maracas, pan pipe, and drums, just to name a few! Messi and Monica organized a group of about six friends and started leading a band. They would say in unison, “5, 6, 7, 8” and then the rest of the friends would start playing. What a neat way to work together to create something. This teamwork was discussed during our closing meeting. After playing in unison for a while, Messi and Angela noticed that while the band was playing beautiful music, there were no dancers to enjoy it! Angela called to the rest of the class, “WE NEED MORE DANCERS!” and a slew of friends ran over to the band and started dancing, imitating the way we have seen people from Mexico dance in videos. We had a fiesta in our very own classroom!

 

Friends dance to our Mexican band,

A jam session!

 

 

 

 

 

Tags: creative, creativity

Greetings families! A few of you have asked if our classroom is in need of anything at the moment. Miss Schmidt and I did a little inventory and some talking and we came up with a few items our classroom could use some donations of. These items are:

Crayola Markers, thin and thick

black, felt tip markers

beads (any type)

Kleenex

snack (in bulk, fruit snacks, animal crackers, pretzels, goldfish)

Thanks for your support!

Aidan explains his thinking.

Our class created hundreds chart.

 

 

 

 

 

     

 

 

 

One of the things the kids like to do in the morning is read the morning message and count our positive points. It has become a ritual for many friends in our room once they have gotten unpacked and settled in. Today, Aidan did something really special. He counted our positive points, and counted 74. Then, without prompting, he walked right over to our hundreds chart, found the number74 and proceeded to count up to 100. He then announced to me, “Mrs. Argus, we only need 26 more positive points until 100!” I asked him how he discovered his conclusion. He then articulately talked me through his thinking process and how he came to use our hundreds chart. Aidan’s discovery was so special that he then shared it during the sharing portion of our morning meeting. The class brainstormed other ways we could use the hundreds chart to problem solve. What a neat discovery, Aidan!

 

Friends present, "How Bella Lost Her Moo!"

 

For the past couple weeks, some of our friends have been reading a story called How Bella Lost Her Moo. It has lots of different animal parts that are fun to read and the kids decided they each wanted to read a seprate part when we would read in a group. One day, a friend suggested, “We should do this as a play!” The rest of the friends loved the idea and we began to prepare to present it to our class. We made puppets out of paper bags and practiced reciting our lines clearly and with emotion. Today, our friends presented the play to the rest of the class. Everyone was so proud and impressed with our performers! We will have to do more reader’s theater in the future- we have some wonderful actors!

 

 

Tags: arithmetic, capable, collaboration, creativity, curious, image of the child, problem solving

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  Angela mixes the avocados.

Creating together.

This morning as the kids came in, they were greeted with the aroma of fresh avacados. Friends were invited to watch the avacados be cut open, help  remove the green fruit, and mash it in preperation for guacamole. Each child had a chance to help mash and mix the green pulp into a smooth blend. After it was nice and creamy, we added some salsa (about half a jar) to the avacados and mixed some more. Then, we tried our creation! I was so proud, while not all of our friends loved the guacamole, all of them did try it with brave faces. Below are some of the descriptions from our friends.

Messi- “It tastes real spicy!”

Hutton- “Spicy!”

Ruth- “The guacamole is creamy.”

Zek- “Mine tastes like peanut butter.”

Da’Sean- “It tastes like popcorn.”

Aidan- “Its a little spicy, but I like it.”

David- “I didn’t like it cuz I tasted guacamole before and I didn’t like it.”

Lucas- “It tastes like an ice cube, it really did. I dipped it on the top and I got a big chunk like an ice cube.”

Regan- “It’s GOOOOOOOD!”

Monica- “It’s good and spicy! I ate all of mine!”

 A lot of interest was taken in the large avocado pits inside the fruit too. Friends asked, “Why are they so big?” “What are those things?” Jenesis held the pits up to her face and said, “Look, they look like eyes!” We decided we would try an experiment to see if we could get the avocado seeds to grow. At the end of the day, we placed each of the five avocado seeds inside a large plastic baggie with a wet paper towel. We decided to tape the baggies up against our windows in our classroom and outside in the hallway so they can get light and see if anything sprouts! We learned that the avocado seed could take up to 6 weeks to grow, so we will be practicing our patience.

Friends enjoy the end of our Mexico video and sample guacamole.

Kaitlyn and Lucas learn a new math game during math workshop today.

Tags: capable, collaboration, curious

Monica and Sascha design their Spacemen.

We just began a new unit for Writer’s Workshop: Writer’s Write for an Audience. In talking about an audience reading back our books, our class started a discussion on using space in between our words when we write. We looked at two examples of Mrs. Argus’ writing. The first was “all mashed together” (as Messi said) and it looked “sloppy” (said Aidan). We looked at the second example of writing, which the class concluded was “much better” because there was space between words, or as we call it, finger space, and you “didn’t have to read it all fast” (Hutton) . I told the kids they would have an additional tool to help them leave finger space instead of just a finger- THE SPACEMAN! The spaceman is a little man (or woman) drawn onto a craft stick. This person encourages you to leave space by being inserted between words in your writing. The spaceman can be used again and again in any book and is a friendly reminder to write for your audience!

Sascha uses her spaceman to write.

Monica and Ruth try partner reading for the first time today during Reader's Workshop.

Tags: creativity, writing