IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Some friends build a tower with some of our interesting materials. It keeps falling down!

This morning, the kids’ arrival activities included looking at books and building. I laid out a variety of building materials, including many of our new interesting materials, particularly caps and lids as well as small plastic fruit baskets .  THe kids have really taken to the plastic baskets and have used them a lot this week in different ways. Cameron, Zek, and Christian began to create a large tower out of the plastic fruit baskets but noticed that it kept falling down.  We brainstormed ways to make the baskets stronger. Monica came up with an interesting idea. “What if we stacked them like this?” Monica began stacking the baskets in a pyramaid like formation, alternating the basket location. The kids began adding to her structure and it got larger and larger. We were very excited for our new discovery!

Monica shares a new way to build with the materials. "It's stronger!"

We also continued our exploration with problem solving in math workshop today. The kids were challenged to work in pairs and work together to show their thinking.

Dylan sharing her work with the class.

Math workshop exploration continues. Ruth and Angela share their thinking.

Group problem solving time.

 Today our class began group problem solving during math workshop. We sat in a big circle and I presented the kids with a story problem. “Cameron had six bunnies. He found two more. How many did he have?” Some friends knew the answer instinctively and shouted out, “Eight! Eight! Eight!”  Instead of recognizing friends that had the answer right away, I challanged the kids to instead “show” the answer instead of telling. We started with our colored bear manipulatives. “How can  you show bunnies were added to Cameron’s group?” The kids were then asked to try to show this with the colored bears.  Kids had different ways to show this. Some used different sized bears to represent the change. Some used different colors. Some grouped their bears on the carpet in front of them. One student made a circle around the bears that were added. We talked about the different ways we showed the change.

Kaitlyn explains the two large bears are being added to the six smaller bears.

 I then presented the kids with a different story problem with larger numbers. They were encouraged to use other math manipulatives to show their work. We again talked about the different ways friends showed their thinking using their tools. One of our focuses during math workshop this year is that our time is not about getting an answer, it is about showing our thinking. The children will constantly be challenged to try thinking a new way and represent problems in new ways they may had not thought of before. Eventually, we will be recording our thinking in math journals which will serve as a way to keep track of our problem solving and how it develops throughout the year.

Cameron showing how he used a different material to represent the same problem.

Investigating the growing collection.

Friends looking at our interesting materials.

We had a busy day today! Children came in this morning very excited to share their collected materials from over the weekend. We had a time during the day where each child who brought in materials could share one of their favorite objects and then put the rest of their interesting materials in the middle of our circle. The kids are excited to spend more time with the materials tomorrow and investigate different uses for them.

Our question of the day started many discussions about planes.

Our class has also continued to talk about airplanes and our growing interest for them. Our daily question, Have you ever been on an airplane? began a lot of discussion about planes and who had flown before and who desired to. Our class library has a new section all about airplanes and the kids are continuing to play with airplanes and create them during our explore time. I noticed many of our friends are creating airplanes in many different forms, including in books, paintings, and drawings.

Regan paints an airplane.

Aidan, Da'Sean, and David making their planes fly!

Regan, Angela, and Monica inspect the materials.

Yesterday, one of our friends brought in a large container of materials. Inside were all sorts of interesting things; Gatorade and juice lids, old spice containers, milk rings, marker caps, and many other circular objects. The kids enjoyed inspecting and looking at the new materials and were interested in them again this morning during arrival activities. Some friends even started building with the materials and creating pictures. We decided as a class that we would like to have more interesting materials such as the ones brought in for our use in the studio and for future projects. Tomorrow, I will be sending home a letter from our class with more details and a brown paper bag to help hold found objects your child finds at home. Please assist them on this journey in building a more enriching studio for our class. I can’t wait to see where this investigation leads!

Do you see a face?

Christian explains, "I'm trying to figure out which one is the smallest."