Dec 06 2012
Yesterday at the Rhythm Discovery Center, we learned that forte means loud and piano means soft. Today, we experimented with dancing to music that was forte and piano. When the music got really loud, friends were encouraged to make their bodies “big”, reach tall, and do big movements. When the music was piano, we crouched down low, were quiet, and made small movements.
Dec 05 2012
Today we went on our field trip to the Rhythm Discovery Center downtown! It was incredible! The Rhythm Discovery Center is basically “An instrument museum” (Greyson’s words). We learned about different types of instruments, many we had never seen or heard of before! Our guide was fabulous and gave us an opportunity to play many of the instruments, including a giant tam tam and a giant gong! At the end of our visit, we formed a drum circle and played with our guide. We practiced playing fast and slow, soft (piano) and loud (forte). Afterwards, we had some freestyle time and friends were given the opportunity to play and dance. It was such a joyful time.
Afterwards, we had lunch in the Indianpolis Arts Garden. To our delight, several choirs were there singing Christmas carols. It was such a peaceful and enjoyable lunch! I was so proud too, our class had many compliments about how good of an audience we were being. I was so glad our class was able to end our field trip with a real life performance- it just seems fitting. The perfect ending to the perfect day!
Dec 05 2012
On Monday, December 3rd, the Block A students shared their final Teacher Research Projects. The teacher research project was a hands-on way for the Block A students to experience classroom life. Butler professors, Lab School faculty, friends, and family were all invited to attend this event. This event was the culmination of a semester’s work of research. Each student had the opportunity to showcase his/her accomplishments from the semester. We spent ten weeks in the classrooms collecting data and observing our students to try to answer our questions.
Throughout the course of the semester, we had to complete a variety of tasks as teachers in the classroom. These included: read alouds, conferencing, small group instruction, and a math/literature lesson. When we first started administering these tasks, questions started to form. Each Block A student came up with a different and thought-provoking question. These questions were unique to individual classrooms and focused on our own educational philosophies.
A lot of time and effort was put into the Teacher Research Projects, and the end results really showed it. We are very proud of our fellow classmates and friends. These projects were completed with professionalism and presented with confidence. We can not wait to see what Block B has in store!
Written by: Kara Saks, Sam Karmia, and Sara McDonald
Dec 04 2012
Today, we continued to discover new genres of music. We practiced moving our bodies to bluegrass and classical music! This afternoon, I played one of the kids’ favorite genres thus far- polka- and gave them a challenge. Close your eyes and think of a story that matches the music. The stories were incredible. Dancing bears, magic holes, donkeys on mountains- the works! Friends were then encouraged to tell those stories during Story Workshop, while more polka music played. Its incredible how music affects our creativity. We are excited to try this again tomorrow, except with a new genre… What types of stories will we get then?
Dec 04 2012
Every morning during morning meeting, friends are invited to shake hands with one another. Recently, we have been discussing the importance of making eye contact while doing this. Today, we had a conversation about other times when making eye contact could be important, such as share time. Friends even came up with reasons why making eye contact is important. They are as follows:
So you feel respected.
So they know you’re taking them seriously.
So they know you’re listening.
So they know you’re their friend.
