IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Today, we had a special visitor come to our classroom! Our friend Kaelina’s mom came to read us a story, teach us a song about holding a crayon, and introduce us to Mat Man! We have been working hard learning about good handwriting and how to properly hold a pencil, so this was great reinforcement! We had the chance to practice our new pencil grip while drawing a self portrait that included the same parts of the body that Mat Man has! We are excited to continue to practice holding crayons and pencils and writing so that a reader can read our words!

All Cooped Up: Since the spring, the Butler Lab School 60 has been engaging their students with a chicken coop! The chickens are laying eggs in the chicken coop and the students have opportunities to observe and watch.  The classes alternate week by week and each get to feed and give water to the chickens.  This week Miss Cegielski’s class fed the chickens and found one egg on Wednesday.

Lately Miss Cegielski’s students have shown interest in Abraham Lincoln and the issue of slavery in the past.  Miss Cegielski has been displaying books and asking the students questions which has led to incredible conversation in the class! The students are incredibly interested about this topic and have treated the issue very respectfully.

-Carly Plumlee

Update from the Butler classroom: Outside of the classroom, we have been working hard on completing our Teacher Research Reports.  Throughout the entire semester, some of our work has been centered around a question we came up with at the start of the semester.  As we have compiled data and implemented interventions with the children, we have accumulated loads of work to help us with our findings.  We are currently in the process of putting all of this data in to one place, the Teacher Research Binder.  In this will include our question, context (data about the school, classroom, focal child), information on our question, our interventions (work completed with focal child), findings, and conclusions.  While completing this report and looking back at the past few months, it has been extremely enlightening, and has made the entire semester of work seem extremely worthwhile.  It has been a joy to work with the kids at the Lab School, and we have learned as much from the kids as they have from us.

-Bo Davidson

Dreams Come True: I (Maggie) am placed in the preschool classroom at School 60, also known as St. Mary’s.  My favorite thing about St. Mary’s is that the students direct their own learning and the teachers administer it.  One way I can example this was when Mae, a three year old, came into class talking about a dream she had the night before. She said that she woke up in the middle of the night because she was painting leaves in her dream.  She was fascinated by this and could not stop talking about this. Ms. Fogler, the head teacher, asked Mae if she would like to paint leaves and other parts of nature in class. Of course, Mae and all the other students were more than excited for this activity! They all went outside and picked up leaves, sticks, branches, etc. and then painted them in the classroom.  This is a perfect example of how students direct the classroom, but the teacher administers it.  It is the teacher’s job to find things that the students are interested and put them in a project.

-Maggie Harbison

During math workshop this week, we have been studying multiplication! Students have excelled with working through these more difficult mathematical concepts in their journals and with whole group experiences. We learned a new math game that helps strengthen these multiplication skills called fill it up and I think it is our new class favorite! Each child has a partner, aboard, counters, and a die to work with. They role the die and depending on their game board, make groups of 1,2, or 3 that correspond to the number they rolled. Then, they count out the total number and find that number spot on the board. They use a marker to cover that spot. The goal is to cover the most numbers they can! Students worked hard to solve each equation and had wonderful conversations with their partner about the problems along the way!

Exciting things are happening I our classroom, in studio, and in yoga! Our students have taken a big interest in how yoga helps our body, the muscle systems, and using art to depict their body and how it moves! For the past few weeks, Mrs. Grotjan and Mrs. Williams have been working together to engage students in experiences that connect yoga with the arts. In our classroom, we have just begun to explore our body and the muscles we have. As this special project continues to unfold outside our classroom, we will comtimue to comment this learning to work happening each day! Be on the look out for news about an upcoming field trip that connects to these experiences!

This week, we added a new step to our story workshop cycle. To encourage our students to think about improving their writing, we created a critique form. This is a place where students can receive feedback on a story they have written, both positive and parts to improve on. This will help students become more independent as writers and learn how to accept critical comments without their feelings being hurt. I was impressed by how well each child did this today and can’t wait to see how this tool is used throughout the year!