IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Remember that the fall carnival is tomorrow night from 6-8.  We hope to see many of you there!

-Lab School Teachers

Today, we made School 60 history!

Last week, a few students noticed that a brick wall on on side of our playground was being repaired and it had a hollow center. At the suggestion of Miss Simpson, children began to brainstorm what we could put into the wall for someone to find later! After much brainstorming and debate, we decided to fill a jar with noted, that way we wouldn’t be sad if we never got the contents back!

Today, we wrote down what we hoped to be doing in twenty years on paper and put these notes in the jar. We included a note from us that included the date, time, and a little about our school. We set the jar outside by the wall for the repairman to place and can’t wait to see the wall our patched up with our little secret inside!

Last week, we began to discuss division concepts during math workshop. While the students didn’t realize they were dividing, they eagerly engaged in experiences revolving around this operation. We talked about sharing fairly and equally among a group of people and what to do if you had anything left over that couldn’t be cut into pieces of a whole.

Today, we gave this process a name– division! The students were impressed with themselves because they thought this was much more complicated. As we continue to work in our journals this week, we are learning from strategies that our friends are using!

Ask your child to divide something between family members or between themselves and their siblings. They are very proud of their knowledge of the skill!

This Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, our very own Lucas, Beatrice, and Ruth will be performing in The Wiz at Warren Central High School. As they make their stage debut, we would love to support them as a community. If your family is able, come out to the show! Tickets are $10 for adults and $8 for students. We would love to see you there.

This week, we have been discussing how to use critiques that friends give us to revise our writing. This is an important part of the writing process and something we want students to understand!

On Tuesday, students were divided into groups and asked to create an observational drawings of various objects around the classroom. They worked very hard on these and they turned out great. We talked about this as the first step of a three part process that we would utilize when creating these sketches.

With the help of our Butler friends on Wednesday, we critiqued each others work. Each child offered two specific praises for their partners work and one thing they wished for. This reinforced the idea of constructive criticism, while still offering students some areas for improvement.

Today, we revisited our drawings and revised the work based on what our parter offered us as a wish. The students really took their feedback to heart and the results were impressive! Next week, we will learn how to transfer these ideas from drawing and use the during story workshop to help us become better authors! This work is displayed outside our room, so stop by and see!