IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Today was such an exciting day!  To celebrate Read Across America Day we had two events where we celebrated books.  The first one took place this morning before lunch.  Two published authors came and read Pete the Popcorn which they wrote!  It was about how everyone is different but so important!  After reading the book the two authors, Nick and Joseph, asked for a few examples of our friends and teachers to share what they liked about each other.  Then, they told us to keep encouraging each other and filling each other’s buckets!  I thought it was such a great connection to what we already do each day!

This afternoon we celebrated Dr. Suess’ birthday!  A group from Pi Phi and Butler came to our school and had a surprise birthday party!  They gave each child a Cat in the Hat hat, a bookmark, and a delicious homemade cookie!  The Cat in the Hat actually came and read The Cat in the Hat.  Then the group hosting the party donated over 200 books to the Butler Lab School!!  We will now be able to share these books among the four classrooms this year and continue to foster a love for reading and books in our classrooms!

We continued to work on the rocket today!  The children decided that our rocket boosters that originally were going to be toilet paper rolls needed to be sturdy.  As we were looking around the room it appeared that we could use the canister that our snack was in for our boosters!  So, we asked the other teachers if we could use theirs once they were finished.  As the day was coming to a close, I read Regards to the Man in the Moonby Ezra Jack Keats.  This book is consumed by the thought that imagination is what drives us and should be celebrated!!  It is about a friend who uses his imagination to travel into space and see all of the beautiful things around him!  At the end of the story it says, “Soon all the kids were ready to take off.”  I told our friends this afternoon after we were done reading to be ready to “take off” on Monday.  There is some fun stuff awaiting them!

Our rocket coming to life!

After the children came back from the party, this is what Emily and Sydney did!

The Cat in the Hat!

Our friends engrossed in watching the Cat in the Hat read!

One of the authors of "Pete the Popcorn" celebrating with some of our friends their compliments towards each other.

Today we began creating the rocket/spacecraft/space shuttle (depending on who you ask it has a different title).  After the children made plans yesterday of what they wanted the rocket to look like, they used those plans to help them create the rocket today!  We are in the beginning stages of it, but tomorrow we are going to continue to work on it.

THIS HAS BEEN SUCH A FUN WEEK!!

Mr. Nored led a discussion with the children about finding juicy “sight” words in books, and the children came up with some great ideas from the book he read.  In the afternoon he showed a picture of Saturn and the children had some wonderful juicy words to talk about like it was “slanted” and “light” and “yellow/brown”.  All of this exploration of juicy words that has to do with our senses is to help us notice those juicy words in books we are reading as well as use those words in our own writing to really engage our readers even more than we already are.  After the conversation was done about Saturn, we had them get into their best Saturn “statue.”  Mr. Nored and I noticed some pretty great statues with much creativity!

Mr. Nored working hard to cut the box for our rocket!

Isaac beautiful illustration of rockets!

First of all, what a beautiful day today was!  We enjoyed outside during recess, then we did yoga outside, then we read Charlotte’s Web and ate snack outside…everyone  just LOVED it!

Yesterday when I walked into the classroom, I noticed there were two big boxes in the room.  When the children walked in, some asked, “What are those boxes for?”  So, after Reader’s Workshop we had a wonderfully engaging conversation about what the boxes were for, and each child that offered their suggestion said some form of rocket should be made!  Some of the children went over to the boxes to describe what we should do!

Then this afternoon while some friends continued to work on their paper towel tube rockets, some other friends drew plans for what they wanted the rocket to look like.  While these two things were happening, some friends started working on a mural with oil pastels.  They added some beautiful rockets to our mural.  Each week we will continue to add “space” objects to our mural as we learn about them.

The last thing that we did during our project work time was have a fun balloon rocket race.  The children tied two lines of fishing lines from one chair to another chair.  Then, we blew up balloons and attached them to two straws.  Then the children released the balloons and off they went!  It was so fun.  The children were counting down (like real countdowns) then cheering for both friends who were releasing the balloons.  After we cleaned up from our project work time, we had a great discussion about how this balloon experiment worked.  Emily said that when the air went out the balloon went forward!   Madeline S. said that it stopped when the air went out.  Then, Malachi offered some great connections to rockets in that he said it was just like when the gas and fire goes out of rockets-they stop!

What a wonderful day!!

Malachi, Isaac, and Selam working with Miss Kesler on some plans for our rocket!

Tevona doing a beautiful job drawing a rocket on our mural.

Miss Templeton helping Heaven and Madeline P. get ready for their balloon rocket race!

5, 4, 3, 2, 1 BLAST OFF!  We are on our way into Space.  We read some books today on rockets, watched a shuttle launch on NASA’s website (which the children were just fascinated by), and then some friends made rockets during our Project Work/Free Choice time.  It was so fun and they were asking so many great questions so I am excited to see where this goes.  The three friends that were making the rockets out of found materials were talking about making “boosters”, and the “triangle on top” and the “wings” so I am excited to see that they are remembering what we have talked about when it comes to rockets/space shuttles.

Today while reading Charlotte’s Web the children were so captivated by what we were reading.  When I got to a stopping point, they begged me to keep reading!  It was great so I kept reading!!  We have about 40 pages left in the book so I am going to start looking for a new chapter book to read with the children!

Three of the rockets that were made today...BLAST OFF!

Some of our friends making rockets!

Today Mr. Nored started his full time teaching and what a way to start!  He did such a great job today really engaging the children and facilitating great conversations with the children.

We began a study of sensory images today.  We talked about how in great books there is often really good descriptions that make us feel that we are there (whether it is by the descriptions of the smells, tastes, feel, seeing, or sound).  This afternoon for Writer’s Workshop Mr. Nored led a wonderful lesson on how if you look at a white and black banana you only see a little bit of the banana.  If you look at a yellow banana printed on a paper, you see a bit more, but if you look and smell and touch and taste a real banana then you are that much more engaged and interested.  We then talked about how with books the more descriptive we are the more interested the reader is because you are making them feel like they are a part of whatever the description is.  It was such a great experience that made all of the children want a banana!  Selam after Mr. Nored was finished with his lesson said, “I am going to eat a banana after school!”

Mr. Nored also led a discussion today on what we knew about rockets and then any questions we have about rockets.  There were some good ideas like Sydney’s idea of “you have to count 5, 4, 3, 2, 1” and Jonah’s idea of “one goes in space and in space the other part detaches.”  Some questions that the children were wondering about were Emily’s question of “Can they bring food in rockets?”

Tomorrow we are going to do quite a bit surrounding the idea of rockets so we are excited to show you some pictures of tomorrow’s events!