IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Today, we learned about some new things.  One of those new things was the idea of “Stop…and think!”  We talked about this during Reader’s Workshop so that we can begin to really think about what we are reading about when we are reading books.  The children during their independent reading time, I noticed, were stopping and thinking.  By stopping and thinking about what we are reading, that will help us with our comprehension and summarizing.

We also learned our new spelling words which are “can”, “for”, “go”, “here”, “see”.   I put them on the homework list too so you can see them there as well.  It is so fun to see the children spotting these words around them!

Another thing that we talked about today was self-portrait collages.  These are collages that are made with beautiful “stuff” around us.  They can be beads, twigs, leaves, berries, nails, magazine cut outs, etc.  We started to make our own self-portrait collages today.  Geneva, Madeline P., and Emily were the ones that wanted to do them today, and I was so proud of their work!  I am excited to see what the children make throughout the week.

Geneva working on her self portrait collage.

One of our resources we are using to help us make our self-portrait collages.

Today, we were so excited to welcome Joseph back to our class!  He transferred to another school a couple of weeks ago, but then came back to our class today!  The children were so excited to see him this morning and all day they were saying “Hi Joseph!” and “Come play with us Joseph!”  It was nice to see how warm and receptive they were to their friend.

We ended our spelling this week with spelling the words as we bounced the big yoga ball.  Then each child came up with a sentence with one of their spelling words and shared it with their friends.  “I like my…” was the most popular phrase and then the children changed the endings up.  I was very proud of them!  I will put the next 5 spelling words on the Homework Extension list next Monday.

Saa being "Mrs. Bucher" this morning during our Morning Meeting.

Sydney and Shaniyia working on writing words together during our Free Choice time!

Geneva getting ready to catch the ball so she can then say her sentence with a spelling word in it.

Good evening!  Today we unveiled our new notebook system within the class!  On the back of our mailboxes we have two pockets for each child.  One pocket is for their word wall notebook.  The other pocket is for their math notebook.  The children will have access to these each day to help them with their writing, reading, spelling, and math.  We are all quite excited about it, and some children were already using them as a resource!

We had a fun time at Math Family Night tonight!  I hope you all had a nice time playing games with your family!

Our new notebook set up in classroom!

Today, I was so impressed with the children during Writer’s Workshop.  This week we have been talking a lot about how the text and pictures match when writing and reading stories.  I asked why do the text and pictures match in stories, and one child said, “because then it tells the whole story, and it’s the proper way you make a book.” The children have really taken to this, and they have been working hard writing text to match their illustrations!

Reminder that tomorrow night is our Math Family Night at 6pm!  Hope to see you there!

Oliver and Jonah doing the "see saw" pose (stretching their backs) during yoga today.

Emily's bear that she made using one of her Reader's Workshop books as a resource for the art.

Before you start reading the blog, I want to apologize for the length of this entry.  I just kept typing and kept typing.  🙂

We had an interesting discussion today.  So, since the beginning of school there has always been a desire from the children to be the line leaders (one for the boys line and one for the girls line) throughout the day.  Today, just being curious, I asked the children why they wanted to be line leaders.  I was then surrounded by very articulate and thoughtful children who told me why they wanted to be the line leader.  Emily said, “I cannot hear or see when I am in the back so I like to be in the front so I can hear you.”  DeOnna said, “I want to hurry in (from wherever we are coming from) and get my spot so I can sit and do what I am supposed to do.”  Heaven said, “I want to get in quickly.”

I thought it was very interesting to hear their perspectives about why they want or like to be in the front.  We were talking about maybe timing the person in the front to see how long it took them to get to where they need to be and then timing the person in the back to see how long it takes them because we thought “Is there a big difference in time between the first person and last person?”  Then DeOnna said, “I have an idea!  Why don’t we take turns so each day there is a new person in front of the line!”  The children reacted with such excitement and gratitude towards that idea so tomorrow we are going to start that.  I am going to pick two people at random to be the line leaders, and we will continue to do that until everyone has a turn.  Then, we will start over.

I just thought it was a very mature conversation we had today with much articulation and good collaboration that I wanted to share it with you.

Today we began a self-portrait study!  The next few weeks before Winter Break we will be exploring the idea of self portraits.  We have done a couple of self portraits before, but we have never really discussed them much in class.  We will look at various artists and their self-portraits.  We will use different materials to make self portraits.  By taking time to focus and look closely at ourselves, it helps with focusing and looking closely at our writing and reading.  I am excited to explore this idea of self-portraits more!

I cannot begin to tell you how excited the children were to see snow today!  We were busy doing Free Choice/Project Work when all of a sudden someone realized it was snowing.  Then almost all of the children huddled by the window cheering that it was snowing!  It was so fun to see their excitement!  Hopefully there is more snow tomorrow so they can enjoy it further.

Madeline P. reading some poems to the class today!

Some of the children huddled by the window enjoying the snow!

Isaac working on his self portrait tracing today.