IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Today was an exciting day!  We continued to talk about bravery (in terms of our performance coming up).  We went and saw Jamari and Makayla perform a short skit with a theater group that has been coming for the past few weeks.  It was wonderful because we had to practice being the audience instead of the performers.  Our group did such an amazing job listening to the actors perform and participating when needed (Our job was to say “The sky is falling” when the director told us to).

Yesterday and today we played a game called “Buzz” during Math Workshop to work on counting by 10’s and 5’s.  One group stood in a circle and we counted to 100.  Everytime a child got to “10”, “20”, “30” etc.  they would be buzzed to sit down.  The last person standing won the game.  The other group I played with played the same game but counted to 300 by “5’s”.  They really loved playing this game so it might be a game we revisit!

Today during our Yoga time we learned a new pose-the mountain pose.  The children for the second day in a row did an excellent job listening, breathing, and doing the poses that Mrs. Williams asked of us.  You might ask why we are doing yoga in our class.  The reason we are doing yoga each day after recess is to get our minds and bodies ready for Reader’s Workshop.  It helps us focus and prepare for continued learning for the day.  I am really excited about Mrs. Williams yoga each and every day.

Oliver and Jonah sharing each other's books during Writer's Workshop.

Madeline S. showing us the "Mountain" pose during our yoga time.

Our friends being a great audience for the theater group!

Good morning everyone!  I just wanted to send out a wish list of things we need for the classroom.

They are:

number dice

kleenex

snacks (anything really for snack now except things with nuts)

clipboards

glue sticks

Thank you thank you thank you!

Happy Monday to you all!  This week we will be practicing for our show on Thursday.  We are and will continue to read books about bravery and courage when it comes to performing in particular.  The kids decided today that they would like to perform their shows for the preschoolers so on Thursday we hope to practice in front of an audience.  I cannot begin to tell you how proud they are of themselves for this whole puppet project.

Today was a special day because Mrs. Williams, Heaven’s mother, came into our class to do yoga with us.  She has been doing it everyday for a while with Mrs. Clark’s class, and now she is going to start doing it with us everyday.  It was AMAZING to see the children respond in such a respectful and hardworking way towards Mrs. Williams.  Today we focused on breathing and downward facing dog.  The children really did a wonderful job so I am excited to see how it continues to go in the future!

Mrs. Williams discussing the breathing you must do during yoga.

Madeline P. focusing on her breathing during yoga.

DeOnna practicing the downward facing dog pose.

So, today was a good day!  Oliver figured out our curtain woes so now we have a functioning and beautiful curtain!  I had the fabric stapled onto the back of our stage, and then I had four ropes stapled and hanging down, but they were not pulling up the curtain.  So, I asked Oliver this morning how we could get it up, and he said, “Maybe if we put it under the curtain and then loop it over it would pull the curtain up.”  Woohoo!  It worked!  The children are so excited about it.

We have four three sheeters completed, and let me tell you…amazing!  The children did multiple drafts to get to where they are, and I am so proud of their work.

This week we have really been practicing our shows.  We talked today that there will be between 50-60 people there on Thursday night.  We talked about how we  need to make sure and use louder voices so that everyone can hear us.  We also talked about we needed to make sure the puppets can be seen.  Then a few of our friends said, “We also need to make sure and be brave.” I loved that moment!  They have been working hard, and we will continue to practice next week to get us ready for next Thursday.

So proud of our little actors.

Saa painting some of his three sheeter!

opening up!

Almost ready to be opened....

Today, we had such a good day filled with some serious hard work in preparing for our puppet shows as well as creating wonderful books, solving problems during math workshop, and reading with some great enthusiasm.  Earlier this week we began talking about verbs with the ending -ing.  Today we began talking about words with the -ed ending.  Since we have begun talking about the endings in words, the children have been spotting them all around us!  It is amazing to see their commitment and enthusiasm for learning!

We have a couple of three sheeters almost finished, some sets to include in some of the shows, and let me tell you about these puppets-today, with the support of our Butler students, the children worked so hard to continue to add to their puppets.  Each time we worked on them, they were so engaged in preparing their puppets and adding more materials to make it more like they want it to look.  At the end of the day we decided to perform our shows for each other.  I had to read the stories so fast so each group could use their puppets and perform.  Even though it was a quick run though, the children really were excited about performing for each other.

I was so proud of them!