IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Today was another day filled with hard work, engagement, and enthusiasm!

Besides writer’s workshop, math workshop, and reader’s workshop today we also went to a presentation hosted by Ronald McDonald.  The whole presentation was about being a good friend and what to do when you are faced with a bully-go tell a teacher or ask a friend to help.  Ronald McDonald was very enthusiastic, and the children just LOVED him and the show.

Mrs. Grotjan continued to work on the puppet stage with the class during our Studio time…we are getting close to being done with it!

Today we spoke about our field trip to Clowes coming up tomorrow.  The children became so excited when I told them that we would be the only ones in the theater…you should have seen their smiles!  We talked about how we are going to use what we see and learn about tomorrow to help us prepare for our show.

Ronald McDonald!

Look at that letter "H"!

Some of our friends making a letter "x"

I hope you all had a wonderful break!  It was so great to get back to school and see everyone today!  The children were so engaged and excited to be back at school which was wonderful to see.  I could not believe how hard the children were working, listening, and working collaboratively!

Today, we began some new things in the room-the message center and the finger puppet stage.  Our friends were so excited to get started writing messages to each other and putting them in their friends’ mailboxes.  The finger puppet stage was also a hit today.  There were some imaginative puppet shows going on including Gerald and Piggie from Mo Willem’s Gerald and Piggie books.

I put reminders in the mailboxes today, but remember we are going to Clowes on Wednesday and the puppet show at Peewinkle’s Puppet Studio on Saturday, if you choose.

If you are feeling like donating anything to our class, we are in need of snacks for our room, empty egg cartons, and construction paper…

A puppet show in the making!

Friends busy writing messages to each other!

Our mailboxes with some messages already in them!

still in progress. 🙂  We got some great head way with our puppet stage this week, but we are still not finished with it.  The Clowes trip I think will be a perfect time for us to go because we will be finishing up our stage that week, and we will be able to begin to focus on what to prepare besides the stage for our shows.  The children have really enjoyed building and using tools…they have been so responsible and safe with the tools as well so that has been nice to see that they have learned tool safety!

Today, some of our friends became intrigued by some numbers that were down in Mrs. Argus’ class.  The kiddos saw the numbers 1-100 taped down on her floor.  When the two children came back to our room, they told us what they saw and then the children wanted to do that too, but we talked about maybe making our numbers from the door to our math notebooks!  First we guessed how many number cards we would have to make to reach from our door to the math notebooks in the center of the room.  Shaniyia  and Emily guessed 100.  Madeline P. guessed 36.  DeOnna guessed 1200.  It was amazing to see how engaged the children were during this time of making our numbers.  They were taking turns, writing the numbers themselves, and all I did was provide tape for them!  We got to 100, but we are not to the math notebooks yet….we will see how many more it will take to get there!

I hope you all have a wonderful Fall Break, and we will see you in a couple of weeks!

Jamari working on our number line on the floor!

Mekhi, Madeline, and Malachi looking at the Studio table to use that as a guide for our puppet stage. How clever!

Geneva assisting Oliver while he drilled a screw into the side of the stage.

Hello hello!  This morning some of our friends continued to work on the stage.  They get so excited to build the stage.  When the small group came back into the classroom after working with Mrs. Grotjan, Joseph said, “I had so much fun building (while he was imitating him drilling).”

Tomorrow remember is picture day where the children can wear whatever they want.  Also, tomorrow night at 6pm is our second Parent Council Meeting.

Today in the studio Mrs. Grotjan helped our friends plan and begin to build our puppet stage.  it was so exciting to see the friends so excited to build away!  They were so anxious to get their hands on the tools!  We will continue to work on building our stage the next few days.

Sydney working hard on drilling the legs into the table top!