IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Today was a great day to start our week.  We played a new game Headbandz which the children LOVED!  We played both in the morning and then at our free choice time.  It is such a good game to get the children to ask broad questions to figure out one item!  We are going to play this more throughout the week!

Sarah baked cupcakes today to celebrate her birthday today and the pure joy beaming from her was really beautiful to see.  As we were singing to her she had such a sweet and happy face on.

Today we began exploring non-standard units of measuring.  We read a great book all about measuring with our feet so the children traced their foot and then cut it out.  Tomorrow we are going to use the feet they cut out to measure things around the room.  But we have a problem…all of our feet are different so how do we get the same results from our measurements?
That will be an exploration we will pursue later this week!

This week we have been reading informational texts on various kinds of homes.  Yesterday we read a book about houses on the water.  There was a great experiment in the back of the book to see if the children could make their own floating home.  The children were so enthusiastic about this experiment that during Free Choice they made their very own homes!

We made predictions on whether or not our homes would float or sink.

At the end of the day today we got a large bowl of water to see if they would indeed float.  Much anticipation was present as each child got their raft and put it in the bowl.  Zakeyah made a great chart to show how many floated and how many sunk.

Results-ALL FLOATED!  The children were super excited about these results!

We are studying informational texts this week, and today I read a book about homes on the water.  I cannot believe how into the book they were!  Miss Boyle and I kept looking at each other while we watched them ask question after question.  The children were so inspired that they have decided to add a pond to Mouse City and then make a house on stilts to put over the pond.  We were planning and problem solving that today!

We also have been measuring a lot this week.  We had this awesome road and sidewalk that Isai and Sarah made, but then we did not know if the mouse spaces were going to fit so we had to measure them to see how long each one was, and then we had to measure the white space on our street to see which space fit the best.

Again, Mouse City has been such an engaging and purposeful way to teach various math concepts and collaboration!  And now, measuring!!

Yesterday Jett shared with us during our morning meeting that he was taking a hip-hop class after school.  The children were excited and curious.  Today, during free choice, Isaac and Jett were wanting to show some of their moves to each other.  Before we knew it there was a line of chairs and multiple performances ranging from singing to ballet to hip-hop.  I love that the children were inspired by Jett to show their performance talents.  What was fun was that at the end we had about 10 students in chairs watching holding clipboards writing the order of performances down.  They were so excited!  I have to say that the best part of this “concert” was that children felt comfortable to perform and supported by their applause-I even did a little rendition of “I’m a Little Teapot!”

We will see where this enthusiasm towards performing goes tomorrow!!

BRRRR….what a cold day! Today we read a book about MLK, Jr.  Then we had a wonderful discussion about who he was and what he stood for-primarily peace and kindness were the traits we talked about.

Today we began our Family Fun Bag.  Each day we will send home the family fun bag with one child where there are some activities and books to do at home with your child.  This is a fun way to connect what we are doing in school at home.  We hope that you have fun with it and please let me know if you have any questions!