IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

As many of you have heard our kids have been working very hard on their independent author study books.  We made personal invitations in class today, but just another reminder, we will be celebrating all of this great work on Wednesday from 6-7 at the school!  The kids are looking forward to sharing their hard work with all of you!

As some of you may have heard, there is a new face in Miss Cegielski’s class.  A student teacher has joined the amazing students to learn and grow with them in their learning and thinking.

First and foremost, thank you for welcoming me into the class and allowing me to work with your amazing children.  Each and everyone of them are kind, caring, smart, enthusiastic learners who share their joy with everyone.  It is quite an experience to get to know them.

My name is Joey Crume.  I spent last semester at the Opal School in Portland, Oregon.  Opal School is also a Reggio inspired school and focuses on the education of the whole child.  I was placed in a fifth grade classroom and learned a great deal about the excitement and possibility for Reggio practices with older students.  Our curriculum was focused on the unfolding of historically imaginative play surrounding the New World, starting with Columbus sailing from Portugal.  I also spent a great deal learning about social emotional education specifically in regards to group dynamics and finally math workshop.  This semester, I am honored to be learning about early literacy, story workshop, readers workshop, and the strong building blocks of mathematical understandings.  The experiences I am having, thus far, are also helping me to make meaning of this beautiful and respectful way that children learn and process the world.  Miss Cegielski, the students, and many of the parents have been so kind and welcoming.  I look forward to sharing more stories, hearing more stories and growing with all of you as the year progresses.  Until next time… Joey

We will be celebrating our published work from our Authors Study next Wednesday, February 13 from 6-7.  The kids are so excited to share their work with you!

Today we were so excited to welcome four Block A students from Butler into our classroom: Miss Sofianopoulos, Miss Kampel, Miss Chapman, and Mr. Heeter.  Our Butler friends got to know the students today and the students had a great time showing them the routines and procedures in our room.  They will join us each Monday and we look forward to working with them this semester!

This afternoon we revisited the classroom agreement “Take Care of our Friends.”  Earlier in the year we did an activity where we folded up “LeBron” a friend drawn on a piece of paper every time we said something unkind to him.  Then we tried to fix him by saying kind words and unfolding him.  Today we did a similar activity to encourage the students to think about their words before they speak.

We first thought about something hurtful that someone had done to us.  We went around the circle and shared something that had hurt us.  After sharing we squirted a pump of hand sanitizer in a cup.  When everyone had shared we had a cup full of “mean words and actions.” I then challenged the students to put their mean words back where they came from.  The students tried a few things, but they realized they couldn’t take the words back.  Here’s a bit of our conversation following the activity.

Himiko: “You can’t take something back after you say it.”

Chairo: “You can remember when someone hurts your feelings for a long time.”

Miss Cegielski: “What can we do before we hurt someone’s feelings with our words?”

J’Nayla: “We should think before we speak.”

After our discussion I shared an idea to help the students “THINK” before they speak:

T: Is it true? H: Is it helpful? I: Is it inspiring? N: Is it necessary? K: Is it kind?

I challenged the students to think before they speak and use our THINK chart to help them decide if what they have to say is worth saying or if they should keep it to themselves.  We’ll continue to explore the idea of friendship and building positive relationships in our classroom during our morning meetings!