IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Just a reminder, both of the 1st & 2nd grade classes will be going on a field trip to the Children’s Museum tomorrow. The workers at the Children’s Museum need our help!    Our kids have been given the challenge to figure out where a mysterious stain has come from.  As we have shared in previous blogs, the kids have been preparing by exploring different science tools.  Check out a few pictures below from our exploration of hydometers today!

This Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, our very own Lucas, Beatrice, and Ruth will be performing in The Wiz at Warren Central High School. As they make their stage debut, we would love to support them as a community. If your family is able, come out to the show! Tickets are $10 for adults and $8 for students. We would love to see you there.

Our day was filled with science today in preparation for our field trip.

During morning meeting, we tested our hypotheses from yesterday about the different liquids in the jar.

A few students decided we should try mixing salt, water, and glue and then put it on paper to see how it dries.  They want to compare our papers to the note we got to see if we can learn any more about what is in the leak.

We had another science meeting where we worked on reading thermometers accurately.  The scientists discovered that thermometers are similar to number lines and you skip count by 2 to figure out the exact temperature.

Earlier in the week I mentioned that we explored a new tool called a hydrometer.  Many of the students theories about saltwater being related to the hydrometer were right on track.  We now know that hydrometers measure density.  We have been exploring the concept of density and we started by using our bodies as an example.  When only 2-3 are on the carpet, the carpet is not very dense.  The students can move around easily and freely.  As we keep adding more and more students the carpet becomes more and more dense and it is harder to move around! Saltwater is more dense than regular water because we are adding salt into the water just like adding bodies to the carpet.

This morning the students were observing a jar with three liquids in it.  One liquid is a dark brown, one is clear, and one is yellowish.  The liquids form layers in the jar.  The students observed the jar and made hypotheses about what liquids they thought it could be.  Some students thought coffee, syrup, lemonade, water, and oil are possibly in the jar.  The students are also curious about why the liquids look separate.  Tomorrow in morning meeting we will test our theories and figure out which liquids we are looking at as well as how this relates to density.  Our scientists are going to be very prepared for our investigation at the Children’s Museum next week!

Today, our students from Butler taught during many parts of the day!  Miss Gitskin did a read aloud that introduced another author for our upcoming author study.  She introduced the idea of word choice to the students and we noticed that sometimes authors repeat their words to add emphasis or create a rhythm.  Chairo used some repeating phrases in his story and then he was able to share this with the class at the end of Story Workshop.

During math, each of the Butler students chose a read aloud connected to one of the math concepts we’ve worked on this year.  The students worked in small groups with the Butler friends and listened to their book and then completed a problem connected to it in their math journals.  The students were very engaged and loved hearing stories during math workshop!