IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

We have been talking a lot about good partner work.  What does good partner work look like and sound like? The children have been working together in both reader’s workshop and math workshop.  They shared that good partner work means:

De’Onna: “niceness”

Daysia: ‘having fun working with your partner”

Himiko: “talking nicely to your partner”

David: “learning from your partner so they can help you learn more”

Today we experienced partner work during a new time of the day. . .YOGA! It was so exciting to see the collaboration and cooperation that happened throughout the room.  Mrs. Williams and I were impressed with their first day of partner work and we are excited to see how they continue to grow as they work together!

We have been talking a lot about friendship during our Morning Meeting time.  Last week the students decided we should create a book about friendship.  They all worked together to create a page for the book about being a great friend.  Check out some pages from the book below.

Today we also did an activity during Morning Meeting about using kind words.  I drew a person on a piece of paper and first we went around the circle and said something unkind to our person.  Each time we said an unkind word we folded up the paper.  The students noticed that after so many unkind words the person was so small and almost gone.  Then, we went around the circle and said kind things and apologized to the person.  This time we unfolded the paper with each kind word we said.  After the activity, everyone realized that the paper was still all crumpled and it wasn’t the same as before.  We realized that once you say something unkind, even if you apologize it never really goes away.  When I asked the class what this meant they shared some great ideas such as “Think twice before you talk” and “This reminds me to treat others the way I want to be treated.”  This was such a powerful activity and I was really glad to see how much the students learned from it!

As I mentioned earlier this week, the students have all come to recognize that they are authors every day in Story Workshop.  When we read the story What Do Authors Do?many of them made connections and realized we do all of those things as well!  Today we had an Author Celebration! The students chose a story that they are proud of and shared it with a friend.  It was wonderful to see how interested everyone was in each others stories.  There was a buzz of excitement throughout the room as the children read their stories.  I will be sharing their work with you next week on Parents In Touch Day!

Isabella shares her story.

Daysia listens to Jenesis’s story.

Emily and Himiko enjoy their special snack during our celebration!

Today our friends from Butler joined us! It was great to see them connecting with the students and working with many of them throughout the day.  During Story Workshop we read a book called What Do Authors Do? The students were able to connect what we do in Story Workshop to everything we read about authors in the book.  When I asked raise your hand if you are an author. . .every hand went up.  I am so glad to see that the students feel like they are authors.  We will be celebrating some of their stories at the end of the week and then we will be moving into a unit of study.

Kaitlyn shares how her clay has helped her tell her story with Miss Plumlee.

Emily shares how clay and watercolor have helped her tell her story with Miss Rimmel.

During math workshop we learned something new that mathematicians do: work with a partner to solve a problem! Students worked together today and I heard lots of math conversations happening.  Chairo said, “I think we should add the numbers together.” His partner, Cameron, replied “I think we are trying to find out the amount in between the numbers.”  I could see their thinking growing and changing as they worked with their partners.  We will continue to practice this process and I know that I will see a lot more math discoveries as we continue!

Sydney and De’Onna work together on their math problem.

Kaitlyn and David discuss which strategy they think will be best.