IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Our class has really been enjoying yoga.  We go to Yoga every Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday morning with Mrs. Williams.  (On Mondays and Tuesdays we do it together in our classroom!) The students have been excelling in their focus, concentration, and balance.  We practice different poses and then we meditate at the end.  During meditation De’Onna said “Think of a peaceful and serene place.”  When we finished up, Daysia turned to me and said “I think we’re going to have a great day.” We are noticing that starting our day with yoga really helps our focus and peacefulness throughout the day.  I am excited to watch them grow in their yoga skills throughout this year.  Enjoy your three day weekend!

Meet Mrs. Williams!

Starting off by stretching and warming up our muscles.

Practicing our deep yoga breaths with cotton balls.

Paiton practices yoga breathing.

How far will your cotton ball go when you take a deep breath?

Meditation. . . thinking of ways to have a peaceful day!

Today we visited the library for the first time! Mrs. Thomas was there to greet us and she introduced us to a special friend, Mr. Wiggles.  Mr. Wiggles and Mrs. Thomas taught the students all about taking care of our library books.  The students made a connection to our classroom agreements.  Donovan said, “Oh this is just like our rule: Take care of materials.”  After reading a story everyone was able to find and check out one book! For now, the books will stay at school, however, in the future students will be able to bring them home! Take a look at all the fun we had!

Mrs. Thomas greets us with Mr. Wiggles.

How do we take care of our books?

Listening to the story

Writing Library Agreements for our class.

Decisions, Decisions!

Checking out books!

No one could wait to start reading!

This week we have started a new workshop called Word Study.  During this time students will work with words by building words, finding patterns, and rhyming.  We have been focusing on rhyming words.  Each day I have read a different story with rhyming words.  The students have been identifying these words and then working together to play a game and practice rhyming cooperatively.  We played rhyming bingo as a class yesterday and today we learned rhyming go fish.  The students also helped to create letters for our word wall.  We finished our word wall today and each student’s name is displayed.  We will start adding sight words and words that we work with during Word Study soon!

De’Onna and Madeline make letters for our word wall.

Mekhi hanging names on the word wall.

Ashley helps with the word wall.

Finished word wall!

Friends playing Rhyming Go Fish!

We also met our four Butler Friends who will be joining us each Wednesday! They came in for our morning meeting and read with some friends during Reader’s Workshop! More about them to come in the upcoming weeks!

We have been introducing new materials to help us tell our stories every few days.  So far we have natural materials, story stones, story people, water colors, blocks, and clay.  Check out our authors exploring story telling with their materials!

Paiton uses blocks to tell a story.

David explores natural materials.

Martavious uses natural materials and blocks to tell a story about losing a tooth.

Friends tell stories using watercolors.

Clay creation to help organize thoughts before telling a story.

In math we have been working hard on setting routines for math workshop.  The students have been solving problems in their math notebooks using different strategies.  So far we have come up with these different ways to help us problem solve: Draw a picture, Use cubes or another material, Use a Number Line, Count On, and Make Tally Marks.  Today we introduced Math Boxes.  The students were able to decorate their math boxes and make them their own before we got started.  Then they took time to explore their Math Boxes.  Inside, students had hundreds charts with different missing numbers and number cards to put in order.  The mathematicians were carefully working with their materials while thinking about if their numbers were just right for them.  Madeline shared with me, “My math box helps me learn math, but it’s not too hard for me so I don’t have to struggle doing the numbers.” Some of our friends were in the studio during this time, so they will have the chance to investigate their boxes tomorrow.  I can’t wait to see what discoveries they make!

Kaitlyn uses cubes to help her solve a problem in her math notebook.

Friends decorate their math boxes.

Chairo: “Look guys I solved every problem in three different ways!”

Daysia puts her numbers in order from her Math Box.