IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Kristien and Reed explain their game!

Journey and Lucas carefully look over one another’s cards. Which will they trade?

As you may know, our class works together to earn Positive Points. These points are earned when as a class, we are peaceful, kind, following directions, or showing any other kind of exemplary behavior. About a week ago, we earned our goal of 100 Positive Points! As a class, we talked about and debated what our celebration would be. We eventually decided we would like to have an ice cream party. Then, Da’Sean brought up a neat idea, “What if we invited friends?” We felt that Da’Sean’s idea of sharing our celebration with friends was so great, we had to do it! On Friday, we decided to invite Mrs. Clark’s class for an ice cream and trading card party. We wrote and then delivered a letter to their class. Thankfully, they accepted our offer! Today, Mrs. Clark’s class came over at 2:15 and we began our trading event. The kids practiced our trading agreements of trading peacefully, being kind when they did not want to trade with someone, and respecting our agreement of “no re-trading”. We had such a good time visiting with one another and honoring one another’s artwork and hard work! After our trading event was over, we enjoyed ice cream together. To top it off, Mrs. Clark’s class had a special surprise to share with us- a class created limbo game! (Ask a friend from Mrs. Clark’s class about the inception of the game!) Reed and Kristien explained how the game worked and helped us carefully navigate the limbo game. Everybody had a chance to go through and then an impromptu dance party erupted- so much fun! We are so glad to celebrate good behavior and friendship in such positive ways!

Tags: art, creativity, friendship, trading cards

Our friends are busy trading!

This afternoon we had a special event.  Mrs. Argus’ class had earned a party for their class.  They were allowed to invite another class and they picked us!  So at the end of the day today we were invited to a Trading Card and Ice Cream Party!

I have not blogged about trading cards yet, but they were something that started in studio with Mrs. Grotjan.  They are cards that the kids design with different studio materials.  They create different pieces of art that can be traded with other students.  We have this as an option during Free Choice each day and there are friends who spend their entire time making trading cards.

Needless to say we were very excited to be asked to come to a Trading Card AND Ice Cream Party.  The kids were counting down all day!

Ice Cream for Max and Lucas!

Look at all of our friends eating the ice cream in Mrs. Argus' airplane!

All of our friends love trading cards!

Cameron and Monica are trading away!

Today we had our January birthday celebration!  Thank you to Olivia’s mom for coming in and helping her make the class cupcakes!

Smile!

This week we went on a hunt!  For the past two days the kids have been “hunting” for different lengths of items in the classroom.  Each student was given a string to find things that were the same, longer, and shorter.  They were so excited to find the items in the room!

Salhi is measuring away to find something that is the same length of his string.

We also have another new friend in our classroom!  Raki joined us today and will be with us for the rest of the year 🙂  She is a great addition to our wonderful classroom community.  As with out last new friend, our kids have been so welcoming and helpful!

Raki loves to smile!

Today in Math Workshop, I introduced a new area to the students.  As I have said before, the workshop is split into two sections, one working with me on the lesson and the other playing math games.  Today I introduced math puzzles. (These will take place during math game time.)  Each student has a folder that will hold different independent puzzles.  These are not what you would typically think of as a puzzle, but rather a number game.   For example, today each student started with a hundreds chart that had spaces left blank.  The students had to look and figure out which number was missing.  They could count or they could notice patterns in the numbers to figure out their answer.  Either way they are working with numbers in their head!  As we get into this routine, I will add more advanced puzzles and mind games for the students to complete.  I know I have said this all week, but I was so proud of their work today!  They all took these puzzles very seriously!