IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

We have added a new exciting thing to our Math Materials.  This week we introduced the hundreds chart.  The kids helped me write the numbers 1 to 100.  This is a very valuable tool when talking about number sense.  It is a visual so kids can see patterns in numbers.  As we progress with our skip counting by 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s we will change numbers so we can visually see the skip.  While I have all these educational uses, I do believe the kids favorite thing to do with the hundreds chart is play “The Missing Number Game”  This is where a child goes up and takes out a number from the pocket.  The rest of then class then opens their eyes and has to guess the missing number.  I believe they would play this all day if I let them 🙂

Many weeks ago when we started yoga, we started learning different animal poses.  The kids have taken to them very quickly.  In one of the yoga books we use as a guide, it suggested face painting animal faces on the kids.  We suggested this to the kids and they were so excited!  After a wonderful week of almost perfect yoga times, we brought out the face paint.  The day was finally here!  While we couldn’t do each child’s whole face, they each got to pick a design for their cheek. 

Reid's alligator

 

J'Nayla's tulips

 

Dorothy's butterfly

 

Kaylee's butterfly

Here are all of our friends on the walk over to St. Richards.

Last Friday, a friend in the class said, “Mrs. Clark, we have so much paper!!”  I, in return, asked, “What should we do with it?!”  After some conversation we decided that we should look into a Paper Retriever Bin.  These are giant bins (ths size of the giant trash bins outside of our school.)  I contacted the Paper Retriever Company and found out that we might not have enough people to have a bin.  SO….today we took a walking field trip to our neighbor school, St. Richards.  We went over to talk to Mrs. Williams, the Early Childhood and Lower Division Head of St. Richards.  The kids told her what we were doing and then asked if St. Richards would be interested in helping us recycle paper.  She responded with a YES!  We then brainstormed some ideas of how we can communicate with the kids at St. Richards.  Our list involved writing letters, making signs, and writing an announcement for Mrs. Williams to read.  In the next few weeks we will be doing this to build our recycling partnership! 

Mrs. Williams had a lot of questions for us!

VERY IMPORTANT NEWS!  A permission slip went home today for our class field trip!  On November 16th, we will be going to the White River Recycling and Transfer Facility.  We will be studying how the facility works.  Our class wants to implement a school wide recycling program so we will be taking notes!  Please sign and return the permission slip no later than November 14th.  Finally, we will be gone during our normal lunch hours so I ask that all students bring a sack lunch. 

BreAnna is working on her letter writing with the IPad.

We have a new piece of technology that the kids are getting a chance to use in the classroom.  Each day, some students get the opportunity to work on the IPad.  We have many apps for literacy and math.  The kids love to use it!  The new question in the classroom is, “Can I play with the IPad?”