IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Has anyone wondered about those papers that are coming home that say “Daily News” at the top of them?  Over the past two weeks our class has been doing an interactive writing activity at the end of each school day.  We start with our names, the title, and then the date.  (As a class each morning we are also working on what those date numbers actually stand for.  “What does that 9 mean at the beginning of the date?”)  Then I ask the question, “What was something special we did today?!”  The kids are always really excited about this and almost every hand shoots up to share an experience.  We talk about the day’s events and then decide on one item to write about.  Because this is at the end of the day, the Daily News goes in their mailbox to bring home the next day.  So if you are curious check out your child’s Daily News and have a conversation about their days.  I am sure it will bring out even more! 

**As an edit to yesterday’s post, I forgot one date.  October 6th at 6:00pm- We will have our second parent meeting at the school.  All are welcome!  Come and find out how you can get involved in the school.  The last event was so successful I am looking forward to seeing what happens next.

We have been working very hard on earning our marbles in the classroom.  For the past few weeks each time another teacher or myself saw someone making a good choice the class would earn a marble!  The day finally came today when we filled up our jar.  For the last few minutes a day we packed up and had a popcorn party!  The kids gathered around and ate their popcorn as we talked about our day.  (The popcorn party was voted on by the class.)  I am looking forward to starting over tomorrow and talking about our next party.

While the popcorn party was the highlight of the day, we have a few more great things coming up!  Here are a few date reminders:

**Thursday, September 29th: Family Night-6-7pm

**October 6th: Picture Day.  The students may dress out of uniform on this day for pictures.

**October 10th-21st: Fall Intersession.  School will be back in session on October 24th.

David's observational drawing of a train!

We are at the very beginning of our train project.  This week we have been drawing trains and having lots of conversations about them!  As we begin to form our questions, we will find where our learning is going to take us.  Please keep tuned into see where we go!

Wyatt and Christina are very exctied about Mo Willems!

Jaiden loves the Piggy and Elephant books by Mo Willems.

Today we started an author study on Mo Willems in Reader’s Workshop.  The kids have really been drawn to his work as we read them in class.  I decided this might be a great author to study.  Over the next week or so we will be looking at the different techniques Mo Willems uses in his book and what we notice about his writing.  I am sure that stories will come home about this because he is our favorite author so far!

This week we have been adding to our physically fit classroom.  On Monday we started yoga in our class.  We do this after recess before we start Writer’s Workshop to calm ourselves and get ready to write.  The kids really love this!  Here are a few pictures of them “finding their breath.”  We have been practicing breathing deeply to calm as we begin.

While yoga is so great we have even more good news!!  As many of you have noticed, the kids have been bringing home A to Z Readers.  These are the little white paper books that are leveled readers.  Every six days (we have six groups) I meet with the students and work with them on a book that is at their exact reading level.  They then get to take it home to practice and keep!  We are in our first rotation and the kids are really excited about them!  Please help them by reading the books at home.  The more successful they feel the more excited they will be about reading!