IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Today during Math Workshop, we talked, for the second day, about how to use drawings to help us solve math problems. We practiced a story problem together on the dry erase board.

“Kynden went to the fair and rode on 7 rides,” I said. Aidan helped by drawing seven circles on the board.

Then I said, “Later, Kynden rode 4 more rides. How many rides did she ride all together.” Aidan drew four more circles and then counted the whole group. “She rode eleven!” Aidan exclaimed.

I then sent students out to go solve a new story problem independently. I fully expected them to solve it the same way we had practiced together…by drawing circles or some other shape.

Many students did choose this strategy. However, Aaliyah decided to solve the problem with a number line. Due to the uniqueness and effectivness of her strategy, I had Aaliyah come up and share at the end of the workshop.

Aaliyah draws her number line on the dry erase board for the whole class to see.

The students were completely engaged as she shared how to use her number line. And I was thrilled! As a teacher, it is one of my greatest joys to have students’ learning come from the learning of another student. I find that to be much more authentic and meaningful for the class, than if I teach a lesson on it myself. If I were to bet, I’d say that we will have quite a few students trying to solve tomorrow’s math problems with a number line!

This week, we have started our gift wall. We had a conversation on Monday about gifts. What is gift that you might unwrap and open on your birthday? And what is the other kind of gift? The kind of gift you can’t open but can still give to others.

As a class, we began thinking about some of these gifts: friendship, helpfulness, leadership. Throughout the past couple of days, I have been taking pictures of students when I see them offering a gift to those around them. We then label this gift and put the word and the photo up on our gift wall.

Thus far, we have talked about the gift of helpfulness and the gift of teamwork.

It is my hope, that in the coming weeks and months, this wall will become covered with photos of children sharing their gifts with their friends and peers!

Celisha and Jackson show us the gift of teamwork, when they worked together to put the natural materials away.

Today we began using clay in story workshop. I introduced clay last week to a handful of students during free choice time. Ellie, Davi, and Jaeda all became clay experts for our classroom.

Today was the first day that we used clay to tell stories though. Olivia created a story about her cat and her grandma’s dog at a family reunion. Olivia was then chosen to share her story during the sharing portion of our story workshop. Students listened quietly as she told her tale. I’m sure other students will continue to explore the power of clay within story workshop in the future!

Olivia tells her cat/dog/reunion story.

Ellie told a story using play-doh that involved a snowman:

“One time I heard the snow falling. I woke up and went and woke up my mom. We put on our coats and we went outside. We saw and snowman. I touched him and he melted. I tasted him and he tasted like juice, so I drank him up. Then end!”

Ellie shares her snowman story.

I can’t want to see what creative stories our students continue to tell through out the year!

This week, we established a list of classroom agreements!

Students came up with ideas of things they could agree to do to help us have a peaceful environment where all students could do their best learning. The list we decided upon was:

1) I agree to be kind to everyone

2) I agree to be respectful

3) I agree to be peacful

4) I agree to treat our classroom/school with care

5) I agree to treat others the way I want to be treated

These are all things we have been referring back to this week! Feel free to talk to your child about these agreements at home!

Other exciting news…we began doing share time today. Seth shared what it looks like to be a good reader at the end of readers workshop. Salih shared what it looks like to be mathematician, and Aidan, Geneva, and John shared stories they created.

Seth shows us what great readers look like

Lastly, we began working with clay today. During our first free choice time, Ellie, Jaeda, and Davi learned how to use the clay and clay tools. During our second free choice time, those students were able to begin teaching other students how to use the clay. They did a wonderful job! Eventually, we will use clay during story workshop.

Our clay experts!

Few things make me as happy as seeing children develop new frienships and caring for each other at the start of the year. That was definitely happening at school today!

Our morning started with a delightful morning choices time.

Faith, Chloe, and Celisha read a story together during morning choices.

 In the puzzle space of the classroom, students played with rhyming words during morning choice time. One student used the alphabet puzzle pieces to make the words “log.” Another student saw this and declared, “If you change the ‘L’ to a ‘D’ it will say ‘Dog’!” Together, the two made the change. Once the rhyming began, it didn’t stop. They made the word “frog” together and then began making up their own rhyming words like “wog.” I’m sure there will be much more rhyming and words manipulation in the future.

Another exciting part of our day was getting our new reading bags. On Monday and Tuesday, we practiced readers workshop procedures and decided what a good reader looks and acts like. Because everyone did such a nice job with this the past two days, we all recieved our very own reading bags today. Each bag was filled with three special books for the students to look at during independent reading time. In the future, students’ bags will be filled with books selected for their specific reading needs. Some of the books will be chosen based on the child’s reading level. Other books will be chosen based on the child’s interests. Those books will be changed on a weekly/biweekly basis. For today, the three books in the students’ bags were both exciting and engaging!

Tyrese reads his Toy Story book

DayTwon find a cozy spot under the table to read his “I Spy” book.