IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Tomorrow, we begin a new experience with a group of physical education students from Butler. Our kids will get to meet with them two times a week for seven weeks and engage in various movement activities. It should be a very fun and rewarding experience!

Tomorrow is also our class Friendship/Valentine’s Parties. Please remember to have your child bring their valentines if they did not choose to make any at school.

Thursday evening is our parent organization meeting at 6pm. Please join us as we form committees and get to action!

Next Monday there is no school due to President’s Day. We will see you back on Tuesday, the 21st.

Tags: Butler, family focus, friendship

As we were working on our working on our morning message today, some friends asked some questions that lead into a discussion about letters. We work with and explore letters everyday in our classroom. However, students verbalized a new observation today, that no one had ever shared with the whole class…”Some uppercase letters look the same as their lowercase letter, and some look different.” I thought this was a great observation, excited that it was a conclusion they came to on their own! I offered up a continued observation of letters as a free choice, and by the end of the day, students had sorted out all the letters that look the same in upper and lower case form, and all that look different!

"Different" letters

Aaliyah and Leah sort the "same" letters during free choice time.

Other excitement today, revolved around our earthquake drill…

Paiton, Jo'Vyon, and DayTwon demonstrate how to properly protect yourself in the rare case of an earthquake.

And lastly, we started a new scientific exploration today, considering how observation can help us identify things. Students were given a notecard and a toy car. They were asked to draw their car. Then after a minute of drawing. I collected their cars, mixed them all up, and redistributed them. Students had to use their observations from their drawings to explain how they knew that their new car was not the same as their original.

Jermaine, Paiton, Jamaria, Zakeyah, Aaliyah, and William observe their 2nd round of cars.

Miss Estridge celebrating the achievements of a lunch agreement follower!

Over the past few weeks, our class has been brainstorming ways for us to make a more peaceful lunch. One day right before winter break, we came to the conclusion we needed lunch agreements to guide us and our peers in a successful lunch time. As a class, we drafted five agreements and then asked our fellow classes for suggestions. Each friend in our class had a chance to present the agreements to the other classes and field questions and comments regarding them. We were met with overwhelming support from our peers and created draft posters with our five agreements on them.

1. Eat your food.

2. Talk in a whisper (soft voice)

3. Listen to all teachers

4. Stay in  your seat.

5. Be peaceful (kind and calm)

Each day at the end of lunch, the teachers on lunch duty have taken time to acknowledge friends from all the classes that are following these lunch agreements. They have been met with celebration from their friends and much applause. It has been a powerful experience to see the kids start to hold one another accountable for a more enjoyable lunch experience. I even had a friend (who shall remain anonymous 🙂 ) say, “Boy my family could use some lunch agreements!”

Friendly conversation!

Tags: friendship

Last week, we began exploring measurement in math workshop. Students had the opportunity to measure items around the room with their hands, feet, and a ruler. They learned the importance and need for standard units of measurement. This week, we are diving into the way to use a ruler correctly.

Aaliyah uses a ruler to measure a block. She makes sure to start the end of the block at the 0 on the ruler.

Also, today, we began a science exploration. Starting this week, students will have a science experiment as one of their free choices every day. By the end of the week, everyone will be expected to have done the experiment at least one time. Each experiment is designed to focus on one or more science topics. This week, students are learning about the scientific practice of making predictions. They are given a penny and have to predict how many water drops will fit onto the penny before it spills over the edge. At the end of the week, we plan to have a whole group conversation about predicting.

Leah and Paiton carefully add one drop of water at a time to their pennies. Paiton predicted that it could hold 22 water drops, and Leah predicted 20.

DayTwon uses an eyedropper to slowly put water droplets onto his penny. He counts the water droplets as he goes.

This week we have been beginning a reading and writing unit about non-fiction. Students are being introduced to different non-fiction books. They are also getting opportunities to write non-fiction books of their own. So far, we have learned that non-fiction books often have a table of contents, glossary, and index.

Shayla wrote a non-fiction book during writer's workshop about Justin Bieber.

Martavious found an index in his library book. He shared with the class how to use it.