IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

In math workshop this week, we are continuing our learning of time. We have gotten pretty adept at telling time to the hour and drawing that time on clocks. We are improving in the area of telling time to the half hour and and writing half hour times on clocks. We have also been doing time story problems in our math notebooks this week. Students are learning different strategies to solve problems such as “Tyrese, Cece, Danielle, and Jace get on the bus at 3:30. They eat dinner four hours later. What time do they eat dinner?” Some students use small clock manipulatives to solve these problems. Others have been thinking about a clock as a round number line and have been making jumps around the numbers in the same way we would jump forwards or backwards on a number line. Both strategies work great for different students.

Chloe solves a time story problem in her math notebook.

Something new we have started, as I’m sure you’ve noticed in the papers your child is bringing home, is writing our morning message together during morning meeting. I was noticing that we all had a need for lesson on letter formation, spacing of words, and concepts of print. Not wanting to take any additional time away from our workshops, I decided to build these lessons into our morning meeting. So now, during morning meeting, I write two sentences on the board, that students are then able to copy. One is always the date and the second is something about our day. During this time, I talk to students about the proper formation of letters, such as which letters go below the line (into the “basement”), which letters go all the way to the top (into the “attic”), and which way tricky letters face (like b, d, s). We also talk about how many sentences we wrote, how many words are in each sentence, how many letters are in different words, and which words have capital letters. Although odd, these are all skills that we try to work on during kindergarten and first grade. As always, it’s exciting to see everyone’s growth. Just a week of writing like this together, and I can already see major improvements!

Aidan circles a capital letter in our morning message.

Today, during free choice time, two students from Mrs. Clark’s class came and spoke with our class about recycling. Mrs. Clark’s friends and Miss Cegielski’s friends are heading up our school’s recycling program. They came around to each class to talk about why we need to recycle and what each class can do. They also dropped of a recycling box. As of today, any paper that would otherwise be thrown away will now be thrown in the recycling box. On Fridays, a team from Mrs. Clark’s class and/or Miss Cegielski’s class will come to collect our recycling. We’re excited to be a part of our school’s initiative to better care for our environment!

William and Reed come by to talk to our class about recycling and drop off our recycling box.

On Monday, December 3^rd, the Block A students shared their final Teacher Research Projects. The teacher research project was a hands-on way for the Block A students to experience classroom life.  Butler professors, Lab School faculty, friends, and family were all invited to attend this event. This event was the culmination of a semester’s work of research. Each student had the opportunity to showcase his/her accomplishments from the semester. We spent ten weeks in the classrooms collecting data and observing our students to try to answer our questions.

Throughout the course of the semester, we had to complete a variety of tasks as teachers in the classroom. These included: read alouds, conferencing, small group instruction, and a math/literature lesson. When we first started administering these tasks, questions started to form. Each Block A student came up with a different and thought-provoking question. These questions were unique to individual classrooms and focused on our own educational philosophies.

A lot of time and effort was put into the Teacher Research Projects, and the end results really showed it. We are very proud of our fellow classmates and friends. These projects were completed with professionalism and presented with confidence. We can not wait to see what Block B has in store!

Written by: Kara Saks, Sam Karmia, and Sara McDonald

We’ve started discussing time during math workshop this week. Today, we shared with each other what we know about how to tell time and what we know about clocks. Students said that you can tell time with clocks, watches, phones, computers, and timers. They said that most clocks are round and have 12 numbers that are written around the end of the clock. They also said that clocks have two hands (sometimes 3 if there is a second hand).

Together, we drew a clock and figured out where all the numbers went. We began exploring how to make the clock be an o’clock time.

After making a clock in their math journals, students were able to play a clock game with a partner. In the game, you roll a 12 sided die, and write whatever number you land on, on your clock. You and your partner take turns. The first person to fill in all the numbers on their clock (and put those numbers in the correct places) wins! The kids had a great time. We’ll keep exploring time all this week.

Spencer and Ben play the clock game together.

Today was a fun day filled to the brim with celebration!

Our morning was relatively normal, with readers workshop and some yoga. After lunch, the fun began!  We watched Disney’s “Oceans” movie, which, much like the Planet Earth movies, documents sea life throughout the world. Kids enjoyed getting cozy in their jammies and watching the film. After the movie was over, our birthday friends had finished making the cupcakes. We sang to all five of our November birthday friends and enjoyed pink, sprinkly cupcakes!

Seth, Spencer, Hayes, Abel, Jamaria, and Hayes’ brother Rylan pose for the birthday picture!

Madeline, Geneva, Seth, and Jaeda wait patiently for their cupcakes!

Cece and Aaliyah had fun in their pajamas!