IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Last night, at our Family Night, the kids were able to paint fruits and vegetables to create pieces of art for our cafeteria.  Today, we brought that same activity into our classroom.  The kids were painting cucumbers, oranges, pomegranates, lemons, and more!

To add to that, the kids were really curious about the pomegranate.  Some had ate one before and others had never seen it.  So after lunch today we opened it up and tasted the pomegranate seeds.  There were many friends that requested seconds and thirds!  I wish I would have taken a picture because their faces and expressions were priceless!  Be sure to ask about it tonight!

Exciting Mouse Town things have continued to happen over the past week!

Last week, after finishing our drawings, we graphed our buildings to scale.

On Monday, we used our graphed drawings to build models of our buildings.

Seth and Madeline work on the model of their conjoined doctor’s and dentist’s office.

Faith and Aaliyah work on the model of their hotel for Mouse Town.

Then, yesterday, we had a special guest architect come and speak to us about the process of designing and constructing buildings. Olivia’s dad, Mr. Eggink, is an architect in Indianapolis. He showed us a model of his home that he designed and pictures of a building his company designed in Indy.

Mr. Eggink hold up the model of his home so that we can look at it from a bird’s eye view.

Mr. Eggink shows the class a computer generated picture of a building his company designed in Indy.

After listening to Mr. Eggink, students noticed that his buildings had door and windows, and our do not. Because of this, we went and added doors and windows during our math workshop yesterday. Today, we will work on the interior of our buildings. Throughout the rest of the week, we will finish our interiors and begin decorating the exterior parts of our buildings and then assembling the town.

Jaeda shows us her mall, complete with windows and doors.

The kids’ excitement continues as we enter each different phase of this process. We can’t wait to see what it looks like when it’s finished!

During Reader’s Workshop we have been focusing on informational text features such as headings, table of contents, glossary and pictures with captions.  Today we practiced writing captions for pictures using pictures of ourselves in action.  The students enjoyed connecting with a partner to come up with a caption.  In Story Workshop our writers have been working hard to publish their stories from their author’s study.  A few friends have finished completely and are waiting to bind their books.  I have been impressed with the attention to detail and stamina throughout this project.  We have been working hard on this for a long time and their dedication truly shows in their beautiful work!

Tonight’s Family Art Night was a great success!  Here are a few pictures from the watercolor section of the night.

Just a reminder: Family Night is tomorrow night, January 15th from 6-7pm at the school.  We will be creating a few permanent art pieces for our building.  Come prepared to have fun!