IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Yesterday we planted two bulbs that will hopefully bloom into beautiful flowers! The children loved exploring the bulb as well as planting it.  There were a couple of green leaves exposed after we planted them, and the children throughout the rest of the day swore that it was already growing!  We are going to measure the leaves each week to keep track of the growth.

Our morning meeting has changed a little bit.  After reading a book about morning meetings, it came apparent that it matters the order in which we conduct the morning meeting each day. Also having a sharing time is so beneficial to the children because it is one more time that the children feel they are being heard.  Children also love to share things about themselves so by having this formal share time they are able to do that!  So, our morning meetings look like this now:

Greeting (do various forms of greetings to say good morning to those around us)

Share Time (children will have the opportunity to share something.  Every child can share but they can share only one time a week so that it ensures that every child can have the opportunity.  There is a sign up sheet that the children can sign up to share their news)

Group Time (This will be a dance, silly song, an activity of some sort that allows for us to build our community)

Morning Message (This will be the time to go over the question on the board as well as attendance and calendar)

The children have really responded to this more formal morning meeting time and I am thrilled for that!  I think it will continue to build our community.

Cha'kyra looking at the root of the bulb

getting the dirt ready for our plant

Emily and Shaniyia exploring the manipulatives on the light table.

This week, we are talking about non-fiction books during both Writer’s and Reader’s workshop. Our friends have loved discovering the wide range of non-fiction books in our class library, especially those about animals! Today, Miss Schmidt read the kids a book about tigers and introduced them to the table of contents and its function. Every time the kids were interested in a particular question about tigers, we referred to the table of contents to find the page that led us to the answer. They are also being encouraged to write their own non-fiction books, using resources around the room, and adding page numbers and a table of contents like the books we have learned about. During read, rest, write, and studio/explore, the kids have been very motivated to look through our books and search for tables of contents! Da’Sean found an index at the back of a book and had an opportunity to share his find with the class. We talked about the differences between a table of contents and an index, and Ruth was even able to share when she used an index to help her write her non-fiction book about dogs yesterday! Tomorrow, we go to the library and the kids are hoping to check out some non-fiction books to add to their Reader’s Workshop bags for the week. I wonder what they will pick!

Tags: Reader's Workshop, Writer's Workshop, writing

As we get back into the swing of things this week I wanted to say a quick reminder about tomorrow.  We will be going on a field trip to Clowes at Butler University.  We will be seeing the Eric Carle production.  There is no need to worry about a change in schedule though as we did with previous field trips.  We will be eating at school and leaving right after lunch.  We should all return to school around 1:30.

Reid is relaxing with the eye pillow.

“Mrs. Williams, what is an eye pillow?!  You don’t need a pillow for your eyes!”  These were the questions Mrs. Williams received as she introduced the idea of eye pillows to the class today during yoga.  These little pillows are filled with lavender.  The kids used them at the end of our yoga time as we did our meditation and deep breathing time.  Many of the students loved the smell and said it helped them relax 🙂

Welcome back!  It was so good to see all of the kiddos today.  We had such a good day filled with hard workers, engaged learners, and new experiences.

One of those new experiences happened at the end of the day today.  Mrs. Argus’ class and our class went to an empty classroom where we had our first Friendship Circle.  Both of our classes have been talking about friendship and what it means to be a good friend and take care of our friends.  Over break Mrs. Argus and I had several conversations about how we could have our two classes work together and meld their ideas of what friendship looks like.  We thought maybe by doing a Friendship Circle each Monday and Friday we could focus our two classes and celebrate how friendship is established, cared for, and lasting.

So…today we met and discussed that we were going to meet on Mondays and Fridays together as one big Friendship Circle.  The children were THRILLED!  Then, we introduced the Friendship Loom.  This loom we discussed as a group is something to show how we are caring for our friends.  During Lunch and Recess when a teacher or maybe it is another child notices someone being kind to another person then they can add a piece of fabric to our loom.  We will continue to add to it each day/week to show how our friends are being caring and loving to each other!  Today, we celebrated a few different examples of friends caring for friends.

We look forward to seeing where this goes!

Mrs. Argus explaining the loom to the friends in class!

Working together to weave the fabric.

Celebrating our good friends!

David and Tyler playing dominos

Today we introduced a new game to Math Workshop.  We introduced dominos!  Each day during Math Workshop, the kids work in two different sections.  One group works with me on problem solving or the lesson of the day and the other group plays math games.  Once each group is done with their task we switch.

Before break we started working on the concept of ten.  It is important that the kids can build to ten (7+3, 6+4, 8+2, 9+1, 5+5) and then be able to break it apart again and know what that means.  While we do activities throughout the day to help with this we have started to implementing it into our math games too.  For example this week we are introducing dominos.  For the first few days the kids will play dominos normally, but after that we will slightly alter the game.  The students will have to match sides that add up to 10!

I am really looking forward to watching the kids grow in this area!  The love the math game so I am sure that the “new” way to play dominos will be a hit later this week!