IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

During Free Choice the past few days our kids have been experiencing Zumba.  If you are not familiar with this it is a form of dance that is also exercise!  One of our very own friends has a mother who is a Zumba instructor and has taught her a few moves.  I was not able to upload the video at this moment, but here are a few pictures from yesterday, the first time the students experienced Zumba.

We have added insect and praying mantis books to our classroom library. During class this week, students were making connections between our praying mantis and other animals.

“My mommy said birds are kind of weird. The dark ones are girls and the light ones are boys. So i’m going to read about our bug to see if it’s a boy or a girl.” – Chloe

La'Mount, Daysia, and William study Cinderella Lightning McQueen while Chloe does some praying mantis research.

The kids were buzzing today about who was going to be in what puppet show for our grand puppet show.  During Reader’s Workshop and our end of the day free choice/project work time many were talking about it and informing others what the various parts were in each story.

Today we started a new game during Math Workshop called Forward/Backward.  The children had to roll two dice (one with numerals 1-6 and one with plus and minus signs on it).  Once they rolled both dice they had to move that many spaces on their board.  The first person to the finish line won the game.  I have to say that every pair playing this game was so engaged in this activity that we switched partners and continued the play.  It was fun to see the children so engaged during this learning experience.

I am excited for Football Friday tomorrow!

Shaniyia and Jason playing the game together during Math Workshop.

 

 

 

 

Our friend Zacharyah walking like an airplane.

Landing gear down and flaps up!

We have begun talking about different parts of an airplane and what they do. We watched a great video online that had an interactive game at http://www.avkids.com/hangar/smartparts/ . After watching the interactive video and game, we tried acting out some of the plane parts with our bodies. Our pictures today are two friends who tried walking to their seat with their arms out like wings and then tilted their flap to “break” when they saw their seat. The kids also had a chance to try the game on their own during arrival and explore. We decided that we wanted to share our new airplane part knowledge with others who may be interested and discussed writing a class book on airplanes. We voted on our title, How to Fly an Airplane, and have begun writing together.  Each page is about a different part of an airplane and what it contributes to flight. So far we have a page for wing flaps, wings, the rudder, and landing gear. We are learning so much and the kids still seem so interested in flight- I wonder if we have any future pilots in our classroom.