IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

We had a blast today with Mr. Thornburgh in his science lab! Check out our pictures and ask your child what their favorite part of the trip was!

David, Oliver, and Ruth delivered the eggs to Mrs. Judy.

Last week, our class was in charge of the chickens.  We were responsible for feeding the chickens, collecting the eggs, and taking care of the coop.  We collected 12 eggs and as a class we had to decide what we were going to do with them.  We have been having the conversation about helping people and yesterday Kristien volunteered and said that we should cook the eggs and give them to people who need food.  After a little bit of conversation we decided to take the eggs to Mrs. Judy, our lunch lady, so she could give them to people after she cooked them.  We delivered the eggs today.

The class decided this is what a regular octagon looks like!

The debate has been settled!  As a class we have been exploring octagons for the last few days.  We have had some heated debates over what an octagon should look like.  The three qualities that a regular octagon must have are perpendicular lines, congruent lines, and 8 sides. Each day we explored another one of these qualities and today, as a class, we could finally say that a regular octagon is the one above on the geoboard!

This was a long conversation over a few days, but I have been so proud of the kids and their mathematical thinking.  They were really challenging themselves to think like mathematicians and not just take an answer because someone said it.  We really went into new terms such as congruent and perpendicular!  That is tremendous exploration for 1st and 2nd graders!

In order to make deeper connections with our yoga and movement study, we have engaged in a couple experiences this week about the skeletal system during class time. Students are very interested in the parts of their body and have showed this through their enthusiasm toward this work.

The first experience was one focused on the spine. We used pipe cleaners and straws to explore what life would be like if our spine was one long bone instead of a number of vertebrate.

We second experience involved paper towel rolls and heavy books. We stacked objects on top of the paper towel rolls to demonstrate how strong bones are based on their shape!

Finally, we have started am ongoing experiment about what makes our bones hard. Using chicken bones, we are trying to determine what will happen when we soak the bones in vinegar. Check back later this week to see our findings!

Last week we focused on organizing our thoughts when we compared various fairy tales.  We used a table to write down the similarities and differences.  This week we are using a double bubble to compare fiction and non fiction books.  This double bubble is a great way to organize your thoughts so you can better understand the text you are reading.

The children have been doing such a nice job with their organizing.  I would encourage you at home to have the children to do the double bubble organizer when reading to help them with their comprehension.  You could also encourage this when your child wants to write a story.  Maybe have them do a double bubble or some other organizer so they can think through their ideas before they begin writing.

Jason worked on creating the ticket today for our movie show!  We shrunk it and made many copies to pass out at the movie.

As you may know, we have been working quite a bit on peer critique and feedback. Often, when a student wants to make their writing better, they grab a critique sheet and ask a friend to listen to their story and add suggestions. This week, we are taking it a step further. We have slowly been introducing criteria for creating a final draft. If a student chooses to make a final draft, they are encouraged to use our “Am I Ready For a Final Draft?” checklist. This checklist includes things such as making sure there is detail in the words and pictures, the story makes sense with a beginning, middle, and ending, and making sure that it is beautiful work that the author is proud of. It is not an expectation that students will always publish/make a final draft of their books, rather they will choose this only for stories they have a special connection to and feel strongly about. I feel so proud that our class has taken such an interest in such an important life skill!

Tags: story workshop, writing