IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

We have started to learn how to tell time in Room 108! Our class was so excited to learn this concept and have grasped it quickly! We started by building a big clock together and talking about the observations we made about it. Students immediately noticed that certain numbers were across the clock face from one another. Yesterday, we talked about the hands of the clock and practiced moving the hands while reading a fun story called What Time is it Mr. Crocodile? Today, we learned a new math game!

During this game, students work with a partner to roll two dice, add the number, and fill in the corresponding time on the clock. This reinforces what we have learned about the clock face and the hands of the clock. We also started to talk about elapsed time using more complex time problems in our journals.

Encourage your children to read analog clocks at home to tell you what time it is– they will be happy to share their knowledge!

Today we went on our field trip to the Rhythm Discovery Center downtown! It was incredible! The Rhythm Discovery Center is basically “An instrument museum” (Greyson’s words).  We learned about  different types of instruments, many we had never seen or heard of before! Our guide was fabulous and gave us an opportunity to play many of the instruments, including a giant tam tam and a giant gong! At the end of our visit, we formed a drum circle and played with our guide. We practiced playing fast and slow, soft (piano) and loud (forte). Afterwards, we had some freestyle time and friends were given the opportunity to play and dance. It was such a joyful time.

Afterwards, we had lunch in the Indianpolis Arts Garden. To our delight, several choirs were there singing Christmas carols. It was such a peaceful and enjoyable lunch! I was so proud too, our class had many compliments about how good of an audience we were being. I was so glad our class was able to end our field trip with a real life performance- it just seems fitting. The perfect ending to the perfect day!

Tags: field trip, music, project, sound

This week we started a new unit of study in Geometry.  On Monday, we gave the problem, “Mrs. Clark created a shape that had more than 4 sides.  What shape did she create?”  This lead to a lot of exploration about shapes.  We came up with hexagons, octagons, and even a few different 3D shapes.  The kids came up with a list and we started naming the shapes.  At the end of yesterday’s Math Workshop a few friends got into a discussion about octagons.  Ruth said all octagons look like stop signs & Aasha said they just had to have 8 sides.

Today we explored that question.  Could an octagon look like anything with 8 sides or was it a set shape?  We found out together that all octagons had to have 8, CONGRUENT sides.  I gave the kids the challenge today.  Could they figure it out; what is an octagon?

I have to say that the class was on a mission. (They were on a mission to prove the theory wrong :).  Selam and Ruth discovered that it might be possible.  Check out the picture below of one of their creations.

They shared it with the class and were challenged on the sides.  Were the sides really congruent?!  After more discussion we decided as a class that we STILL didn’t have the answer.  We will be working on this problem tomorrow as a class to try to see if we can find out what a true octagon looks like.   Even though we did not find an answer in one day I have to say that I am proud of the kid’s reasoning abilities and determination to figure it out.   Check back tomorrow for the update!

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

Monday and Tuesday of this week we began exploring geometry concepts in math.  The students were challenged to use materials to build a shape with more than four sides.  I was impressed with their creativity while they were building shapes.  Friends made shapes that had up to twenty-two sides.  The shapes that were built led to deep conversations about what a side is, how can we count sides, and what makes a shape a shape.  We will continue exploring geometry this week.

We are going on our field trip next Tuesday! Please remember to send in the permission trip.  The students are excited to see the science lab as well as do an experiment with high school friends.  Our interest in science continues.  Some friends have been working on pages for a book about science tools during our free choice times!