IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Today we explored eardrums! We created artificial eardrums by rubber banding plastic wrap over red plastic cups. We talked about how the plastic wrap represented the thin membrane covering the ear drum. To observe vibration, we opened a packet of sugar onto the top of each plastic wrapped cup and shouted at various levels. The sugar danced! We then tried singing, whispering, and shouting at different intervals to see what the sugar would do. We discovered that the sugar moved as a result of vibration. We created sounds which traveled via sound wave to the ear drums. The ear drums then vibrated! In a real ear, we learned this is part of a chain reaction. The ear drum then activates the anvil, hammer, and stirrup bones in the middle ear which activate the cochlea. The cochlea then activates the nerve ending which sends a signal to the brain to tell it what it is hearing. WOW! Science rocks.

Tags: experiment, project

Last week, we began to discuss division concepts during math workshop. While the students didn’t realize they were dividing, they eagerly engaged in experiences revolving around this operation. We talked about sharing fairly and equally among a group of people and what to do if you had anything left over that couldn’t be cut into pieces of a whole.

Today, we gave this process a name– division! The students were impressed with themselves because they thought this was much more complicated. As we continue to work in our journals this week, we are learning from strategies that our friends are using!

Ask your child to divide something between family members or between themselves and their siblings. They are very proud of their knowledge of the skill!

Oliver and William are building numbers with the base ten blocks.

Avelyn and Wyatt work together to build their numbers with the base ten blocks.

Over the past week we have been working a lot on place value in Math Workshop.  As a whole we want the kids to understand that each place in a number represents more than just that one number (ie: 100s, 10s, and 1s).  One way we are working on this is through the use of base ten blocks.  The kids use the base ten blocks to build and represent numbers.  For example, if a child had 124 they would show us 1 flat (100), 2 rods (each is worth 10), and 4 cubes (each is worth 1).  Today the kids rolled dice 3 different time to create a 3 digit number.  They then used the base ten blocks to build that number and represent each place.  The rest of the week we will be working with place value even more to continue the building and decomposing of numbers.  It is our eventual goal that the kids can see a number and visualize it without the blocks. This will help them in all areas of math later down the road!

Today we accomplished so many things I thought it would be helpful to hear a little bit about each part of our day!

Morning Meeting:Before Morning Meeting we were very excited to notice that it was snowing! All of the students took a look out the window to watch the snow. During our meeting Daysia shared a book with us about responsibility.  We started discussing what it means to be responsible last week and we are continuing to explore what it means to be responsible in our classroom and school community.  Daysia’s book sparked great conversations of ways that everyone can show that they are responsible.

Reader’s Workshop:  We have been working on comparing and contrasting different texts.  Today we started to read a western version of Cinderella called “Cindy Ellen.”  The students enjoyed finding the similarities and differences between this book and the traditional Cinderella.

Word Study: Our small groups are off and running! It’s exciting to see the kids engaged in all sorts of activities including sorts, games, and making words.  I have also been able to meet with small groups during this time and start targeting specific needs.

Story Workshop: We have been reading books by the six authors that are a part of our author’s study for the past few weeks.  (Eric Carle, Arnold Lobel, Robert McCloskey, Margaret Wise Brown, H.A. Rey, and Beatrix Potter) Today the students had time to explore many of their books on their own.  In the next few days the students will be divided up into groups for each author and we will look specifically at that author’s craft.  This will lead to the students creating a piece inspired by their author as well as a study of editing, revision, and publishing!

Math Workshop: We are continuing to explore place value by building numbers with base ten blocks and breaking numbers apart.

Science Project:  We worked together last week and analyzed our data from the museum.  The students solved the mystery of the leak and decided that we need to write letters to the Children’s Museum to let them know.  More to come on how we wrap up our Children’s Museum trip soon!

Today was a very special day in our year…it was the first snow of the season!

The first snow is always so exciting in kindergarten and first grade. So, instead of ignoring this special occasion, we honored it today by taking a break from our morning meeting and heading into the hallways to look at the snow fall through the windows! It really was beautiful and the kids enjoyed it!

In readers workshop, we are spending our second week talking about Flippy Dolphin and vowels. Last week we began talking about the different vowels and the sounds they make. We learned that if you are sounding out the word with one sound but it doesn’t work, you can use Flippy Dolphin to flip over and try the other sound that vowel makes. The kids are doing a nice job, but vowels can be tricky, so we’re taking some extra time to firm up our understanding of vowels and their sounds. Today we read Sue MacDonald Had A Book by Jim Tobin. It’s a fun story about the vowels (to the tune of Old MacDonald) if you ever want to check it out at the library sometime.

During math workshop, we are also reviewing and extending what we discussed last week…division. Last week, we only divided numbers into groups of two. This week, we are beginning to divide numbers in to groups of three and more.

In our last workshop of the day, story workshop, we did our second gallery walk of the year. During morning and free choices, students were able to do an observational drawing of a lamp in our room. Three of those drawings were selected and hung in the room. Then, during story workshop, students moved around the room with a post-it writing down compliments and suggestions for each drawing. As a class, we critiqued the three drawings. Tomorrow, those three students will do a second draft of their lamp drawing, and we will be able to take a look at what critique and revision really looks like.

Olivia and Jaeda work on their observational drawings of a lamp during morning choice time.

Additional reminders:

Thursday is picture retake day. If you would like your child to have their school picture retaken, please let me know, and I will send home a second picture order form for you.

Friday is our Fall Carnival from 6-8. I will be sending home a flyer and tickets tomorrow. This Fall Carnival will be in place of the November Family Night that was originally scheduled for Thursday.

Lastly, we are still working on our classroom identity panels. If you have not sent in a letter about your child yet, please do so. We will be sharing the remainder of those over the next couple of weeks, and I would love for every child to have something to share! Thanks so much!