IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Today is the day we finally figured out how long the whale shark is!

Thanks to the help of a couple friends who brought in measuring tapes today, we were able to measure the length of our pipe line. At the end of free choice time, all the students had a seat by our string of pipes, next to the wall. We investigated the measuring tapes and found out where the inches lines and feet lines were. After we had an understanding of our tool, we began to measure. Unfortunately, our measuring tape ran out when it reached twelve feet. Not to worry though, because we had a second twelve foot measuring tape. When this one ended, I asked the students how far we had measured so far if we had gone twelve feet and then twelve more feet. One student informed me that we had measured twenty-four feet of our pipe line. At the point, we were out of measuring tapes, so I asked the students how they thought we should measure the remaining pipes. Spencer told me that we could use the ruler now, so I got out a basket of rulers and laid them end to end until we reached the end of string of pipes. The students had been counting with me and we found out that our string of pipes was only thirty-one feet long. We continued to lay the rulers down, counting from thirty-one up to forty. By the time we reached forty feet, our rulers had made there way into the hallway and the kids were ecstatic! Who knew a whale shark could be so long! The students helped me lay duct tape down next to our pipes and rulers so that we could have a more permanent representation of our whale shark’s length. Needless to say, the kids were excited to have finally reached our goal of measuring the whale shark. There excitement spilled over into all the other ideas they had of what we should do next with our shark project! Now we’re thinking we need to begin some shark journals for all of our research, and I was told I need to contact a shark specialist to come and talk to us about sharks too! I’ll keep you updated! It’s sure to be great!

Our whole class sits along the length of our whale shark. Tyrese is standing at the very end to show how far the tape goes!

Today, we took our observational drawings and created wire sculptures from them. We practiced paying close attention to detail in our wire, just as we did in our drawings. The results are incredible! The conversations we had were also very neat as the kids discussed the carious body parts of the dinosaurs.

Conversation 1

What was this part for? Hmm, maybe he whacked predators with it! Regan

This part? Its his sail. I think its just to like show the predators that you have to be quiet and he shakes it and all the other dinosaurs be quiet. Sascha

If I was a T-Rex, I would be scared of it! Regan

Conversation 2

I can turn this into a big head! Its the same as the dinosaur! Ayden

I made his head big too. I made this big head and this pink stuff so he will be protected. I made twisties so he has bones. Beatrice

This will be his big crest. I think it was to bump away other predators and break their bones. Dylan

His head had like rocks on it so he could bump into other dinosaurs. Like his friends. Beatrice

They’re not rocks, just bumpy things! Dylan

Here’s his crest! Hutton

I’m trying to make his body just like my picture! Jackson

Tags: creativity, dinosaurs, project, sculpture

Over the past few days the kids have had a chance to create their own games with boards and pieces that are set out in the morning time.  They have large interest in games and we want to continue with this to develop it into our first class project.  Mr. Ward & and I were so impressed!  Here are a few pictures and game descriptions from the past few days.

Raki, Selam, and Kayla playing King Gal.

“First all of the pieces go right here.  She is trying to get as many kings as she can.  There are so many levels.  After you get a boss, you get a bosser.  When everyone gets a bosser then you can start taking everyone’s pieces.  When you have a bosser and take everyone’s pieces you win.”

Avelyn and Ruth playing Fruity Jump.

“One person is a fruit or duck.  When someone is next to you they need to jump you, but that’s a good thing because you need to get around and the 1st person to get around is the winner.  If you jump it gives you a extra space.  It’s all about luck.  It’s all about the dice and luck because you have to get the right number.”

Ruth, Oliver, Miles, Andrew, and Jonah playing Animal Tracking.

“You start at you blue, yellow, red, or green dot.  Whatever color you start with you have to go left.  If you get to your arrow and it’s too many numbers you have to go back all the way back to start.  If you land directly on your arrow you win.  If you land on a black dot you get an extra animal which helps you win.  You move by rolling a yellow or red dice.  If you want low numbers you roll the red dice.  If you want higher numbers you roll the yellow dice.”

Today was a fun day in room 107!

Today was our second day with our Butler teachers in the classroom. For any of you who don’t know, students in the College of Education at Butler come to our school for some of their classes. One of those classes meets at the school multiple times a week, and the Butler students spend a full day of their week in our classrooms, working with the students! The Butler teachers in our classroom are Miss Lewis, Miss Girten, and Mr. Karmia. They are all ready doing some great work with the students! (I promise to put some pictures up next week…my camera was dead today.)

Mr. Karmia aided in our continued shark conversation today. We left off yesterday not sure how we would measure the length of a whale shark. Today we began using feet…of all kinds.

During free choice time, Abel and Jace chose to work with me in trying to measure our whale shark pipes to see if they are forty feet long yet. Jace said, “I think it’s 70 feet!” Abel decided to count it by walking next to the pipe line and counting how many steps he took with his feet. When finished, he stated, “It’s 40 feet. I counted my feet all the way down.”

The three of us decided that it might be helpful to have some other people measure the pipes too, so we asked Mr. Karmia if he would measure the string of pipes for us. He agreed and told us that the line of pipes was thirty-two of his feet. To this, Jace said, “We need to make it longer!” Abel said, “Maybe we need to try Aaliyah’s feet and Jace’s feet and then your feet.”

So Aaliyah measured the pipes and got 29 feet! Oh, the learning  that comes from differing answers!

Slightly perplexed, Abel said, “Maybe it’s because Aaliyah and I made our feet go like this (spreading his hands far apart), and Mr. Karmia made his feet go like this (putting his hands finger to wrist, signifying toe to heel).

So Abel and Aaliyah both measured the pipe line again, this time walking the way Mr. Karmia had the first time. Aaliyah got 43 feet and Abel got 47 feet.

Free choice time was ending around this time, so we decided to end our measuring for the day. However, before we began Story Workshop, I facilitated a whole class discussion on Abel, Jace, and Aaliyah’s findings.

I told them that we had been measuring the pipes, but that each person who measured it with their feet got a different answer. I questioned the group as to why this might be happening. Madeline suggested that maybe we were using the wrong kind of feet. She said a foot “could be our feet like a body part or it could be like a measuring feet.”

Chloe then replied, “Some people have big feet and some people have little feet. There are different sizes.”

Spencer said, “We need to use a ruler.” When I asked him what a ruler was, he said it is something that measures.

We spent the rest of our discussion time figuring out what a ruler looks like and what other materials we might be able to measure our pipes with. Madeline said that we needed to use a measuring tape, which is a “box with a measuring thing that comes out of it with lines and numbers on it.” Many students said they had one at home and that they would bring one in to school tomorrow. Who knows, maybe tomorrow will be the day we find out how long a whale share really is!

Today our friends from Butler joined us! It was great to see them connecting with the students and working with many of them throughout the day.  During Story Workshop we read a book called What Do Authors Do? The students were able to connect what we do in Story Workshop to everything we read about authors in the book.  When I asked raise your hand if you are an author. . .every hand went up.  I am so glad to see that the students feel like they are authors.  We will be celebrating some of their stories at the end of the week and then we will be moving into a unit of study.

Kaitlyn shares how her clay has helped her tell her story with Miss Plumlee.

Emily shares how clay and watercolor have helped her tell her story with Miss Rimmel.

During math workshop we learned something new that mathematicians do: work with a partner to solve a problem! Students worked together today and I heard lots of math conversations happening.  Chairo said, “I think we should add the numbers together.” His partner, Cameron, replied “I think we are trying to find out the amount in between the numbers.”  I could see their thinking growing and changing as they worked with their partners.  We will continue to practice this process and I know that I will see a lot more math discoveries as we continue!

Sydney and De’Onna work together on their math problem.

Kaitlyn and David discuss which strategy they think will be best.