IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

We are studying informational texts this week, and today I read a book about homes on the water.  I cannot believe how into the book they were!  Miss Boyle and I kept looking at each other while we watched them ask question after question.  The children were so inspired that they have decided to add a pond to Mouse City and then make a house on stilts to put over the pond.  We were planning and problem solving that today!

We also have been measuring a lot this week.  We had this awesome road and sidewalk that Isai and Sarah made, but then we did not know if the mouse spaces were going to fit so we had to measure them to see how long each one was, and then we had to measure the white space on our street to see which space fit the best.

Again, Mouse City has been such an engaging and purposeful way to teach various math concepts and collaboration!  And now, measuring!!

During Reader’s Workshop we have moved from studying the text features in informational books such as Table of Contents, Glossary, Caption, and Index to using those features to help us answer questions.  This week the students have a job to do using an informational book about weather.  Each student has three questions and they have to read to find out the answers.  The students have been really thoughtful about their work.  They have been reading their book and then using the new information to help them.  They have also been answering the questions in complete sentences with capital letters and punctuation.  Today I met with Emily and she was stuck on one of her questions.  I asked her to tell me her thinking and she said “Well I started off by looking at the Table of Contents.  Then I found the page that said Temperature and knew that it would probably give me the answer on that page.”  After using the Table of Contents she was able to answer her question.  I’m excited that now the students not only know what the text features are, but they are able to use them to help them while they read!

The kids are so excited about our Author Celebration! This morning, they were greeted by a small stage towards the front of the room. They excitedly tried it out throughout the day, and later on in the afternoon, each child practiced reading their story on the stage in front of a live audience. We had so much fun listening and celebrating one another as authors. We also had time to share our stories with friends and small groups. It has been such a joyful day.

Yesterday Jett shared with us during our morning meeting that he was taking a hip-hop class after school.  The children were excited and curious.  Today, during free choice, Isaac and Jett were wanting to show some of their moves to each other.  Before we knew it there was a line of chairs and multiple performances ranging from singing to ballet to hip-hop.  I love that the children were inspired by Jett to show their performance talents.  What was fun was that at the end we had about 10 students in chairs watching holding clipboards writing the order of performances down.  They were so excited!  I have to say that the best part of this “concert” was that children felt comfortable to perform and supported by their applause-I even did a little rendition of “I’m a Little Teapot!”

We will see where this enthusiasm towards performing goes tomorrow!!

In Math Workshop, we have been asking the kids to challenge themselves with larger numbers.  Today we talked about breaking apart numbers into smaller groups.  This is called friendly numbers.  For example, if you are adding 50 plus 15  you can break apart the larger number to make it easier (or more friendly) to solve.  50 could turn into five groups of 10!  All of the sudden the problem seems much more approachable.  Townes used friendly numbers to solve his math problem today.  He shared it with the class.  Check out the picture below of him sharing his mathematical knowledge!