IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Today we explored with a new material during our free exploration.  This morning, the kids had a chance to work with oil pastels to create stories about trees.  Over the past few weeks we have been exploring water colors and clay, but oil pastels are new to us.  I set them out and simply let the kids explore at first.  Tylisha said, “These look like really cool crayons!”  David added, “Yeah, except they are shorter!”  As time went on the kids started to create scenes for our tree play.  Some of them even designed their costumes that they would like to wear 🙂

Dorothy is creating a picture using the new oil pastels!

While writing books is not necessarily new, we added a new twist on our writing today. Our minilesson focused on adding details to our writing.  We talked a little bit about how we had been working on our play and I suggested that the kids start adding details to that story if they were interested.  I gave them the choice to start writing parts of the play or go back to their own older stories.  I was so amazed that 3/4s of the class chose to write about the play and add more details!

David is adding details to his story version of our play.

Wyatt is adding details to his version of the play.

Finally, in math workshop today, we continued to work with a material that was new to us before Spring Break.  The week before break we started to explore base ten blocks.  Base ten blocks are a hands on approach to explain place value.  Today we used a chart to break apart the different parts of each number (ie: showing that tens place and ones place.)  Place value is such an important concept to understand, but at the same time hard to visualize.  I am happy to say that the kids are really starting to understand this concept and have easily taken to the new material!

Kristien was creating a number using the base ten blocks.

Over the past two weeks we have been focusing on retelling in Reader’s Workshop. The kids have really picked up on this skill!  Today I read a story, The Stinky Cheese Man.  This is a retelling of The Gingerbread Man from a different perspective.  I was thrilled to see how the kids could quickly see the different parts of how the story was retold.

After our read aloud we had a short conversation on why it was important to read and listen to different perspectives, not only in books, but in life.  While this was a big question, the kids instantly realized that it was not ok to only see one way.  “You don’t want to be a copy cat!  You want to have your own ideas!”  shared Kristien.  It was so wonderful to see how instantly they understood that to be a successful world we need to listen to other ideas and see other people’s perspectives.

Something wonderful happened during Free Choice and Writer’s Workshop today.  Today the kids wanted to write a play.  I suggested writing something about trees and Wyatt came up with a beginning of a story.  We have been talking a lot about problem-solution writing, (each story has a problem that needs to be fixed and a solution that fixes it.)  Wyatt suggested that we write a play that was set in a forest.  The problem is that the animals are littering.  He also shared that one animal comes in with a solution, teaching the other characters how to recycle!

So we went with this idea of the play during Writer’s Workshop.  I encouraged the kids to use materials such as watercolors, clay, tree “cookies”, and dry erase boards to help tell parts of their story.  We talked about how we can all come up with ideas over the next two days and then start to create a play to perform.  It was amazing to see their creativity and the beginning of our play take shape!

Max was creating a porcupine as one of the characters in the play.

BreAnna created the Litter Bug who causes the problem in the play.

Reid was sculpting other characters for the play.

Tyler and Salih created the magical entrance to the forest, the setting for the play.

We had a special visitor this afternoon.  Today we had an arborist come in from Keep Indianapolis Beautiful.  Nate, our arborist (as the kids referred to him), taught us all about what happens when trees get injured.  Our skin heals itself and grows new cells, trees do something different.  Instead of growing new cells, trees grow new bark to try to cover up the wound.  So years and years later you can look at a tree and see it trying to heal or see the wound in a tree stump!  The kids were fascinated by this.  It got even better when we went outside to walk around and look at trees outside of our school.  We had a few wounded trees to study!

Nate was explaining the wounded tree to us.

We also got to talk a little bit more about the rings in the tree "cookies."

At the end of the day today, our class began a lively debate: are dandelions flowers or weeds? Friends have been encouraged to bring in dandelions and weeds (with your permission) for investigation tomorrow. We plan to see if we can prove one way or the other. Who knows- maybe we will be planting dandelions in our garden…

Also, please check your child’s folder tonight- there is information regarding our field trip to the Butler University Farm and Greenhouse!

Tags: garden, inquiry, problem solving, project

This afternoon, our classroom turned into a forest!  The past few weeks we have been talking about the different parts of trees and today we finally put it all together.  Each student became a tree!  We had paper bags that represented the trunk, mulch that represented the bark, and yarn that represented the roots.  While the kids did like their vests, I could tell their necklaces were a the favorite!  They each had brown yarn (the branches) that was strung with leaves!  Here are few pictures from our forest!

Reid, Nytaiya, and Sophia are busy showing off their trees!

Dorothy and Tylisha are acting like they are trees!

We love trees!