IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Today we played the piano on the ipad.

Leah plays the piano on one of our classroom ipads.

We also got to draw pictures of instruments.

During morning choices, Isabella works on an observational drawing of a grand piano.

In the afternoon, Butler teachers came in to do musical art projects with us. We explored high and low pitches. We also made musical instruments out of pipe cleaners.

First of all, I want you to know that our friends are going to start typing up our blog each day. Today we have Selam, Tevona, Madeline S., and Saa writing our first entry. They decided to write this:

“We mad a space backgrod.  We mad a star on it.”

“We also did a taste test where we closd r eyes an tasted popcorn, pretzel, or animal crackers.  Each friend then used juicy words to describe what the taste was. That helped us use juicy words during writers workshop in our own books!”

Here are some pictures!

Our solar system background that we are currently making to put behind the rocket!

Mr. Nored showing the friends and leading a discussion about taste buds using the iPad

Joseph reaching into a bag with his eyes closed to do the taste test!

Madeline creating a map for our rocket with the help of Miss Kouri and a solar system book!

Hope you all are having a good weekend so far! Selam on Friday mentioned that after we get our rocket prepared that we need to make space suits to get ready to go to space. We are going to explore that this week. However I am not a sewer so I am checking to see if any of you sew or have any resources on how to get some space suits prepared for our students.

Thanks for any thoughts and help!

Today was such an exciting day!  To celebrate Read Across America Day we had two events where we celebrated books.  The first one took place this morning before lunch.  Two published authors came and read Pete the Popcorn which they wrote!  It was about how everyone is different but so important!  After reading the book the two authors, Nick and Joseph, asked for a few examples of our friends and teachers to share what they liked about each other.  Then, they told us to keep encouraging each other and filling each other’s buckets!  I thought it was such a great connection to what we already do each day!

This afternoon we celebrated Dr. Suess’ birthday!  A group from Pi Phi and Butler came to our school and had a surprise birthday party!  They gave each child a Cat in the Hat hat, a bookmark, and a delicious homemade cookie!  The Cat in the Hat actually came and read The Cat in the Hat.  Then the group hosting the party donated over 200 books to the Butler Lab School!!  We will now be able to share these books among the four classrooms this year and continue to foster a love for reading and books in our classrooms!

We continued to work on the rocket today!  The children decided that our rocket boosters that originally were going to be toilet paper rolls needed to be sturdy.  As we were looking around the room it appeared that we could use the canister that our snack was in for our boosters!  So, we asked the other teachers if we could use theirs once they were finished.  As the day was coming to a close, I read Regards to the Man in the Moonby Ezra Jack Keats.  This book is consumed by the thought that imagination is what drives us and should be celebrated!!  It is about a friend who uses his imagination to travel into space and see all of the beautiful things around him!  At the end of the story it says, “Soon all the kids were ready to take off.”  I told our friends this afternoon after we were done reading to be ready to “take off” on Monday.  There is some fun stuff awaiting them!

Our rocket coming to life!

After the children came back from the party, this is what Emily and Sydney did!

The Cat in the Hat!

Our friends engrossed in watching the Cat in the Hat read!

One of the authors of "Pete the Popcorn" celebrating with some of our friends their compliments towards each other.

Today we began creating the rocket/spacecraft/space shuttle (depending on who you ask it has a different title).  After the children made plans yesterday of what they wanted the rocket to look like, they used those plans to help them create the rocket today!  We are in the beginning stages of it, but tomorrow we are going to continue to work on it.

THIS HAS BEEN SUCH A FUN WEEK!!

Mr. Nored led a discussion with the children about finding juicy “sight” words in books, and the children came up with some great ideas from the book he read.  In the afternoon he showed a picture of Saturn and the children had some wonderful juicy words to talk about like it was “slanted” and “light” and “yellow/brown”.  All of this exploration of juicy words that has to do with our senses is to help us notice those juicy words in books we are reading as well as use those words in our own writing to really engage our readers even more than we already are.  After the conversation was done about Saturn, we had them get into their best Saturn “statue.”  Mr. Nored and I noticed some pretty great statues with much creativity!

Mr. Nored working hard to cut the box for our rocket!

Isaac beautiful illustration of rockets!