IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Today during our free choice/project work time, our Butler friends presented a fun experience for our friends. They put things in tissue boxes that reminded them of rain (soggy leaves, water, cotton balls), and then asked our friends to put their hands in the boxes to guess what was inside of them. While watching the children put their hands in the boxes, their eyes widened!! It was fun to see them feel it and guess what it was and then actually see what it was!

REMINDERS-
Tomorrow is Garden Day so please make sure your child is in clothes that you are okay to see get dirty. Also, one of the local meteorologists will be here in the afternoon to share her knowledge about meteorology! What a fun-filled day!

Yesterday Miss Jeffrey introduced Skippy Frog and Tryin’ Lion. Tryin’ Lion is continuing to try even when you get to those tricky words. Skippy Frog is when you get to a word you do not know, you skip it. Then you use the other words or the pictures to help figure out that skipped word. Renna and Jason did a great job today when they were doing some partner reading. They had “4 striped fish” on their page. They skipped “striped” because it was tricky. Then they looked at the fish on the page and noticed that each fish had stripes on it so they were able to figure out the word “striped” What great observers!

Today for our snack we used sunflower seeds, tomatoes, celery, marshmallows, and goldfish to make a “weather” picture. The children just LOVED making a picture with their snack and then gobbling it up!

Today some of our friends made rain sticks out of some found materials with Miss Jeffrey! They loved being able to make the sounds whether it was fast or slow.

I worked with a small group today on drawing the sounds of rain. I showed them what some friends in Italy drew when they were asked to draw the sound of rain. Then I asked our friends to draw their ideas of what rain sounds like. What was fascinating was that they discussed the chhhhssshhhh sound a lot to go along with their drawing. I attached one of the sound drawings. This is Noah’s. He described that the drops are rain, and the arrows are the sounds ccchhhhssshhhh as they fall down on to the sidewalk. LOVE THEIR THINKING!

This morning, during word study, we were detectives!  Groups of kids were looking for sounds in words and different word endings in books.  We have been talking a lot about patterns in words and today we challenged the kids to find these things in books.  Our goal is to have them be able to apply their learning to real text and the hunt made an instant connection to this.

This afternoon, we had a special closing meeting with Miss Cegielski’s class.  We talked about friendship and practiced using “bug statements” together.  These are things that we use if someone is upset and needs to talk with their friends.  (ie: The first friend says, “It bugs me when you talk loudly because it makes me feel angry.  I would like you to stop.”  The second student replies with “I understand it bugs you when I talk loudly because it makes you feel angry.  I will stop.”)  We will be using these in our classroom to help us express our feelings.  Feel free to practice them at home!

Cameron and Sydney, from Miss Cegielski’s class are showing our friends how to use bug statements.

Today was fun because we celebrated Isai, Heaven, and Niall’s birthdays! They baked cupcakes for us and the children were so excited to celebrate them as well as eat cupcakes! It was great to see the children celebrate their friends!

Today I saw Selah’s book she has been working on during Story Workshop. She has been working on this book for a couple of weeks. It is all about what we do at school. One page really struck me because she drew us in a circle eating snack. I absolutely LOVED the detail she included in the picture. I also felt that she captured something we do each day-build community. I wanted to just share this picture because I thought it was beautiful!