IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

We are so excited because next Friday, Nicole Misencik from WTHR is coming into our classroom! She is going to share information about what she does for a living, what the forecast will be for the upcoming weekend, and weather safety tips. I showed a picture of Nicole today to the children and they just loved seeing her.

Today we learned a new math game. This game we used an egg carton with numbers written on the bottom and two pennies. The children had to take turns shaking the egg carton. When they opened the carton, wherever the pennies landed they had to add those two numbers. Te children took turns making equations and solving them and really worked well together!

Today we learned a new strategy to help us when reading the first sound/letter. It is called READY ROOSTER! Roosters get the day going. Ready Rooster gets your mouth ready for the first sound/letter of a word. I showed the word “beginning” to the friends and asked them to get ready rooster. You should have seen our 23 friends “pecking” their heads a little and getting their mouths ready to say that beginning “b” sound!!

We also did a class walk of beginning, middle, and end today. I read the book Swimmy to our friends, and then I read it again but this time they either had to go to the beginning of our room, the middle of our room, or the end of the room based on what part of the book I was reading. They loved listening and then getting to the part of the room quick! It was a fun way to demonstrate beginning, middle, and end!

We have been taking yoga since the beginning of the year! So far, we have learned the sun salutation, a series of connected poses, along with breathing and meditation techniques. Each day we have yoga time with Mrs. Williams, we get better at the vinyasa (flow) of the poses and the meditation time! Practicing yoga helps us to calm our mind and bodies and enables us to have a successful end to our day. Ask your child to show you their favorite yoga pose. For a lot of students this may be guard dog or playful dog!

Students doing child’s pose.

Students doing downward dog.

Today was our second Wednesday with our new Butler friends! Mr. Davidson, Miss Head, Miss McDonald, and Miss Hurt will be with us every week for a full day until December. Their tasks will include working with small groups of children and individual children and trying out teaching experiences such as leading guided reading groups and reading aloud of the students. They are very popular amongst our class and have already made a positive impact in our school day!

Miss Hurt working with Kaelina during story workshop.

Miss McDonald working with Griffin during story workshop.

Mr. Davidson working its DaMauryon during story workshop.

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.”