IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Yesterday I introduced story stones to our classroom community. Story stones are black stones that have cut out pictures that are modge podged onto them. These story stones are a tool that the children can use if they are needing support coming up with a story idea during story workshop. Today was so much fun because we had three friends pick a stone at random, and then three other friends had to come up with a story using those stones. The three stones selected were a clock, a piece of broccoli, and …I am having trouble remembering the third. It was so funny including broccoli in the story, but it was a great example for the children to see that by using these stones stories can come alive. During Story Workshop then, a group of friends used the stones to create some great stories. I loved having discussions with them about their chosen stones and stories as well as beginning, middle, and end.

Yesterday we began playing this game called “It’s Not a Stick.” The point of the game is that the children are in a circle. One friend goes in the middle with a yard stick. We then yell “Be careful with that stick!” The friend in the middle says “It’s not a stick” and then we ask “Then what is it?” The child in the middle then proceeds to pretend to do something or act out something with the stick, and we have to guess what the stick it! The children have really enjoyed playing this game, and they have come up with some pretty creative ideas for what the stick could be.

Joseph is writing down his skateboard story after he built it out of blocks.

Today, in Story Workshop, we added blank books as one of the choices for the kids to use.  As a class we talked about how they could create their stories using materials and then write down the story or how they could create a little and then write a little.  The goal with introducing the blank books later was for the kids to see how powerful the materials can be alone and how they can help add to the original stories.  It was great to see how many of the students chose to write while they were creating!  They wanted to remember their story!

Story Workshop is something that I am really excited about this year as a teacher.  In the past, we have has Writer’s Workshop for our writing.  While the two workshops are very similar, in my opinion, Story Workshop allows for even more creativity.  The kids are able to use manipulatives and materials to act out, paint, sculpt, or even draw before they put the story all together.  In the past, they were limited to paper, and writing materials such as crayons, pencils, pens, and markers.  With Story Workshop, they are going to be able to use clay, collage, blocks, natural materials, watercolors, oil pastels, and even more!     These materials can help the kids add more details to their stories! It adds a deeper level to their creations.  It is almost as if they are creating their first “draft” when they are using the manipulatives.  I am looking forward to seeing where Story Workshop takes us this year!

Today we explored a lot of new ideas during school. We talked about\learned about so much that I am going to stretch out the ideas over the next few days; otherwise, this blog entry would be so long!

Math Workshop, we explored a couple of new tools that we could use to solve math problems. One of those tools was the bead string. This bead string is made up of 5 red beads, 5 white beads, 5 red beads, and 5 white beads. We discussed first what we noticed about them,and they said things like: it was a pattern both by color and by number. Then the children had some great ideas of how to use the bead string to solve problems. I gave 2 plus 2 as one problem, and Malachi suggested that I slide over two beads, then slide over two more beads and then count how many are altogether. We did it together and it really seemed to help picture the problem. Selah mentioned how much she loved doing math using the bead strings so I am excited to see if the children will really use it as a tool!

I taped down a big rectangle that had 10 squares in it. I then asked a five friends to get inside the squares. I then posed the question “How many people are in the frame?” Maggie said 5 and I asked her how she knew that. Maggie said that she knew two plus two is four so she needed to add one more which would be five. Isaac said he counted each person inside of his head. I discussed with the children that it is important that we discuss the why when we get an answer so that we can see that we have a true understanding of math concepts. It was a great discussion that we had, and I look forward to seeing them continue to construct and respect how various strategies can get to the same result or even different results.

Today was a great finish to our first week of school! It was another really good day with the children doing such a good job of being engaged with the various workshops. I really noticed their stories today that they were telling during story workshop. What I love about story workshop is that it allows all children to be successful using whatever material they feel is appropriate for them and their needs. We really want them to feel successful as storytellers before we focus on the writing of stories. Today I heard some creative stories and saw the children using vocabulary like “Come here my story” and “My story is about…” not only with me but with others which is fantastic! I really look forward to seeing them grow as storytellers and and writers this year!

On Tuesday we introduced a game called The Real Me to the class. The game goes like this: one person is blindfolded in the middle of the circle. I spin that friend around and when we stop,they have to point to a friend. The friend in the middle then says an animal, and the friend that was pointed to has to make that animal noise. The friend in the middle then has to guess who made that sound. It has been a great way to get to know each other’s names and have some fun at the end of the day.

One thing that I have noticed this week is some pretty incredible buildings and structures being made by our friends. I wanted to attach some of them just so you could see their creativity.