IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

This week, we established a list of classroom agreements!

Students came up with ideas of things they could agree to do to help us have a peaceful environment where all students could do their best learning. The list we decided upon was:

1) I agree to be kind to everyone

2) I agree to be respectful

3) I agree to be peacful

4) I agree to treat our classroom/school with care

5) I agree to treat others the way I want to be treated

These are all things we have been referring back to this week! Feel free to talk to your child about these agreements at home!

Other exciting news…we began doing share time today. Seth shared what it looks like to be a good reader at the end of readers workshop. Salih shared what it looks like to be mathematician, and Aidan, Geneva, and John shared stories they created.

Seth shows us what great readers look like

Lastly, we began working with clay today. During our first free choice time, Ellie, Jaeda, and Davi learned how to use the clay and clay tools. During our second free choice time, those students were able to begin teaching other students how to use the clay. They did a wonderful job! Eventually, we will use clay during story workshop.

Our clay experts!

Today was a special day because we introduced three things that will be integral to our day each day. During Reader’s Workshop I introduced our new Reader’s Workshop bags. The children were so excited to know that each day they would take their own bag that has books for them and be able to read them at school. Today there were only two books in each bag, but typically there will be four books per bag to give the children a variety of books to read each week. Some of the books will be easy books, some will be just right, and some will be challenging books so the variety will help each child build on where they currently are.

I introduced clay to tell the my story today, and then it was open for the children to use during story workshop. It was so great to see the children create and spend so much time with their clay. Jason made a great story about me on a boat racing him on a motorcycle! After Jason was done sharing his story, compliments were flying about how great his sculptures were.

Today was our first day of yoga. Mrs. Williams’ took the time to go over procedures and expectations for our yoga time. She also did some deep breathing with the children. The children were really respectful while with Mrs. Williams. I am looking forward to doing this with the children each day and learning various poses alongside them.

This morning, after Reader’s Workshop we had a wonderful conversations about our individual strengths.  As we build our community, it is important to realize that everyone brings different strengths to the table.  Today, to start this conversation, each student focused on themselves. After a few minutes of talking as a class, each friend was asked to draw and write what they are good at.  We had talents ranging from reading to running!  I am excited to see how we can build on today’s conversation and grow our classroom community tomorrow.

Ruth said she is good at puzzles.

David shared he is good at running while Melina feels her strength is playing the piano.

Today was another great day! We started talking about our Classroom Agreements (agreements that we would all follow to ensure safety, support, and an atmosphere for learning and fun). The agreements that they decided on today were :
1. Listen
2. Keep your hands and feet to yourself.
3. Respect

We will see if there are any others as we go along, but we thought that was a great start!

Throughout the day, I noticed a lot of creating. Children were creating beautiful stories using blocks, natural materials, the light table, and paper. Children were creating creative pieces of artwork using playdough during free choice.

I am really looking forward to continuing to see the children grow and prosper in our school community!

Today was such a great first day! It felt as though we had been in school for a few months. There was playing, sharing, listening, laughing, reading, problem solving, storytelling, connecting with new and old friends and a whole lot of going over procedures 🙂

Here are some pictures to show you how the day looked like: