IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

We were very busy in Math Workshop today!  In honor of Halloween we used pumpkins to help us in math.  We estimated the height and weight of the class pumpkin.  After that we took the actual measurements and talked about the differences.  After that the kids had the chance to get their hands in the goop!  It was so funny to see their reactions!  The kids were divided into small groups and had to count their pumpkin seeds.  The kids ended up sorting them into groups of ten and then they were able to count quickly!

Over the past few weeks I have had a few questions about sharing.  Many parents are curious if they can send their child’s favorite toys to school.  The answer is YES!  Each morning, during morning meeting, 4 or 5 friends get the opportunity to share something from home, a piece of work, or an event that happened in their life.  We use this as a part of our community building in our classroom.  In addition, I think it is important to honor all parts of a child’s life.  Toys and items from home are a big part of that!  Please do not be worried that it will become a distraction.  The kids now know that it goes back in their book bags after our morning meeting.  It is now just part of our routine. 🙂  SO….if they have something they want to bring in and as a parent, you are ok with it, send it in!

Our first week back from Fall Break is going very well. It’s feels good to all be together again!

On Monday and Wednesday this week, our Butler teachers were with us. They are providing amazing opportunities for the students in our classroom to get one-on-one and small group support. Other exciting changes in our classroom are that we have a new student, Zakeyah! She joined our class on Tuesday. We have started using book bags during our Readers’ Workshop. Each student has their own bag with books just right for him/her. They were a big hit!

One of our four Butler teachers, Miss Gaisser, works with a group of students during math workshop.

A final change in our classroom is that we have brand new literacy stations. Students have spent the past three days working with letters, acting out their favorite Mo Willems stories, and writing messages to each other! It has been a great start to our first week back!

Jermaine puts a letter he wrote in a friend's message center mailbox during literacy stations.

We are well into the swing of things with our Recycling Project!  Before break we had come up with lots of questions about recycling.  So far we have been reading TONS of books on recycling.  In addition, the kids have decided that they want to start a recycling program at our school.  We are starting in our classroom to try and work it out.  In the upcoming weeks our hope is to finalize our school wide plan and bring an expert in to talk to us.  There might even be a field trip in the works to visit a recycling plant!

Today a few students had a chance to reuse some of our recycled materials.  They made art creations out of things that our class had already recycled.

J'Nayla and Tylisha worked together to build a bird house out of our recycled materials.

Wyatt and Reid worked together to build a bird nest out of our recycled materials.

Reid built a bird bath and Harper built a mailbox out of our recycled materials.

We had an exciting afternoon at school today.  A special visitor came to us and talked about bullying.  Ronald McDonald!!  Mr. McDonald did a magic act and had a short game to talk about how to deal with bullies.  The kids loved the time with him.  It was constant laughter and from my perspective a great way to hear about bullying!