IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Today we had an engaging discussion on how to keep the close community in our classroom instead of it going sour (ex. arguments, friends getting hurt feelings, etc.). Heaven suggested we make a sign that shows what “friends” look like and what “friends” do not look like. Malachi suggested we have a meeting at the end of the day focusing on how we were friends that day. Then Makayla talked about how we need to make people happy so we are happy inside. The children all agreed and were already discussing how they do that for their friends. Maggie explained that that was the Golden Rule which was a beautiful connection.

So at the end of the day we had a Friendship Meeting where the children celebrated when and who they saw being good friends within our classroom community. You should have seen the smiles on our friends faces when other people noticed how they were being good friends to each other.

The last thing we did was we made a list of things\traits that friends have or show: some of the ideas were:

Friends-help, share, are fair, are nice, care for their friends…

We will continue to explore this idea and continue to celebrate the friends in our class being great friends!

Oh, and we also learned a song that some of my friends learned last year-F-R-I-E-N-D, F-R-I-E-N-D, F-R-I-E-N-D, that’s what friends are for.

What I strive to do each day is to provide a safe and supportive environment for each child in our class. By us focusing on friendship on occasion, and making the children conscious of their choices in a supportive manner,I feel that the community will continue to strengthen. I believe in each child in this class, and each child brings something so vital to the community. Through this exploration of what friendship is, we are focusing on the children thinking about how they are treating each other and really highlighting those beautiful interactions they are having each day.

David, Oliver, and Ruth delivered the eggs to Mrs. Judy.

Last week, our class was in charge of the chickens.  We were responsible for feeding the chickens, collecting the eggs, and taking care of the coop.  We collected 12 eggs and as a class we had to decide what we were going to do with them.  We have been having the conversation about helping people and yesterday Kristien volunteered and said that we should cook the eggs and give them to people who need food.  After a little bit of conversation we decided to take the eggs to Mrs. Judy, our lunch lady, so she could give them to people after she cooked them.  We delivered the eggs today.

The class decided this is what a regular octagon looks like!

The debate has been settled!  As a class we have been exploring octagons for the last few days.  We have had some heated debates over what an octagon should look like.  The three qualities that a regular octagon must have are perpendicular lines, congruent lines, and 8 sides. Each day we explored another one of these qualities and today, as a class, we could finally say that a regular octagon is the one above on the geoboard!

This was a long conversation over a few days, but I have been so proud of the kids and their mathematical thinking.  They were really challenging themselves to think like mathematicians and not just take an answer because someone said it.  We really went into new terms such as congruent and perpendicular!  That is tremendous exploration for 1st and 2nd graders!

Today Miss Jeffrey led a very hands on lesson during math workshop all about the half hour. She first asked the children what is the half hour. The children gave her various responses, and then she had the kids become a clock to explore what half hour or :30 looks like on the clock. They were so excited to explore what it looks like and seemed to understand the visual support.

Today we began making something (we cannot tell you what it is *wink wink*) out of flour, salt, and water. The children loved getting their hands messy!

Today I set out some plastic forms and beads for the children to decorate. Once they were finished we ironed them so the beads stayed together once off the plastic form. We had so many friends working on this both at morning choices and at free choice. Only two got finished so on Monday we will continue to work on it.

Heaven for the past couple of weeks has been working on creating her own puppet book and show. This past week various friends were helping her with making the puppets, the set, etc. Today they started videotaping the show. I love to see how children are inspired by our project work!

So, today at the end of the day as we were cleaning up from Story Workshop, I was asking trivia questions to those that were waiting while others cleaned up. One of the questions was “Who was the first president of the United States?” So many hands raised with excitement. One friend said, “Obama.” Another friend said, “Mitt Romney!” I said, “Those are both great responses but it is not either of those. This president lived a really long time ago.” Isaac said, “When you were born?” (directed at me) *sigh* HAHA….I then told them that it was George Washington, and they were stunned. This was a brief but fun moment…

Today, I helped Jason edit the movie as he is our editor. He and I watched each short video and decided which “take” was our best work. It was such a great hands on lesson on rough draft, edit, revise (we are doing that tomorrow because there were some “takes” that we need to reshoot), and our goal is the final draft. Tomorrow we are going to reshoot the three scenes Jason thought we needed to revise. This is a great example of project work helping us accomplish those standards we need to cover but in such a meaningful way!