IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Today, we asked the kids, “Would you like to be a part of the recycling team?”  Over half of our class responded yes!  Last year, as a school we all recycled paper weekly and dumped it into our paper retriever outside in our parking lot.  A lot of the kids have been asking about it again this year and we are finally starting to collect again!  This week, friends from both 1-2 classes will be giving speeches to the rest of the school to talk about how we recycle and how we can do it at school.  Check back later this week or next week to see how this goes!  I know the kids are excited once again to help our planet!

Today we had a great discussion about our Movie Premier that we will be having on Thursday, December 20th. There are so many things the friends want to do to get this Movie Premier prepared (make posters, make food, have a ticket booth, make a donations jar, etc.) The first thing they wanted to do, though, was make an invitation so you all could come to the show. They were so excited to give you the invitations!!

We hope you can make it!

As part of Miss Jeffrey’s practicum she needs to have some time running the classroom if it were her own so this past week she did most of the teaching with me in the room the whole time. The next two weeks she will be running the whole day pretty much by herself. While she has the majority of the class, I will be pulling small groups at a time to start filming our puppet show movie. I have been so proud of how she has grown as a teacher this semester. It is good experience for her to be running the day! I just wanted to make you aware of this so you knew what was going on.

As I shared earlier this week, in Reader’s Workshop we have been talking about different perspectives of characters.  We have been reading Henry’s Freedom Box and Abe’s Honest Words.  Both of these books have the topic of slavery.  So this week we have been having a lot of rich conversations about perspectives of people during the time frame of the Civil War.   What were their feelings when it relates to slavery and how they treated people that were different.  I can’t even begin to tell you about how amazing their conversation was, but I will leave you with the quote of the day from Ruth: “I’m glad that slavery is gone because there are some really great people in this class that wouldn’t be here if it was still around.”

Today we began our day writing a thank you letter to WISH-TV for letting us come to the studio yesterday. The children had so many great things to say about the field trip and what they liked or learned. We are going to send it tomorrow!

I want to say thank you for everyone that came and helped on the field trip! It was so nice of you to take the time to come and spend part of your day with your child and their friends. We have the best families!!

I wanted to say thank you as well to Michelle, Noah H.’s mom, for taking pictures of the field trip. She sent me the link where she uploaded the pictures so feel free to take a look at them. The password is: bucher

http://chellecraig.zenfolio.com/butlerlab

Thanks again for all of your support you give to me, the class, and our school. We are so thankful for all that you do for us.

Students learned a shark chant during studio today, called “Sliding Up the Food Chain.” The chant was taught to them by some Butler students, and our class loved it! Here is how it goes:

(Animal), (animal) (verb) in the water.

(Animal), (animal) gulp, gulp, gulp!

OH NO! He got eaten by a (next animal in the food chain)

Students start by chanting the first animal at the bottom of our shark food chain. There is a matching verb that goes with each animals actions. Then at the end of the verse, students shout the animal that is next in the food chain. In the last verse about the shark, instead of saying “OH NO! He got eaten by a _____,” you make a burping sound and then say “Pardon me!”

Here are the animals in order from bottom to top of the food chain with their corresponding action:

plankton – splashing

mussels – slugging

lobsters – crawling

octopi – wiggling

sea lions – swimming

sharks – lurking

So, the first verse of the song would go:

Plankton, plankton, splashing in the water

Plankton, plankton gulp, gulp, gulp

OH NO! He got eaten by a mussel!

And then you would continue the next verse with mussels!

Hope that makes sense! Give it a try at home tonight! The kids loved it at school today and I’m sure they’d love sharing it with you too!