IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Today we had the pleasure of having Mr. Price, one of our parents, come in and share his knowledge of thinking maps with us!  He shared with us the thinking behind circle maps, and the children did such an amazing job using this tool to share their knowledge of plants.  It was such a great experience and definitely excited Mr. Nored and I for the myriad of ways we can use thinking maps in the future.

We have quite a bit of grass growing in our gloves, and the children are really excited because of it!  We will keep checking it out to see..will grass grow in all of the gloves?

The children last week painted beautiful paintings on watercolor paper.  Today some of the children began making stained glass paintings using acrylic painting and lamination.  They were so engaged creating really beautiful work that showed their ideas of friendship or their feelings toward the school.

Selam creating a beautiful painting using permanent markers, acrylic paint, and lamination

Look at our grass gloves!

Mr. Price faciliating a great conversation about plants!

Today we had our January birthday celebration!  Thank you to Olivia’s mom for coming in and helping her make the class cupcakes!

Smile!

Friends enjoy the dollhouse.

Today, our friends were greeted this morning by yet another new material- a dollhouse. It was neat to see that most of the children spent at least some of their morning arrival or free choice time with the new material. They took turns playing with different characters, creating an assortment of scenarios for their dolls, and practiced negotiating with one another who would play next.

Regan and Cameron learn a new math game with a clock!

Aidan, Lucas, and Da’Sean play The Very Hungry Caterpillar on our “stage”.

 

Tags: friendship

Monica, Da'Sean and Aidan tap dance on the platform.

This morning when the kids came in, they were greeted by a transformed classroom. They found many pieces of furniture and materials re-arranged, learning spaces re-defined, and some new materials to explore with. One of the biggest changes was to our class built airplane. After much class debate and discussion, we have taken a portion of the airplane to remain in the classroom indefinitely, made it smaller, and changed its location. It can still have friends work inside it during all workshops and play and relax during studio and explore. Inside are bean bags that the kids loved trying out all day. We have also re-arranged our whole group meeting area and added some new seating (logs) that they kids can enjoy while we have our whole group meeting times. The new arrangement allows for some more space and a different aesthetic feel to the room! Our studio space has also been re-defined. The kids were so excited to see a large, blue platform in the space where the studio table once stood. “What is this, Mrs. Argus?” Monica and Da’Sean asked. I asked our friends back, “What could it be?” Friends began dancing on it and immediately labeled it a stage. Then different friends came over, Michael and Aidan, and transformed it into a mini airplane. They pretended to fly on it. Lucas, Zek and Tajanaye came over a little later and Lucas exclaimed, “Its a flying carpet!” They sat and “flew” together and laughed and laughed. Later on in the day, Ruth and Regan showed a large group of friends magic tricks they could perform on the platform. I love the new dimension of art that this “stage” brings to our studio space. Art is not only of the visual arts kind!  

An airplane ride.

A magic carpet ride.

Tags: art, collaboration, creativity, inspiration

Today when friends were playing at the beginning of the day there were some small arguments happening over the toys as well as just not the best of sharing and collaborating with each other so we had a discussion about it before our Morning Meeting began.  We talked about how we are a family and we have to take care of each other each and every day.  So…our greeting was to say hello to our neighbor in the circle and say, “I care for you” as we looked at that person.  At first the children kind of giggled that they were going to say it, but I have to say it was pretty moving  watching each friend say it to their friend.  They stood a little taller and smiled when the person was saying it to them.  After the greeting, I asked the children how they felt, and they said that they felt good!

Our Friendship Circle where we played a couple of games today as well as do our new Friendship Handshake

Saa's Length Hunt work that he prepared today when we were looking for items that matched the string exactly!