IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

This week we started a new unit of study in Writer’s Workshop.  We are Writing For Readers, meaning that we want to make our writing clear and neat so others can read it.  Today I asked the kids to do something new.  I asked them to go through their own folders of finished books and evaluate them.  They had to make a pile of  “easy to read” books and “hard to read” books.  While watching them sort through their books, I was impressed!  Every student was honest with themselves and really took the time needed to look through and evaluate their own books!  The goal is that the kids find an area they need to work on and apply that to their writing time.  Check back in a few days and I will let you know how we are doing!

Tyler is evaluating his own writing.

Today was another busy and productive day!  Sophia and Max from Mrs. Clark’s class came in this morning to give us a presentation about their recycling project.  They did such an amazing job presenting their new plans to get our school to recycle.  Each class will have a box in their room to recycle paper, and then each Friday they will take it out and put it in the big recycling bin!  Our kids the rest of the day were asking “Is this for the regular trash can or the recycling box?”  We are pretty excited about being a little greener!

We learned a new pose-the boat- today during yoga, and I cannot tell you how proud I was of the kids!  They worked so hard with their partner to get themselves into the boat position, and then they were trying to really focus their attention so they could stay up for a while!

During Readers Workshop we did some partner reading.  The children partnered up with a friend and took some time to read their books with each other.  We will be doing this once a week at least to work on projecting and reading aloud to a peer.

Jason and Madeline P. doing some partner reading during Reader's Workshop.

Heaven and Selam working together to do the boat pose.

Sophia and Max sharing their recycling project!

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  Angela mixes the avocados.

Creating together.

This morning as the kids came in, they were greeted with the aroma of fresh avacados. Friends were invited to watch the avacados be cut open, help  remove the green fruit, and mash it in preperation for guacamole. Each child had a chance to help mash and mix the green pulp into a smooth blend. After it was nice and creamy, we added some salsa (about half a jar) to the avacados and mixed some more. Then, we tried our creation! I was so proud, while not all of our friends loved the guacamole, all of them did try it with brave faces. Below are some of the descriptions from our friends.

Messi- “It tastes real spicy!”

Hutton- “Spicy!”

Ruth- “The guacamole is creamy.”

Zek- “Mine tastes like peanut butter.”

Da’Sean- “It tastes like popcorn.”

Aidan- “Its a little spicy, but I like it.”

David- “I didn’t like it cuz I tasted guacamole before and I didn’t like it.”

Lucas- “It tastes like an ice cube, it really did. I dipped it on the top and I got a big chunk like an ice cube.”

Regan- “It’s GOOOOOOOD!”

Monica- “It’s good and spicy! I ate all of mine!”

 A lot of interest was taken in the large avocado pits inside the fruit too. Friends asked, “Why are they so big?” “What are those things?” Jenesis held the pits up to her face and said, “Look, they look like eyes!” We decided we would try an experiment to see if we could get the avocado seeds to grow. At the end of the day, we placed each of the five avocado seeds inside a large plastic baggie with a wet paper towel. We decided to tape the baggies up against our windows in our classroom and outside in the hallway so they can get light and see if anything sprouts! We learned that the avocado seed could take up to 6 weeks to grow, so we will be practicing our patience.

Friends enjoy the end of our Mexico video and sample guacamole.

Kaitlyn and Lucas learn a new math game during math workshop today.

Tags: capable, collaboration, curious

Today, we learned about some new things.  One of those new things was the idea of “Stop…and think!”  We talked about this during Reader’s Workshop so that we can begin to really think about what we are reading about when we are reading books.  The children during their independent reading time, I noticed, were stopping and thinking.  By stopping and thinking about what we are reading, that will help us with our comprehension and summarizing.

We also learned our new spelling words which are “can”, “for”, “go”, “here”, “see”.   I put them on the homework list too so you can see them there as well.  It is so fun to see the children spotting these words around them!

Another thing that we talked about today was self-portrait collages.  These are collages that are made with beautiful “stuff” around us.  They can be beads, twigs, leaves, berries, nails, magazine cut outs, etc.  We started to make our own self-portrait collages today.  Geneva, Madeline P., and Emily were the ones that wanted to do them today, and I was so proud of their work!  I am excited to see what the children make throughout the week.

Geneva working on her self portrait collage.

One of our resources we are using to help us make our self-portrait collages.

Monica and Sascha design their Spacemen.

We just began a new unit for Writer’s Workshop: Writer’s Write for an Audience. In talking about an audience reading back our books, our class started a discussion on using space in between our words when we write. We looked at two examples of Mrs. Argus’ writing. The first was “all mashed together” (as Messi said) and it looked “sloppy” (said Aidan). We looked at the second example of writing, which the class concluded was “much better” because there was space between words, or as we call it, finger space, and you “didn’t have to read it all fast” (Hutton) . I told the kids they would have an additional tool to help them leave finger space instead of just a finger- THE SPACEMAN! The spaceman is a little man (or woman) drawn onto a craft stick. This person encourages you to leave space by being inserted between words in your writing. The spaceman can be used again and again in any book and is a friendly reminder to write for your audience!

Sascha uses her spaceman to write.

Monica and Ruth try partner reading for the first time today during Reader's Workshop.

Tags: creativity, writing