IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Block A Students Pose for Photo in the Courtyard

A key feature of the IPS/Butler University Laboratory School is our collaboration with Butler University.  A part of that collaboration includes a 15 credit hour course called Block A.  This teaching methods course focuses on young children, literacy, math, Reggio inspired practice and project-based learning.  The course takes place on-site at our school in a classroom designed for college students, but the students will also have a practicum experience in our classrooms.  The preschool classroom will have three Butler students while each of the k-1 classrooms will have four students assigned to them.  The Butler students will (with a few schedule changes) be in our classrooms every Wednesday for the entire day.  Wednesday, September 14th will be the first full-day for the Butler students in our classrooms following a brief visit yesterday.  The teachers and children are as excited as our Butler students for this experience to begin!  The following comments by Block A students summarize how they are feeling about this opportunity:

“I walked into the classroom today and the children just put me at ease.  I felt so comfortable in the room; almost like it was my own.  I cannot wait to jump in!” – Katie Jones

“As soon as I walked into the classroom, a child ran up to me and gave me a huge hug.  That was the beginning of many hugs during my visit!  I have found my home for the semester!” – Colleen Wilson

“I can’t wait to start working with the kids!  I know I will learn so much from them as we learn together.  I was estatic today when I met two young girls whose interests are after those of my own heart – weddings, singing, dancing and family.  I am excited to make more connections with the kids.” – Amy Gaisser

“I am so excited to begin working with the students.  They were so full of wonderful energy and excitement.  I can’t wait to see what they are going to teach me!” – Kaitlyn Love

“I am overwhelmed with emotions.  Emotions of joy, happiness and excitement.  Emotions of unsure possibilities and unplanned paths.  I cannot wait to start this journey and to experience more and more of these emotions.” – Courtney Boyle

“How blessed I am to have the opportunity to work with these amazing students.  I can’t wait to start learning from them.” – Elyse Estridge

“Even though I only spent a few short minutes in Mrs. Argus’ classroom, it is clear to me that this is a special community.  They are not just a teacher and her students, but friends.  I’m so excited to grow together with them.” – Megan Rogg

“You know those moments when something good is about to happen…yeah, this is one of those!” – Chris Henderson

We have had a great start to our school year.  As we get into the swing of things our workshops are really starting to take off!  I think that Writer’s Workshop is now one of the kids favorite parts of the day.  Over the past few weeks we have been focusing on details in our stories, both illustrations and text.  It has been great to see the kids adding words to their stories.  They get so excited! 

In Reader’s Workshop we have been focusing on the different ways we can read books.  The three ways we have talked about so far are: 1. Looking at the pictures to help us tell the story,    2. Retelling a story we know,   3. Reading the words.  The past week or so we have been expanding on the 3rd way to read.  We have talked about how we can sound out short words or stretch out the longer ones to read.  It is so cool to see the kids get excited when they figure out words.  At the end of both workshops we share what some students have done in their independent time.  The kids get excited, run to me to share and then instantly ask if they can share in front of the entire class.  SO GREAT!  I can already see growth in so many kids.

Kaitlyn and Aidan counting how many spots are left.

Recently, the kids were introduced to a new math game, Cover All. They take turns with a partner rolling a dice and adding that many cubes to their game mat. The last person to cover the last square is the winner. We have been practicing taking turns, being gracious winners and losers, and practicing counting and one to one correspondence.  Today while playing, I noticed Kaitlyn and Aidan were counting something but it wasn’t their cubes. I asked Kaitlyn what they were counting. “All the spots that are left! One, two, three, four, five, six seven!” Kaitlyn was counting the squares on the game board to see how many were left for their cubes.  I asked the kids, “What do you suppose will happen when we roll the dice again and add the cubes?” Each child had a different response- one thought more spaces would appear, one thought less. Aidan rolled the dice and added two cubes. We then counted the remaining spaces. “There are less!” Aidan said. We talked about how although we were adding cubes, the game was also similar to subtraction because the spaces on the board were becoming fewer and fewer. It leaves me asking myself a question, is this game more like addition or subtraction?

Good afternoon!  What a day!  We had all 22 friends here at school today, and it was so fun to see everyone in action.  We discussed the four puppet shows we will be performing.  I met with each group during our project time, and we discussed what characters we needed and who was going to play which character.  It was interesting to see how the children negotiated who was going to play each character, and everyone seems happy with who they are going to be playing. 

Next steps for our project….

Meet with the puppeteer on Wednesday.

Figure out what words we are going to say and write a script.

Make the puppets and backdrops.

Make the programs, invites, posters for the show.

Put on the show!!

(Now, I am not sure how long this is going to take and that it all entails, but I will keep you up to date with all of the fun we are having as well as great learning experiences with writing, sharing, acting, retelling a story.)

Our class has started a new initiative called Positive Points. Each time our class is doing something positive together as a class (being respectful to who is listening, being peaceful at lunch, filling each other’s buckets) we can earn a positive point. We have been practicing making tallys to represent the points and counting them each time a point is added. Last week, our positive point goal was to reach 25 points, and we achieved that goal. As a reward, we watched the movie Chicken Run which is about chickens building an airplane. This week, we started a new goal, 30 points, and today we talked about what should happen when we achieve our goal. We wrote a list of ideas as a class, ranging from having a Ramen Noodle party (who knew there could be such a unique party?) to baking and enjoying cookies as a class. We chose four ideas and voted on our favorite- Making our Own Ice Cream! I ancicipate we will achieve this goal in the upcoming week  and will most likely do this on Friday. If any parents or adult helpers are interested in helping out with this experience, please let me know!

Also, on Friday afternoon I sent home a conference schedule for parent teacher conferenes. These are on September 21st. They will be from 12-7pm in twenty increment time slots. Please indicate on the paper sent home or via email several slots that would work for you. I will then contact you to confirm what time works best.

I also sent home a birthday calendar. At the Lab School, we will be addressing birthdays by celebrating them at the end of each month. If it is your child’s birthday month, they will have the oppurtunity to bake cupcakes at school for their classmates. We will always need volunteers for this, so please look at the schedule and consider helping.