IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Earlier in the week I mentioned that we explored a new tool called a hydrometer.  Many of the students theories about saltwater being related to the hydrometer were right on track.  We now know that hydrometers measure density.  We have been exploring the concept of density and we started by using our bodies as an example.  When only 2-3 are on the carpet, the carpet is not very dense.  The students can move around easily and freely.  As we keep adding more and more students the carpet becomes more and more dense and it is harder to move around! Saltwater is more dense than regular water because we are adding salt into the water just like adding bodies to the carpet.

This morning the students were observing a jar with three liquids in it.  One liquid is a dark brown, one is clear, and one is yellowish.  The liquids form layers in the jar.  The students observed the jar and made hypotheses about what liquids they thought it could be.  Some students thought coffee, syrup, lemonade, water, and oil are possibly in the jar.  The students are also curious about why the liquids look separate.  Tomorrow in morning meeting we will test our theories and figure out which liquids we are looking at as well as how this relates to density.  Our scientists are going to be very prepared for our investigation at the Children’s Museum next week!

Today during yoga, we had the chance to try out some partner poses! We reviewed the double boat and seesaw pose and learned a new forward bend pose. Not only is this great for the student’s bodies, but it is helping them learn important communication skills! They have to use kind words to talk to their partner about the way their bodies are feeling when doing various poses. The class loves yoga time, but did especially well today! They were focused and remained to master their partner poses and this showed! Here are some pictures from our yoga session today!

Veronika Lewis and Ally Wessels
Blog about Miss Estridge and Mrs. Bucher’s classes 10/31/12

Today was a great and busy day! There were multiple instances of discovery today during math workshop. One of the students observing the one hundreds chart before math workshop shouted out “Ooh Miss. Estridge, I noticed something new”. Of course we were all eager to see what was found. She noticed that as you go down the number chart in the same column, the number goes up by ten and has the same number in the second digit every time. For example, she pointed out how after 9 it goes, 19, 29, 39, 49, etc. “There’s always a 9!” After that student made this discovery, so many other students started to notice a pattern and math workshop journals working with tens today went a lot faster for many of them due to their newly learned knowledge. Miss Estridge afterwards let them explore the pattern by coming up to the chart and asking for proof of their knowledge. “What is 47 plus 10?” Ms. Estridge said, and the class IMMEDIATELY answered “57” in unison. Miss Estridge exclaimed, “How do you know that so fast?” “That’s when the children explained the pattern to Miss Estridge and took on the teacher role, proud of their new findings.

Before story workshop, both Mrs. Bucher and Ms. Estridge’s classes discussed the effect of critiquing and how to make each other’s final products better using each other’s knowledge. One student in Miss Estridge’s class went up to another to ask for a critique. He was making a comic book and so far had done huge drawings with minimal written words on the pages. His critique was to make it look more like a comic book by making pictures smaller, and boxing them up. The fact the kids were comfortable enough to approach each other for help and ideas at such a young age made this an exciting event of the day. They understood the idea of critiquing really well!
Mrs. Bucher’s class discussed current events which are beneficial when learning to teach real world experiences. Since hurricane Sandy has been such an apparent topic in the news recently Mrs. Booker decided to bring it up to her class and see what some of their responses would be when posed with the question “How would you help them?”. Multiple ideas were given about raising money. One student said, “We can use the money in my piggy bank to fly out there and help them.” Another boy said to buy tools to rebuild and fix things. The Butler School 60 is so generous and full of amazing ideas to attempt to solve real world problems.
We fed the chickens today in Miss Estridge’s class! What a fun experience. The special part of chicken week for Miss Estridge’s class today was that a child suggested doing observational research or drawings of the chickens, their coup, and eggs during the feeding time. This was such a wonderful idea that multiple children chose to partake in this. The fact they wanted to explore chickens beyond just feeding them was awesome. The kids also collected two eggs today and since it was the last day of the month, they were used to bake cupcakes for the class! There were two children’s birthdays in October so at the end of the month, today, they were celebrated. These two kids got to partake in the making of these cupcakes and learned about experimentation and recipe in the kitchen. Awesome real life exploration for them!

So, today we revisited the conversation we started yesterday regarding how we could help those that were affected by Hurricane Sandy. The children were talking about wanting to make something and then sell it. One friend offered making a wagon or something really big, but then we thought that it might not bring a lot of money if we just have one thing. Jamari then said, “Why don’t we do a puppet show and they have to pay to come!” As soon as those words came out my friends became so excited talking about how some did a puppet show last year and it was so fun! Everyone seemed really excited and interested in what we were going to do. Heaven suggested doing a puppet show about a hurricane since we are talking about hurricanes and weather. We had to get ready to go home, but we will see tomorrow if we want to go that direction with our puppet show or not…SO FUN!

Today, our students from Butler taught during many parts of the day!  Miss Gitskin did a read aloud that introduced another author for our upcoming author study.  She introduced the idea of word choice to the students and we noticed that sometimes authors repeat their words to add emphasis or create a rhythm.  Chairo used some repeating phrases in his story and then he was able to share this with the class at the end of Story Workshop.

During math, each of the Butler students chose a read aloud connected to one of the math concepts we’ve worked on this year.  The students worked in small groups with the Butler friends and listened to their book and then completed a problem connected to it in their math journals.  The students were very engaged and loved hearing stories during math workshop!