IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Yesterday we began talking about how we are going to do partner reading everyday during Readers Workshop. Today we actually started partner reading. Selah shared that we are to sit back to back while reading independently and then when I say “Elbow to elbow” the children switch and sit elbow to elbow and begin reading to each other (She learned this from her class last year).

The children did such an amazing job learning about this new procedure and really respected each other while sitting back to back.

We hope that through this partner reading, the children will share everyday what they are reading and become more efficient with what they are reading at school.

As I mentioned yesterday, we had morning meeting with Mrs. Clark’s class.  We met again today and Mrs. Clark led the group in thinking more deeply about what a leader is.  Mrs. Clark shared pictures with the group and the students had to put their thumbs up if the picture showed a leader and thumbs down if it did not.  Some of the leaders we talked about included Nemo, the Lorax, and Merida from Brave.  The students shared why they felt that these characters were leaders for example: “she was brave” and “he stood up for the trees.” We then made a list together of what a good leader does: they are brave, they are helpful, they are respectful, they stand up for others, and they help the bullies. We plan to continue joining our two classrooms together each Monday morning to continue building community and developing our understanding of leadership as the oldest students in our building!

Today, it was raining, and we talked about how water is beneficial to plants. The kids and I discussed what a rain gauge is and we decided we need to put one outside in our garden. We learned that the garden needs about an inch of water each week. We talked about how if the garden does not get enough rain, we will need to water it with a hose.  We also learned about the other needs of plants. We listened to a new song that told us that plants need:

water, air, light, soil, and space

After that, we watched a video about how to grow lima beans in plastic baggies with paper towels. We were confused- how could they grow without soil? We have been coming up with lots of questions about what soil exactly is- was perhaps the paper towel acting as some type of soil? Does soil mean dirt, or can it be sand as well? Can plants grow in other mediums? We plan to investigate the idea of soil in the future.

Tags: curious, garden, project

I cannot even begin to tell you how great it was to be back at school and see everyone! Our friends did SUCH an amazing job today at school. We did a lot of things that were related to our study on weather. We made tornadoes in a jar, we made suncatchers to put in our newly remodeled courtyard, and we started a sun collage out of yellow materials! The children were so engaged and excited to explore these materials!

I have had a lot of friends in other classes that have asked about our study on weather so today I asked the children how we can share our knowledge with others, and there were some great ideas: write notes to tell the weather and give it to the classes, put videos outside so they can see what the weather is outside, and share our videos we have made with other classes!

Again, such an inspiring day filled with good conversation, engaged thinkers, and collaborative work!

Welcome back families! I hope you all had a wonderful Fall Break! It was great to see all the kids this morning!

We had a a great first day back from vacation, full of normal workshops, some new experiences and materials in the classroom, and our weekly library visit.

Our morning started with community circle, where we all shared in the excitement of hearing about visits with cousins, camping trips, visits to aquariums, and fall fun!

We began partner reading during readers workshop today. Each student was partnered with a friend in the class who they will be reading with during readers workshop from now on. We will be learning the procedures for partner reading all week, but the preview is that, during partner reading, students start out sitting back to back with their reading partner. During this time, students are expected to be reading their own books, independently, not talking with their partner. After a given amount of time, I will sound the rains stick and students will be able to move so that they are sitting next to or facing their partner. At this time, students will be able to read their books to each other, read their books together, or have a book discussion. The students enjoyed reading with their friends today, and I’m excited to see what other benefits arise from this new experience.

Other new and exciting things in our day were:

-new natural materials to tell stories with during story workshop

-new, soft clay

-autumn scented potpourri

-new books in the classroom library

-new “beautiful materials” in the studio

-new colored glass stones at the light pad

It was a great day full of “news,” and I’m looking forward to the rest of the week!