IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Yesterday Miss Jeffrey introduced Skippy Frog and Tryin’ Lion. Tryin’ Lion is continuing to try even when you get to those tricky words. Skippy Frog is when you get to a word you do not know, you skip it. Then you use the other words or the pictures to help figure out that skipped word. Renna and Jason did a great job today when they were doing some partner reading. They had “4 striped fish” on their page. They skipped “striped” because it was tricky. Then they looked at the fish on the page and noticed that each fish had stripes on it so they were able to figure out the word “striped” What great observers!

Today for our snack we used sunflower seeds, tomatoes, celery, marshmallows, and goldfish to make a “weather” picture. The children just LOVED making a picture with their snack and then gobbling it up!

In Reader’s Workshop last week the students were identifying the characters, setting, and events in their stories.  This week we have started to talk about problem and solution.  I read When Sophie Gets Really Angry and The Cloud and the students helped me find the problem and solution.  In Word Study we learned a new game, KABOOM.  Friends take turns reading sight words and if they read the word correctly they get to keep the card.  If you get a KABOOM card all of your cards go back into the pile.  The students really enjoyed working together on this new game.  In Math Workshop we discovered that base ten blocks are a really helpful material for our problem solving.  Many students realized that they could solve problems with bigger numbers using the base ten blocks.  We had another powerful closing meeting in Mrs. Clark’s room today.  It’s exciting to see the students building a stronger community between both of our classrooms.  Today, Mr. Ward read a story called Flabbersmashed which was all about friendship.  We gained valuable ideas about friendship during our discussion after the story!

Today, we got very exciting news… It is our turn to take care of the chickens! We have been waiting for this special opportunity.

We began by having a conversation about the chickens, the gardens, and our entire outside space. Christian and Journey had a lot to contribute to this conversation because they were in the class who had a project focusing on them last year! Students were interested in why the gardens were there, what they were used for, and our responsibility as caretakers!

Here are some pictures of our first experience outside. Tomorrow, we hope to find more eggs in the coop and have fresh feed to give o the chickens out of our hands!

Friends checking on the chickens.

Griffin with the chicken egg.

One of three of our chickens!

Today some of our friends made rain sticks out of some found materials with Miss Jeffrey! They loved being able to make the sounds whether it was fast or slow.

I worked with a small group today on drawing the sounds of rain. I showed them what some friends in Italy drew when they were asked to draw the sound of rain. Then I asked our friends to draw their ideas of what rain sounds like. What was fascinating was that they discussed the chhhhssshhhh sound a lot to go along with their drawing. I attached one of the sound drawings. This is Noah’s. He described that the drops are rain, and the arrows are the sounds ccchhhhssshhhh as they fall down on to the sidewalk. LOVE THEIR THINKING!

Today we had a wonderful day- a harvest and celebration! In th afternoon, our Butler Friends and Mr. Henderson led three small groups that harvested, prepared and cooked food for our class to share together. Miss Saks and friends created cinnamon muffins with eggs from the chickens, Miss Bickel and friends harvested and cooked brussels sprouts from our garden, and Mr. Henderson and Miss Weese and friends brewed lemon tea with fresh lemon balm from Mrs. Argus’ home garden!

One of the things we are focusing on as we begin this food/eating/garden project and experience is how food brings us together as a community. While enjoying our food together, we had discussions on friendship and how it felt to prepare for and have food prepared for us by friends. We talked about how it made us feel to enjoy food together and spend time with one another in this way. Friends said they felt…

special

yummy

fuzzy inside

important

happy

We will continue to investigate the ideas of harvest, feast, and community during our time together at school. We are looking forward to what conversations come from our big garden day Wednesday and our field trip to the orchard Friday!

Tags: chickens, community, friendship, garden, project