IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

At the end of the day today I asked our friends if they had any questions for our special guest tomorrow, Nicole Misencik. Hands raised so quickly and some really fabulous questions were asked:

“How do clouds move?”-Zakeyah
“How does weather change?”-Heaven
“How does “she” know which weather is here?”-Maggie
“What kind of technology does she use?”-Joe
“How does snow come down?”-Isaac
“How does lightning flash?”-Noah
“How does she know what she knows?”-Mrs. Bucher

There were many other questions that were asked as well as many questions that were not asked because we ran out of time. We are going to write out the questions tomorrow so that we can give them to Ms. Misencik tomorrow when she visits!

So fun!

This week, we began learning about the strategy of stretching out the sounds in words to help us read them. To help kids remember this strategy, we created an animal. His name is stretchy the snake. Stretchy has been showing kids how to start at the beginning of the word, make that sound, and then slowly make the sounds of each following letter or group of letters, until you reach end of the word.

Stretchy the Snake

Last week Ready Rooster showed us how to get our mouths ready for the beginning letter or sound in a word (and sneak peek, but promise not to tell your kids! Next week, Chunky Monkey is going to show us how to look for familiar chunks of letters within a word)!

Each child received a small slinky as a tool to help them stretch out the words in their books. They really seem to be getting the idea of it all! See if you child can show you how they stretch out their words at home!

Danielle uses her slinky to stretch out one of the words in her book!

We have been talking a lot about good partner work.  What does good partner work look like and sound like? The children have been working together in both reader’s workshop and math workshop.  They shared that good partner work means:

De’Onna: “niceness”

Daysia: ‘having fun working with your partner”

Himiko: “talking nicely to your partner”

David: “learning from your partner so they can help you learn more”

Today we experienced partner work during a new time of the day. . .YOGA! It was so exciting to see the collaboration and cooperation that happened throughout the room.  Mrs. Williams and I were impressed with their first day of partner work and we are excited to see how they continue to grow as they work together!

From this fall’s Butler friends, hello! We’ve started off the semester learning about different kinds of assessment, experiencing components of the Reggio Emilia approach, and getting our first look inside the classrooms. Assessment-wise, we are fast becoming rather assessment wise. Through observations, we are starting to understand the teacher-side (particularly teacher language) of performing effective and appropriate assessments like “running records” and “concepts about print.” From there, we are diving into the unique Reggio Emilia style hands first. Just yesterday, we were discussing (and playing with, of course) clay, wire, and their versatility as teaching tools. For the last three weeks, we have spent our Wednesdays in the classrooms, where we conference with students, track specific students’ growth through our own assessments, and do whatever else the teachers would like us to do. Going forward, we will soon be creating provocations or “things” intentionally placed in our rooms to “provoke” and “invite” students’ attention and questions. For example, Ms. Cegielski’s students want to be more like scientists. So, the future-scientists’ provocation will be magnifying glasses and different objects to examine with their new science tool. We are super excited and can’t wait to see how the semester unfolds!
Written by Katie Rimmel and Chelsea Carroll

Monday we introduced a microphone to our weather map, and the children have really jumped at the chance to use that to help with their weather reports. It has been fun to see them so engaged in this weather reporting! Some friends have really been interested in getting front of the camera while other friends have wanted to film the report!

I really look forward to meeting with you all tomorrow!

Also just as a reminder we have our first Lab Collab (parent) meeting this Thursday from 6-7. Hope to see you there!!