IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Today we got an email from Miss Schmidt’s class asking if we would like to be individual pen pals and learn about one specific friend. We decided we would definitely like to do that! We let them know that we would like to start as soon as possible- and will be starting tomorrow! How exciting!

We also had an oppurtunity to write some mail to Mr. Henderson, our former student teacher. Miss Crume, a student teacher in Miss Cegielski’s room and friend of his, let us know that he would love to hear from us. We had a nice conversation about being homesick and what that may feel like (Mr. Henderson is all the way in Portland, OR) and talked about how we could use supportive, positive words to brighten his day. We wrote individual notes and also write him a big class note asking him about his new class and what Portland is like. We hope to hear back from him soon.

Lastly, Jackson’s mom, Mrs. Bauer, recently shared an incredible website called POSTCROSSING.com On the website, you register and then gain access to an address where you can send a postcard to. The amazing part is the addresses are just about everywhere in the world! Once you send a postcard to a new friend, you receive a postcard from someone (also a new friend). Today, we received our first ‘assignment’ from Postcrossing- and we got to write to a person in Bulgaria! We had a chance to look up Bulgaria on a world map and will be talking more about the Atlas in the coming days. We are so excited to see where our first postcard arrives from!

Tags: collaboration, community, culture, curious, friendship, mail, pen pals, student teacher, world

We have bee communicating with Miss Schmidt’s class at Guion Creek elementary for a few days now and they asked us an exciting question- Would we like to be pen pals? We immediately decided yes, we would love that and emailed them back to let them know. The other day, Miss Schmidt’s class asked us about all the things we like. Yesterday, we created a book called, Things We Like, and each friend wrote a page about what they like. At the end, we asked the question, “What do you like?” We hope they send us a book! We are looking forward to comparing and contrasting our interests with our new friends and continuing to explore diversity. Today, we learned about how we will mail our book, including adding postage, a return address, and a mailing address. When the weather gets better, we will hopefully take walks to the local mailbox to deliver our mail.

Yesterday, we read a story called, Mama Zooms. In the story, there is a mother who is in a wheelchair and she and her son go on pretend adventures in it. This opened up a conversation about people being different and we talked about some of the ways this mom may have been a little bit different from most moms. Then, we talked about how this mom was just like most moms. Some of the kids’ responses were so powerful.

How is this mother just like most mothers? Mrs. Argus

She can still sing a lullaby to her son. Maria

She has a heart. Cariah

She has feelings just like everyone else. Kalaya

She can think like everyone else too, with her brain! J’Den

She can cook dinner for her family still. Dylan

I have to admit, the first few responses brought tears to my eyes. I hope these lessons in diversity and tolerance will stick with the kids for their life. They understand so much already.

Tags: collaboration, community, diversity, friendship, pen pals

We had quite the day today! This morning, the kids were challenged to think deeply about our morning question: Are we more the same or more different? It turns out, our class was split almost 50/50 on the issue. We talked, debated, and listened to one another’s opinions regarding the question- a great conversation. Because we were so split on the issue, we decided to email another class to ask their opinion. On the big screen, we constructed an email to a class at Guion Creek Elementary with a familiar face in it- Miss Schmidt. For those of you who were with us last year, Miss Schmidt was our beloved student teacher who was in our room for almost the entire year. We introduced ourselves to her class and asked what their thoughts were on the question. To our delight, Miss Schmidt’s class responded back to us during the day and had their own question for us too. They said,

“Dear Mrs. Argus’ Class,

We look different, we’re different colors and some of us are girls and some of us are boys.  But we’re the same because we’re all human and even though we’re made different we’re still the same.

We go to Guion Creek Elementary School.  Do you know about mail?

Love,

Miss Schmidt’s Class”

Their email led us to a conversation about mail and how we could continue to communicate with this class. I am hoping this communication will help fuel our conversations on similarities and differences, community, and respect for humankind. We were able to email them back and told them what we knew about mail. We asked if it would be if we mailed them something too. We are looking forward to an email tomorrow from them!

Today during Math Workshop, we read the classic story, How Big is a Foot? about standard and nonstandard measurement. We had fun dramatizing the story as it happened and then tried out the king’s strategy from the story- measuring items around our room with a cutout of our actual feet. Upon experimenting with the feet, the kids started to notice differences between their measurements because of the size of their feet. How interesting…

Tags: arithmetic, collaboration, community, curious, email, friendship, letters, mail

In addition to preparing for our Author Celebration, this week, we have been talking a lot about our community, in particular the human race and where we fit in it. We have had some pretty powerful conversations about race and the color of our skin. With that, we have talked about how all people are alike; all having a heart, all having feelings, being capable of feeling pain, etc.

Yesterday, I brought in two bags and told the kids I had a present for them. As a class, they needed to decide which bag to open together. They were told that they could only have the gift from one of the bags. I laid out two bags in our circle- a plain, brown paper lunch bag, and a beautiful, elaborately decorated gift bag with fun fish on it. As a group, the class chose the elaborate bag to open. We opened it and saw tons of Hershey’s Kisses inside. I asked the kids if they had any interest in what was in the plain, brown bag. We opened it as well and to the kids’ surprise it was filled with the exact same thing- tons of Hershey’s Kisses.

So what does this mean to us? I asked the kids.

After struggling through what we had seen (Its so silly! They are the same!!! Regan said) (Why are they the same?! said Dylan) we came to a couple interesting observations. I asked the kids, “So if these two bags were people, and you had to choose between who was the better person, could you choose?” The kids said,

It wouldn’t be fair to choose, we have to be nice to everyone and know them inside. Makenzi

Like we don’t know who would have better moves by looking. Like in karate. How would we know? Neither one is better. It wouldn’t make sense to choose. Dylan

We can’t see if one person is better- if they’re black or white. It doesn’t matter because we don’t know them. Tajanaye

Tags: collaboration, community, friendship

The other day, we read The Peace Book by Todd Parr. It has a wonderful message;

Peace is listening to different kinds of music.

Peace is helping your neighbor.

Peace is saying sorry when you hurt someone.

And so on.

The kids were challenged to come up with their own verse for our own Peace Book. After we thought deeply about what peace meant to each of us, we made a drawing of a metaphor for peace. We then used wire and beads to create sculptures for our metaphors. They are beautiful.

Today, we read Mem Fox’ Whoever You Are about children all over the world. We made notes of the many differences yet similarities between the children. We have started a list about all the things people always have in common. So far, it reads…

We all have hearts.

We all are from somewhere.

Everyone grows.

Everyone has blood.

Everyone has a brain.

Everyone has pain.

Everyone has feelings.

We will discuss this idea more in the coming days.

Tags: collaboration, community, creativity, friendship, peace, world