IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Friends wave to the “girls”!

This week, we have been in charge of taking care of the chickens- we’re the chicken stewards! Today, we were able to collect 3 eggs from the “girls”. When we came inside for math workshop, we began an impromptu conversation about what to do with the eggs we collected. Messi suggested baking a cake. Regan suggested giving them to Miss Judy, our cafeteria lady. Some friends liked the idea of giving them to Miss Judy but weren’t sure if they wanted to give them all away. We talked about how it might feel good to give to someone else. Regan mentioned that Miss Judy may need all of the eggs to make pancakes for breakfast. Another friend, J’Den, suggested something else.

How about we give her half? J’Den

What is half? Mrs. Argus

Like not all of them, but some. Half! J’Den

If you go, one for me, one for you, one for me, one for you, its half! Messi

But how do we know what half is? We only have three right now. We may get 10 by the end of the week, what would half be? Mrs. Argus

I have an idea, we should do this as like a math workshop problem. J’Den

Going off of J’Den’s suggestion, we grabbed a manipulative (the bears) and closed our eyes and pretended they were eggs. I laid out 6 bears in two rows, 3 and 3. We talked about how half would be one of the rows. We then laid out 8 bears and talked about how one row of 4 would be half. We practiced spotting half in 10 bears. The kids were then challenged with another question…

But what if we only get 9 eggs this week? Mrs. Argus

You give Miss Judy half! See, these for us, these for her… uh oh… J’Den

Its not fair! Beatrice

It doesn’t work. We should probably give Miss Judy more then us.  J’Den

When you can’t divide it fairly, its an odd. Fairly is an even. Mrs. Argus

Odds and evens! Odds and evens! Lucas

We then practiced noticing when numbers could be divided fairly, and when they couldn’t, and described them as either odds or evens.

J’Den talks about odds and evens with the egg problem.

Mr. Henderson and I also noticed a new interest in our classroom- dinosaurs! Throughout last week, friends were making dinosaur puppets and using a few small plastic dinosaurs to tell stories during story workshop. We noticed a lot of conversation circulating around this idea too. Today, we put out pictures of dinosaur bones with some clay and asked the kids to explore the clay. Many friends were inspired to create parts of dinosaurs and even eggs! Addie shared a really neat connection during the day as well- both chickens and dinosaurs lay eggs! I wonder if we will find any other connections…

Addie points out her noticing in a dinosaur book. Great observation!

Tags: arithmetic, capable, chickens, collaboration, curious, problem solving

I wanted to share something new that we have in our classroom this year- The Cool Down Spot. This is a place where friends can go if they are feeling angry or upset and would like some time to calm down. I may ask friends to go there from time to time or they may choose to go there themselves. The Cool Down Spot is a tool we will use in our classroom throughout the year to self regulate our emotions and learn coping skills. This week, we talked about why have a spot like this and what we may need to do when we are there. We made a list of three options for when we are at The Cool Down Spot. 1. Take deep breaths. 2. Shake the ball. 3. Read a book. The kids have enjoyed trying out the options this week (and are doing so when not upset) so they will know what to do should they need it.

 

Messi checks out the cool down spot to see what its all about.

Choices for the cool down spot.

Tags: capable, problem solving, responsible