Nov
16
2011
Mrs. Argus
The class in front of an Indiana nature mural.
- Friends watch the airplanes take off and land from the balcony.
This morning, the kids came in so excited for our field trip. They all started cheering when we saw the bus was ready for us and we could load 🙂 We took I-70 towards the airport and as we got closer, the kids began pressing their faces up against the bus window in excitement. “Mrs. Argus! It’s Fed Ex!” Da’Sean shouted. The kids have been very excited about seeing the Fed Ex logo because we notice those types of planes most often in the sky. Also, one of our parents happens to work for Fed Ex at the airport so we feel we have a special connection. The kids were filled with wonder and excitement throughout the whole trip. We unloaded the bus and had a tour of many of the airport’s major components, including ticketing, baggage claim, the barbershop, security, and saw many pieces of artwork. Oh yeah, we also saw airplanes! At one point, Christian looked up at Miss Schmidt and said, “I love this place!” One of my favorite parts of the trip was after lunch. We gathered the kids in front of the large floor to ceiling window in Civic Plaza and sat on the floor and did observational drawings of the planes taking off and landing. The detail and precision on the kids’ artwork is outstanding. Miss Schmidt and I wrote down the children’s observations and noticings throughout the trip and I will be sharing more of those soon in the coming days.
- Sticking together for safety at the airport.
Tags: curious, field trip, Indianapolis Airport, inspiration, project
Nov
15
2011
Mrs. Argus
Michael leads our calendar time.
This month, we have started a new routine in our class: calendar. Each day, we add a day to the calendar and talk about the name of the day, the date, and the month we are in. We also talk about important dates that are coming up (Airport Field Trip, Thanksgiving) and count down how many days until those special dates. At the end of each day, a different child gets to write an important event from the day on our day on the calendar. Doing calendar each day is important to children’s understanding of the concept of time. We also enjoy this time as a special time to reflect on the past and present.
Nov
11
2011
Mrs. Argus
In addition to our Block A friends from Butler who come every Wednesday, we have another Butler class who visits us on a regular basis. They are part of an arts integration class through the college of education and are learning how to integrate the arts into our project work and regular curriculum. Every week, a small group of these students pull a group of our classmates and work with them on something related to flight. Last week, some of our friends learned an awesome song about a Bi-Plane. Today, our friends experimented with creating airplane wings and talking about the concept of lift when the wing was held in front of a fan- incredible!
Tags: capable, curious, design, paper airplane, project, think
Nov
10
2011
Mrs. Argus
David has the gift of being a great artist.
Yesterday when our Butler Block A friends were here, we did a special activity about gifts. Each child was in a small group with an adult and had a discussion on having personal gifts and how each child contributes in a positive way to our classroom. The groups first talked about how these are not tangible gifts, but gifts inside us. Carriea said, “Like gifts from your heart!” The groups then went around the small circle and each child said positive traits about one another that could be gifts. Cameron’s gift is the gift of intelligence. He said, “I am smart!” Aidan has the gift of being good at sight words. Christian’s gift is drawing monster trucks and cars.
Michael and Messi have a conversation about one another's gifts.
- One of our Butler friends facilitates discussion on gifts.
After each child identified a personal gift, they were given a task: draw a picture of your gift. The children spent time adding details and words to their picture to show others what their personal gift is. Next, we will add color with watercolor pencils and hopefully have these beautiful works displayed. Ask your child what their gift is!
Tags: art, relationships
Nov
06
2011
Mrs. Argus
Paper planes are back in full swing in room 104.
Our class has recently seen a resurgence in creating paper airplanes. We never stopped making them, but for a while there was a little lull. All of sudden, we have close to 20 airplanes made a day during studio and explore. On Friday morning, I asked the kids if they would be interested in flying their planes outside on the big playground. They immediately said Yes! I let them know that at the end of the day we would be flying them and they could work on them throughout the day during studio and explore. Some friends worked all day adding special modifications to their planes, some worked on making them look beautiful with colors, numbers, and labeled parts, some friends made more than one plane and were excited to test both. At the end of the day, we took our planes outside, learned how to safely throw them from the playground equipment and let them fly!
- Michael’s plane flies in front of him as he goes down the slide.
We made some pretty neat observations as we were outside. Many kids noticed the wind was manipulating where the planes would fly. Lucas said, “If the plane is flying that way, and the wind comes, it changes and goes with the wind!” We practiced making predictions and paying attention to the wind and guessing what direction the planes would fly. We also noticed the wind had varrying strength. Angela said, “If it’s big wind, the planes go far!”
Tajanaye getting ready to launch her plane from the dinosaur.
A group launch. Will the planes go the same direction with the wind?
To top off our experience outside, while we were walking in, Messi cried out, “Look! The sky!” Everyone looked up and saw a variety of jet strems in the sky planes had left that afternoon. The kids were so excited to see them.
The sky Friday afternoon.
Tags: creativity, curious, inspiration, paper airplane
