IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Friends look for similarities between their artwork and the photo.

Our inspiration.

Yesterday, Mrs. Kary shared one of the neatest pictures I have ever seen-a picture of the sky filled with jet streams from all different directions. She commented that Regan had seen it outside and gotten really excited and it turns out other friends saw it too! After getting a copy of this neat photograph, I shared it with the kids. They were  inspired to re-create this picture and we decided to use white paint and blue paper to create skies. We marble painted with a marble covered in paint, and rolled the marble carefully over the paper in a little tray. Some of our re-creations look very similar to the original inspiration picture, some are much different! We noted different shapes and symbols that were created by this unique art method too.

Messi liked the technique so much he made several masterpieces!

Ruth gives marble painting a try.

Tags: art, inspiration, project

Today we created a class calendar where we could keep track of imporntant dates and events and learn about the days of the week and the months of the year. After our calendar had a month and days of the week on it, I shared that I had an imporntant date to add to the calendar- a field trip to the Indianapolis International Airport! The kids are so excited! We will be taking this trip on Wednesday, November 16th and it will be an all day event. We are going to tour the various parts of the airport and may even get to see some airplanes up close. Tomorrow, your child will come home with a blue permission slip form asking for consent to allow your child to come on this trip and asking if you would like to help chaperone. We would love many adult helpers! After adding this imporntant date to our calendar, we counted down how many days until our field trip- 15! We wonder how many days until the field trip it will be tomorrow-will the number get larger or smaller?

Tags: curious

Who knew that a metal detector and a mail center could occupy the same space? They do in room 104!

Today while working on our airplane, we discussed ways to make the two wings symmetrical. After some discussion about measurement and guesstimation, a friend suggested tracing the first wing onto the next cardboard piece for the second wing- that way it would be totally symmetrical. After cutting out the second wing, friends tried out different placements on the airlane to see where the wings fit best. We then saw a problem- how could we make the wings stick out from the plane without drooping on the floor? Cameron suggested using a large, popcorn tin to hold up the wing. We noticed that the tin looked almost exactly like an engine on the wing- how perfect! Hutton suggested we get two tins for each wing. Knowing we had one tin already, we had to problem solve to figure out how many more we needed. Monica suggested three, because we already had one, and the total we would need was four. She said, “Because four take away three is one!”

After figuring out the airplane wings and engines, we began to walk away from the plane and continue other activities during studio and explore when I heard Monica squeal excitedly. “Mrs. Argus!!! It’s a metal detector! Flip it over!!!”  “Huh?” I thought as I looked at the large box on its side. Then I saw what Monica meant. Once we flipped up the large box so it stood vertically, she showed me the two door like openings that the cut wings had left. It looked exactly like a metal detector! Monica and Cameron continued to add details to the metal detector, like an x-ray machine, a button to turn the detector on, and a pretend flashing light to show if somone inside it had contraband! They enjoyed showing the class their creation. The class LOVES making a beepiong noise when someone pretends to go through.

Monica shows the class the metal detector.

We also have another exciting addition to our class. We have recently begun writing letters to one another in class and we saw a need for a mail center. Each child now has their own personal mail center mailbox where other children can place mail inside. We even have a mailperson job who delivers mail on a regular basis and calls to friends that have mail.

Our sign for the mail center.

Jenesis, our mail carrier, delivers classroom mail.

Tags: creativity, motivation, project, thinking

Yesterday, the kids were excited to jump right back into creating our large, 24 foot airplane. Many friends helped one another construct walls for the plane’s fuselage, the body, out of cardboard and taped them together. We then moved to covering the remaining exposed roof of the plane on the cockpit and the tail. Lucas, Hutton, Monica, and Ruth worked together to make sure that before they fixed it on the top, the roof piece was centered and visually appealing. They enjoyed taking turns standing back and letting friends know whether to move the piece more to the left, more to the right, towards Mrs. Argus, and so on.  Once we had the pieces covering the cockpit and tail, Hutton said, “So now what?” Messi heard our conversation and excitedly shouted, “Our airplane needs wings!”

Friends measure the length of the box.

 More children joined us as we started our discussion on wings. Would they be small or large? Would they need to stand out straight from the plane or should they hang down? Where on the plane would we place the wings?   Ruth suggested we look at some of the different sizes of collected boxes in our room. After looking at different shapes and sizes, we decided on two large boxes, because we wanted large wings. I asked, “How do we know which is longer?” Monica suggested we measure them on the class number line on the floor. Messi and Hutton carried the first box over to the number line. Ruth explained that the box needed to start by where it said 1 so we knew how long the box was. After measuring both large boxes in this way, we discovered that they were both exactly the same size! We decided on using the nicer looking one that had less wear and tear.  Lucas came up with the idea to draw where the adult could cut out for the wings. He carefully drew the wing with a pencil, and then traced it over with a black marker. After the wing was cut out, we tested to see how it looked on the plane. The kids were pleased, and so was I! A great fit. Tomorrow, we will see if we can creat a symmetrical wing to match our first.

Very carefully drawing where the wing should be cut out.

Tags: arithmetic, capable, project