IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

As you know, we have been watching three different lima beans grow- one in soil, one in sand, and one in a paper towel. After carefully watering for a week, we have started to see some results! We noticed that our lima bean seed in the paper towel has split open, and we can see a tiny sprout. We also noticed that the lima bean in the sand looks like it may be emerging to the top, by note of a small bump at the top of the sand. As scientists, we want to record all of our observations in our lima bean experiment. Today, we started a small journal where we draw pictures of each seed in their growing medium. We will document the seed growth each day, noting the fastest, healthiest, etc. It was not only exciting to see how much detail the kids put into their drawings, but also their use of adjectives and words to help them describe in their small notebooks what was happening in each picture.

Tags: curious, garden, project

Last week, we came up with many questions about plants and how they grow. This week, we decided to investigate two of those questions with an experiment.

Question #1- Can plants grow in sand?

Question #2- Can plants grow without soil?

 In our new grow lab, we have three pots with lima beans inside them. We talked about how our first pot is our control group, the regular lima bean in classic potting soil. The second has a seed in sand. The third has a lima bean in a paper towel. We will monitor the growth each day to see what grows, and which grows the strongest/tallest/fastest. We also read a book with Mr. Henderson about the importance of light on plants and Photosynthesis. We learned that leaves are like little kitchens that make food for the plant. Photosynthesis (the cooking of the food) is done by using light. Our grow lab has an artificial light that will be on while we are at school. It will also turn on for a short while during the evening, to give our plants lots of adequate light.

We have also begun talking about weather and the effects it may have on our garden. We wrote a letter to Mrs. Bucher’s class on Monday asking for them to teach us a little bit about weather. Yesterday, several friends came over to our class and brought a new tool to show us- an anemometer. This tool measures wind speed, it also had a thermometer and rain gauge on it.  To learn more about it and how it worked, we took it outside- wow did it move! The wind was so fast the anemometer top spun around and around. We also paid attention to how quickly the temperature dropped from inside to outside. We will continue to observe the weather and talked about its changes in November. We even created a weather graph to start tracking the weather in November!

Tags: capable, garden, project, scientific method

This morning, the kids were greeted by something pretty exciting in our room- a kitchen set! Included with the kitchen were real fruits and vegetables and grains. We also included measuring cups and spoons, for pretend mixing. The kids were ecstatic over the addition to our room. Friends experimented and played with our various measurement tools and also did something we didn’t expect- they began writing! Various friends took clip boards and pieces of paper and began taking friends’ orders for meals! Then they would hurry back to the kitchen area and ask for the ‘cook’ to create the meal. The kitchen has unexpectedly become a wonderful literacy provocation as well as a measurement and math provocation.

Tags: arithmetic, garden, project, writing

The other day, Maria and her mom brought in some extra Day Lilies to share with our school. Today, we learned that Day Lilies are perennials which means they will grow back year after year! We learned how to split the Day Lilies and about a group of friends went outside to plant them by our William A. Bell memorial. It looks great!

While we were out there, we separated the Day Lilies into 10 plants. Our friends started talking math as we lined up the perennials…

Lets see, we have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten! Maria

Hmmm five and five. We need to do five on each side. Regan

How do you know five and five? Mrs. Argus

Because five plus five equals ten! Five on each side! Messi

Perfect!

Tags: arithmetic, capable, garden, problem solving, project

As a staff, we have been studying the work of master teacher Ron Berger. One of the things Ron suggests doing with classrooms is having critique sessions. We have decided to adopt this strategy to help improve our work! Last week, Mr. Henderson and the kids started talking about giving “likes” and “hopes” for friends’ work. We talked about how it always needs to be kind and helpful to the friend being critiqued. The other day, we did observational drawings of some pumpkins and squash. Today, we revisited those drawings and critiqued them anonymously. As a class, we did a quiet gallery walk and admired each person’s work. Then, we chose one work to write a “like” and a “hope” for. We shared our likes and hopes and talked about the importance of being specific so we can help one another. The kids did so well with it. We are excited to continue to delve into the idea of critique and we’re excited to see how this helps our class communities grow even stronger.