IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

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

I know you have all heard, but next Tuesday we are going to The Children’s Museum to help with a mysterious leak!  We are going to use our science skills to help solve the mystery.  In preparation for this, we have been talking a lot about different science tools and terms that we will be using.  So far this week, we have talked about magnifying glasses and pipets!  These are both important tools that we will be using.  For example, we used the magnifying glasses to observe the mysterious stain that the Children’s Museum sent us.  We made predictions and connections as to what we thought it might be.

The tools are new to us, but we also added a new concept today: density.  This morning, Mr. Ward set out a jar filled with maple syrup, water, and oil and asked the kids what they noticed.   Oliver responded with, “The maple syrup is heavier so it sinks to the bottom. The water is lighter than the syrup so it’s on top and the oil is the lightest so it sits on top!”  This began a conversation about density! This is a harder topic to truly explore, but over the next few days we will be looking at density and what it means to us as scientists.

Mr. Ward is holding our jar with the maple syrup, water, and oil. Do you notice the same thing that Oliver noticed?

Today, we learned a new math game called burglar! Students are put in partners and given number sets that have 10-20 numbers. They line their numbers up in a row, then take turns turning their back and taking one of their partners numbers. Once the number has been taken, students mix their partner’s numbers up and invite them to turn back around to see what number is missing! Students loved playing the game and the excitement of figuring out which of their numbers was gone. Not only is this helping us with number recognition, but also with ordering and naming numbers. This would be an easy game to recreate at home with handmade cards or playing cards!

Last week in Story Workshop, we did an author’s study of Todd Parr.  The students loved reading his books and noticing what made his books unique.  Many of them have tried his style in their own stories.  Today Sydney shared the start of her book called “The Family Book.”  She was inspired by Todd Parr and that is evident through her illustrations and the start of her story.

This morning our science provocation included a new tool called a hydrometer.  The students explored the tool and made some predictions about what it is for.  Many of them thought it had to do with temperature.  Some students noticed that it had the words “instant ocean” on the side.  They were thinking that because ocean water is saltwater the tool may have something to do with salt.  We  made connections to the note we have from the museum because many students thought the liquid on the note may have salt in it as well. We also had our first science meeting this afternoon.  The scientists learned a new song all about the scientific method.  More to come about our science discoveries this week!

Today, we started using partner reading as an extension of our reader’s workshop time. This is an opportunity for students to read with peers who can challenge and support them during their reading growth. We created partner reading agreements last week, but hadn’t tried out the strategy until today. Students began by sitting back to back with their partner and reading independently. After this time was up, students were invited to sit elbow to elbow or knee to knee with their partner. Students take turns listening and reading to one another, asking questions and offering support when their friend needs it. They did a wonderful job reading to one another and were extremely supportive to their peer when they hit a trouble spot! I can’t wait to see how students grow and progress with their reading and with interacting with one another throughout the year. Here are a couple pictures from our experience today!