IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

I apologize for not being an active blogger this week!  Time has gotten away from me!  Over the past five days our kids have been working very hard on our play!  Mark your calendars for MAY 10th!  This is the night we will be performing our play for the families! Here are a few pictures to show the excitement in the room.

Dorothy is our Litterbug in the play. This week she completed her costume!

Wyatt worked on making a model of our set out of clay.

Reid worked very hard on his model of his helmet, a part of his costume.

We can’t wait to show you more on the actual big day!

Good news! We have set a date to build and plant our school garden. On Monday of next week (the 31st), several parents will be helping us assemble the boxes. We plan to do three cedar garden boxes, four feet by ten feet each. Please let me know if you would be able to help with this.  We will also need help spreading soil that day.

 We will be planting our vegetables and herbs in the boxes Wednesday, the 2nd. This will begin around 9:15. We will have help from some of our Butler friends and would love for family members to join in on the fun if they are able, too. Send me an email if you are planning on coming. I will be sending a reminder, but next Monday and Wednesday, please make sure your child is in washable play clothes and old shoes. We plan to get dirty!

Friends work together to create a Terrarium.

This morning, Sascha brought in a little plastic jar which she had captured several worms from her back yard. She shared that she had put lots of grass and leaves inside for the worms, to keep them happy. This was a great lead to our conversation about habitats today. Sascha actually created a mini habitat in that plastic jar- something we call a Terrarium. This morning after Sascha shared, we explored six different types of habitats that plants and animals live in: desert, tundra, rain forest, grassland, pond, and forest. We talked about what each habitat has in common: they all sustain life. After talking about the necesities for plants and animals, we set out to create our own mini habitats. The kids worked in pairs and small groups to plant a variety of seeds and plant cuttings and create their own Terrarium. After we were finished, Journey said something interesting.

“Mrs Argus, we don’t have any worms in our habitats.” Journey

“Why is that important?” Mrs Argus

“We need them to keep our soil healthy, and to make new good soil.” Journey

“We need worms in our habitats!” Michael

Friends loved what Journey had to say and after her comment, we each placed several worms into our Terrarium from our compost bin. What incredible thinking.

Friends work together to create Terrariums!

Cameron and Tajanaye plant their seeds.

Carriea, David, and Angela work together to assemble their habitat.

A completed Terrarium with worms inside. Later on, they all crawled to the bottom. We wondered why!

Tags: capable, collaboration, curious, garden, inspiration, project

As you may know, our class is immersed in a garden project. We have been learning about vermicomposting, seed germination and plant development, the benefits of gardening locally, how insects benefit our garden, and are starting to talk about urban farming on a larger scale. Within the next two weeks, we will be assembling some garden boxes for our school and planting some small vegetable plants we have started from seeds. We are so excited for where this project has led us, and the learning opportunities thus far have been incredible. As we get ready to plant, I wanted to ask families if they would be interested in assisting us with the task of starting our garden. Please let us know if you would be able to do any of the following:

donate plants for the school garden

come in and help build the garden boxes depending on the day

come in and help spread soil depending on the day

come in and help plant the beds depending on the day

donate gardening gloves or help find a donor for them

donate gardening tools (hoes, rakes, shovels, or trowels) or help find a donor for them

donate mulch or help find a donor for it

donate a 50 ft hose and spray nozzle or help find a donor for it

Thank you for your support with this project! We hope this garden becomes a part of our school culture and that it teaches responsibility, care for nature, and the importance of sustainability, amongst many other things! Make sure to ask your child about a special announcement that is coming on Thursday afternoon…

Compost bins

Tags: capable, collaboration, family focus, garden, responsible

J'Nayla and CJ are playing the exchange game.

Today we learned a new game in Math Workshop.  We learned the exchange game and the kids loved it!  To play this game all you need is dice, pennies, and nickels.  The kids roll the dice and pick up that many pennies.  Once they have collected 5 pennies they can exchange it for a nickel!  Whoever has the most nickels wins.  I knew they would be excited about learning a new game, but I had no idea how long they would want to keep playing it!  We had one group that after 20 minutes was still wanting more.