IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Blue 2 and Blue 3 enjoyed our classroom!

We learned Blue 2 is big and Blue 3 is little. When their owner says “icecream” their ears perk up. The same thing happens when he says, “Do you want to go get a new toy?” Their food is made out of seafood. Blue 3 weighs 18 pounds and Blue 2 weighs 58 pounds. Blue 2 is tan and Blue 3 has stripes. Blue 2 had big teeth, and Blue 3 had little teeth that were getting ready to fall out!

This morning, Mr. Smith came over to me and told me there were lots of spring surprises in the courtyard. I shared with tour friends what I had heard and asked them if they would like to see if any changes had occured to the space. As we made our way to the courtyard, I heard exclamations of, “WOW! It’s growing!” and “Mrs. Argus- daffodills!” and many other words of excitement. We talked about how these changes had occured and made predictions as to whether or not we would see other changes as the weeks progress.

Tags: curious, garden, inspiration, project

Today we had a great pizza day!

Some of our friends started making a base drum.

Leah, Zakeyah, and Shayla work on the base drum.

They used a metal tub and other classroom materials.

They used wood blocks for the pedal and a pencil, rice, and a balloon for the drum stick.

Our other friends were creating a drum band.

La'Mount, William, Martavious, and Larry use their drum set to create a song.

Provocation for storytelling: What stories can you tell with these materials?

Angela carefully chooses some natural materials to tell her story.

Friends work to create a camping story with our natural materials.

During my trip to the Opal School in Portland, I learned about story provocation with materials. There is much being done at their school around Story Workshop. Story workshop is a process where children are encouraged to tell stories with rich materials placed thoughtfully throughout the room and are also guided with some questions as a provocation. We have introduced some natural materials on a new shelf that have greatly intrigued the children, including seed pods, branches, shells, and other things. We encouraged the children to ponder using the materials to tell a story. There is a question in a picture frame on the shelf that reads, “What stories could you tell with these materials?” Some of their stories have been so rich and interesting. (as you probably can see from the pictures above.)  Miss Schmidt and I also encouraged the kids to tell stories about worms with clay and watercolors. The question asked of them was, “Do worms have stories to tell?” Their creations have been incredible. Such imaginative and passionate stories have arisen from this question.

David and Christian work on telling worm stories with watercolor.

Monica’s incredible worm story involving a bird of prey.

Messi had a very interesting worm story about a male and female worm creating an egg!

Mr. Beery and friends work with stop motion animation to create a worm story.

Tags: creativity, curious, project, Reggio, story telling

Just a reminder that next Thursday, March 22nd is this month’s Family Night!  It will be at the school at 6:00pm.

In addition, the May Family Night has been changed to Friday, May 18th.  More information will come as we get closer to the date, but it is going to have the theme of a school carnival.