IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Carriea's How To!

Michael plants seeds in the planter.

Jenesis waters the seeds in our new planter.

Miss Barr reads the daily question with friends. “How long will it take our compost to disappear?”

Regan and Aidan do observational drawings of worms with Miss Roby.

We have been immersed in all things growing! This morning, Carriea was generous enough to bring in a “How to Grow a Plant” checklist and shared it with the class. This checklist is just what we needed to plant some of our seeds that friends have brought in. We followed Carriea’s checklist step by step.

First, you get a box.

Second, you get some dirt.

Third, you get two seeds. Then you put the seeds in the dirt.

Fourth, you put dirt in the water.

Fifth, you let the sun come out and then it will grow!

Tags: collaboration, creativity, garden, project

Today we got to make a special clock. We made the numbers out of pipes, connectors, and paper. 

Jermaine changed the time on our new clock.

Hi Parents, Families, and other Blog Readers! I wanted to let you know that we are taking a new approach to our blog. In the past, I have made all the blog posts. However, starting yesterday, the students will be coming up with the content for the blog as well as typing it. It is my goal that this will help them feel more ownership in the blog and will be an additional support in our literacy development. Occassionally, I will be making post of my own, but overall, I will be blogging less. I hope you enjoy learning about our day through the eyes of your child! As always, please let me know if you have any quesitons.

As I said in Friday’s blog our recycling project is going so well!  The kids are now interested in finding other ways to save the environment!  This week we were looking into writing Keep Indianapolis Beautiful.  (The kids discovered that Mr. Greg Ballard does not cut down trees because he really supports Keep Indianapolis Beautiful so that letter was put on hold.)

Through a conversation today, Reid and Max thought it would be a good idea to write for help!  They came up with the idea that we could write Keep Indianapolis Beautiful for help planting trees at our own school.  Reid was so excited he said, “It will be another way to save the environment!”  After Reid and Max shared the entire classroom was excited about our next adventure!  We even went outside this afternoon to look at possible places to plant trees.  Stay tuned for more in the next few days!!

Christian and Aidan prepare the bedding for the worms.

Looking for worm food!

David braves the elements while searching for wet leaves for our worms to munch on.

Looking for leaves!

Zek and Tajanaye place the worms in the bin.

This morning, we set out to create our indoor worm compost bin. To begin, several friends helped prepare the bin by ripping newspaper into small pieces for bedding for the worms. After putting the newspaper scraps into the bin, we went outside into the courtyard and collected wet leaves (just the way worms like them!) We took the compost bin with newspaper outside with us to saturate it with water from the rain. Last, we gently dumped our collected worms from last week as well as some more worms that were store bought into the bin. Very quickly, the worms dug down into the bin and started getting cozy! We are coming up with many questions as we learn how to compost…

1. How long will it take for the worms to eat through the matter in the bin?

2. What else is safe for the worms to eat?

3. Will the bin be stinky?

4. How can we keep the worms happy inside?

Tags: capable, curious, garden, project, responsible