IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Today we were greeted by four new Butler friends that are Block A practicum students from Butler University. We loved getting to know Mr. Cohn, Miss Hoffman, Miss Goetz, and Miss Goodwin. These students will be with us each Monday for the rest of the semester, learning with us! We are so glad to have them.

We continued our exploration in measurement today during problem solving. Towards the end of last week, we were given a problem that said we needed to figure out how big a garden bed would be if it was as long as our table and as wide as our calendar. This led us to try to figure out the best way to measure these things and also explore the concepts of “long” and “wide”. We learned as we worked through the problem and when a friend discovered something we thought would be helpful to others, we added it to our measurement terms chart. We eventually discovered the term “perimeter” and learned that in order to all get an exact measurement, we would need to work with standard measurement- in our case, rulers. The kids have enjoyed experimenting with and learning the best ways to measure accurately with rulers. Today, the kids were challenged with another measurement/perimeter story problem. We ended up having a big debate about the difference between width and length and learned we may need to change or add to our anchor chart to clarify what these terms mean. The kids were disappointed to learn that we had to end problem solving for the day before we had all officially solved the problem but were excited to know that we would continue working on the same one tomorrow. It was a big day for us!

Tags: arithmetic, Butler, capable, collaboration, measurement

This morning, friends were invited to a new provocation- the human ear. Various pictures of ears were placed throughout the room and friends were invited to draw what they saw. Each time our friends our invited to do an observational drawing such as this, Mr. Henderson and I are blown away by the attention to detail. The pictures are incredible. After our drawings, we sat as a class and talked about the concept of listening. What exactly is listening? Some friends shared…

Listening is listening and listening is respecting. Miles

Not to yell, but to listen. Cariah

With someone is talking, you don’t play. Messi

Listening is listening to a friend and your mom. Cariah.

You have to listen! Makenzi

Listening to them when they are talking. Lucas

Shouting is not listening. Makenzi

I just wanted to say that’s an agreement for peace. Cariah

Listening is hearing. Mrs. Argus

We will revisit this concept tomorrow with more provocations on sound. As teacher researchers, we are wondering if giving listening and sound significant and obvious roles in the classroom will improve our communication as a class.

Tags: capable, communication, friendship, problem solving, relationships

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

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

Today was a huge success! A big thank you to our parent volunteers and volunteers from Dow who came to support us. And most importantly, thank you to the kids who made it all possible! More pictures and stories to come soon. For now, ask your learner about their experience and enjoy these pictures.

Tags: Butler, capable, collaboration, garden, project, relationships, responsible