IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

Hutton and Maggie enjoy Reader's Workshop in the courtyard today.

Miss Schmidt and Cameron have a Reader’s Workshop conference.

I always love coming back to school after a long, well rested break. The kids are always so enthusiastic and excited to be back and there is a feeling of rejuvination in the air. Today’s day was no different. After earning our last positive point (for having a peaceful morning) we earned the privelage to officially have a garden outside the school and are eagerly planning its arrival. On Friday before Spring Break, we planted about thirty various seed starters. We voted on growing carrots, onions, lettuce, peas, and flowers in our garden and we were anxious to see if any germination had occured over break. To our suprise, there was little growth! “They didn’t germinate!” Messi exclaimed to the class during our morning meeting. We brainstormed why this may have happened. Michael shared that he knew plants needed LOTS of light and perhaps we simply didn’t give the plants enough of it. I shared that I thought the plants had plenty of light in the hallway, facing the large, courtyard windows but Michael very observantly pointed out, “Mrs. Argus, the tree camoflogued the light for the plants. They didn’t get any!” To our dismay, we realized Michael was absolutley right- there is a huge tree we didn’t notice was blooming blocking much of the light from outside. “So what now?” I asked our friends.  We had an open discussion where all friends were encourage to share their thoughts. Aidan suggested moving the plants to a different location inside, perhaps closer to the windows. A friend suggested we try them in someone elses’ classroom. David said, “I think its time to put them outside!” Then friends started raising their hands and saying things like, “I agree with David!” and “I like David’s idea! Let’s do what David suggested!” For me, this verbage was a really neat affirmation of our collaborative spirit we have developed not only in this classroom, but throughout the Lab School. As a class, we carefully walked out all of our seed starters and found a bright and safe location in the courtyard where we think our plants will not only appreciate more light but also warm air. We are anxious to see what our plants do next.

Journey places some of the seed starters outside.

Regan shares two caterpillar friends she found outside with our class. We will investigate more about their needs this week!

We continued with Story Workshop this week. Regan paints a picture of a garden that grows something very special- little girls!

David also uses watercolor during Story Workshop.

Journey is working on a very interesting garden story- a tree that creates animals!

Tags: capable, collaboration, friendship, garden, problem solving

Over the past week or so, we have tried something new to show our learning: strategy posters. When a child uses a novel idea to help them work through a problem, they are asked to make a poster of their thinking to be displayed in the room. This poster then serves as a guide for other children who may be encountering the same type of problem. This not only encourages kids to take ownership in thier own learning, but also encourages them to look to one another for help when problem solving and collaborate. Right now, we have six addition strategy posters and three posters about what to do when you come to a new word in reading. Look for them at Family Night on Thursday at 6pm!

Tags: capable, problem solving, responsible

This is going to be hard for me to resist and hard for me to forget.  Lucas

This quote brings so much warmth to my heart. These words were spoken by Lucas during our worm dissection with the wonderful Mrs. Grotjan and Miss Robison. Lucas’ words embody the essence of Reggio inspired, project based learning and what our goal here is at the Lab School- facilitate a love of learning. Today, our studio teachers gathered small groups of friends to engage in a detailed worm investigation that included a dissection. It proved to be a fascinating and captivating experience for all involved! Tomorrow, more friends will participate in the activity. I can’t wait to see what about the investigation interests them and what observations will come. More documentation on this incredible experience is coming.

The worm is captivating!

Messi and Cameron work as scientists.

Hutton investigates.

Journey and her worm.

Tags: capable, curious, garden, project, scientific method

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

Aidan explains his thinking.

Our class created hundreds chart.

 

 

 

 

 

     

 

 

 

One of the things the kids like to do in the morning is read the morning message and count our positive points. It has become a ritual for many friends in our room once they have gotten unpacked and settled in. Today, Aidan did something really special. He counted our positive points, and counted 74. Then, without prompting, he walked right over to our hundreds chart, found the number74 and proceeded to count up to 100. He then announced to me, “Mrs. Argus, we only need 26 more positive points until 100!” I asked him how he discovered his conclusion. He then articulately talked me through his thinking process and how he came to use our hundreds chart. Aidan’s discovery was so special that he then shared it during the sharing portion of our morning meeting. The class brainstormed other ways we could use the hundreds chart to problem solve. What a neat discovery, Aidan!

 

Friends present, "How Bella Lost Her Moo!"

 

For the past couple weeks, some of our friends have been reading a story called How Bella Lost Her Moo. It has lots of different animal parts that are fun to read and the kids decided they each wanted to read a seprate part when we would read in a group. One day, a friend suggested, “We should do this as a play!” The rest of the friends loved the idea and we began to prepare to present it to our class. We made puppets out of paper bags and practiced reciting our lines clearly and with emotion. Today, our friends presented the play to the rest of the class. Everyone was so proud and impressed with our performers! We will have to do more reader’s theater in the future- we have some wonderful actors!

 

 

Tags: arithmetic, capable, collaboration, creativity, curious, image of the child, problem solving