IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

This afternoon, we got to share our chicken knowledge with a second grade class. They seemed very interested and impressed with what we had to share. I was so proud of our friends.

Friends measure our garden plants.

Michael measures the Rosemary. Its eight inches!

We also broke into small groups and measured specific plants in our school garden. Each week, we will graph their growth. We hope to compare certain plant types to one another and discuss why they are growing the way they are.

Today, some friends hosted a Block Roll competition. Ask your child what this was all about!

Friends run and organize the Block Roll competition.

Lately, our class has been very into organizing class events during studio and explore. The other week, friends organized multiple plays for others to attend and watch. I remember during the beginning of the year, friends would sing songs for others. Today, friends organized what they called a Block Roll competition. It was really neat to see the kids organize and orchestrate this class competition on their own. We had so much fun!

Tags: chickens, collaboration, creativity, garden, project

Journey selects marigolds to draw.

Regan, Jenesis, and Journey create observational drawings of our garden plants.

Carriea and Tajanaye draw rosemary.

This morning, our class talked about how we would like to know more about the specific plants in our school garden. Journey said, “I know what we can do! We can go outside and draw them! We can learn by drawing!” What a fabulous idea. Everyone agreed it would be a good place to start. We brought our materials outside and each picked a plant to focus on. The kids were encouraged to only draw what they saw and use lots of detail. We actually ran into Mrs. Clark’s class outside who were doing the same thing!

After visiting our garden, we went over to our chickens to check on the girls. Each child sat down and did an observational drawing of Dottie, Thelma, and Louise as well. We have very keen observers in our classroom.

Do they have chicken pox? Hutton

No, they are molting! Lucas

Look, shes laying an egg! Tajanaye

I think shes just tired! Ruth

Coo, Coo! Messi (making chicken noises, he is quite good!)

Look, she puts her head in like a turtle. Zek

Should we feed the chickens chicken? Journey

That would make them sick! David

"Do the chickens have chicken pox?" Hutton

Angela gets close to draw the girls.

Friends love spending time observing our chickens.

Tags: chickens, curious, garden

Regan checks out the hens!

This morning, our class excitedly went outside to check to see if Thelma, Louise, or Dottie had left us any gifts. To our disappointment, they had not laid any eggs, but our class did not give up on the girls. Later in the afternoon, we went to check again, and low and behold, we had one, beautiful brown egg! We aren’t sure which hen laid the first egg, but the class talked about  figuring out which hens lay which eggs.

The kids were also enthralled with a new provocation in our room this morning. Yesterday evening, the storm knocked down a small bird’s nest in my yard. Unable to put it back into its place, I brought it in for the kids to see. Next to it, I placed a question, “Who lived here?” The kids were encouraged to use watercolor pencils to tell the story of the nest. There were some incredible stories, I can’t wait to see what the kids come up with tomorrow.

Carriea's picture tells the story of the wind knocking down the bird's nest.

Who lived here?

Ruth, Messi, and Regan create stories about the nest.

Tags: chickens, story telling, story workshop

What an exciting day! This afternoon, two of our generous parents, Mr. Newbold and Mr. Reiberg, were generous enough to build three, 4×10 garden boxes. The boxes are beautiful and built of rot-resistant cedar. We can’t wait to plant in them on Wednesday. Remember to send your child in clothes they can get dirty for the big planting!

Zek reads our Beautiful Chickens book in ancicipation of our coop.

Jenesis finds a chicken she likes in the Beautiful Chickens book.

This morning, I was greeted by friends shouting things like “CHICKENS!” and “Do they come today?!?” Friends were so anxious to meet our new hens. This afternoon, Andrew Brake from Naptown Chickens brought us our beautiful coop and three, lovely Rhode Island Red hens: Thelma, Louise, and Dottie. We are lucky enough to have this opportunity thanks to Mandy Owens and Carly Swift, Jett and Hutton’s moms and the owners of Just Pop In! Just Pop In! was kind enough to fund this project for our school. This afternoon, each class went outside to learn a little bit about our new friends and how to care for them. The plan is to have each class share the responsibilities weekly. We also talked about some chicken rules we will need to follow to keep Thelma, Louise and Dottie safe as well as ourselves. Because we don’t want to frighten them, we will try our best to talk in a soft voice around the chickens and not touch them. We are so excited to see how much more we are going to learn about our new friends!

The girls! Meet Thelma, Louise, and Dottie.

The coop and the girls.

Maggie checks out the coop.

Tags: and Dottie, chickens, curious, garden, Louise, responsible, Thelma