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

Mrs. Clark’s class plants up a storm!

Tags: Butler, collaboration, curious, friendship, garden, project, responsible

Friends work together to create a Terrarium.

This morning, Sascha brought in a little plastic jar which she had captured several worms from her back yard. She shared that she had put lots of grass and leaves inside for the worms, to keep them happy. This was a great lead to our conversation about habitats today. Sascha actually created a mini habitat in that plastic jar- something we call a Terrarium. This morning after Sascha shared, we explored six different types of habitats that plants and animals live in: desert, tundra, rain forest, grassland, pond, and forest. We talked about what each habitat has in common: they all sustain life. After talking about the necesities for plants and animals, we set out to create our own mini habitats. The kids worked in pairs and small groups to plant a variety of seeds and plant cuttings and create their own Terrarium. After we were finished, Journey said something interesting.

“Mrs Argus, we don’t have any worms in our habitats.” Journey

“Why is that important?” Mrs Argus

“We need them to keep our soil healthy, and to make new good soil.” Journey

“We need worms in our habitats!” Michael

Friends loved what Journey had to say and after her comment, we each placed several worms into our Terrarium from our compost bin. What incredible thinking.

Friends work together to create Terrariums!

Cameron and Tajanaye plant their seeds.

Carriea, David, and Angela work together to assemble their habitat.

A completed Terrarium with worms inside. Later on, they all crawled to the bottom. We wondered why!

Tags: capable, collaboration, curious, garden, inspiration, project

As you may know, our class is immersed in a garden project. We have been learning about vermicomposting, seed germination and plant development, the benefits of gardening locally, how insects benefit our garden, and are starting to talk about urban farming on a larger scale. Within the next two weeks, we will be assembling some garden boxes for our school and planting some small vegetable plants we have started from seeds. We are so excited for where this project has led us, and the learning opportunities thus far have been incredible. As we get ready to plant, I wanted to ask families if they would be interested in assisting us with the task of starting our garden. Please let us know if you would be able to do any of the following:

donate plants for the school garden

come in and help build the garden boxes depending on the day

come in and help spread soil depending on the day

come in and help plant the beds depending on the day

donate gardening gloves or help find a donor for them

donate gardening tools (hoes, rakes, shovels, or trowels) or help find a donor for them

donate mulch or help find a donor for it

donate a 50 ft hose and spray nozzle or help find a donor for it

Thank you for your support with this project! We hope this garden becomes a part of our school culture and that it teaches responsibility, care for nature, and the importance of sustainability, amongst many other things! Make sure to ask your child about a special announcement that is coming on Thursday afternoon…

Compost bins

Tags: capable, collaboration, family focus, garden, responsible

Miss Christen from Sharp community garden comes for a visit!

Yesterday, we were visited by a friend from Sharp Community Garden, Miss Christen. Miss Christen talked to us about how her organization set up a community garden to support families that didn’t have fresh fruits and vegetables. We learned that the garden is right over by Butler University (across from St. Thomas) and anyone can volunteer time to work and eat from the garden. We had a long list of questions for Miss Christen about how to go about starting a garden. How much should we water? How long will ours take to grow? Does her garden have bees and worms? Should we plant everyday? What should we do about weeds? Miss Christen was even kind enough to invite us to see her garden and help with planting in a few weeks. She offered to come assist us with ours as well. (We are currently waiting to hear back from our Butler friends in the leadership class about funding for some garden boxes and garden equipment- very exciting!)

One of our questions for Miss Christen was where to put our garden. She suggested somewhere where there is lots of sun (at least six hours), good soil, and water can get to it easily. After her suggestions, we decided to take a walk outside our building into the “yard” area on the north side of the building and look for space. After exploring for quite a bit, we found a space we felt comfortable with! Ruth commented there were hardly any weeds in that relative area. David said that there was plenty of light and it would get lots of rain. For the rest of our time, we decided to play and explore our new found garden space more. As this was happening, some very interesting things happened. First, friends started collecting weeds to protect our new garden space. Children started running at full speed down a sloped space and grabbing weeds as they ran. Ruth explained, “Its a game- I call it Weed Runner! Try to not stop while you grab them!” More and more friends joined in on the fun.

Friends enjoy getting to know our garden space on a beautiful day.

Monica collects weeds from Ruth’s Weed Runner game.

Hutton pulls weeds to improve our garden space. He likes Weed Runner!

 Friends also began placing their handfuls of weeds in a rectangular shape around our proposed garden sight to mark its location. This led to a class discussion on shapes today and what shapes our garden boxes could be in. We went back outside again today and showed one another shapes that our garden could be in.

A heart shaped garden box.

What about doing a triangle for our garden box?

Should we do a rectangle for our garden box?

Cameron shows us what a crescent shape is.

Tags: arithmetic, collaboration, garden, image of the child, problem solving, thinking