May 03 2012
Tag Archive 'curious'
Apr 30 2012
Garden Boxes, Chickens, and a School Coop!
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.
Apr 23 2012
Terrariums
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!
Apr 11 2012
Dandelion Mystery
Messi plants some of our seed starters.
- Lucas dissects his dandelion.
Every morning, we have a share time during our morning meeting. The Friday before our break, during our meeting, Tajanaye brought in what looked like a white dandelion seeds attached to a stem. She shared that she believed the plant to be a flower. The class began a lively discussion about whether or not the plant was a weed or a flower. Many felt strongly supporting one opinion or the other. As a class, we decided we would explore the concept the next day. Friends were invited to find dandelions outside and bring them in for dissection.
I think I saw something in there. Lucas
What? Mrs. Argus
Something white. Look inside! Lucas
I don’t see it! Oh! I think there’s a stem right here. Aidan
So if it has a stem, is it a weed? Mrs. Argus
No! Sascha, come open the flower! Or the weed! I don’t know which one! I’ve never had this experience! Lucas
Its milk! Look at the white thing! Its milk. Aidan
(Lucas and Carriea come over with a book.)
They’re weeds! They’re weeds! It says their weeds!
I remember when we read the thank you plants book and it had cornfields in it. It’s a connection. And this says sometimes sunflowers are weeds when they come up in a corn field. Carriea
(Lucas points to a picture.) It’s the dandelion with all of its stuff in it. Lucas
What’s the stuff in it? Mrs. Argus
I think it might have been the milk being pulled. Lucas
What’s this? David
It’s the nutrients being pulled. Being pulled from the flowers. Lucas
This looks like an umbrella. David
Want to see a cut open one? Lucas Cool huh?
I got this! These are things that turn into weeds! (points to the seeds on the dandelion) Michael
How does it turn into a weed? Mrs. Argus
All it needs is a rainbow to turn into a weed! I just figured out the mystery. These do turn into the weeds! Michael
Ruth shows friends the inner workings of a dandelion. She is trying to show how the dandelion sucks up other plants' nutrients.
Mar 16 2012
The Courtyard
This morning, Mr. Smith came over to me and told me there were lots of spring surprises in the courtyard. I shared with tour friends what I had heard and asked them if they would like to see if any changes had occured to the space. As we made our way to the courtyard, I heard exclamations of, “WOW! It’s growing!” and “Mrs. Argus- daffodills!” and many other words of excitement. We talked about how these changes had occured and made predictions as to whether or not we would see other changes as the weeks progress.
