IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

This week, it is our responsibility to be chicken and garden stewards! We went outside and to our delight, there were 6 eggs to collect from our girls. After we fed the chickens, we took a look at the garden and noticed all the changes from the beginning of the year. We noticed many of the plants have gone to bolt (have flowered) and are about done producing. We noticed some plants still need to be harvested and may need a little more time (peppers!). We talked about what needs to be done this week to take care of the garden. Some suggestions were:

weeding

pulling out bolted plants

watering

making pesto from basil

We plan to act on this list tomorrow. The garden is such a wonderful space for us. We are so lucky to have it. 🙂

Tags: chickens, curious, garden, responsible

Cameron picks fresh lettuce.

Mrs. Argus shows friends how to pick from the basil plant.

Aidan and Carriea pick lettuce.

Ruth washes our lettuce!

Regan tries the salad spinner.

Fresh garden salad- finger lickin good!

“I give this salad two thumbs up!” Michael

Zek enjoys his salad. He ate two bowls!

Pesto party!

Slurp slurp slurp!

Tags: capable, garden, project, responsible

Friends write letters to Mrs. Obama.

Last week, we read a book about school gardens. The kids had so many connections to make with the book it was incredible. One of the things the book mentioned was that Mrs. Obama was a huge supporter of victory gardens and school gardens. One of our friends suggested, “We should tell her about our garden!” The rest of the class was very enthusiastic about this idea. This morning, we made a list of things we could tell Mrs. Obama about our garden. We also decided we would like to try to convince her to come to the Lab School and teach her about worm composting and our chickens. We are working on first drafts and eventually will turn these into final copies we feel proud of to send to the White House. Who knows what will happen?

We are also exploring the world of 3 dimensional shapes this week. Today, friends were invited to create different types of shapes. We then explored their attributes as a group and categorized them. We ended up coming up with two large categories that our shapes could fall into.

Zek and his group work to create 3 dimensional shapes.

Tags: chickens, collaboration, creativity, garden, project

Is our garden growing?

Cameron and Lucas measure the basil.

Some of our friends and our new outdoor compost bin.

Mrs. Argus and one of our beloved friends!

Regan is picking up some very chicken-like behavior… and we like it!

David and Cameron read together and ask questions about their bug.

Tags: chickens, garden, project, responsible

Today, we began bug research during Reader’s Workshop. In doing this, we are hoping to learn more about who benefits our garden and who may not. We have been talking about how readers have questions as they read, and tomorrow, we will be compiling more specific questions about each bug. I was so impressed with the kids’ cooperative skills as they worked together and discussed new information with one another.

Messi and Tajanaye begin research on butterflies.

Da’Sean and Monica talk about how ladybugs are a type of beetle.

Regan and Lucas read together about the snail. Did you know snails live both underwater and on land?

Maggie and Cameron investigate millipedes and centipedes.

At the end of our first research day, friends were invited to share what they learned about their bug. Carriea and Kaitlyn shared about Pill Bugs (roly polys).

Tags: capable, garden, project