IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

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

Here we are!

We had a fabulous time at Butler on Friday! When we got to Butler in the morning, we had the chance to meet some new Butler friends who are part of an educational leadership and policy class in the College of Education. They have taken an interest in our garden project and our schoolwide garden initiative and are assisting us in getting funds to begin planting. They were also kind enough to walk us down to the farm and assist us in exploring the space, help us test soil at the farm, and wonder with us about the beginnings of our school garden. We are beginning to wonder what our own garden will look like and where we will place our garden. A big thanks to all of our chaperones and Butler students who joined us on this trip. 🙂

Da'Sean, Carriea, and Kaitlyn enjoy our quick bus ride to Butler University!

Miss Schmidt and friends are excited to be at Butler.

The beautiful view of the canal we passed while walking down to the farm.

Angela spots some of the cold weather vegetables growing at the Butler Farm.

Messi, David and a new Butler friend walk the farm and look for signs of growth.

Our group at the Butler Farm!

Ruth finds bees at the farm. How can bees be helpful to a garden?

Monica and a new Butler friend take soil samples.

Hutton enjoys Holcomb gardens.

Tags: Butler, field trip, garden, inspiration

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

At the end of the day today, our class began a lively debate: are dandelions flowers or weeds? Friends have been encouraged to bring in dandelions and weeds (with your permission) for investigation tomorrow. We plan to see if we can prove one way or the other. Who knows- maybe we will be planting dandelions in our garden…

Also, please check your child’s folder tonight- there is information regarding our field trip to the Butler University Farm and Greenhouse!

Tags: garden, inquiry, problem solving, project

Sascha and her bee story.

Friends work on plant stories. The pastels are rich in color and smooth to write with!

Aidan reads the question to friends who come by. “What stories live inside plants?”

This morning, a large group of friends explored storytelling about plants through the use of pastels. The stories are a wonderful reflection of some of our learning about gardens and growth. Sascha and Aidan also chose to incorporate bees into their plant stories and had some interesting ideas about what bees do with flowers. This hopefully leads to an investigation!

The creation of the greenhouse!

We were also lucky enough to be given a mini greenhouse by a friend of the classroom. This morning, Messi, Da’Sean and Monica worked with our Butler friends to put it together. They even planted four different plants- carrots, eggplants, tomatoes, and onions- yum! Hopefully, the greenhouse gets the germination process started and we can eventually transplant the veggies to our actual garden.

We get a visit from some special friends- Butler Blue 2 and Butler Blue 3- Trip!

Tags: creativity, garden, project, story telling