IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

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.

Tags: curious, garden, inspiration, project

Tajanaye helps her friend Angela create a worm out of yarn. See a need, fill a need- friendship.

Messi creates a garden with clay. There are even little seeds planted in holes!

Messi’s garden

Friends create puppets during writer’s workshop.

Da’Sean and his group create Goldilocks puppets together to retell the story.

Jenesis shows off her set for her groups production of Goldilocks!

Friends create a story path about the Little Red Hen.

Tags: collaboration, friendship, garden

Ruth describes the life cycle of a worm.

Messi creates a worm.

Greetings! I am back from my professional development trip to Portland and I am so happy to be back! It was great to see all of the kids this morning and I got lots of hugs- definitely filled up my bucket. 🙂 The kids had lots of questions about the school I visited and what life in Portland, OR is like. We had many questions about what the children from Portland were like.

When I came in this morning, Da’Sean and Messi had news about the worms- they had eaten almost ALL of our leaves and newspaper in the compost bin. WOW! It took those worms only about a week to turn all of that material into rich, black, nutrient filled soil. The kids also remarked on the increase of egg cases on the worms- signs they have mated and are carrying baby worms! We pulled out a few worms to observe other changes. Miss Schmidt and I asked the kids to represent the changes in the worms using clay or various ribbons and string.

The more he eats, the fatter he gets! Ruth

And the longer he gets! Carriea

What if we twist those around? Its an egg case! They got an egg case! And when the eggs are inside, and when the case comes off it turns into… Messi

Its a cocoon and baby worms come out! Aidan

We knew that! Da’Sean

We all knew that! Tajanaye

My worms are gonna have eyes, but they don’t really have em. This one is long, this one is shorter. The long one ate more. Here’s an egg case! Tajanaye

I made five baby worms! How many hearts are there? Aidan

I made a little worm with five hearts. Regan

He doesn’t have hands or legs. He just has hearts! Aidan

It all starts with an egg case. Ruth

How many hearts are in one worm?

Carriea and Regan show off their worm and egg case.

Tags: collaboration, creativity, curious, garden, thinking

This is going to be hard for me to resist and hard for me to forget.  Lucas

This quote brings so much warmth to my heart. These words were spoken by Lucas during our worm dissection with the wonderful Mrs. Grotjan and Miss Robison. Lucas’ words embody the essence of Reggio inspired, project based learning and what our goal here is at the Lab School- facilitate a love of learning. Today, our studio teachers gathered small groups of friends to engage in a detailed worm investigation that included a dissection. It proved to be a fascinating and captivating experience for all involved! Tomorrow, more friends will participate in the activity. I can’t wait to see what about the investigation interests them and what observations will come. More documentation on this incredible experience is coming.

The worm is captivating!

Messi and Cameron work as scientists.

Hutton investigates.

Journey and her worm.

Tags: capable, curious, garden, project, scientific method

Exploring our new sensory table material.

“Mrs. Argus- a flower!” Hutton

Cameron and Kaitlyn do drawings of their grass heads.

The grass heads are getting some sun.

What a fabulous day. We have a new material to explore in our sensory table- dirt! We are also becoming familiar with some gardening tools while we play with this. Our friends were also enjoying doing observational drawings of the many plants and new growth around the room. Hutton even pointed out a blossom on a plant that has been in our room quite a while! Perhaps we will look into why this blossom just sprouted recently. We have also created grass people. These people look like heads that have been stuffed with pine shavings and grass seed. We dipped them in water and placed them upright on a sunny table in our room. We are hoping the grass will grow and look like hair! Each day, it will be the kids’ responsibility to document what has happened to their “head” and draw a picture showing any changes, just as a scientist would.

Tags: curious, garden, project, scientific method