IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

We discuss creating a cutting with one of our favorite plants!

Cameron and Maggie help plant our new cutting for preschool.

Monica shares her book from writer’s workshop.

Miss Schmidt reads A Seed is Planted to us and our preschool friends.

Kaitlyn presents our cutting to the preschool.

Last week, we read a story called A Seed is Planted. This is the story of one child who starts a chain of giving by creating a small clipping of a sapling. The children were engrossed with the idea of how just one seed turned into many. We read it again today and together, we created cuttings of several plants in our own room. Carriea then suggested something special.

We can take a plant and give it to other people and it might grow! Carriea

We can take it and break it in half like in the book and keep doing the same thing over and over again. Aidan

The one seed is going to grow a lot, and we made another one. Messi

Their buckets are going to explode! Angela

It feels good to fill buckets. Carriea

During writer’s workshop, Monica created a book called, All About Planting a Garden. Inside, the story read, “To plant a garden, you need to get seeds, water, and sunlight. And when the plant is done growing, you can give it to somebody. And the flower is bright like the sun.” After sharing, Michael exclaimed, “It’s just like A Seed is Planted!”  

Later this afternoon, we decided to put Carriea’s idea into action. We went down to the preschool room and shared our story and cutting with them. The kids remarked how good it felt to share our plant with the preschool. It was also a nice way to reflect on some of our newly learned knowledge of how to take care of the plant and answer some of the preschooler’s questions about plant growth in general.

Tags: friendship, garden, inspiration, preschool, project

Sascha brings in red wiggler worms from home. Her and Miss Schmidt add them to our bin!

Harper has a new mailbox! It is filled with mail.

Journey reads a beautiful writing about plants and herself.

Sascha draws what she sees inside the compost.

Da’Sean does an observational drawing of our compost bin. He is looking for any changes that have happened over the week.

Tags: creativity, curious, garden

Carriea's How To!

Michael plants seeds in the planter.

Jenesis waters the seeds in our new planter.

Miss Barr reads the daily question with friends. “How long will it take our compost to disappear?”

Regan and Aidan do observational drawings of worms with Miss Roby.

We have been immersed in all things growing! This morning, Carriea was generous enough to bring in a “How to Grow a Plant” checklist and shared it with the class. This checklist is just what we needed to plant some of our seeds that friends have brought in. We followed Carriea’s checklist step by step.

First, you get a box.

Second, you get some dirt.

Third, you get two seeds. Then you put the seeds in the dirt.

Fourth, you put dirt in the water.

Fifth, you let the sun come out and then it will grow!

Tags: collaboration, creativity, garden, project

Christian and Aidan prepare the bedding for the worms.

Looking for worm food!

David braves the elements while searching for wet leaves for our worms to munch on.

Looking for leaves!

Zek and Tajanaye place the worms in the bin.

This morning, we set out to create our indoor worm compost bin. To begin, several friends helped prepare the bin by ripping newspaper into small pieces for bedding for the worms. After putting the newspaper scraps into the bin, we went outside into the courtyard and collected wet leaves (just the way worms like them!) We took the compost bin with newspaper outside with us to saturate it with water from the rain. Last, we gently dumped our collected worms from last week as well as some more worms that were store bought into the bin. Very quickly, the worms dug down into the bin and started getting cozy! We are coming up with many questions as we learn how to compost…

1. How long will it take for the worms to eat through the matter in the bin?

2. What else is safe for the worms to eat?

3. Will the bin be stinky?

4. How can we keep the worms happy inside?

Tags: capable, curious, garden, project, responsible

Jenesis, the worm queen! I think she found about 4 or 5 worms!

Christian finds a big, juicy worm!

Friends share their worms with others.

For the past few weeks, we have been talking a lot about the possibility of having a school garden. Last week, Ruth brought in some worms which we were very intrigued by and exited about! Through some reading, we have learned that worms can actually benefit a garden. We also read a book with Miss Schmidt about composting and how worms and a compost pile can benefit gardens. Today, we decided we would like to start a worm compost in our classroom. When it gets warmer out, we will use the compost to help us start our garden! What does one need to start a worm compost? WORMS! This afternoon, we walked around the neighborhood on this cold, wet day (perfect for worm hunting) and found more than 20 worms- WOW!

Skipping on a clock.

We experience P.E. again with Butler friends. We were “growing” like a tree.

Tags: curious, garden, growing, project, responsible