IPS/Butler University Laboratory School

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

Cameron and Miss Schmidt look at a globe together. Cameron spots Antarctica!

David and Aidan use teamwork to solve a tricky world map puzzle.

“Its the Indianapolis Airport!”- Messi

“Look, Zek, its an airport!”

 

 

Tags: curious, inspiration, thinking

Who knew that a metal detector and a mail center could occupy the same space? They do in room 104!

Today while working on our airplane, we discussed ways to make the two wings symmetrical. After some discussion about measurement and guesstimation, a friend suggested tracing the first wing onto the next cardboard piece for the second wing- that way it would be totally symmetrical. After cutting out the second wing, friends tried out different placements on the airlane to see where the wings fit best. We then saw a problem- how could we make the wings stick out from the plane without drooping on the floor? Cameron suggested using a large, popcorn tin to hold up the wing. We noticed that the tin looked almost exactly like an engine on the wing- how perfect! Hutton suggested we get two tins for each wing. Knowing we had one tin already, we had to problem solve to figure out how many more we needed. Monica suggested three, because we already had one, and the total we would need was four. She said, “Because four take away three is one!”

After figuring out the airplane wings and engines, we began to walk away from the plane and continue other activities during studio and explore when I heard Monica squeal excitedly. “Mrs. Argus!!! It’s a metal detector! Flip it over!!!”  “Huh?” I thought as I looked at the large box on its side. Then I saw what Monica meant. Once we flipped up the large box so it stood vertically, she showed me the two door like openings that the cut wings had left. It looked exactly like a metal detector! Monica and Cameron continued to add details to the metal detector, like an x-ray machine, a button to turn the detector on, and a pretend flashing light to show if somone inside it had contraband! They enjoyed showing the class their creation. The class LOVES making a beepiong noise when someone pretends to go through.

Monica shows the class the metal detector.

We also have another exciting addition to our class. We have recently begun writing letters to one another in class and we saw a need for a mail center. Each child now has their own personal mail center mailbox where other children can place mail inside. We even have a mailperson job who delivers mail on a regular basis and calls to friends that have mail.

Our sign for the mail center.

Jenesis, our mail carrier, delivers classroom mail.

Tags: creativity, motivation, project, thinking

"We need to measure the airplane."

Each day when the kids enter the room, they sign in to let me know they are at school and answer the daily question.Today our daily question said, “How long is our airplane? 10 feet, 20 feet, or 30 feet?”This question brought up a lot of conversation on measurement and estimation during our arrival activities. What is a good estimation? How do you know when you’ve made a good estimation? How do we learn to become good estimators? While friends were pondering these questions and engaging in conversation, I began to notice several children grab a material and begin lining it up against the side of the airplane. I asked Sascha what she was doing. “We’re using the inch worms!” she exclaimed. “Why?” I asked. Journey answered for her friend, “We need to measure the airplane.” The two friends were using one of our math workshop tools, inchworms, which are little worms that are one inch exactly. Several other children noticed what the girls were doing and became interested.

Messi assists with the inchworm measurement.

Ruth explains why the inchworms should stop.

 

The friends agreed that Ruth was right, we could stop. “So now what?” Lucas asked. We decided next that we needed to count the inch worms to see how many inches the plane was across. Cameron and Carriea worked together to count. Cameron put his finger on each worm as Carriea said what number worm it was. As they got higher and higher, into the hundreds, more friends became excited and joined in the counting.

Cameron carefully marks the worms counted with his finger.

 

 The excitement grew as we counted more nad more worms. “Two hundred eighty, two hundred eighty-one, two hundred eighty-two, two hundred eighty-three!!!” The kids all cheered. 

So excited to count!

 

 “Wait a second! That number is not part of our daily question!” Lucas brought up a good point. Our class was stuck. How could we have counted two hundred eighty-three inches and not have that be one of the three choices on the daily question. Monica suggested, “It’s not in feet!”We then discussed what exactly a foot was and that there were twelve inches in a foot. A friend suggested we break up the inch worms in groups of twelve, to show how many feet. The kids were so paitient as we took turns breaking up the two hundred eighty-three inch worms into little groups and neatly placed them on the floor. After all groups were created, we counted them together. We counted twenty-three groups of eleven and a group of ten, so our airplane is approximately twenty-four feet long! WOW!

Two hundred eighty-three inches. WOW!

 

 

 

 

 

Tags: arithmetic, capable, curious, motivation, project, thinking

The frame for our airplane.

Last week, our friend Journey’s dad, Mr. Newbold, came in and saw all 85 of the boxes we had collected and our measured space. He asked if our class would be interested in having a structure built to frame our airplane and guide our building. After some class discussion (and a very enthusiastic YES from the kids) we decided to take Mr. Newbold up on his offer to help us out.  This afternoon after lunch, our class was so excited to be greeted by Mr. Newbold, Journey, and her sister, Aidia, working on our frame. (which is close to 20 feet long, and about 5 feet wide) Our frame is made out of pvc piping which has been drilled together to hold it in place. The kids were fascinated by the process of how the piping was put together and began making observational drawings of what they saw being built and what ideas they had next for our airplane. Many questions and ideas have been floating around the classroom today. “How will we put up the sides of the airplane?” “Do we have enough boxes?” “Do we have too many boxes?” “Will everyone really be able to fit inside this thing?” We may not have all the answers yet, but one thing is for sure- the kids are truely dedicated and passionate about making this airplane a reality. Next, we will talk more about how to utilize our abundance of boxes and try to construct a way to help build our fuselage (the plane’s body).

Our friends are fascinated as they watch the structure being built.

Tags: capable, inspiration, project, thinking