As Promised...

...Here is the video footage of one of our chicks hatching!!!

Which Came First?

As soon as we wrapped up our springtime maple sugaring project, the focus of the curriculum in the Frog room shifted to oviparity, or animals that hatch out of eggs.

The book Chickens Aren't The Only Ones by Ruth Heller was an excellent introduction to the wide variety of animals that hatch out of eggs. We used the illustrations of fowl, fish, insects, reptiles, and amphibians to inform which toys made it onto our free-play shelves.

One morning, a particularly organized member of the Frog class laid out an impressive display of our plastic oviparous animals. There were ants, beetles, snakes and dinosaurs...


...lots...

...and lots of Dinosaurs!

We also had a few birds...

...with nests...

... and eggs.

We continued our March tradition of incubating chicken eggs. After last year's failed hatches, we were a little wary, but it's such a great project that we decided to cross our fingers and try again. We placed the eggs in the incubator on April 6th. Then we settled in to wait the 21 days that it takes for a tiny clump of cells to grow into a living, breathing chicken!

Did you know that 21 days is a loooooooong time for a three-year-old to wait?

We made a paper chain with 21 links. Each day, we tore one off to help us keep track of how many days were left.

We also set up a 'practice egg' in a pillow nest on top of our classroom loft;

This egg was BIG. Large enough for a child or two to sit on! The kids were very intrigued with the egg, especially with guessing what kind of animal could possibly hatch out it. They were very careful around the egg, covering it with blankets to keep it warm and speaking with quiet voices when they were close by.

After about a week and a half (conveniently right at the mid-point of the incubation cycle for our real chicken eggs...) the Frogs came looked in the pillow "nest" to find these;

"Chickies!!!!!"

They were delighted, but not quite as delighted as they were yesterday, when we peeked in the incubator to see this;

Aaaaaaaghhh!!!!!! It actually worked!!!!!!!

One tiny, gooey chick, plus four eggs with tiny cracks in them. Hooray!!!!

Want to hear something even more exciting? This morning when we checked the incubator, we counted eight chicks total, plus one more egg with a big crack in it. Then, we saw a miracle;

ONE OF THE CHICKS HATCHED RIGHT IN FRONT OF US!!!!!

Truly. Amazing.

(P.S. I caught our hatching chick on video! It needs a little editing, but I'll post it as soon as it's done, along with more photos of our nine baby chicks!!!)

Life Science: From Sap to Syrup

When all was said and done, we collected about 8 gallons of maple sap. The Frogs had ample opportunity to witness liquid changing to gas, as we sloooooowly boiled off the water, a little at a time. Our classroom smelled delicious!

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Syrup!!!

It was worth the wait. Yum!!!

Life Science: Making Maple Syrup!!!

If you live in New England, then you know that March pretty much came in like a lamb this year. In fact, the weather seemed to switch from freezing cold to summer overnight! Of course, this means that the 2010 maple sugaring season went by in the blink of an eye! Fortunately, we managed to tap the maple tree in front of our school just in time to gather the sap while it was still running. Here are a few pictures of the process;

The raw materials...

Spline and bucket...

drilling the hole...

setting the tap...

... the first of the sap!

Robot!!!

Me- "Hey guys, lets make a robot out of this box!"

Kids- "OK!!!"

Me- "Wait...what else do we need to make a robot?"

Max H.- "Colormint!"

Me- "Colormint? What is that?"

Max H.- "No! not colormint- Colorment! It's something that colors robots!"

Me- "...lke paint?"

Max H.- "Yeah!"

Me- "OK...what else?"

Jack S.-"A helmet!"

Max M.- "Wings!"

Jack B. & Max H.- "Eyes!"

Max H.-"A thousand legs!"

Me-"No arms?"

Jack S.- "Yeah arms!"

Max M.-"Ears!"

Shahana M.- "A mouth!"

Jack B.- "Hands!"

Isaac T.-"...but not feet!"

Max H. -"Oh! A Tongue!!"

Me-"Should it have buttons to press to make it move?"

Max H.- "No...but it needs a belt!"

Monthly Mural: March

For March, we were inspired by the arrival of spring. We were also looking ahead to our upcoming curriculum exploration of life sciences, particularly, our study of animals that hatch out of eggs.


Decoupage birds, anyone?

Science Backlog, Part Two: Space Madness!!!

So far, we have shared a lot of documentation that focuses more on the "non-fiction" aspects of our Science curriculum. Since Three-Year-Olds are fairly rooted in the imaginary, we used a bit of science fact to inspire a bit of science fiction, specifically, an exploration of space; the final frontier!
We raided the local library for image heavy books about the US space program. The book 'Exploring Space With an Astronaut' by Patricia J. Murphy was especially well received. The Frogs spent a lot of time poring over the photos of Astronauts working and living on the international space station. They asked a lot of questions about what they saw; " Why are they floating up?", "Why do they have seat belts?", Why are they wearing those helmets?", and the inevitable; "Can I have a helmet like that?"
Well, with a little creativity, some recycled milk jugs and soda bottles, and a bunch of silver spray paint, Yes you can!

After learning about how Astronauts need to have oxygen tanks to breathe in space, it was decided that we needed to build a few of those, too...

Once we had the outfits right, we needed a little atmosphere. First, we made "Moon Mud"...

Then, Robots!

...but that's another post!!!