Chick Watch '09' Begins!!!

Today during circle time, we talked about how this should be the last full day that the chickens spend inside their eggs. If everything goes as we had hoped, they should start hatching tomorrow or the next day! We have been candling the eggs regularly to get a glimpse of what was going on inside. At last count, we had four eggs that looked like they clearly had embryo's developing, five eggs that clearly didn't have any chicks in them, and seven eggs that had shells that were too thick to show us anything when we held them up to the candler. We'll see how many hatch!
The children have been really enjoying pretending to be baby chicks who are getting ready to hatch. We told them the whole story of how previous hatches have played out, and the children act out every single step with such reverence for the whole process! The first thing they do is scrunch up into a ball and pretend that they are crowded inside an egg. Then they use their 'egg tooth' to break a tiny hole in the shell. The "chicks" start 'peeping' to each other to let the other chicks know it's time to hatch. Hatching is hard work, so they take a nap to rest up, then they make the crack in the egg bigger, then they take another nap, then they crack the egg some more...this goes on for a looooong time until the 'chicks'/children are ready for the final push out of the egg. Once they are all hatched, the Frog/chicks fluff up their feathers, and take another nap! If you're looking for a good time, try asking your child if they will do their dramatic interpretation of a hatching chicken... It's very entertaining!
We are hoping that all of this pretending will prepare the children for how long it takes for the chickens to hatch. They have certainly been very patient up until this point! We will update here with any new chicken information. In the meantime, here are a few more 'hatching' videos from you tube to tide you over!

Chickens;


Snakes;


More snakes (long!);


Monarch Caterpillar;


Enjoy, and keep your fingers crossed for our eggs!

More Chickens!

We are all wrapped up in our life science curriculum. Lately we have been focusing on Oviparous animals, ie. animals that hatch from eggs. Of course, our incubating chicken eggs are the main attraction. They have been incubating for six days so far. Later this week, we will be candling the eggs to see if we can spot the outlines of our chicken embryos. It's going to be hard to wait the 10-12 days until they are ready to come out. Today during circle, we watched this video to tide us over. Enjoy!



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Sensory Table Retrospective

Catching Up...

Happy New Year!

Phew! The Frogs came back from winter break and hit the ground running! It's been hard find a moment to reflect on what we are seeing...

Winter is really here. The dusting of snow we were so excited about last time is now a good thick blanket all over the playground. Winter usually means that the kids get less exposure to a variety of sensory experiences when they are outdoors (snow pants + mittens + hoods + hats + scarves = warm kids, plus tactile, visual and auditory interference!) We are trying to step up our game in the sensory table to make up for what the kids are missing outside;


We have moved our now empty worm compost box indoors. We are hoping to re-stock it with worms soon so the Frogs can observe the whole process of vermicomposting, as well as enjoy some up close time with soil and crawly things- despite the snow outside!

We are also trying to add a little variety to the Frog day by exploring different environments inside our school building. In addition to our wonderful, wonderful community room, we have been spending time in the Possum classroom (when the Possums aren't using it), and the Art studio.

One of the projects that really caught the children's attention in the art studio was stringing penne pasta tubes to make necklaces and bracelets. Ever since then, we have been putting out more stringing activities to let the Frogs really practice their creativity and their fine motor skills.

We have started work on a new seasonal mural, using lots of whites, greys, light purples and light blues. We will continue to look out the window for inspiration as to what to add next.

the Frogs are still very interested in story telling and books. Abiyoyo is still a favorite, but we are noticing that there are a few more favorite books being added to the "read that again!" rotation. So far, The Mitten, and Annie and the Wild Animals- both by Jan Brett- are very popular. We are also beginning to hear some storytelling from the Frogs. We were treated to a lot of fantastic (literally!) "What I Did During My Winter Vacation" stories!

With so many different things going on, we are watching and waiting to see if any overarching curriculum themes emerge. For now, everyone is happy, intellectually engaged and having a good time, which is exactly what we're going for!

P.S. We finally figured out what to add to the fall mural....

(this image was created using this tutorial on turning photos into coloring book pages using photoshop. We've added the link to the sidebar as well...)

The Frogs spent a morning customizing their very own raccoons-with-spoons, then pasting them onto the mural. Some are flying, some are climbing the tree, all are holding out their spoons and begging for more stinky muffin batter!
Cute, or creepy? you decide;