Chick Observations

Time With Chicks!

13 Chicks Hatch!

How excited we were when we arrived to school on Tuesday morning! The previous day we saw a few eggs with cracks and heard peeps coming from the incubator. We are happy to report that we have 13 very adorable chicks. They have made themselves very comfortable in the beautiful brooding box that Maya's dad made for us. Children have a natural sense of curiosity about living things in the world around them. Building on this curiosity, students can develop an understanding of biology concepts through direct experience with living things, their life cycles and habitats. Embryology is the the science of the growth and development of living things. Through this experience, we studied the development of the chicken embryo. We observed and journaled about the growing embryo inside the egg until it hatched into a chick. What an amazing experience we have shared!

Environmental Learning is Fun!

Our E.L.F. parents, Jake's mom and Ellie's mom, taught us all about owls! We watched a puppet show that taught us many cool things about owls- how their wings are designed to fly silently, how their eyes let in a lot of light to help them see and that they can see very far away. We also learned about the foods they eat by dissecting owl pellets! We found many bones and fur from small animals!

Sharing Our All About Books

 Children researched using both online resources as well as books from our library. They worked very hard learning about their fascinating animals and are now teaching each other what they have learned.

Animal Research

We have been working very hard researching our animals! We are using both online resources and books to find our information. We are incorporating many non fiction text features into our reports such as headings, bold print, pictures and captions, table of contents, and a glossary. We were introduced to a graphic organizer using the computer called "kidspiration". This tool helps us to organize our information and also make an outline of our information to put into our final reports.

Thank you for coming out to see our first and second grade performance of "People Who make a Difference". The children were fabulous! Our study of people who make a difference continues as we learn about famous and not so famous people who have helped make the world a better place. We have learned about Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., Jackie Robinson, George Washington, Mahatma Ghandi, William Kamkwamba (a young man who helped his village in Milawi by building the first windmill to produce electricity and pump water during a severe drought), and Betty June Skelton (who became known as the "First Lady of Firsts" and set astonishing records in aviation and auto racing!). We are talking about the different ways people can make a difference and are brainstorming a list of things that we can do to help make a difference too! So far, the children thought of planting more flowers and trees in the community, taking weekly walks to pick up neighborhood trash, and help restaurant owners make food! We will continue to brainstorm ideas and then vote on an idea to pursue.