Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Chicken Coop Research

Our latest project - converting our cardboard fire truck into a house for chickens.

For the past week the children have been asked what we would need to do to this box
to make it into a chicken coop.
This morning we visited a local farm to have a first hand look
at a chicken house.
This is what we learned.
The first thing we noticed, other than chickens, was the feeder.
We saw wooden sticks hanging from the wall
for the chickens to perch on.
We saw a group of nesting boxes.
Each of them had a chicken in them.
Shannon, the farmer, showed us how to check under the chickens for eggs.
We found one.
Shannon keeps a basket handy in the coop to collect the eggs.
We saw a small entry with a drop door in the back of the coop
for the chickens to go into a fenced yard.
Then we got to feed the chickens.
We went back in the barn, out of the rain, to record what we saw.
The first thing we drew was the shape of the building,
the children are showing me the shape of the roof
by forming a peak with their hands.
As the children recalled what they saw I made a list.
This is now our plans for what we will need to do back at school.
To finish our tour we were going to make nests but it was quite rainy
so I had made paper bag nests for each child.
In the nest was a plastic egg with a chick inside.
We practiced our poem "Five Eggs".
This afternoon, at school, I set up our documentation
to help us remember what we want to do.
Made a peaked roof on the box and set up for painting.















Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Mashing Chickpeas

This week's snack recipe is Child Friendly Hummus from My Fussy Eater.
It's easy to use the food processor to make it but
today we started mashing the chick peas by hand so the children could
see them transform.
We used two different shaped mashers and learned that the one
with pointy ends worked better.
We eventually used a food processor to mix the rest of the ingredients
and make it smooth.
We ate the hummus with tomatoes, celery, carrots and crackers.
Yum!



Monday, April 10, 2017

Bunnies Visit

Our school speech therapist brought in her bunnies today.
We sat in a big circle and Ms Franklin explained the rules
to visiting with the bunnies to keep them safe.
She shared with us the food the rabbits like to eat.
She had hay, lettuce and carrots for us to explore.
Then Ms. Franklin let the bunnies out of their carrier.
Meet Bun Bun (grey) and Donut (white with brown markings).
The children were very excited but were very careful moving
close to the bunnies.
They really tried to encourage the bunnies to come close to them
by enticing them with food.
It worked some times. 
As the children watched and touched the bunnies they were hearing new language
from the grown ups around them.
Describing the bunnies: how they feel, how they move, what they eat.
It was a great opportunity to expand the children's vocabularies.
Then Donut hopped into his carrier and Bun Bun followed.
It was time for them to go.
Bye bye bunnies, thank you for visiting.
Thank you Ms. Franklin for sharing and teaching us.

Friday, April 7, 2017

Painting Cookies

There's a great recipe for painting sugar cookies before you bake them
at forkly.
I pre-cut the sugar cookies into egg shapes
and mixed food colouring into egg yolks.
The children painted them as they wished.
Into the oven for about 8 minutes
then you can eat your art.

Thursday, April 6, 2017

Spud Measuring

Over Spring Break our spuds sprouted.
This week we busily hilled them each day.
This year instead of measuring the plants I set up some paper plants
for the children to use.
They laid the blocks along the stalk till they reached the leaves
then counted them.
They recorded their number on our clip boards.
On a shelf to the side were other materials the children could use.
 The measuring tape was a popular choice.
This boy used toy fish and then the measuring tape.
Wine corks were another choice.
This picture gives you an idea how much the plants grew this week.