Goodbye Chicks

Our chicks went back to the farm today

but we had a great few days

watching them hatch and checking them over.

One of the chicks had a difficult time hatching.

Mrs. Cochrane, our kindergarten teacher, showed us how we could help him.

He had begun to dry out so I sprayed a little water through 

the crack in the shell

and helped peel the shell away.

Once he was able to poke out we moved him back to the incubator

So he could hatch out on his own.

Check out this video (scroll down to June 3)

https://www.facebook.com/Brooklyn-StrongStart-160297557384845/?ref=bookmarks

Love how they are pretending to document the chicks with our

classroom cameras.

More chicks were born 

for a total of 11.

They are incredibly soft and tempting for the little ones to try to grab.

Overall the children were very respectful, cautious and gentle 

with the chicks.

Thank you to Clea for giving us the eggs to learn about

where baby chicks come from.

Waiting for Butterflies

Our caterpillars arrived three weeks ago.

We've watched them grow

and form their chrysalis.

Now it's been just over a week and the waiting is hard.

Art helped us stay busy.

We did marble rolling on orange tissue paper with black

and brown paint.

They look fabulous on our windows.

We worked on symmetry.

And on large floor puzzles.

The last few days we've been painting butterflies

to welcome our butterflies when they arrive.

I expect to see some on Monday.

Raising Chicks Year 2

Last year we successfully hatched chicks at school.

It was very exciting and when the mom, who provided the eggs,

asked if we wanted to do it again I said yes.

Clea brought the eggs in three weeks ago and they were set up 

in the incubator.

Some of the eggs were from the chicks we hatched last year.

While we waited we played and learned about what comes from eggs.

Then this week the first egg began to crack.

We named him Uno.

After a few hours we took him out and introduced him to everyone.

Uno had to wait two more days before more chicks hatched.

Biking at School

It's Bike to Work Week and the staff and students

are encouraged to ride their bikes to school.

To celebrate we closed off the parking lot this morning

so our littlest students could participate.

It was so much more space than the playground pavement

we've used for the past two years.

We did our favourite things;

decorate our bikes with ribbons, balloons and licence plates,

washing our bikes,

and of course ride our bikes.

Especially through our pretend bike wash.

I think I'm going to have to make it taller.

I set up a StoryRide around the perimeter of the parking lot.

A few children noticed and read it with their grown ups.

We had more than 30 children participate

plus the kindergarten class joined us.

We set it up early so the primary grades could use it during

their recess time

 so a lot of children

rode their bikes at school this morning.