At the end of this week, the chicks will be headed off to a farm for their new permanent home.  A co-worker of my partner Jon has a beautiful Farm in Brookfield MA and they have promised to send us pictures of the chicks in their new home!

Using sandpaper, gathering and trying sandpaper with found wood, exploring sawdust and wood shavings, creating mixtures, asking questions, experimenting, making conclusions, and recordingin our journals!  Over the next weeks, these woodworkers will be making their own particleboard and plywood samples!

Each day in Kindergarten up to the last day we will pop one balloon each morning.  Inside the balloon is a surprise or theme for the day.  We started this yearly K tradition last Thursday with “Bubble Day” and then “New Name Day” on Friday.  Each child will have a chance to pop a balloon, with the teacher popping the last balloon on the last day of school.  How will you decide to pop the balloon when its your turn??

 

Memorial Day is an important holiday observed in the United States of America.  It is also known as Remembrance Day, as well as Decoration Day. It is a day of reflection and thanks for those in the US military who have given their lives, made the ultimate sacrifice, and/or continue to put their lives on the line in the name of America and our values. Americans across the country pay their respects through visiting military cemeteries, attending ceremonies honoring those lives lost, visiting memorials, decorating their homes and towns with the patriotic symbols of our country, spending times with loved ones, and celebrating American freedoms, values, and Pride.  It is both a somber and sad day, as well as a celebratory day for Americans. It has been celebrated since the end of the Civil War. On a celebratory note, it is also a holiday where we reflect upon all that we are grateful for, gather with family for BBQ, attend parades and band performances, and welcome summer just around the corner.  This year, many families are also celebrating the re-opening and returning to many activities that have been closed or restricted over the last year.

The Friday before Memorial Day is “Poppy Day.”  The tradition of the Poppy Flower and Memorial Day began with Moina Belle Micheal.  We read about her story (I modified some sections for kindergarteners) and created poppy flowers to wear in Kindergarten.  These flowers are a symbol to the fallen soldiers that “their sacrifice will never be forgotten.”  The monies raised from the sale of poppies goes towards supporting military veterans and their families.  To learn more, please see below for a read aloud of “The Poppy Lady” as well as a link for supporting military vets through poppy flowers.  Also see below some other great books for kids about Memorial Day

Over the last few weeks we have also been learning about important American Symbols, The American Flag, and the Pledge of Allegiance.  We explored state flags as well as international flags. We will dive deeper into Flags this June as we begin to talk about Flag Day.

Find out more about Poppy Day and how your family may choose to contribute here:  https://www.legion.org/poppyday/history

Check out this reading of Proud as a Peacock Brave as a Lion here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0n0dscoeGA

Check out this reading of Rolling Thunder here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEsdtYKiPok

For more information about participating in “Rolling to Remember” or donating to the cause, please see the following page: https://www.rollingtoremember.com/

For a Fun Patriotic Song that we learned in Kindergarten, see this video link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oex3j_9AhGA

“Veterans, Heroes in our Neighborhood”  by Valerie Pfundstein

“America’s White Table” by Margot Raven  (Please note this is a story about honoring a fallen military family member.  It is an amazing book, but does cover a sad topic).

“Why do we Celebrate Memorial Day” by Kristen Lake

Happy Memorial Day Weekend, and a heartfelt Thanks to all of our Military Families who have eagerly taken on the job of defending this country and defending other countries in America’s name. You will not be forgotten.

 

 

Focus Questions: Where does wood come from? What is made of wood? What happens when wood gets wet? How can you make wood sink? How many “passengers” (paper clips) do you need to sink your wood raft? What if you used a different type of wood?  More questions and explorations to come!

 

BABY CHICK VIDEO

 

These are so much fun! And you can cut the “hair” again and again! Using scissors or a very very small lawn mower, lol! The children enjoyed planting and watching these sprout, and observing the hair like roots that quickly shot out in all directions beneath the soil!

 

We are now on DAY 11 of incubation!  We had five eggs delivered to our room from the Buford Family- eggs the chickens laid that day! We placed them carefully in our fully automatic egg incubator (Thank you PTO!), which regulates temperature, humidity, and automatically turns the eggs!

We “candled” the chicken eggs at day 7 and day 10.  To “candle” an egg is when you use a bright light to see what is happening inside the eggs.  We have a Brinsea Ovascope that we use, which allows us to put the egg in a “black box” and look down into a view scope that looks like a microscope. The bright light allows us to see what is happening inside!   Of our five eggs, we had three that were “yolkers.”  That is the term for eggs that do not develop anything inside, either due to them being infertile or not viable.  We also had a windy weekend where we lost power for an undermined amount of time, so this might have been the cause as well.  Chicken eggs need a constant specific temperature- if the temperature wavers by as little as one degree, it can kill the developing embryo. We have one egg with a darker shell that makes it difficult to candle and so its status is a mystery! And one egg that has a chick growing inside! Students had the opportunity to look in the Ovascope and see the baby chick moving! You could also see its developing eye, beak, and heart. Very cool!

We are learning so much about the needs of animals, plants, and people!  Along side our chicken eggs, we’ve also been growing green beans, grass, planting flowers, dissecting seeds, and celebrating/discussing the birth of some new human babies within our classroom’s families!  Living things need many things to be safe, healthy, happy, and grow! Some of the needs of different living things are the same, and some needs are different.  Not all seeds grow, and not all eggs hatch.  Sometimes things happen that are beyond our control (like the weather) and sometimes there is no clear answers.  This is proving to be an amazing learning experience in many unexpected ways!

We are all rooting for our solo baby chick! When he hatches, we will be providing him the company of other baby chicks so he has what he needs to thrive.  The chick’s expected due date (at day 21) is Thursday May 20th!