End of the Year Fun :)

It's hard to believe that the 2013- 2014 school year has come and gone.  I will never forget my first class at Pashley.  The kids, families, and Pashley staff made it so very special.  Thank you to all of the the parents for being great educational partners and for the thoughtful end of the year presents.  I loved the apple photo and the scrapbook!  Take a look at the apple photo that I will be sure to hang in my classroom next year!

Teaching first grade is so rewarding.  Every year I am amazed at the growth of all my students.  This year is no exception.  All of the kids worked so hard and came so far! I am so proud.  At Back to School Night in September I shared my yearly goal for the class: For the students to become more independent in all areas.  They all rose to the challenge.  Many of them are independent readers, writers, and mathematicians and many can navigate social situations appropriately with minimal adult support.  The progress is astounding!

The best proof of this progress is the ocean animal research reports that they did at the end of the year.  With me as their facilitator, they researched and wrote, and researched and wrote, and researched and wrote, etc, etc.  Then they practiced reading to their peers.  Everyone was a great reader and great listener.  We all learned something new each time we heard a new report!

 

When the final day came they were all fully prepared to present their reports to the audience.  Here is a great picture that was taken during the Author's Reception.  Photo credit goes to Mrs. Hamm.  Thank you!

Our field trip to animal land was lots of fun.  The students walked around with their groups and got to see many different types of animals.  Some of the students even got to feed the animals!  They also played on the pirate playground.  They did a great job playing the part!

We had a great time listening to our mystery reader from Kuwait.  With some careful planning, we were able to Skype with Lou Malizia, Mia's daddy.  He has been overseas for most of the year, and it was nice to "have him in the room."  He "sat" right in our rocking chair, just as all mystery readers do, and read Horton Hatches the Egg by Dr. Seuss.  The children were mesmerized during the read aloud.  Best of all, Mia was so surprised.  When she heard the Skype ringtone her face lit up!  Mrs. Malizia was able to snap some photos during Mr. Malizia's reading.  Mr. McGrath also heard about our special mystery reader and was able to visit as well!  Afterwards, the students were able to ask some questions.  They learned that Mr. Malizia works with helicopters.  They learned that while he was reading to us it was 1:30pm in Burnt Hills, but it was 8:30pm in Kuwait.  They also learned that it was VERY hot there... so hot that one day it got to be about 130 degrees!!

It was bittersweet saying goodbye on the last day. We blew bubbles as the kids got on their buses and waved excitedly from their bus window.  Then they drove away into the summer (look closely, you'll see some of our friends on their buses!)...  Have a great one everyone!!  Thanks again for a fabulous year!

Chicks!!

I am so excited to be able to share the fun learning experiences that we had with our baby chicks!

It all started with our incubator and a dozen eggs...

The students got a turn to flip them each day. They learned that this is what Mother Hen does to ensure that the heat gets distributed evenly. After the eggs were flipped, the students signed the log and put up the corresponding embryo picture on the chick development calendar.

 

Throughout this time the students learned all about chickens, wrote in their chick journals, and created cute projects based on chickens.  

On the 18th day we "candled" the eggs to see what was inside.  We found that there were some eggs that were never fertilized. These eggs look clear and you can only see the yolk moving around.  These are the eggs that get sent to the store to be eaten.  They feel lighter than the eggs with a developing chick inside.  This is a picture that I got from the internet that shows what those eggs looked like: 

We also noticed that there were 2 eggs that began to develop, but never finished.  This could be for a variety of reasons, such as the humidity inside the incubator being off, temperature being off, genetically weak chicks, etc.  In these eggs we could see the shadow of a small embryo.  Here is a picture that I grabbed from the internet that is similar to what these eggs looked like:

Finally, there were some eggs that were very heavy and were fully developed.  We could see the light air sack, a dark shadow covering most of the egg, and many of the blood vessels.  We could also see some of the chicks moving inside!  Here is another internet picture that is similar to what we saw (note: the picture is dark, much like what we saw in our classroom.  But if you look closely, you can see the shadow of the chick, as well as the blood vessels):

Then, on day 20 we noticed that there were some eggs that had little cracks.  The chicks were using their egg tooth to begin working their way out!

Before we knew it, there were chicks hatching!  It took about 24 hours for all the chicks to hatch.  The students got to see some of the chicks pushing out of their shells in person.  What a great real life experience!  Here you can see a tired chick, just after hatching and some other chicks drying off and developing those cute downy feathers inside the incubator.

We ended up with 5 chicks all together; 3 hens (the females are darker brown) and 2 roosters (the males are yellow).  The students named them all:

Meet Rosie the Hen

Meet Sparkle the Hen

Meet Gilly Bean the Hen

Meet Flex the Rooster

Meet Fluffy the Rooster

The students loved watching them and learning from them.   They were able to observe them in the brooder box.  The students learned that the chicks like to huddle together under the heat lamp to keep warm.  How cute is this?!?

 We took out a few of the chicks to watch them run around a little and *safely* hold them.

And then... sigh... it was time to say goodbye.  The chicks left in proper fashion... on the school bus!!  We were lucky that the Horse Bus Driver agreed to take all of the first grade chicks.  She was excited to have them on her farm.  Goodbye chicks!  Thanks for teaching us!

Not only was it a great learning experience, but it was a great teaching experience too.  We Google Chatted (much like Skyping) with Mr. Kopa's fourth grade class.  David and Ceres spoke for our class and taught the fourth graders a lot about the life cycle of a chick!  Thank you to Mr. Kopa for putting together this great video!

Click on this link to watch the video

May Update

First of all... can you tell we are ready for the nice, warm weather?  How cute does Mia look in her cool shades?!

We are busy bees here in room A-1!  We had a blast at the Marigolds with Mom event.  Everyone seemed to love decorating their pots, planting their marigolds, reading the Polar Bear Press books that the students made for their moms, and watching the video that the students created.  Check out the video and some pictures from the day below:
*Disclaimer... the students say their moms' ages at the beginning of their recording.  Many of them weren't quite sure just how old their moms really were, so please don't believe EVERYTHING you hear! :)

We had a great time during the walkabout.  The students created fabulous "I Wish" posters.  This is always my favorite project of the year.  There is something about the black and white photos that get me every time.  Everyone had a fun time scanning the QR codes to hear the students reading their 3 wishes.  Here are a few to check out.  Maybe if you can get your QR app scanner right up close to the computer it will scan (You probably have to click on the picture to make it bigger).  Try it out!

Last, but certainly not least, we are getting SUPER excited for the arrival of our baby chicks.  There are only 2 days left until they hatch!  We have been carefully documenting every bit of this amazing experience.  I will post lots of pictures when the chicks arrive!  Stay tuned!