Chicks on the Climber

Drawing Chicks

Kindergartners do an amazing job of drawing pictures of chicks. We set the chicks out in the middle of some tables and had the children make pictures with pastel chalk. Every year the results are remarkable. BZ will laminate them and we'll send them home next week.

Third Grade Science Museum

We visited the third grade today to learn about their recent studies as scientists. One group learned about the solar system.

They followed up the presentation with some puzzles. The next group explored the world of amphibians, looking at some live specimens and learning about the life cycle of our aquatic friends.

We also learned about dinosaurs and whales.

Thank you third graders for inviting us. We had a great time!!

Math and ELA

To keep our friends updated who are missing school currently; we have been working on our On Monday stories. We are practicing middle sounds, as we fill in the blank for words that are missing the vowel in the middle. We are also completing chick books about the stages of the embryo and what happens when the chick is hatching. In math we did a game called Teddy Bear Picnic where children's moves were based on simple addition and subtraction problems. We also worked on How Many to 10? Children turned over a card with dots colored in. If they drew a 7, they would color that many dots on their worksheet. They then calculated how many more dots they needed to make ten and wrote the equation, 7+3=10 underneath. The next challenge will be to build numbers in the teens using ten frames. We are working on the concept that numbers in the teens are a group of ten and some ones. For example 18 is a group of ten and eight ones.

The Bloodmobile

We watched a clip on YouTube called The Bloodmobile by They Must Be Giants. It has a very catchy tune and helps children to figure out all the different functions of the blood as it travels around the body. The shots show some of the ideas they had about what blood does in the body, after seeing the clip.

The Social Detective

Carol, our inclusion specialist, brought a new skit to our classroom last week. She brought her detective lens (magnifying glass) to our room to help us solve the mystery of how people behave towards each other. In one skit she continually interrupted me as I was trying to write something on the board. I told her she could have the marker when I was done with it, but please wait for her turn. She wouldn't take no for an answer. We then asked the children whether her behavior was something we expected another person to do, or if it was unexpected behavior. The language of expected/unexpected behavior will be cropping up more often as we figure out what is appropriate for different situations.

In this shot Carol shows the children a photo and asks for their input on how these children are behaving.

Amazing Chicks

Once again the chicks hatched this past week to the delight of the children. One comment, on watching them come out of the egg was,

"That's disgusting!" They are growing quickly and will be the focus of a drawing lesson in art this week.

Pancakes Pancakes!

As part of our Eric Carle unit we asked children to write their recipe for how to make pancakes. The story Pancakes, Pancakes tells about harvesting wheat, churning butter, collecting eggs and milking the cow. Our job was easier, but lots of fun. As you can see the pancakes were enjoyed by all.

And More

We have been making flower vases, decorating our room in an egg theme in anticipation of our chicks

and making "moon sand." The Morris Dancers visited on May Day. The big excitement will be on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week when we hope the chicks will start hatching.

Our Bodies

We have been creating the internal organs of our bodies since late February. As the pictures show, our buddies have been invaluable in working with us on this project. The photos show us putting our hearts and arteries and veins in the body. We had Jessie Conrad, Cedar's mom, talk to us about our hearts. We listened to each other's hearts with stethoscopes, did some jumping jacks and listened again to hear the difference. We talked about healthy diets and exercise to take good care of our hearts. Most recently our buddies have helped us write

reports about different systems in our bodies which we will share in an assembly format, hopefully in late May.

Stocking Trout

We had a fantastic trip to the Quabbin! As always. The children poured bucket loads of trout into the water with the help of Jim Lagacy, Clif Read and Ken Symmonds, who all work with the state on stocking trout and the fishing program for youth. Several of the kindergartners made it onto the evening news. From the Gate 8, we went to the Quabbin Visitor's Center where we had a picnic lunch on the lawn. We then moved onto to the trout hatchery where we saw the pools where the trout are raised. A

big thank you to all the parents who helped out and made this trip possible.