Chickies - Day 8 of Incubation

We are on day 8 of incubation with our little soon-to-be-chickies! Today we did the "candling" observation where we turn off the lights in the classroom and put a special light underneath the egg to see if the proper growth is occurring - and whether the embryo is viable or not. Here's what the candler looks like.

This is not our photo, but it is exactly what we did! 

Some eggs are easier to see inside than others, but this is typically what we are looking for!

(Insert Oooooooooh and Aaaahhhhhhh Here!)

Every day we check our life cycle eggs to see what our babies look like inside their egg! They are starting to look like chicks now!! Grow little babies, grow! 

We also made a really cute chick art project out of....believe it or not....the children's footprints!! Come and check them out! I hope to have them hanging up by the end of the school day on Friday!! They are too cute!

More great things are happening in our last couple weeks of preschool. Stay tuned to see what we are up to!

FREE STUFF!

Hey families!

Gearing up of summer? Our preschool year has almost come to and end (SAD FACE!)----and your child will have nearly 4 months off of school! OH NO!

I will send home a summer learning pack at the end of the year filled with great ideas on how to incorporate learning into every day summer play.

If you are interested in some FREE games, please check out my Teacher's Notebook shop (see link on the left of your screen). These items are available to YOU for FREE!!! Even if there's a price tag attached to an item, you do not have to pay for it! If there's anything you want, please just E-mail me and I will be happy to send you the PDF of the game. All you have to do is print and enjoy!

Our chicks are here, Our chicks are HERE!!!!!!

Okay, so just so ya'll know, this is Mrs. Powell and Ms. Schneider's FAVORITE project of the entire school year. I love so much about our classroom and curriculum----but this is so very fun---it takes the cake! 

Living in an area surrounded by farms, all of our students can relate (and are interested in) all things agriculture. We certainly can attest to that, and take full advantage of the resources at our fingertips----like our very own, Mr. Finstrom! 

If you know Mr. Finstrom, he one of our 3rd grade teachers, and is also a farmer! If you've been to Geers Farm in McBain, you more than likely saw Mr. Finstrom hard at work on his farm.

He kindly brought us a whole pail of fertilized eggs. We are so excited to begin incubating them and hatching them in our classroom! MRS. Finstrom (our Jr. Kindergarten teacher) is just happy her husband is moving some eggs out of their house :) Oh, the life of a teacher and what we do for our students! ;) 

Time to study....we are chick Egg-sperts in the making!

Ms. Schneider reads a non-fiction book about the life cycle of a chick.

It takes about 18-21 days for a chick to hatch. We have a timeline ready to go. Each day we will look at our model chick eggs and see the growth and development, then we hang that picture on our timeline. 

Ms. Schneider is such a proud Mama Hen! She's been warming up the incubator all morning and it is ready for our fine feathered friends! 

Our Egg-sperts are so excited to tell their families---we wrote a letter and colored a picture to remind them to tell everyone all about it! 

Want to see our incubator and eggs? C'mon in after school and chick  check them out! 

Your child can tell you ALL about it! :) 

Come On Down To Our Farm Y'all!

Yee-Haw! It's springtime (I think?! Despite the recent snowfall)....and we are all about the farm and animal babies in our classroom. Our students know quite a bit about farms already, and even have some great questions we are hoping to answer throughout this unit. Some questions are....

Why do pigs oink so much?

Why do horses neigh; why do cows moo?

How many days does it take for a chick to hatch?

Where does a farmer get his/her supplies?

What do goats, chicken, pigs, cows, and sheep eat?

Why do horses need saddles?

Why do pumpkins grow on a farm?

And more! We also talked about how we find answers to things we don't know. It's important to be resourceful people. As a class, we decided we can ask a friend, a teacher, an adult, look on the computer/internet, look in a book or magazine, or take a field trip----going right to a farm would be awesome (but unfortunately, we cannot go there at this time).

If anyone happens to know why pigs oink so much---please feel free to drop me a comment....otherwise, Mrs. Powell is going to have to Google that one! ;)

Well, as always, I have an overwhelmingly large amount of pics. We've been up to a lot of fun and learning---so here they are!

Meet Bessie Jean! 

You've probably heard about our milking cow, Bessie Jean!

She's a stubborn 'ol gal who often makes a mess----has your child come home smelling like milk?!?! 

We often get asked how we milk a cow in the classroom...
well, we just use some little household cleaning gloves and fill them with milk.
Instant udders!!!


Here's Farmer Shelby milking our cow!

Yes, normally at snack time we give your children silverware.....EXCEPT for when we are learning about a certain farm animal and answering YOUR children's burning farm questions. Remember that question---what does a pig eat? SLOP, of course! We read a book about it, looked at pictures, and ate some slop of our own---sans the spoon.

Want our recipe for slop? Simply combine yogurt, granola, and fruit! 

Mmmmm, or should we say "OINK, OINK!"?

Here, Kylee explores little spring surprises in the sensory table. 

She's finding lots of tiny little spring animals! 

GASP! WOW---what's in there Clarabelle?

Oh, this is our game called Score!

Spring soccer, anyone?

Open up a soccer ball (or other sports ball) - and find tiny little letters or numbers.

Then, record what you found on the Score sheet! 

This is great letter recognition, number recognition, and writing practice!

We also made some adorable farm art! 

Come check out the cows and pigs in our barn. 

They are outside the classroom entrance! 

 We also patterned, sorted, and added farm animals! Here, you can see that Kylee sorted the animals by type and size. Way to go, friend!

 "The Ethans" have been loving the puzzle center this week! Today, they put together EVERY puzzle available! Our floor was so colorful. :) Look at this huge farm floor puzzle they conquered together! YAY for teamwork!

 In other news----very UN-farm related, we are quite excited that the Tigers are having such a great season already! Are they winning tonight? I lost track of the game due to blogging about my cute little preschoolers. GO Tigers! And....GOooooooo GSRP! Check out our big hitters!

Hey batter batter----SWING! 

I've "Moved"!

I've moved.....my blog for TEACHERS! If there are any fellow educators that our out there following my blog, I've moved. I really wanted to keep Planet Preschool for my students and their families, and yet I wanted to expand and grow with the educational world of blogging.....so in order to avoid a hybrid blog that was not as flexible as I wanted, I've created a *NEW* one!

Follow me on The Sweet Life of Teaching! Go ahead....hop on over there and grab some FREEBIES!

I'm still working on by code for my button (why does it have to be SO hard?!)....so hang in there and check back soon!

~Keri

Michigan Association for Early Childhood Education!

WISH ME LUCK! 

Mrs. O and I are presenting tomorrow at the MiAEYC conference. Here's a sneak peek into our conference. We hope our fellow educators across the State benefit from our helpful tips and resources for organizing their classrooms!

http://prezi.com/mpovgvuggqpc/file-cabinet-rebellion/

I've been REALLY busy preparing for this conference....so pictures to come a little later about what our students have been up to this week, and our big finale to March is Reading Month!! Check back over Spring Break!! Have a safe, fun, and restful vacation. See you all April 9th!!

~ Keri

New Stuff on the Blog!

Hey everyone! Please note that I have added *NEW* items and pages on our classroom blog! At the top, you will see pages for "Teacher Stuff", "A Blog for Teachers", and "FREEBIES for parents and teachers". You may be particularly interested in the Freebies tab! This is where you will find quality educational games that I have used in the classroom with my students. These are games that I have created and am sharing them with YOU! Each game comes with directions so that you can easily print and use at home with your child. 


Please feel free to share these links with your day care providers as well. They may benefit from using educational materials with your child while they are not in school! Reinforcement at home, school, and in a child care setting gives your child extra opportunities to master certain concepts that are taught at school, therefore increasing their school and Kindegarten readiness success! These games may be just the ticket for summer FUN learning! 


I only have a few items available at this time, but hope to be adding more - especially over the summer. So, continue to check back often! You may also visit my new shop on Teacher's Notebook. That's where the links will take you - and you will find more great items. See the icon to the left of the blog on the main page. 


ENJOY! 
~Keri