We have chicken eggs incubating in our classroom!

The chicken eggs have arrived!

On Thursday morning (May 8), we each got to put a couple of the eggs in the incubator. We have 30 eggs in the incubator!

We will take turns turning them until May 26, and hope to see them hatch on May 29. 

Students can babysit the hatched chicks for the weekend, with parents permission :).

We watched this little video to see what's happening in the egg while its in the incubator:

what happens in a chicken egg in 21 days of incubation

A busy, artful week in December

1. Patterns:

On Monday, (Dec. 10), the grade ones demonstrated their ability to make patterns...

 

Nursing an injury, Camden shows off his abbc pattern

Lincoln enhanced his pattern to make a design resembling a person.

Mikaila chose to make a vertical pattern.

Zoe kept his pattern going for a long time!

2. Door Décor:

After our much needed snow day, we spent our entire Wednesday (Dec. 11) crafting our prize-winning masterpiece for the door decorating contest. We couldn't have done it without Mrs. Zeller's amazing organizational support.



Ethan was the "civil engineer" for the town of Bethlehem.

Celebrating the finished product.

 

3: A very artistic Friday:

Friday, Dec. 13: The annual gingerbread house day was looked forward to and thoroughly enjoyed - but my camera died after the first three pictures.  Thank you to Miss Leonard for her organizational support and Miss Leonard's students for making the experience so fun for the Pre-K - 2s! 

Ethan's journal: "The best thing that happened today was making gingerbread houses."

Zoe looking pretty proud of his creation.

 

Camden is smiling because he has taken off his hot "ugly" sweater - he was a winner for the "ugly" sweater competition.

Joy's journal: (The best thing that happened today....) "...was gingerbread houses because my buddy is awesome. She let me build the whole thing."

Before recess, we had a short lesson on making snowflakes from paper:  Lincoln wrote: "My favorite part was DPA and making snowflakes." 

On that same very busy Friday, Sis. Rhonda Redel came in the afternoon to work on an art project. Mikaila wrote in her journal:  "I like what we did today. We did art.  We drew our hand."

4. Wrapping up the year:

Faith wrote out the menu for our class party on Dec. 19:

A Rocha Field Trip, May 1st

We had a beautiful day to get out and experience a wide variety of animals, plants and natural environments at A Rocha Environmental Centre in Surrey, BC.

 

Ruth met us and led our tour.

First we observed the sheep.  We noticed that their eyes are rectangular. 

We were pretty excited to get a chance to feed them too!

 

This Llama kept watching us to make sure we weren't dangerous :). He also guards the sheep from coyotes.

"What I liked about the field trip is when we got to taste some things."
- Mikaila



This was a kale plant that had lived over the winter. The flower buds tasted like the leaves. 














Here we tasted chives and yummy lemon sorrel!

Then it was off to the chicken run, to hear about chickens and get a chance to pet a hen.

"We learned there are different kinds of roosters. They're fun!"
- Lincoln

The Rhode Island Red rooster on the right is quite colourful,
while the white rooster below is a special Canadian breed from Quebec called a Chantecler. It has a smaller comb and
wattle so it doesn't lose too much heat in the cold climate.

 Then we had a very special treat! We met a newborn lamb.

"We got to see a lamb that was born the day before and it's mother didn't take care of it."
- Mikaila

We observed the Little Cambell River.                     Here (to the north) it is shaded by trees, so it stays cool for spawning salmon.

Here the trees are cleared, so the water gets hot and fewer animals can live in the habitat. The members are working to plant more trees.

 We went in groups to explore the pond and the forest bugs.  

"We learned the life-cycle of a tadpole"
-Lincoln




 
"On May 1 our class went on a field trip to a farm called A Rocha. We went for walks in the forest. We caught tadpoles. I caught a tadpole. We had so much fun! It was awesome." - Ethan

"Did you know that tadpoles are baby frogs?"
- Ethan

  

 In the forest we learned the importance of bugs and found some special ones.

"We are looking at what the insects did to the tree."
- Zoe 

We wrapped up by eating our lunches and exploring a gentle old fruit tree.  

What a great day!