Special Project has been revealed!

Today I was finally able to reveal our hatching project to my students!  Right before Spring Break, I told them that when school resumed we would have a special project coming to our class.  They were very patient this morning and then after lunch, I revealed the eggs and the incubator to them.  They were such great listeners as I explained the hatching project to them and I was surprised with how many questions they had already!  And of course, part of explaining our project was discussing the rules that would be in place.  Number 1 rule, we look with our eyes, NOT with our hands!  I then had them come up two at a time to get a look through the window in the top.

Here is a picture of the whole area where our incubator is set up:

 

As I explained the project to the kids today, I showed them the 24 eggs that we have.  I told them that it is very likely that not all of our eggs would hatch, so I want them to expect that and not be upset if some do not hatch.  Then I had each of them make a prediction on how many eggs they think will hatch.  We have some pretty great predictions, I can't wait to see who has the closest number!

Today we did our first lesson on the life cycle of a chicken after we read the book From Egg to Chicken by Anita Ganeri.  Tomorrow, we will continue our lessons in our Chicken Life Cycle unit and start our Chicken Observation Journals when we put our eggs in the incubator!  Now I'm just hoping and praying that I can get the temperature inside the incubator to stabilize - my fingers are crossed!

~Ms. Julie

It's Almost Time!

Last weekend I went out and purchased the incubator and automatic turning tray from Tractor Supply.  While we were there, I checked out the baby chicks they had for sale and they were so cute!

Then on Monday, I drove the 35 minutes out to Mount Healthy Hatchery to pick up my 2 dozen eggs!  I didn't plan to get them so far in advance, but when I called to order them they said the only time I could pick them up was on Mondays before 11am.  And since this past week was our spring break, I had already decided to take Monday off work, so this was how I spent my Monday morning!

Luckily, I realized when I got home that I had two empty egg cartons that I had saved for some kind of project last year, so I was able to transfer the eggs to cartons that close.  The lady at the hatchery told me the eggs would be ok at room temperature until I was ready to put them in the incubator, so my fingers are crossed that I didn't get them too soon!  And so for the last week they have been hanging out on the kitchen counter...

So tomorrow I'm going to go to work and get the incubator all set up.  Then on Monday, I'll introduce the project to the kids and then the eggs will go into the incubator on Tuesday.  I was originally planning to put them in on Monday, but that would put our hatch day on a Sunday.  I would much rather have the hatching happen during the week when we are there, so Tuesday is the day!  More pictures to come after I have everything all set up.

~Ms. Julie

Welcome!

I am so excited about starting my very first teaching blog!  I have decided to start now because when we come back from Spring Break next week, my class is going to have a very special project coming to our classroom. I wanted to have a way to document what's happening with the project, as well as other things that are happening in our classroom.  This is my third year of teaching Kindergarten and I have recently started reading blogs by other Kindergarten teachers.  Stay tuned to find out what's happening in the Sharks classroom!

~Ms. Julie