A Most Wonderful Year
5/29/2018
This has been an incredible year for me. I have come to adore this class, my first class at PNA, and they will always hold a special place in my heart. I will miss them, our explorers, but I am also excited to see how much they have learned and grown, and to see them ready to move into their next adventure. They are brave, smart, kind, and curious. It has been a privilege and an honor to have been their teacher. Thank you for sharing this year with me. Happy Trails and Happy Summer, Ms. Amy Our Next Chapter: the book walk to our new school!
It was an exciting journey to the new campus, we went under the road through a tunnel, an we even got to peek into the widows! Everyone was excited to see where we will be next year. Bug Eggs
5/19/2018
A bunch of wild animals showed up Thursday for spirit week! This week the Explorers were given some ownership over what we studied, and they picked "bugs that lay eggs" as our study topic. We read nonfiction books about bug life cycles and saw many photos of the different types of eggs bugs lay. Some bugs lay lots of tiny individual eggs, some lay hundreds of eggs in hard egg cases and others lay eggs in egg sacks. We studied more life cycles, looking at both butterfly and ladybug life cycles and comparing them. Did you know ladybugs form a type of chrysalis too? Friday we went on a bug hunt. We turned over rocks, poked at stumps, searched tree bark and bushes to discover as many bugs as we could. It was a rainy day, and there were definitely no bugs flying about, but we did find worms, spiders, slugs, a very tiny gnat, a centipede, and even some bug eggs! Our chicks are growing fast! We have observed them growing new feathers as their wings lengthen and they are making new sounds everyday. Holding the chicks was a favorite activity this week. Yearbooks were very exciting!
Hatch Day!
5/12/2018
On Tuesday afternoon our first chick hatched! We had been learning about how chicks have an egg tooth on their beak to help them make the first crack, or pip, in their shell. We even acted out how a chick hatches, pretending we were in an egg, poking our heads out from under are wing and cracking the shell. Tuesday toward the end of rest time we heard the first peep from inside a shell and saw one egg wiggling around with a small pip. We were so excited! An hour later at closing circle time, the chick was out of its shell! Two more eggs had pips, and hatched in the night. We are all fascinated by the new babies. Watching them stumble around, listening to their little cheeps, and observing how they changed as their feather down dried. We worked together to make a new home for them when they were ready to leave the incubator. We had discussions on how we should care for our chicks and what they needed to survive. Thursday was another very exciting day as the the chicks were old enough to be held. We took turns very carefully holding the chicks. The Explorers loved how soft, fluffy, and light the chicks felt. The chicks are named Broomstick Harry Peter, Princess Bella Olivia, and Red Ranger Ninja Archie. Friday's family lunch we the perfect end to the week. Our Explorers took so much pride in cleaning and prepping the classroom, turning it into a "museum." I loved seeing how eager they were to share their learning with all of you. Thank you for coming and helping to bring such a lovely celebratory lunch! They're Hatching! We Love Our Chicks!
Fish Nests
5/5/2018
This week we continued to talk about nests. We examined real nests and a collection of real eggs. Our collection's largest egg is an ostrich egg and our smallest is a quail egg. We also have a display of the salmon life cycle borrowed from a hatchery. We spent time discussing what kinds of nests different eggs need and how the parent animals make them. We made clay eggs to fit into our clay nests. Some students many one large egg while others made many tiny eggs.
After our herring dissection last week we have been interested in fish. We talked about, and looked at underwater pictures, of how some fish lay eggs in special nests called redds on the bottom of rivers. We then used the rest of our herring from Bristol Bay to make fish prints. Our explorers were excited to get to paint real fish! After they made their print they stamped river rocks with sponges and added fish eggs with their fingertips. It is exciting to see our students integrating their curiosity, learning, and creativity in this study. We also did a scientific experiment about egg strength. For the morning question we generated a hypothesis for the question "Are you stronger than an egg?" We had 13 yes guesses and 2 no guesses. To test our hypothesis each student took turns seeing how many textbooks they could hold. The data ranged from 4-11 books. We then stacked textbooks on top of 4 eggs. The eggs held up 16 books before they smashed! In the conclusion of this experiment the students decided that eggs needed to be strong to protect the baby growing inside. |
Anna RamseyArchives
April 2021
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