Dear Parents,
We began our week taking turns looking into our incubator to see five cracked eggs, but no baby chicks. We sat quietly to see if we could hear the baby chicks. Some of us barely heard them.
We looked at pictures of other birds: owl, blue jay, hawk, falcon, woodpecker, chickadee, and ducks. Zoe and her grandmama made bird feeders for all the children. We went outside to hang up a couple of feeders, and sent the rest home. On the way out to the yard, we did a quick and quiet fire drill.
On Tuesday we arrived to see ten wet baby chicks in our incubator. We had to wait almost the entire day to let them fluff up. We moved them gently to our brooder box. We reviewed our Chick Rules before getting them out to pet:
1. Sit crisscross applesauce.
2. Pet gently.
3. Teachers only get chicks out/into brooder box.
4. Wash hands after!
Everyone got to hold and pet baby chicks. One person whispered to a baby chick, “I love you, I love you”. Two friends wanted to pet the chicks but not hold them. One later decided they did want to hold a chick after all. One person was nervous about holding them but wanted to kiss them. We had to make a new No Kissing Baby Chicks rule.
We spent as much time as possible holding and petting baby chicks. On Thursday Farmer Tom came to pick them up and return them to the farm. After maybe five minutes someone said, “I miss them already.”
We read books about other earth animals: chipmunks, squirrels, and pigs. We learned that all three are omnivores. We also read in Amazing Animals about gorillas, chimpanzees, lions, and tigers.
Have a calm weekend,
Therese