Yesterday we just flipped the eggs to O's and back to X's again at night. However, the students were able to journal about our helper (Father Bries) coming in on the weekends to take care of the eggs! Here are the journal entries...

Koree

Day 6

Father flips the eggs on the weekend. We flip the eggs on the school days.

Marilyn

Day 6. To day mrs mrley flipt the eggs to x,s.

*Today Mrs. Murley flipped the eggs to X’s*

Luke

Day 6 over the weekend Father flit the eggs to x's on the weekend

*Over the weekend, Father flipped the eggs to X’s on the weekend.*

Tristum

Day6

Today Mrs. Murle Flit the eggs. To xs Father tucar Uv the eggs.

*Today Mrs. Murley flipped the eggs to X’s. Father takes care of the eggs.*

Jenny

Day6 yestrday fofru flies the eggs on the weekend

*Yesterday Father flipped the eggs on the weekend.*

Ava

Day6 The incubator is sposto be 99.5 dggres. We flipd the egg's to X's today.

*The incubator is suppose to be 99.5 degrees. We flipped the eggs to X’s today.*

Izzy

Day 6 father fllipds the eggs too x) s yestr day to x’s

*Father flipped the eggs to X’s yesterday.*

Leah

Day 6. on the wecind Father flipd the eggs to o's and X's. It is 15 mor days intil the eggs hach.

*On the weekend, Father flipped the eggs to O’s and X’s. It is 15 more days until the eggs hatch.*

Nik

Day 6 Today mrs marly chanj eggs to x' s.

*Today Mrs. Murley changed eggs to X’s*

Dr. Seuss's Birthday -March 2nd!

Yesterday was just a busy, crazy day with Dr. Seuss's Birthday! The students all enjoyed the day!! We started the day off with our first candling (fertilize test for the eggs).

The students were able to see the embryo inside of the eggs. We were able to see most of the eggs, however, some of the eggs we have are brown and green and these we will not be able to see until the embryo grows. The green eggs we will not be able to see at all. After candling we talked about Dr. Seuss and his birthday! The students had all their center work based around Dr. Seuss and journaling about the eggs. The students made a hat that each student had to come up with their own set of word families from -at.

After the students created these hats they went back to journaling about the embryos they saw. The embryos look like a dark, dime size shadow in the shell. We kept a tally chart of which eggs we could see the embryos in and which ones we could not. Here are the students entries.

Tristum

Day3

Today We Candler we Poot The eggs The candler

*Today we candled. We put the eggs in the candler. *

Koree

Day 3

Today we candid the cics we dinit haf to put water in the incubator cus thar was los of water in the incubator

*Today we candled the chicks. We did not have to put water in the incubator because there was lots of water in the incubator.*

Ava

Day 3 We looked for embryo's in side of the egg's.

Luke

Day3 mrs murley Got the eggs out uv the incubator and Poor the eggs on the candler then we lukt for the embyo.

*Mrs. Murley got the eggs out of the incubator and put the eggs on the candler then we looked for the embryo.*

Izzy

Day 3 mrs murley tu day wry did do ca the candleh

*Mrs. Murley today we did do the candling.*

Jenny

Day3 today mrs murley got the incubator frip the eggs

*Today Mrs. Murley got the incubator flipped the eggs.*

Nik

Day 3 mes mrle cadlr and eggs

*Mrs. Murley candled the eggs.*

Leah

Day 3. Today we candld the eggs. And we flipd the eggs to x's It is

18 days intil the eggs hach

*Today we candled the eggs and we flipped the eggs to X’s. It is 18 days until the eggs hatch.*

Marilyn

Mrs mrley Got the Eggs uot in the plud the lit and mrl mrley poot the lit buon.

*Mrs. Murley got the eggs out and put on the light. Mrs. Murley put the light on.*

I think it is a lot of fun watching how the journaling process allows the students to grow! The students slowly write more and their spelling getting closer to the actual spelling. Journaling at the Kindergarten level is a very high level skill. I am so proud of my students!

After all our afternoon activities and classes we spent some time getting to know Dr. Seuss. We watched a clip on the Brain Pop website http://www.brainpopjr.com/readingandwriting/authors/drseuss/

and took the quiz. The students LOVE these clips and they are so informational. We also made Dr. Seuss hat treats. We used bananas for the white and strawberries for the red part.

Second half of the student's books

Kindergarten creating their own books

The kindergarten students have also been working really hard with myself and Mrs. Gail on our Studentreasure books. This company Studentreasures sends all the material for us to become authors and illustrators to our own book. For Pre-K through 2nd we work on one class book so all the parents have to purchase their own books. However, from 3rd on up, the students create their own book to be published and they get to keep their first original copy. It is a cool process!!

Here are some of the pages we have in our book. We have only gotten through the writing part of "If I were a teacher..." The students will become illustrators for their page. Then we will begin working on part two "If I could pick a fun way to get to school I would..."

Days 1 and 2 of chick hatching!

We started our egg unit! The first day was marking the eggs (picture at the bottom) with X's and O's so we are able to tell which eggs we have flipped and which eggs we have not flipped. We flip the eggs two times a day (8:00 and 2:55). The students are just loving this unit! We are learning so much about these eggs/chicks!

Here are some of the entries from the last two days of journaling. The students are doing just a wonderful job with journaling. I did write the sentence they are trying to say under theirs incase you are having a hard time reading them. However, if you are a kindergarten teacher, these entries should not be hard to decode!! ENJOY!

Jenny

Day1 mrs murley plot os on the eggs

*Day 1 Mrs. Murley put O’s on the eggs*

Isabella

Day1 the. CIcks are mab. thrd wib 36eggs.

*Day 1 The chicks are maybe there will be 36 eggs

Koree

Day 1

The cicks are in the incubator. The incubator haves 23 white eggs. 1 green 12 brown eggs. In The incubator rite neoo beecus we coo nit fit ol of the

Eggs in the incubator thar was to menee eggs! To fit in the incubator!

*The chicks are in the incubator. The incubator has 23 white eggs, 1 green, and 12 brown eggs in the incubator right now because we could not fit all of the eggs in the incubator there was to many eggs to fit in the incubator!*

Ava

Day 1

Mrs.Muley poot X's and O's on the eggs.

*Mrs. Murley put X’s and O’s on the eggs.*

Luke

Day 1 leah.s mom gav mrs. Marley 36 eggs mre. Marley pot sum word

*Day 1 Leah’s mom gave Mrs. Murley 36 eggs. Mrs. Murley put some water.*

Leah

Day 1. Today Mrs. Mrluly. puont the egg in the incubator.

Ther is 36 egg s

*Day 1. Today Mrs. Murley put the eggs in the incubator. There is 36 eggs.*

Koree

Day 2

We change the eggs to X's for morning .we change them to O's at nite. be for you touch the eggs wosh your Hans.

*We changed the eggs to X’s for morning. We changed them to O’s at night. Before you touch the eggs wash your hands.*

Leah

Day 2. Today Mrs. Mrley chanchd the eggs to x' s

*Day 2. Today Mrs. Murley changed the eggs to X’s*

Luke

Day 2. Mrs marley flit the 36 eggs to X's

*Day 2. Mrs. Murley flipped the 36 eggs to X’s.*

Nik

Day 2 We chanj sids To x,s . The incubator has egg.

*Day 2 We changed sides to X’s. The incubator has eggs.*

Ava

Day 2 Today Mrs. Muley poot mor water in the incubator.

the temipachr is sposto be 99.5 degrees.

peple look at the eggs.

*Day 2 Today Mrs. Murley put more water in the incubator. The temerature is suppose to be 99.5 degrees. People look at the eggs.

Today was the heating of the incubator!! The kids journaled today about temperature, embryo, eggs, incubator, 99.5 degrees, and the placement of the incubator. I write bigger words like these on the board to give the kids ideas on what to write about and then they have the spelling of these words. Enjoy...

HEATING THE INCUBATOR….

Heat. The. Incubator today. Mrs. Murley. Got. The. Incubator.t.

Tristum

Heat the Incubator. the incubator is past 99 5 degrees.

Leah

Mrs mureley heat the incubator op to 99.5 Degrees.

Luke

Heat the incubator today mrs mrley the incubator.

Jenny

99.5 bi the chocbord incubator sit on the desc embr yo temperature

Izzy

Heat the incubator. The incubator is Stortid it is past 99.5 degrees. the incubator is biy the choc Bord.and the incubator is siting on a desc.

Koree

Heat the incubator. Today Mrs. Murley setid the incubator.

Ava

Heat the incubator. We are having trubl with the incubator. It is the way a of aggs.

Nik

Pictures to come...

Going into a busy busy week!

Good morning! I took yesterday off of school and had a wonderful day! It was beautiful outside with all the snow on the trees! I would like to let everyone know about some of the wonderful things we are doing in our classrooms.

This upcoming week is a big week for the kids! We get to start the incubating process!! Let the journal topics begin!! Tuesday we will begin with heating the incubator and Wednesday the eggs will come! I am getting the eggs from a parent in the classroom and my parents. We should be able to have about 20 eggs if not a few more! I have already set up homes for the chicks after they are born. As of now my thoughts are to keep the chicks for a few days after they hatch. If they are not to big of a distraction I would love to keep them until conferences so the parents can see what we have been doing!

Other things we have been doing in the classroom is "writing the room." This is something I introduce in the middle to end of the school year. The students need to look for words in the classroom, count the number of letters that word has, and then write it in the correct box. I will try to upload this at a later time.

Another thing I would LOVE for everyone to try is "Fun Phonics" books. I have the hard copies of these in my classroom but they are online to. I think using this website on iPads and having the students read from it would be a wonderful idea! These books start off with the introduction of each vowel sounds (short a, e, i, o, and u). They use many words that deal with these short vowels as possible. As of now I have all but a few of my students reading the Pals books. These books put all the reading skills together and get more difficult quick. The students love it though because they look at it as they are reading "chapter books" and "(they) are just like the big kids." Check out the website~ http://www.funphonics.com/

While using these books, I continue to use my "Rigby" series and skills that go with it.

I also do individual spelling lists. This allows the students to succeed at their own level. I give each student a list of words. These lists will range from just successfully completing the alphabet (this is the very first spelling test I give toward the beginning of the year) to a list of 10 words including a challenge word like the "January." If the child continues to get 100% on their spelling test on Friday I might bump them up to more words. They have to get the word correct to move on from it. So, some students might have one word that is the same for two weeks in a row because they got it wrong on the test.

I will make sure I upload some of these ideas so you can see what I am talking about. You are more than welcome to use whatever you would like. I am a true believer of using what is there!! Enjoy!

Here are the rest of the journal entries from yesterday!

Today Mrs. Murley got the incubator out I iik egg I thak thar is gone to beh ten egg

Jenny

Tobay Mrs Murley got the incubator out. Mab wil haf 10 cute ch icks. webnesnbay the eggs are coomin.

Izzy

I love the chicks. Today Mrs. Murley got the incubator out.

I like the chick.

Ava

I Sey the incubator. We get The Eggs on Wednesbay.

Marilyn

Today mrs morally got the incubator out. I think thing Gowing to be 30chicks.

Nik

I thought the students did a wonderful job on their first journal entry!

Journaling before the eggs come!

Each student wrote in their journals about the upcoming events as we begin the egg hatching process. Then they typed out their journals on iPads and emailed them to me. Like I said below, we are really incorporating all aspects of the Kindergarten curriculum. We really like using technology in our classroom so we do a lot of journaling on them. Below is some of the journal entries I have received today from the students. These are NOT corrected in any way. Please keep in mind that not only are these student journaling on their own, forming sentences etc. but they are also taking what they wrote and converting it onto the iPad. These are some HIGH leveled skills!

Today mrs. Murley got the incubator out. It's white I think wer going to have 20 chicks to put in the incubator. Or morer. I think thar going to be yellow
Koree

Today Mrs. Murley got the incubator out. The incubator nedes to bee 99.5 degrees. It will bee 21 day. Ther mit bee 20 eggs.
Leah

Today Mrs Murley goet the incubator out uv the box. We are going to hach chicks on Thursday I hope we got to touch the chicks.
Luke

Today mrs murley got the incubator out. The eggs are cuming.
Tristum

The rest of the students will have their entries in tomorrow.

I have uploaded a calendar for our chicken hatching process. With each day I tell what we are doing. I also made a calendar of my own listing journal ideas for that day. We have started reading books about chicks, chickens, hens, and rosters. I have introduced a lot of vocabulary to the students like incubator, candling, testing, embryo, hen, roster, hatchery, male, female, broiler farm. breeding, down, free-range farm, grains, hatch, and yolk. The students are just loving it. My first year doing this we videotaped the hatching. So, I have been showing the students the end results and they just can't wait! I found excellent books from Keystone which I will list at a later date.

This whole process really ties in all different areas of my curriculum. I have the student journal daily about the process. During their journaling they predict and confirm their predictions. They also learn vocabulary and use it in sentences. They develop their understanding of sentence structure and ending marks. And lastly, they become very detailed illustrators because they care so much about this topic! I also get many books that relate to hatching chicken eggs and set these books out. The students LOVE looking at them. They often go to the library and look for "chicken" books!

It really is a fun part of the year because my students are becoming more independent and writing and reading on their own! I really enjoy it!

Good morning!!

It is great to be back after a three-day-weekend! This week the kindergarten class will be doing lots of fun and exciting things! We will be finishing our quilt that we made to be auctioned off at the Extravaganza. We will be continuing the process of writing our own book-YES in Kindergarten!! And, lastly, we will start getting ready to become parents to little chicks! This is a very exciting time in the Kindergarten classroom!! I will make sure we take lots of pictures and upload them right away!!

Hey!!!

I am currently a kindergarten teacher in my third year and I am loving every minute of it! The love the kids have for school, classmates, and the work they do is just outstanding! I love it!! I have been reading a lot of blogs and I thought I would create one myself and share all the ideas I have came up with these last three years and will continue to upload and share ideas I come out with. I hope you enjoy what I have and continue to come back for updates and more ideas.